Lion - Poster Analysis

This bold and powerful poster for Simon. P. Edwards' short film, Lion, uses just a few elements to advertise the film. The main image which takes up two thirds of the frame is of the main character screaming with facial expressions showing his mouth wrenched open like a lion roaring. He is being set up as the 'lion' in this film with the title directly next to his mouth. 

The monotone brown colour scheme applied to the poster brings all the elements of text and imagery together, ranging across the scale from a dark shade on his face to the light background. The darkness around Ian Virgo's character seems to represent an angry side to him, again likening him to how we think of a lion as it roars. His head and face are covered by hair which matches this animal metaphor.

The tagline 'when the pride has gone' has a double meaning, which seems to suggest that his 'pride' or family has left him. This could also be leaving him lacking in dignity as the other meaning of the word suggests. The emptiness around him in the poster reinforces this idea of loneliness and isolation anchoring the tagline to the image. Other titles include a small billing block to match short film poster conventions as well as the main actors name above the main title. This is included in this poster, unlike many other short films, as this is an actor who has appeared in well known productions which could attract audiences to the film. 

The target audience for this short film appears to be middle aged males who may have been more attracted to Virgo's previous roles in actions like Black Hawk Down and Band of Brothers, both of which were targeted towards this demographic. This target audience would be able to relate better to this character who is in a similar group, as well as the brown colour scheme which surrounds him. These characteristics would be typically associated with a male audience.