Film Posters

Purpose

Film posters are created for advertising purposes as directors and producers try and get as much of promotion for their films as possible. It is there to show the film in a positive representation. It highlights the stars of film that portray the main characters with their name and the picture of them.

The posters also contains key production unit information such as the director, producer and it contains the distribution information such as when and where it will be released. There are normally a series of posters that are created; these are to attract different audiences.

Types of film posters

Character Poster

Teaser Poster

When a film is ready for release the‘teaser’ posters are released. This shows the audience that the film is soon to come. They give the audience a little knowledge about the film without to giving away too much information, just the general view such as the main stars, director, the genre or the type of film it will be and the age guidance.

There are also 'Character Posters', the posters each have different main characters, these normally have the image of the character, character's name, actor's name, and line or information about the character. The posters are normally quite alike and follow the same structure with each of the important characters from the film. These are created to give a bit of background information about each main character in the film, this helps the cast and crew show what to expect of each character and to understand them better.

Conventions

The main conventions of film posters in terms of technical codes are:

• The title: These are specially edited/created with special effects to make the font suit the theme of the film.
• Name of the star/main actor: The main celebrities/main actor present in the film are normally mentioned on the poster.
• Picture/Image of the star: The main stars have their image as the main attraction on posters, they are shown through their characters
• Billing Block: This the the information bundled together normally placed at the bottom of the poster, people generally don't read this information however it is what helps to make the poster look like a film poster instead of a general advert
• Tagline: This is an important element because it give the audience more information about the film. The taglines normally follow a pattern to make it catchy and something the audience is most likely to remember. They can have the 'rule of three', rhyme, a contrast, balance, or repetition.-Background: This has different effects on the audience as some posters are incredibly simple with not much background but with the main stars, however if there is a background it shows other features of the film again giving the audience more knowledge about what the film is about.
• Age Certificate: This helps to let the audience know the minimum age it is suitable for therefore about if the content would be suitable for minors.

There are different options available in terms of which ones appear and how they appear because there is certain information that the creators would like the audience to know. For example, the movie poster for the film Avatar had ‘From the makers of Terminator’ therefore as this was a successful box office film it would make the audience the creators are back with another great film so manipulating the audience into thinking to go and see this film as well. You would not see a film that would mention a box office flop film as they are trying to give the film a positive impression on the audience.

Due to technology, even fonts can be utilized to make them suitable for the theme of the film. If there was a new actor who was going to debut in a particular they may not be on the poster as no-one would know who they are therefore there would be no point in placing them on there representing the film. This is the same with Short films which is why on posters there are normally iconic images placed. 

Teaser Posters are more simple as these come out before the main final versions.

The technical codes they have are:

-Actor's Name

-Character's Name

-Character's Image

-A tagline/description associated with the characters

-Simple background which is same for each character


Analysis of Short Film Posters

Short Film posters have a complete different look to their posters, in a sense they look more like a teaser for a Hollywood movie however they poster is actual for a short film. If you think about it short films are just films which are shorter than a full length so you ultimately would also think that it would be the same case with the film poster. Simple & clean.

the kid with a bike

 


Simple Analysis

I have noticed that most short film posters all have a simple design. In this particular poster there is a main image of the overall concept of the movie being a kid and the title being "the kid with a bike". The main background image has two main colours, red and yellow/pale. The red colour from the t-shirt is also used in some of the text for example the star for ratings and the release date for short, this is mainly to keep the colour theme intact with the overall film poster.

Text which is needed to stand out such as taglines, reviews, awards. White is complete opposite to the red and stands out. However information such as actors name and the billing block is in black as it's not as important compared to the rest of the poster. The title of the short film is simple and doesn't even start with a capital letter, that is one of the major aspects of the film poster, the simple look. Even the title is so simple that it doesn't need a capital letter.

The Mystery of the Flying Kicks

Deep Analysis

The overall design is very clean and basic, however saying that the poster holds power. It makes the audience stop and admire it, with the clean blue background and the main colour being from the main subject of both the poster and the  short film itself (shoes). There is a simple but effective colour theme in this poster, white being standard text, blue being the background of the poster and also being the main title of the short film “Flying Kicks”. Usually the main title is suppose to stand out and been seen easily however this poster breaks the convention and creates a new feel to film posters overall, The title isn't actually a known text, I think that this text was created for this movie, I mean the text itself is a shoe lace which links back to the short films story of being about shoes.

Lace type font which was  probably created specifically for this short film  poster. Illustrates the  concept of the short as a  whole form a simple text. This is the first time I  have ever seen a text which resembles  something instead of just the films title. This grabs the audiences attention as it’s new and unseen of and illustrate in a second what the film will be about.

Simple thin lace to hold to hold stack of shoes; this also demonstrates the overall meaning of the film and what you will accomplish by watching it. What does shoes hanging mean? This was also a  clever way of adding colour to the poster and giving it life which is grab peoples attention.

The poster as a whole defeated multiple conventions however on the other hand it also for- fills the purpose of a film poster. It describes what the film will be about and grabs the viewers attention. However a familiar convention used  is a tagline. It follows the overall poster theme of  being simple and informs the audience the concept of the film.

As you can see all the institution information is kept short and simple which suggests that is the overall theme and look  that they are trying to create with their short film poster. This could link to the overall summary of the short film, as the short is about a simple concept. The poster is simply describing the film in just the poster however the film itself goes in depth. The website and the production company’s logo is included to demonstrate the creators of the movie, a main reason for doing this would be that those who know the production company and enjoy the films they create just being seeing this logo, this will reassure them that the film is worth while. just like their other productions.