It’s a Poster is an infrequent feature discussing movie posters. Using my graphically designed background I’ll be taking a look at posters that I like or find interesting, talk about why I like them and what I think makes them interesting.
I’m not going to lie, more often than not I see far more uninteresting movie posters than I do interesting ones. However, every once and a while a few come down the pike that actually make me want to go out and buy them. Such is the case with the first movie poster for Eat Pray Love from Columbia Pictures and starring Julia Roberts.
Why do I like it? Well, first let’s start off with a few basics. 1) Movie posters should catch your attention. What will make you stop in the theater and get you take a second look at a poster? Maybe it’s a picture of a hot actress or maybe it’s the layout of the poster. Whatever it maybe, if a poster can hook you, then it’s already done it’s job. 2) A good movie poster will also tell you a story or a little bit about what the movie is about (without literally saying what it’s about from wording on the poster). Sometimes you can tell what a movie is about from looking at a poster and sometimes you may not. Now I’m not talking about looking at a Toy Story 3 poster and know that “oh, it’s an animated movie about toys!” No, I’m talking about what the actual plot of the movie might be.
With the poster for Eat Pray Love we seem to get both of these. First of all what hooked me was that it was a single photo of Julia Roberts really enjoying gelato or something in that cup. Being a single shot overlaid with the star’s name and title of the movie the poster really wants to you focus on this one moment. What’s so special about this moment that it’s the focus of the movie poster? It’s this intrigue that stops you. In fact this could very well be a scene from the movie. Which brings me to our second reason for this being a good movie poster . . .
Just from looking at the poster and asking a few basic questions, an idea of the movie starts to form in your head. What is she eating? Where is she eating it? It must be good if she has that look on her face. What is she looking at off to the side? This poster tells me that the movie is about good food. What makes me say this? The look on Julia Roberts face. It almost makes me want to have what she’s having. When you combine this image with two of the words in the title, “Eat” and “Love” it’s almost certain that this movie is going to be a culinary adventure. This poster also tells me that this movie might occur in Europe. Look at the background, it doesn’t seem like she’s in an American city (although she could be). From the iron fence in the background to the cobbled stones at her feet seem to hint at old European city tones.
I think what impresses me most about this poster is how uncommon a poster like this is. Usually movie posters like to clutter up the canvas with pictures of all the stars in the movie as a way to draw an audience. Not the case here. Granted Julia Roberts is the star of the movie, but this photo shows none of the other actors in the movie. An uncommon poster for an uncommon movie? We’ll have to wait and see.
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