CONVENTIONS OF POSTERS By Megan Vincent, Rebecca Astill and Prajwol Khamcha

Introduction • A Film Poster is used to promote and advertise a film. The

poster is meant to help decipher information of what style, genre and what the film will be about to the target audience and non target audience. Thus giving it a Unique Selling Point to attract the audience.

What we know?From what we understand of a poster-• It has to be eye catching to catch the Attention of the

Audience being a part of AIDA a marketing scheme.• Be able to tell a story/reason to provide the audience to

want to watch the documentary• Attract their target audience.

• The conventions that follow from what we already know is that there is always a title, tagline, Credits and References, Reviews, Focal Image, release date, Film’s website and a set color scheme.

The iconography of the pictures shown is an edited picture of Bush and Moore. It shows them two holding there hands as If to say that Bush is the leader of 9/11.

Tagline questions the decision of invading Iraq.

The Directors name is in bold, so it catches the attention of target audience as he is a famous Director.

Awards, this is from a respect film festival, which appeals to the mainstream, who know about the festival, meaning the film sells.

The title is is Bright Red and has a red border to grab the attention of the audience.

The color scheme was white and Red. White is a sign of peace but Red=Danger.

A list of awards the documentary has won, trying to provide the audience a reason to watch it.

A rhetorical question, as it tries to grab the attention of the audience.

List of Reviews again to cement the fact that the documentary is good to the audience.

A twist to the Nike Slogan, using a Nike type of Font.

References of Institutions Funding. Website of Film and the directors behind production.

A Banana to try to recreate the Nike Symbol.

The color scheme is Black and White. It is mainly dominated by Black Typography. The white helps to emphasize points. The black stands out against the yellow background.

Review, is provided by the New York Times, which helps them attract their target audience.

Picture, is of a hamburger, portrays how America is being taken over by Fast Food.

Title is Red and it stands out compared to the dark background. Helping expose the films title.

Release Date.

Tagline questions the lifestyle of Americans.

References of Institutions Funding. Website of Film and the directors behind production.

The color scheme used is Red and White which helps stand out against the background, with simple typography.

Tagline • Taglines are conventional as they are often used to draw attention

to the poster, using puns or humor. • Taglines are also useful in hinting the narrative of how the

documentary/film will follow. • We will add taglines to our documentary poster as I feel it will help

us interact with our target audience more as they are sophisticated. It will be a rhetorical question as I feel that it is more memorable and that it is more engaging for our primary audience.

Reviews• Reviews are also conventional but as we can see from Michael Moore’s poster, he

did not add it. This is because that Michael Moore is already the USP of the film. Reviews are often there to cement the audience from watching it. It also helps to create Hype.

• We will follow the convention of adding review as it gives our target a reason to watch it. As we have no star speakers, the review can help create the “Hype” to attract the audience. As well as during our questionnaire interview and focus group, our target audience said that seeing positive reviews encourages them to watch something. However we will use Film awards as our way to show how good the film is.

Color Scheme• Color scheme is a definitive convention in most if not every poster. It is

conventional as it is aesthetically pleasing, and it helps to create a general mood around the film. A color scheme can also help by depending on the color, help the audience identify the type of film it’ll be e.g. Red = Danger/Love. From the analysis it is clear and identifiable that yellow and red are conventional colors for Food related documentaries, and is even for Fast Food Related Businesses e.g. McDonalds.

• We wont follow this as a convention of color scheme, as I feel that because we are going against ideas of how fat is bad for you, really we need to use 2 contrasting colors. Therefore we will use white and black, as it is clearly distinguishable as opposites it helps the audience understand that it is the new facts vs. the old facts. It also helps the white and black provides us with a more sophisticated look, helping appeal to our primary audience. We chose not to go with yellow and red due to the fact that we are a niche documentary. We felt that Yellow and red did not represent anything for us as they were both bright colors. What we want to represent is that the government are telling the audience the wrong facts and we are against it, hence the black and white.

Release Date • Release Date is conventional as it actually provides the

audience with the information they need to know when the film comes out.

• We will definitely follow this convention, as it is important to provide information to the target audience for when the short documentary comes out.

Picture• Like any Poster, when taking pictures, they conventionally follow the rule

of thirds. Placing the image slightly lower and higher than the center would be following the rule. This helps to attract and grab the attention of the audience. It is conventional for the Institutional information(TITLE) to be following the rule of thirds. Also the picture can also tell a story for example Fast Food Nation. A picture can be effective as it creates a bit more to Poster, and it can also help the audience understand that genre and style of the Documentary/Film. However the fact that the banana is at the center of the poster it is clearly not following the rule of thirds therefore it is not in place conventionally. The producers could be challenging this rule of composition, hence connoting a more up front style of documentary.

• We will follow the conventions of Rule of Thirds, as it helps to make the poster more attractive, and it can attract our audience to the focal image of what we want them to see the picture and the Title. We will try to have a picture that can tell a story to our audience, and that can be entertaining and informative at the same time.