Film posters

Film posters for many years now have been used to advertise an upcoming film for different occasions i.e. cinema release, film festival, Video/ DVD/ Blu-ray etc. It uses certain key elements to make it what it is.

First of all, the titles play a big part on the poster. The style of writing matches the style of movie that is being advertised. Generally the size of the font is dependent on how important the thing is about. For example if a poster is trying to attract an audience by the star actor his name would be the biggest writing on the page. The colour, just like the font, is generally symbolic to what type of movie is being watched. At the bottom of the poster there is a “diamond” which tells you details such as the director, producer, cast etc. This diamond will begin by giving information on the more important people i.e. the director, and will end with someone not so significant but still of some importance to the audience. Well known names are generally bigger than others. The job title is usually in lower case and the person’s name who does that job i usually in upper cased lettering.

 The tag line in the poster creates a thought of what the film is about. For example if the tag line says “Nothing will stop him” this will instantly make you think it is an action film. The tag line is simply the phrase that you remember to make you want to watch the film. The tag line also anchors the poster. Images are another key part to the film posters. They give the poster more of a visually appealing look and also gives the audience a slight insight into what the movie is about. It generally uses iconography of the film to give the audience a little teaser of what is to come. Sometimes imagery is used to tell a brief part about the narrative. This is to set the scene for the audience so that they want to know what happens.

The posters used to advertise films have quite a lot to do with the genre the film is about. This ensures that the right audience is being addressed. They do this by using the different elements like fonts, imagery etc. to begin to show the style of movie it is. Posters can be found in many places such as bus shelters, shops, cinemas etc. They can be found in many different varieties depending on the type of release it is advertising. If it were to be advertising for cinema release it would include the phrase “coming soon to a cinema near you” or something along that line. If it were to be released on DVD it generally uses a phrase to say that the film is back.