What are the main conventions of film posters?

Main conventions of a film poster in terms of technical codes is to have:

A Background Image

The Title of the Movie – To give insight into what the public will be seeing.

The Name of the actor – The ‘Stars’ name’ to attract the audience more. By having the name of the Main Star it entices the public more because they see a recognisable face that has been in many other productions so the public must think it must be a good film if it features a big star they are familiar with.

Billing Block – Giving credit to other actors and members of the production team. 

Tagline – To give a little more narrative and to entice the public even further.

Image of the main star/protagonist or iconic images from the movie – Used to intrigue the public, leaving them thinking about what could be the relevance of the image in the narrative of the film.

Age Certificate – To notify the age suitability for the film that is being shown.

There are many different options available in terms of which poster appears as a series of posters can be used to target different audiences. For example a person making a film may have a target audience of 15-21 but may have two different posters for a male and a female. They will both have different background images, iconic images or even taglines to attract the very different types of genders. An example of a film that used a series of film posters was Romeo and Juliet (1996). The posters where clearly aimed at different audiences, as the first poster had a series of pictures shown on the left. While the second poster also was the same except for the despair part of the poster being turnt into vengance, showing four males with gun, conveying quite a different theme of violence in comparison to the other poster. This part of the picture depicts a youth gun/knife crime theme that is found in contemporary society and would appeal to youths, attracting them to see the film. Although the posters are both promoting the same film, they are conveying different aspects of the film to different audiences that will enjoy certain elements of it. Elizabeth (1998) also used two different film posters by having one poster that was for an English audience and the other was shown to the American Public, evidently because they both have different ideas surrounding the character Elizabeth and the film posters would be manipulated in a way that highlighted the different themes/issues that would attract an American audience more or a British audience more. By producing two different posters they are securing the two different audiences that would want to watch the film instead of focusing on one theme for a poster that a whole group of people may not like. This secures more box office revenue so that all different kinds of audiences will watch the film. 

The first poster, which was for an American audiences presented Elizabeth in a more powerful, dangerous and sexual manner. The poster focuses the single character Elizabeth, instead of several characters like the English version. This poster was done like that to entice the American audience who like to know about the sexual and scandalous details of a historical figure. The blood red background used in combination with the seductive and suggestive pose to express passion and her dominant femininity. This shows the more controversial aspect of Elizabeth, which is what American audiences relish in. 

On the other hand, the British poster focused on the traditional portrayal of the British heritage and the historical importance of this film. The poster is split up into four parts for, four main characters that each has a word to portray their main characteristic within the film. The words are Lover, traitor, Assassin and Heretic to convey the more sinister aspects of the film which conforms to the thriller genre, a genre that is popular with the British. This poster is aimed at the British members of the public who are just interested in the historical aspects of the film and are attracted by the focus on National tradition and British Identity. The British audience are more interested in the actual Monarchy and the events of Elizabeth’s era because it is their country unlike America who won’t care about the events of another country but enjoy saucy secrects etc. These two posters are a prime example of how the creators of a film poster are able to target specific audiences and this needs to be taken into account when my group decided to choose the audience for our film poster. 

There doesn’t just have to be Film Posters that have the film coming out soon, there can be teaser posters. Harry Potter 6 did a teaser poster that came out many months before the film was released and the title of the Film Poster was HP6 to add suspense. When seeing HP6 a member of the public didn’t even have to think twice about what film it was and the abbreviation can be used because Harry Potter is such a recognisable film. This teaser poster entices the public, as they will wait, hanging onto the vision of that Film Poster until the actual film comes out. Another Film that used a Teaser Poster was 28 days later, teaser posters could be good because the public have no idea what the film will really be like (unless its part of a series like Harry Potter) so the fact that it comes out months before, it makes the public really intrigued about what the plot, themes and issues are about.