Although we are not creating a film poster we are still required to know about the key conventions of them. So in class our first task was to write down a list of things we would expect to find on a film poster.
Below I have listed what I would expect to find on a film poster:
- Name of the Film
- A picture from the main characters or something to symbolise the main point of the film
- A Slogan or tagline to catch the atention of people
- A short stynopsis of the film
- Name of the production company
- Name of the director
- Release dates for the film
- Actors/ Actresses names
In order for us to get to grips with film posters I decided to independently study a few examples of some. I decided to look at one example from a Hollywood film and then one from a British film to see if there is any differences between the two and whether a film budget can have any influence on how a film poster looks.
Due Date Film Poster:
(Hollywood)
The first film poster I looked at was from the 2010 big hit film from Hollywood "Due Date". Due Date was made on a budget of $65 million. Therefore "Due Date" would have no trouble distributing there film posters to a wide audience across many different location as they would be able to make the profits back up in the cinemas. Also Due Date has well known actors that can cross the audiences and the director of Due Date also made one of the most popular films in recent times The Hangover. This is why big budget Hollywood films can have the ability to make well designed and distributed film posters.
The Conventions of the film poster are clear. It is a good visual film poster in my opinion because a nice clear big picture covering the whole poster of the two main characters. It shows them to be looking rough and looking like they have gone through a lot. This straight away gives the audience a sense of wanting to watch the film as they will be eager to find out why they are like that. It also has the names of the two main characters at the top. This will comfort audiences if they know who the actors are and will help them to getting to the cinema to watch the film. It also has the name of the film in big capital letters at the bottom of the page with other films that the director of Due Date has created above it and then the release date beneath it. It is also very colourful and catches your attention
Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels Poster:
(British)
The British film poster I looked at was Lock stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Comparing this to Due Date, Lock Stock will be harder to cross to a wide audience as it was the first film to be made therefore not a lot of people would no much about it. Also it was made on a lot smaller budget to Due Date so therefore would not be able to produce as many film posters and distribute to as many locations.
The conventions of the film poster also differ to the Due Date one. For a start there is a lot less colour on the Lock Stock poster. This may be because it is more expensive to produce as many film posters with big graphics on them like the Due Date one as Lock Stock is made with a smaller budget. Or they are trying to create a dark eerie gangsta effect through black and white. You have a main picture of Vinnie Jones the main actor in the film being the dominant thing on the poster holding guns. This will straight away give away that this film is full of fast paced action. The title is in large lettering in the centre of the poster catching the audiences attention. It also has a review on the top left saying "This years best British movie" This will help the film get more viewings at the cinema as people will be eager to see if it lives up to its review.
Postcards:
After we had understood about film posters and why they are produced and what inflicts them. We started looking at postcards and analysing them. We looked at a few examples of postcards from short films produced by Becky Knapp who helped us with our script.
Divine
From this postcard on the short film called Divine you can see that there is a main image dominating the whole main side of the postcard. This straight away draws the audience into it. It has the name of the short film at the top in white lettering and this goes well with the black background as it creates a sense of eeriness and engages the audience. It also has a slogan saying "Let's go to church" this is also engaging the audience as it adds to the eeriness. On the back is all the information about the director, cast, costume designer, edited and sound by and an e-mail address about any further queries.
On A Life's Edge
The postcard for On a Life's Edge differs in many different ways to the postcard for Divine. The front side of the postcard is actually quite similar to Divines one with a main picture dominating the front side. But differs as it has three more images up the left hand side of different filming locations. It also has the name of the film at the bottom. On the back it is completely different to Divines design. It has less information including a synopsis, the casting, directed by and produced by.
My Designs
Posted below are my postcard designs:
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