Friday, November 18, 2011

Movie Poster Remake

The movie Gone in 60 Seconds is about a guy that must steal 50 exotic cars in one night to save his brother’s life. The movie was originally made in 1974, and was remade almost 30 years later in 2000. When looking at the advertising done for both versions of the movie it is quite obvious that they are both focused on attracting audiences from two very different generations.

           The movie poster for the original is very different from the common movie posters that we see today, especially movies revolving around hunky men, sexy women and fast, exotic cars. Across the top of the poster is a message written in plain, bold, black text. It says, “HIS BUSINESS IS STEALING CARS… When he goes to work the excitement starts… and GOES… and GOES… and GOES. This message is supposed to excite viewers, and attract a larger audience. The poster also talks about watching cars get destroyed in the “most incredible chase ever filmed”. All of these statements make the film look thrilling, and full of action, but it’s almost as if in the last thirty years we have come to realize that the less wording you have on an advertisement, the more powerful and impactful it is. With less wording it leaves more room for the imagination.

The picture on the poster for the original is also quite interesting. It shows pictures of cars flying through the air on fire (of course), cop cars for suspense, and a sexy woman wearing short shorts resting her foot on a tiger. Although the picture represents what the movie is about it is almost cartoon like and childish. They also made the title look as if it was flying through the air which adds to the childishness of the picture. For the period of time that the original was created it probably really surprised the audience and people probably felt as if it were a pretty “bad ass” movie.

The remake poster is quite different. The first thing that really jumps out is the colors. Unlike the black and white colors of the original poster, the new one is full of warm colors, black yellow, orange, and red mostly. Also instead of having all of the pictures in the middle of the poster and the words around the edges, they are all incorporated together. The entire poster is a big picture of Nicolas Cage looking extremely serious, and Angelina Jolie looking sexy with her mouth slightly open. The pictures of them are separated by a picture of a fast moving car, but it’s not. The colors and the lack of wording on the poster really give it a mysterious aura. And since in today’s age a lot of people like to see serious, fast paced movies with nice cars, sexy girls this poster is almost perfect at capturing the audience’s attention. The title of the movie also really stands out. With bold red and white fading away text it’s almost as if the title is jumping off the page at you. 

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