Graphical Representation of Social Themes in the Posters of Social Films of Iranian Cinema (Case Study: Selected Films of Fajr Festival from 2012 to 2020)

Graphics, in its broadest sense, refers to any type of design or visual image creation. On this basis, graphic design is considered as one of the most important and influential arts in the contemporary period. Meanwhile, poster design is one of the branches of this form of art. A poster is a special kind of announcement and display for a graphic design that also has an advertising aspect. Of course, its artistic aspect is also important and it is known as one of the forms of art in the contemporary period. Graphic design and posters are used in different fields. One of the most important areas where poster design is well needed and focused on, is the Cinema. The first encounter of audience with a movie besides the trailer is the movie poster. No matter how much the digital world has revolutionized the world of advertisement, movie posters are still very important. In the beginning, Iranian cinema was a raw and developing industrial experience, but over time, it became one of the important cinematic currents with various factors integral to its formation. Iranian cinema has undergone many changes before and after the Islamic revolution. In such a way that we are facing two very different cinemas in terms of form and content. In recent years, dealing with social themes in Iranian movies after the revolution has become more prominent. Since these films directly or symbolically address the concerns of the audience, they are, in a sense, complemented by their audience. That is, the theme of the film starts from the film, but it does not end in the film and is completed with the mentality of the audience. This results in the audience becoming a more important factor of the social movies compared to other types of movies. The audience's first contact with the film is primarily through the poster and its design. Whether the purpose of creating cinematographic works with a social theme is some kind of plot, pathology or even solving social problems in the society, the communication of the audience with it and the method of this communication must be carefully designed and formulated. In this research, the relativity among the themes of selected films from the works of Fajr Film Festival from 2012 to 2020 is examined. The main question in this research is as followed: How is the graphic representation of social themes in social movie posters? This research is problem-oriented and has no hypothesis, and at the end the research the question is concluded in an answer. The purpose is to examine how far the poster design of social movies in Iranian cinema has provided a correct representation and to what extent the relevant social theme is included in the posters. In this research, after explaining some concepts as theoretical foundations such as representation, graphic representation, film as a thought from, social theme, and social film, the method of analyzing social themes and posters is expressed. After that, the findings of the research are presented. In terms of its nature, this research is classified as applied research. In terms of type, the research is descriptive-analytical. To collect information on theoretical bases, a study of the literature has been conducted, and multiple films and their posters have been studied. The data analysis method is quantitative for statistics and qualitative for analyzing the content of movies and their corresponding posters. Sampling in this research has been done using a selective method. For sampling in this research, films with social themes were selected among the films of Fajr Festival in 2012 to 2020. After that, the ones that had higher quality in terms of poster graphics were selected. The result is 45 films (5 films from each year). Since it is not possible to include 45 posters in the text of the article, the pictures are not included in the text. But in order to be able to cite and review, in the process of research, only the official poster was used on the Cinematic website, which is accessible in this database and does not change over time.The results of this research show that enough attention has not been paid to poster design in social movies of Iranian cinema after the revolution, and even cases can be found in the 45 examined samples that do not meet the minimum standards of an acceptable graphic design. In the selected films, except for one case, all the posters are designed in color format, this can be considered a positive component considering the importance of color psychology, but if we consider that a black and white image implies a sense of ethereal (unreal) the necessity of black and white design for social themes becomes more clear; since the world depicted in these films is not necessarily a factual image of the real world, but is a fictional world that is considered a platform to showcase social issues. In all the posters of the selected movies, the images of the main characters are used. This is not only necessarily positive in terms of graphic design, but it seems that it is only in line with the Cinema Star system dominating the Iranian cinema in order to attract more audience and gross in the box office. Typography is present on all posters, usually a decorative element, and rarely is it tied to the social theme of the film. In terms of color science, in the previous sections, the number and percentage of the use of colors have been stated. This research shows that in some cases, the use of color is directly related to the social theme of the film and in some cases it has only a decorative aspect. The use of text in posters has an informative aspect, and usually due to the font size and layout, this function is also weakened and cannot be used. Perhaps, considering the significant growth in audience using the internet to acquire information, using informative texts on a poster has become redundant. The use of abstract imagery in posters is very limited and insignificant, and there is not even a single case of minimal poster design among the works. Some creative elements have been used in each poster, which, along with other elements, have improved the designs, but it can be said that the posters are not really stellar in this regard either. Also, among the reviewed cases, there is not a single case of horizontal poster, which is common in movie poster design in the world, and is not considered a negative component. Maybe when these posters were mostly used in printed format, vertical design was more necessary. The most important point in reviewing the poster design of selected films is the connection between the design and the social theme of the films. In terms of how the main social themes of the film relate to graphic representation, we are faced with several different situations. Situations in movies are categorized into three formats:Direct communication: It includes cases that directly and explicitly represent all or part of the main social themes of the film in the form of visual elements in the poster.Symbolic communication: includes cases where all or part of the main social themes of the film are represented in an indirect format using symbols or elements.Lack of communication: It includes cases where no part of the main social themes of the movie is represented in the poster format and the design is purely decorative.This research shows that out of all the movies studied in this research, 21 posters (46.6%) are directly related to the theme of the movie, and 22 posters are indirectly and symbolically related (48.8%) to the theme of the movie. It seems that 2 cases (4.4%) are not related to the theme of the movie at all. Based on this, it can be said that, in general, the relation of poster design of social movies in selected works with social theme is not very impressive. It seems that considering all the technical and artistic advancements of Iranian cinema in the studied years, the poster design has not been paid enough attention to, as it should, and their function has remained only for commercial purposes, and the exposure of the audience to the film through the poster and the importance of correctly representing the social theme of the film are not considered in the design process. As the extension of this research, it is suggested to propose a practical and suitable design model for the movies with social themes. Also, a comparative study can be conducted, between Iran's poster design and the posters of foreign well developed Cinema industries which will yield more clarification on the weak points of Iran’s film poster design, and might come up with constructive conclusions to improvement.