In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

(forms and conventions)

Dictionary.com definition of a poster:-A placard or bill posted or intended for posting in a public place, as for advertising

Wikipedia on film posters:- A poster used to advertise a film- There may be several versions . . . Variations in regards to size, content and country of production- Usually contains an image with text- The text usually contains the film title in large lettering and often the names of main actors- It may also include a tag line, the name of the director, names of characters, the release date etc.

ehow.com on posters/ movie posters:

Blogspot:

This website contains ideas about analysing movie posters but these could also be helpful to think about when creating one too >>>

The most occurring poster conventions:- Eye catching title (and depending on the genre) bright, colourful, bold, stands out from the background- Persuasive language – through reviews or taglines etc to make people want to see the movie- Promotional features – actors’ names, director, reviews etc- Possibly the rule of thirds as a format- Usually one predominant image- important to correctly represent the genre of the movie to attract the right audience

Pan’s Labyrinth poster:

-The poster is closely linked with the teaser trailer through the image of the tree and through the way cool blue tones and colours are used to create a type of mood- The tree in the poster has been edited to look a bit like faun horns creating another link between the poster and the trailer as a faun is one of the key characters- Up and around the edges of the poster there are vines and branches twisting and creeping – that alone is creepy and it also gives some insight into the locations in the movie- The images and lighting around the figure have been done in such a way that the girls is made the focal point of image- The figure of the girl seems quite small in relation to everything else on the page but if she had been larger then it wouldn’t give the same effect – the smallness of her reflects her vulnerability, it shows she is young and her innocence and probably how she feels and how she is meant to be viewed.- The most widely used pan’s labyrinth poster, out of the two main ones, contains a release date, the other doesn’t but maybe a ‘teaser’ poster like teaser trailer which appears long before any specific word of the film- It contains a tagline (innocence has a power evil cannot imagine) which gives a taster of the genre and feel of the movie to attract audiences

- These posters mention the director (this is a common feature of movie posters)- Another common feature of film posters which appear in these are the credits at the bottom of the page in a tiny font containing names of important cast and crew who worked on the movie

My Poster:

Main image of girl – linked to the other texts – looking away makes her less relatable

Tag line to promote genre and feel of film

Main title large and in an obvious place

Review as an incentive to see it (persuasive language)

Festival awards as incentive to see it (persuasive language)

Credits to acknowledge those who worked on the movie

Creepy image promotes genre – cool tones fits with the trailer and helps set the mood

Release date to inform audience (here no date shows it’s in stages – a ‘teaser’ poster

What’s not so conventional?:

- I think the only minor thing that could be seen as unconventional is that the image of the trees in the poster doesn’t actually occur in the teaser trailer – this doesn’t mean that it won’t occur at some point the actual film however it does break the strong link between the texts that could’ve been if a different image had been used.