Short Film Poster Analysis: This is Vanity (2013)

The close up of the woman on the poster is the first thing to be seen as a whole. This definitely suggests that her character is perhaps the most important to the narrative. Furthermore, it exaggerates her facial expression, which looks worried, and gives little space around the edge of the poster. This, therefore, is successful in hinting at issues and themes, particularly that or entrapment/incarceration, and perhaps also mental health given the woman's facial expression and the mood set in the poster by the cool, melancholic colour palette.

There is almost a lack of shape within the image itself, as the woman is close up, and the image looks to have been taken whilst playing around with focus and objects close to lens of the camera. This creates a sort of blurred image, which might further connote the issue of mental health and therefore representing ability/disability by suggesting the protagonist's ability to see and/or think clearly. The still for the poster doesn't leave much negative space, which may be a convention that sets it apart from a feature film poster.

The text placed on the poster is fairly minimal, with it all being centred on the page, with plenty of space between each line. The colours used stand out from the image, yet continue to add to the lugubrious colour theme. The text that is the easiest to spot is the title, which is the largest and is in the centre. Therefore, this makes the poster successful in anchoring the name of the film to an image, giving the audience something visual to associate with the title. Meanwhile, there is evidence of a tag line, which raises questions about the content of the film, thus drawing in an audience. Furthermore, there is likely to be audiences interested in the film based on the claim that it has made it to the official selection at film festivals, as suggested by the laurel leaves below the tag line. This is an example of an intermedial reference, as it mentions different media-related events in which media literate people would be able to recognise. These are fairly large compared to the rest of the text, which may suggest the poster's aim in showing its success. However, there is an absence of reviews and references to intermedial companies, and so this may not be the main aim. There are four larger credits at the top, and a credits block at the bottom. This poster challenges the traditional feature film poster conventions in the credits block, as it does not use the stereotypical font, which looks crammed and is barely easy to read unless standing very close. Instead, the poster uses the same type of font as the rest of the poster, with regular spacing between each letter an word, which provides an easier to read block of writing, and therefore provides mainly the crew, with a bigger credit than what is typical. This helps to make the poster look neater and adds to the minimalism in the continued use of the same font. The font is a basic san serif typeface that further adds to the simple look of the poster.

Considering what is placed on the poster helps to identify the context it which it was created. The hints towards attending film festivals not only suggests that the film is successful, but also that it has been circulating such events since being released, and therefore that this is likely to be a newer version of the film poster. Furthermore, the dimensions suggest a portrait view within a magazine, or perhaps on a wall as an advertisement, or poster spaces that cater for portrait dimensions, such as at a bus stop.