CODES & CONVENTIONS OF

FILM POSTERS

Taglines are common code and conventions film posters

have. They can be placed anywhere on the poster but

are typically near the title of the film or near the central image/focus of the poster. Taglines create a specific

effect for the film, for example for a horror film the

tagline should create a creepy/discomforting effect,

whereas a comedy would have a humorous tagline to set the atmosphere of the

film.

CONVENTION 1: TAGLINES

The Purge

Finding Dory

The Shallows

Most film posters will have a display of actors and/or directors names on them. The names presented on the poster are usually the A/B list popular celebrities featured within the film, and the main characters in the film. The reason for displaying actor/actresses names on the film posters are effective because it is a great selling point when trying to attract an audience base, especially if the celebrities/directors are well-known.

CONVENTION 2: ACTORS/ACTRESS’ NAMES

Nerve Poster Batman V Superman Poster

DIRECTORS NAMES

Don’t Breath poster

Lights Out poster

The director of ‘Evil Dead’ is mentioned on the top of the ‘Don’t Breath’ poster because the movie ‘Evil Dead’ was extremely successful in cinemas, with a box office of 97.5 million USD. This is effective to mention because the audience is likely to think that if the same director was in the making if this film, then ‘Don’t Breath’ may be just as successful as ‘Evil Dead’. This attracts more people to want to watch the film.

“From producer James Wan director of The Conjuring” is displayed on the top of the ‘Lights Out’ poster. This would be attractive to audiences because James Wan is known to be a very successful director of multiple horror films (Saw, Insidious, Annabelle, etc.) The Conjuring was one of his most successful horror films, with a box office of 320.1 million USD, so mentioning the film title on this new horror movie poster would attract audiences to want to watch “Lights Out” because they would assume that this film would be as successful as all his other ones.

As well as having a display of actors’ names on film posters, it is equally common for the main character of the film to be on the cover of the film. It is more likely for the character to be featured on the poster of they are A/B list actors as this would attract the general public to be more interested in the film itself and want to watch it.

CONVENTION 3:CENTRAL IMAGE

Emma Roberts Dave

Franco

Mila Kunis

Taraji P. Henson

For example films such as Don’t Breath, Nerve, Bad Moms and Hidden Figures all present the main characters of the films on their official movie posters because all these films contain well-known actors that audiences would easily recognise.

An image of the main characters within the films are typically

presented on the poster. This is effective because it attracts more people to watch the film because

they assume that if the film contains successful actors then the film itself must be successful too.

The colour scheme of a film poster is a very important code and convention because this convention is responsible for sett ing the tone of the entire movie itsel f. The colours used for the posters always match the colour pal let of the trai ler as this creates synergy between them and makes it

easier for audiences to identi fy that specific film.

CONVENTION 4: COLOUR PALETTE

The bright colours used to present the ‘Nerve’ film poster

consist of neon blues, pinks and purples. These colours set the

atmosphere of the film to be quite futuristic and

creates a digital type of tone to the

film, which is effective because

this is an important aspect to the film.

The dark colours used on the poster for ‘Batman v Superman’ presents this

film to have a gothic atmosphere, as the colours grey & black

connote darkness, death and mystery. This is

effective because it links to the storyline of the film and where it is set, which

is “Gotham”. The word “Gotham” itself sounds gothic so the use of a

dark gothic colour pallet makes it all link together.

A key convention that a film poster has is the Billing Block located at the bottom of the poster. It contains

information about all the parties involved in the making of the film and their roles.

CONVENTION 5: BILLING BLOCK

The title placement is usually situated in the lower third of the poster but sometimes can also be placed

on the top third. The title is also the largest font on the poster and stands out the most compared to the rest of

the information provide.

CONVENTION 6: TITLE PLACEMENT

Posters and trailers are created to have synergy between the two different media platforms so that the branding of the film is established. Ways in which this

is done is through fonts, colour palettes, main characters/actors, taglines and the film title. Synergy is

effective to have when marketing and thinking about brand awareness because it allows target audiences

and the general public to recognise the film and identify with it more easily because it creates a link.

SYNERGY

SYNERGY –LINKS BETWEEN TRAILERS & POSTERS