The The Social Network poster is different to any that I've analysed before, and this may be due to the fact that this is advertising a drama, whereas most of the others have been advertising action films. It is probably much easier to make posters for action films as they have thousands of frames that look exciting and action packed. To create a successful action film poster the key seems to be to find a shot of the protagonist holding a gun in a cool way and add some sort of landscape background. Dramas, however, do not have it as easily as they do not tend to have explosive moments that make it look exciting. In some dramas most of the film is talking - how do you make an exciting film poster of people talking? Many dramas go down the route of having the main characters pulling some sort of pose, and then their all put together in one poster. This technique is not greatly effective however, as it makes it look less 'high brow', and arty. Part of the appeal of dramas is that they're intelligent, and a poster that just jumbles together characters is not very effective at all. People expect more from dramas - they expect them to have some sort of clever design to match the clever nature of the film. One such example of a clever poster to match a clever film is the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy poster that I analysed earlier on this blog. This The Social Network Poster also demonstrates how drama films are able to devise clever and relevant posters.
The design of this poster is obviously done to match the storyline of the poster - the creation of Facebook. Along the side of the poster is the toolbar used on the Facebook website. This is iconic in its own way, as over 500 million people use Facebook, so over 500 million people would recognise this. There is something written in the search bar, but unfortunately I cannot read it, but I presume it is something meaningful that would help the advertisement of the film. The name of the film is put where the Facebook logo is put on the website, and it is written in the Facebook font, so this obviously lets people know that the film is about Facebook. It never explicitly says that the film is about Facebook, as that would detract from the intelligence of the poster, but it does obviously imply it through the toolbar at the side and the Facebook font. Anyway, with a film called The Social Network there are only a limited number of probable guesses that the viewer could make as to which website the film is about, and for most people Facebook would be the first social network they think of anyway. By making a film about such a big and well used website gives the company a ready made fanbase. There are over 500 million people who use the site, so that's a huge audience that the film could market towards. It's not even just restricted to this audience, as there are the people who haven't got Facebook but are still interested in the film. I actually went to see the film with someone who wasn't on Facebook at the time. As time goes on and more people join Facebook the fanbase for this film is destined to grow bigger and bigger, and even if it doesn't gain much at the cinema, it could still gain a large profit from DVD sales.
The main part of this poster is the central part, rather than the fake toolbar at the side. The character's face fills the whole of the central part of the poster and this is similar to the positioning of a profile picture, another key feature of Facebook. This furthers the Facebook theme of the poster, and again makes it obvious what the film's about. His expression seems worried, almost scared, and this creates an enigma, which draws in the viewers. They want to know why he is worried, and more importantly they wonder why he is worried about such a innocent website like Facebook. Facebook users may see the poster and think that the film is about the negative effects of Facebook and go and see it out of worry. This, however, is a long shot. More important than the enigmas is the actor. Jesse Eisenberg is a very well established actor who has been in a number of big films. Every actor has his fan base and I'm sure that Jesse Eisenberg isn't any different. Any big name actor that is in a film brings with them a ready made fanbase who will go to see a film purely because it has that actor in it. One of the key parts to this poster is the tagline that covers his whole face - 'You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies'. This creates more enigmas, and it is clear that there is something dark behind the innocent Facebook facade. It makes people wonder what the film is exactly about and who the person is who has made that many friends. For many people they will go and search it on the internet, and this is another step closer to bringing them into seeing the film. Dramas sell because of their storyline and once it has got people to look up the storyline, then that is all the selling done.
In conclusion I think that this is a very strong poster, as it sells a tricky genre to a wide audience. Facebook appeals to many demographics, of most ages and both genders. This poster takes advantage of that. It also manages to sell the film with it's storyline. Having the tagline covering the whole poster makes it stand out and makes the audience want to know more about the storyline. There are already a few enigmas set up, and the general design of the poster is very interesting.