MAKING A FILM POSTER

MEGAN FINCH

INTRODUCTIONThere is always a package in promoting a new film to the public and would often include a trailer, a film poster and a poster on the cover of a magazine featuring the movie. The role of a movie poster is to occupy space between art and advertising, they have a clear commercial value. Audiences love movie posters, these are usually released before the trailer as a teaser and the viewers can’t help but anticipate that film even more, people can then buy these to hang on their walls etc.The film posters to movies are advertised almost everywhere, on billboards, bus stops, movie magazines and on the world wide internet in order to sell the movie. They usually feature large bold text announcing the title, attractive or well known stars of the production in addition to the names of these actors. Audiences react to the actors in movies, by presenting names and images of these people it will immediately appeal to fans of these stars.

The whole design of the poster including the text, the colours, the fonts will reflect to mood and tone of the film and also may include a catchy title or slogan that will make the plot more intriguing like in the ‘Lucy’ film poster. The visual elements of a movie poster always convey powerful messages if done well and the best posters make you anticipate the release of the movie further and the worst posters may result in failure of a film.By analysing movie posters, I believe it will begin to improve my understanding of elements that will effectively grab the attention of my own viewers when I make my own film poster.

TYPES OF FILM POSTERS

There are in fact different stages of movie posters, starting with the teaser poster which is basically giving the audience an introduction to the films actors and title but not usually giving too much detail away about the plot. The main poster is where the information of production personnel, the stars and the distributors are announced. The video and DVD poster is released with the film where the audience can purchase a copy for themselves later after cinema release, this has all of the above and includes a review from relevant publications. Character posters can also be released and usually are more than the one, the audiences can purchase these to hang on walls and it often excites people about their stars staring as much awaited characters and is a unique selling point for example above is just a few of the ‘Divergent’ posters.

Video/DVD Poster with ratings from publications.

Character Posters

The Main PosterA Teaser Poster of the film ‘Thor’ where only the title and his famous hammer are shown to excite audiences.

WHAT DO I WANT TO INCLUDE IN MY FILM POSTER?• The title of my film.

The style and font of the text.

The size and positioning.

• The stars of the film.

The style and font size of the text.

The positioning and why.

How many names I will add.

• The image on the poster.

Will there be the main character or more than one character?

Will the character be making eye contact with the audience?

The costume of the character.

How I will edit my images.

Is the image the most important aspect.

• Text

Is there text other than the title? E.G catch or tagline.

Information on directors, producers etc.

Do I list a website?

• Layout

Is my poster portrait or landscape?

Does it show the plot, genre or theme?

Do I want the title big or small? (E.G Lucy vs Man of Steel)

How many names I will add.

ANALYSING A FINAL FILM POSTERA clear and large text announcing that Will Smith is staring in the film which immediately attracts the attention of his fan base. It stands out clearly and effectively being the only name on the poster.

Another indicator to the audience that Will Smith is the star of this movie. He is placed directly in the centre of the poster but still doesn’t take away the effectiveness feel of the background.

The title of the film stands out extremely well, the colour matches the yellowy earth colour of the background but at the same time stands out well against the darkness of Will Smith’s clothing.

The background gives definite hints of New York being destroyed. Famous and well known aspects like the Brooklyn bridge ruined and the city looking deserted with foggy effect of disease is instantly telling us how this film must be a hybrid genre of science fiction/drama/thriller .

The tag or catch line really defines how this must be a ‘end of the world movie’ . The line simply says ‘The last man on Earth is not alone’ so we are left in suspense, who or what else is in this movie?

The creators of the movie have been included in this final poster, so that fans and general movie lovers can see whose work they will be watching.

The release date is shown which means this is the final movie poster after the teaser. Audiences can begin looking forward to this date and cinemas will begin selling tickets.

ANALYSING A TEASER FILM POSTERWe can immediately see the theme of the poster is a light blue colour representing the city in the background is peaceful for the meanwhile.

Now I believe the Jokers character is portrayed very well, the darkness of his outfit already shows how he must be the evil character in the film. Being a well known character already, the producers are trying to keep the audience in anticipation by only showing him as a blur and his famous smile is hidden for the mean while in a smile shaped smear of blood.

The blood and the redness of it already connotes fear and killing, the audience will be expecting lots of death and violence from the character. The words ‘Why so serious?’ are already giving the jokey vibe and this is a well known quote from the character which will excite the fans of the batman series. As said before the blood is hiding away the Joker’s famous smile giving the audience a sense of excitement to see this in the movie.

The films iconic batman symbol is behind of the title which works very well on the poster as well as using it as a method to recognise this film is part of the batman franchise. The text is small yet spaced well and it looks even better in this sized font, keeping the attention on the main image and tagline above but the colour and design co-ordinate well with the blue and black.

The date isn’t given for the movie because this is only the teaser poster but the audience can expect more nearer to the ‘Summer 2008’ release date.

ANALYSING A CHARACTER FILM POSTER

The ‘Hunger Games Catching Fire’ character posters are not giving much away about the film, but presenting favourite old characters from the previous movie and introducing new characters. If the film is hugely popular sometimes producers make more than one batch of character posters, below I have put more examples of the other character posters the film has released. With the posters being attractive, viewers can purchase these online resulting in an overall rise in profit for the film just in merchandise.

The character posters are even more simple than the teaser film posters. The title of the film is displayed over the mocking jay symbol which is an iconic prop in the film itself. The title is in the same place and the same size on every poster, not over powering the character images themselves.

The character posters rarely have anything on but the title and the image, here we also have the character names. Nothing is given away about the movie but the outfits speak out a lot to book readers and fan bases of the franchise.

The background colour is the same for all of these posters, the deep green and portrait effect is giving the impression like the other character posters that these were designed to look as if taken inside of the film itself.

These posters reveal more of the plot to the next movie with the text and also the outfits. The producers have cleverly designed these posters as if these would actually be found inside of the movie, audiences will find these posters inside the cinemas and immediately become excited by the clouds in the background are presenting them like gods and are preparing for a film full of action.