This poster is one of four limited edition posters released around the time of the release of the film 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' and was specifically tailored for fans to collect. They were only given out at IMAX showings on the first day of release, so are more of an incentive to buy the IMAX tickets for the first day in order to get the film a strong opening weekend. It comes in a pack of four, with the other three showing Thorin, Gollum and Gandalf instead of Bilbo, and all of which I have my own copy of, so I am aware of their power as posters. Having a selection of characters on different posters is a technique that is very common in marketing a film. Whenever a film with a large cast is released there is always a flood of 'character' posters, and these sell much better then the standard posters as they sell several times, with fans buying a few posters with different characters, rather than just one poster with them all on. Many people find these sort of posters hugely appealing, as they seem to collect the characters and they are then able to change round the posters they put up, switching between characters. It also works well when the posters are displayed at the cinema, as there are generally a few of them with different characters. This means that there can be loads of posters put up for the same film, just with different characters, so it doesn't look stupid having loads of the same poster. They seem to sell the film through the characters, so these posters also allow the audience to connect with the characters and so go and see the film because of the relationship that has been established between them and the character. The character posters for 'Les Miserables' did this excellently, as the characters each had a line below their picture from one of the songs which describes their character, for example the character poster for Jean Valjean said 'Freedom is Mine' and the poster for Javert said 'I am the Law'. This allowed the character to have a new insight into their character, connect with them, and want to see the film.
What makes this poster more powerful is the way that Bilbo holds eye contact with the viewer. The pupils of his eye are in the centre of his eye, which gives the impression that wherever you stand in a room he is looking at you. This is slightly intimidating, but also is a good way to grab the viewers' attention as he is looking directly at them, almost daring them not to want the poster. To add to this effect, the eye is the only part of the poster that has any colour either than the sketch style browns and blacks. This makes the picture come alive in a whole new way, making it seem almost magical - a theme that is quite prominent in the film. Instead of being just a sketch of the character, it becomes slightly real and the character is a lot easier to connect with, as eyes are the window to the soul. The eyebrows also give the eyes more power as they are slightly bigger and bushier then the actual characters'. This draws attention to the eyes, as people are drawn into the bigger aspects on a picture, but they are not overly large so that it doesn't look stupid and it is only noticeable when looking for it. The overly large eyebrows just point attention to the eyes, not themselves. Also out of place is the lack of eyelashes that the character has. These were probably left out as they tend to make characters look more feminine and it would make Bilbo look less intimidating. If the viewer's attention was caught by the characters' eyes then they don't want the attention to be lost by the eyelashes making him look feminine. One more effect makes the eyes stand out, and this is the reflections in the eyes that makes them sparkle, and come to life even more. In most sketches this sparkle is left out of the eyes, but here it is put in, so that he seems brighter and a more welcoming character. Through all of this the character draws in the viewer with his carefully designed eyes that look straight into you.
The title is the strange part about this poster, as it is not written in any Earthly language, but is written in dwarvish, which is one of the languages in the film. As I said before, this poster is not designed to sell the film to people who don't know about it, but is rather to entice fans to see it in IMAX on the opening night and give the film a strong opening weekend. This is why the only English writing on the poster is to advertise the IMAX element. The title of the film being in dwarfish makes it seem more realistic that it could be a sketch taken straight out of the film, drawn by one of the characters. If the title were in English then this effect would be ruined. The Hobbit is lucky in the fact that it has a whole alphabet of runes created for it by the author of the book, so this is used as a unique selling point for the film. It gives it more of a high brow look to it, as it is obviously very impressive that they managed to create a whole alphabet just for the sake of a story. This is part of the reason why The Hobbit and its sequel Lord of the Rings have been so acclaimed, because they are some of the only novels to have successfully created whole languages as well as a whole world and everything in it. This poster embraces J.R.R Tolkien's creation and makes it appeal to fans of the books as well as fans of the film.
Overall I think that this is a very successful and original film poster as it addresses all that is unique about the film and embraces the world that the fans know and love. The poster wouldn't sell the film very well to the general public as it doesn't even say the name of the film in English, but to the fans of the film, it is a poster to be treasured and would certainly prompt some people to go and see the film at IMAX on it's opening weekend. Although I doubt our poster will use the sketch-style technique that this poster does, it was interesting to see how they manage to draw the viewers in by adjusting the characters' eyes. The same technique could be used on live action characters by some simple editing of their features and is something we may want to consider if the picture is not quite right.