FILM POSTER RESEARCH

What is a film poster? A film poster, in its simplest form, is a poster used to advertise and create a media synergy for the film being relased.

These posters normally, but not always, include text which mentions key information such as; release dates, film’s title, main characters and director and often a tag line.

They often contain one more images, some of which are stills, taken from the film after the production.

Historically films only had one poster, however in 2010 it is common to find films with several different posters.

Films posters play a vitally important role in marketing a film; it is therefore very important that a company creates a poster that targets their audience.

Film Posters and GenreIt is obvious that, as to target the correct target audience, the genre must be explicated by the publishers of the poster.

To do this often involves using the typical codes and conventions of a genre; including mise en scene such as: the use of colour, setting, uniforms and clothing. Text is also used often to reflect the genre of the film, through both tone and also size/font/punctuation.

The colour red has connotations of love and passion, clearly a theme associated with romance.

A seductive gaze at directly at the camera is typical of the romance genre

Two attractive and suited young men are very commonly found characters in romances.

My genre - DRAMAThe genre of film I have chosen to make is Drama.

Drama is a genre based on realistic characters, dealing with complex issues.

All films contain an element of drama, however a drama film focuses solely on the drama of the main issue.

As there is such a large variety of drama films, they are often divided into subgenres. Mine falls under “magic realism”.

anticipated audienceI am in the process of creating a survey to test the waters with my synopsis. I do, however, have some idea as to who I am aiming my film at.

My estimated guess goes with the current trend of drama films. This is that the protagonist often reflects the age and genre, of the target audience. This is true to recent dramas such as “Fish Tank” and the “Harry Potter” films.

This therefore means my target audience will probably be approximately the same as my protagonist – early to mid teens and male.

This effectively means I will need to try and keep the narrative lively and make sure the film flows well – as often the younger audience’s attention span has the potential to wonder!

Screening Opportunities

There are several opportunities to showcase my film, including short amateur film festivals such as the one shown here.

However, to truly reach my target audience, young people between the ages of 12-16, I believe an online release might be more effective, on popular online sites such as a YouTube or Vimeo, hopefully becoming a viral success.

Other opportunities include school film clubs and school film festivals. I think the key for success with this film relies on it being non-profit, as the young target audience will probably not want to pay to see a short film.

We have here a repetition in face masks, however looks very supernatural – relates to my idea. Completely expressionless which evokes an eeriness. The image is so cluttered with faces, there is no backdrop or background, giving a claustrophobic-like effect.

SymbolsThe only backdrop colour is black, connoting bleakness.Mise en scene is mixed, again emphasising on how powerful this face is. Very little body language displayed, the army of people are seemingly consumed by this mask. Seemingly an organised chaos.

CameraA seemingly high angled shot allows us to see the full extent of this domineering force, however I am lead to believe this graphic is a graphic rather than a genuine photo. The framing draws attention to the quantity of these people. Allows the characters in the image to be seemingly all looking towards us.

WritingThe large capitals of the title in white clashes against the black background, as well as the red production information. This is perhaps foreboding of conflict. With al the ey

I found this poster particularly interesting. The poster presents a medium close up of an attractive looking man. However, it defies standard conventions as it seems as if the poster was ripped as if it were a newspaper, and we cannot see his eyes. It is almost as if someone has ripped something out of the poster as a reminder or memory, linking into title “ “”” of the spotless mind”.

The background colour is a dull beige. The mise en scene is also dull, such as the standard looking clothes. The image does not have a striking feature about it, it is, however, the rip which is seemingly the focal point of the poster. With “the tagline, “I’m fine without you” written in bold, big text, we are clearly drawn to its significance. Words such as “broken” and “revolutionary” in blood red also appear to be key.

The publishers of this poster were seemingly trying to juxtapose the standard photo frame and contrast it against the powerful rip.

As well as connoting a memory (as I suggested earlier) the rip could also be symbolic of violence and conflict, an angry swipe at the picture.

The positioning of the actors and key information emphasises on the focal point, the tag line. The fairly bland colours also allow for the paper’s colours to stick out.

This poster is the most striking of the three to me. There is a certain eeriness and sense of foreboding about the silhouette of a lady running away from a dark tree in an unusual undefined landscape.I find it particularly interesting tht the director chose to position the three on top of ‘The Lovely Bones’ title. This gives the tree, and perhaps the fear of the tree, a sense of relentlessness, exceeding the typical boundaries or conventions of a film poster.

The colours of the sky is highly ambiguous – one could either view it as the storms coming, or sun shining through the clouds. This perhaps invites an intrigued audience.