Film Poster Research

Film posters tend to have 9 unique factors that can change how the poster advertises a film, they are the main way films are advertised to the public; outside cinemas and on buses. They have to advertise the film without giving away any of the specific points of the story and they need to be able to advertise its genre without spoiling aspect of the film and its specifics such as death or characters other than the main ones.

Lighting
All films can convey their genre and type of story through lighting and colour palettes, the difference between contrasting bright colours suggest more childish themes and family friendly ideologies. In contrast to this a darker lighting can create a more brooding and more eerie atmosphere that is easily conveyed via its blending colours and lights. These convey very different genres and show you how lighting can affect views of a film. This can be shown in the different film posters below, showing Toy Story and Terminator

Colour
Colour is also a major part of a film poster, this is complimented by the lighting of the poster. It is also used to help present the films themes and ideas. With or without colour (black and white/grey scale) a poster can be shown to emit a mood or feeling in viewers that suggests what the film may be about, the more variations in colour tends to show us an appealing and more younger targeted piece or a more family orientated film. However a film with little colour or a single colour in different shade and tones may suggest thriller or horror as they are known for a limited colour palette. The use of red connotes danger, suspense or murder, or blues and icy greys used to connote a cold chilling feeling such as death or horror. Blacks and browns are also used to further connote this horror element as they are disgusting colours that tend to put off viewers or give them a unusual feeling. This can be shown in contrast of the two "Shutter" and "Inside Out"

Actors, Items and narrative points

In many posters, especially feature length ones, there is an attraction to use the actors within the film, this uses a form of "Star Power" using the actors to attract people to the film, this is because many audiences who enjoy films with big actors in them, start to associate other films with them in as being good, and this is why many film posters are successful in attracting people during the box office weeks. In other views films will use and iconic item or specific that is a plot point of a film that is used to help advertise it and will hopefully be the most memorable part of the film to the generic audience. This could be a battle scene or the flower from "Beauty and The Beast". When a poster includes an actor, the actors tend to have a pose or position that represents their character and role within the film, this is seen in the poster for "Last Vegas"

 

Identifying the Genre and Unique selling points

From a poster, a films genre should be easily identifiable and it should feature items that give it a unique separation from similar films in its genre and class.

For example, actions films tend to feature weapons or fast cars and serious characters, whereas romantic comedies will show many people romantically together with maybe some quirk happening, this itself is in large comparison to comedy in which may feature characters trying to be serious or being made out to be fools. This is shown in the posters for "Deadpool", "Fast and Furious" and "Don't mess with the Zohan".