Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Conventions of a Film Poster

A film poster is designed to be intriguing and eye catching, to have a focal point that will draw the audience in.
it must display a large title that is easy to read and can be seen from a long way away so it can recognised by the audience.
it may suggest the film genre using the poster to attract a specific type of audience, such as using certain picutres or font to brng in the desired audience.




It may use famous actors to draw in the auidence as well, a big hollywood name can help to promote a film as good as any ad campaign.

There is usually a tagline on the poster to give the audience reading the poster an idea of the film they are watching

As well as famous actors the name of the director is also displayed on the poster, in some cases the directors name is highlighter above all others, usually when there is a relativly unknown cast.

It also has the age rating on the poster to show people who can watch it and what the film might be like.




Film posters usually contain a number of basic elements:
1) A picture of the star in the film with an inconic image of the film.
2) The title of the film, in a large font that is easy to be seen
3) A tag line with a quote which suggest the narrative in a very vaugue form
4) The stars name to further draw the audience in
5) A background behind the iconic image of the star, to further show part of the film
6) A billing block that all posters have
7) A call to action
8) A BBFC rating




As well as this there are countless semiotics in film posters, such as the images, colours used in the poster, the titles and fonts and the layout.
there are also codes:

1) Technical codes- techniques used in the construction of a of a text
2) Wrtitten codes- the range of contexts in which words are used in the text itself
3) Symbolic codes- the system of signs embedded within the text itself.

Posters have a number of different options to them to create a peice of advertising which sells the film to the audience whether it is through the font used to represent a sci fi film or an actor to sell the film.

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