Sunday

Ancillary Tasks: Movie Poster Research

Movie posters are meant to be attention grabbing, captivating, stunning and intriguing. The designers have a large canvas to work from, so their creativity has few limits. Because of this, movie posters can result in some of the smartest graphic design you’ll ever see.

Before creating or even designing a poster, we need to research into examples of film posters and deconstruct them to find out conventions that each share and which genres or themes are linked with which conventions or features. For each example, I will examine:


  • What elements exist in each poster?
  • Where are specific elements positioned? (study the composition of the image)
  • Do the fonts used reflect the genre or narrative of the film? If so, how?
  • How are specific elements used to attract target audiences? (examine on a case by case basis)


Firstly, I have looked at HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY:



GENRE: SCI-FI / ACTION
CONVENTIONS/FEATURES: 
  • THE TITLE IS IN THE LOWER THIRD OF THE POSTER.
  • THE DATE IS CENTRAL AND THE LOWEST TEXT OF THE POSTER, ALSO THIS IS IN A DIFFERENT COLOUR TO THE OTHER PIECES OF TEXT.
  • THERE IS A TAGLINE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, THIS IS THE FIRST PIECE OF TEXT.
  • THE 'CREDITS' ARE LOCATED AT UNDER THE TITLE AND ABOVE THE DATE IN CLASSIC SMALL FONT.
  • THE IMAGE IS NOT A STILL FROM THE FILM, BUT A GRAPHICALLY DESIGNED IMAGE USING THE MAIN CHARACTER AS THE FOCUS.
  • THE TITLE FONT USED IS VERY JAGGED AND RESEMBLES FIGHTING/WAR.
  • THE CAST IS ONLY CREDITED IN THE SMALL FONT AND IS NOT FEATURED IN THE MAIN PART OF THE POSTER.

Secondly, I have examined NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN:



GENRE: CRIME DRAMA / THRILLER
CONVENTIONS/FEATURES:

  • THE IMAGE IS A PHOTOSHOP IMAGE, RATHER THAN A STILL FROM THE FILM
  • THE TITLE IS IN THE LOWER THIRD OF THE POSTER
  • THE TOP-BILLED CAST ARE NAMED ABOVE THE TITLE, BUT IN A SMALLER FONT.
  • THE TAG LINE IS AT THE TOP, THE FIRST PIECE OF TEXT ON THE POSTER.
  • THE FONT IS IN BLOCK CAPITALS AND VERY CLEAR AND ALSO REFLECTS THE GENRE OF THE FILM.
  • THE 'CREDITS' ARE IN A SMALL FONT AND UNDERNEATH THE TITLE.
  • INSTEAD OF A DATE, THIS FILM HAS A FILM FESTIVAL AWARD AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POSTER.

INCEPTION is an example of film that has elements of a psychological thriller, similar to ours:


GENRE: PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER / SCI - FI
CONVENTIONS/FEATURES:

  • THE IMAGE IS A PHOTOSHOP IMAGE, RATHER THAN A STILL FROM THE FILM
  • THE TITLE IS IN THE LOWER THIRD OF THE POSTER
  • THE TOP-BILLED CAST ARE NAMED ABOVE THE TITLE, BUT IN A SMALLER FONT.
  • THE TAG LINE IS AT THE TOP, THE FIRST PIECE OF TEXT ON THE POSTER.
  • THE FONT IS IN BLOCK CAPITALS AND VERY CLEAR AND ALSO REFLECTS THE GENRE OF THE FILM.
  • THE RELEASE DATE IS IN A CLEAR FONT AND DIFFERENT COLOUR TO THE TITLE, UNDERNEATH THE TITLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POSTER.
Next, I have looked at a film from an established franchise, X-MEN 3:




GENRE: SCI-FI / ACTION
CONVENTIONS/FEATURES:

  • THE IMAGE IS A PHOTOSHOP IMAGE, RATHER THAN A STILL FROM THE FILM
  • THERE IS NO ACTUAL FILM TITLE, THE SERIES CONSIDERS ITSELF SO ESTABLISHED, THE JUST THE CHARACTER HOLDING UP 3 SPIKES IN FRONT OF HIS FACE IS ENOUGH.
  • THE RELEASE DATE IS THE ONLY PIECE OF CLEAR TEXT AND IT IS IN THE SAME FONT AS THE MAIN PART OF THE IMAGE.
  • THE PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGOS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE ARE VERY FAINT.
Finally, I have looked at a poster from a film with very strong romantic elements to it, DEAR JOHN:


GENRE: ROMANCE
CONVENTIONS/FEATURES:

  • THE IMAGE IS A STILL FROM THE FILM, FEATURING THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS.
  • THE TITLE IS IN THE LOWER HALF OF THE POSTER.
  • THE TAGLINE IS UNDER THE TITLE.
  • THE TOP-BILLED CAST ARE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE.
  • THE 'CREDITS' ARE UNDERNEATH THE TITLES.
  • THE RELEASE DATE IS IN A CLEAR FONT AND COLOUR.


Overall, I have discovered which kinds of films use which features and how to apply that to our film. For example, X-men 3 is very established and therefore has not focussed on the title or included much text, whereas we have created a film that is not part of an established franchise.
Features that I plan to put into our poster include:
  • Title in the lower third of the poster and in a thick, bold font and a colour that stands out from the background.
  • The main character is played by a debut screen actor, therefore his name will be with the rest in the small font credits under the title. This is because his name cannot be used to advertise the film and make people want to see it.
  • The tagline should be at the top of the poster, the first thing people read, as our narrative is the best selling point of our film.
  • A release date should be included at the bottom in a font that is not predominantly used in the rest of the poster.
  • Production company logos should be at the very bottom.
  • The image should be a new photograph of the characters merged into a picture of a location in our film, since this is common to both of our genres (romance and thriller). 
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