Film Poster Analysis

I have chosen the film 'Stomp the Yard' for poste analysis.

Genre Conventions of Dance Action/Drama

• Firstly and most obvious in the foreground, the main figure in a one handed freeze
• The foreground and background shots are both action shots. They are both caught in the pose of a dance move.
• Having the foreground image as a silhouette in a dance pose is quite typical, another example of this was Michael Jacksons 'This is it'
• The background looks like two dance crews having a dance battle with an audience in the background. In other words it shows there will be a competition, which is very typical of dance films.
• The font of the words 'STOMP THE YARD' almost looks slightly dirty, the 'S' is definitely a slight dirty grey next to other letters

Connotations/Denotations/Iconography

• The flood lights and the fact that the whole image is slightly blue tinted gives the mise-en-scene an underground feel.
• Also the graffiti at the top give a sense of urban underground
• As I pointed out before the silhouette of the dance pose is quite an iconographic feature for dance films
• The lighting overall is quite dark which could connote that the film itself might have some darker themes (which it does)
• There is also a subtle cliche in the image, which is effectively 'light at the end of the tunnel', which almost is a rough narrative of the film
• The very grainy and blurry, almost scratched effect of the poster again gives the poster a feeling of having 'come from the streets' or 'downtown'

Audience Pleasures

• Seeing an impressive dance move/pose, which they probably would not see often or have maybe not seen at all
• Maybe a relation to the poster if people dance or if they feel like they 'come from the streets'
• Or the opposite of above for people who are neither, its like an escapism into the world of underground dance
• I also feel that the poster gives off an impression of passion and aggression which can be fasinating for audiences