Film Poster
I have analysed three films posters which all share the same genre that I want to use for my promotional film package that will include a film poster. This genre being drama. The three films I have chosen are Titanic, Forrest Gump and The Fault In Our Stars. I will use two of the three films for all of my research as to keep consistent and so I have the full promotional film package to help compare when making my own and these two will be The Fault In Our Stars and Titanic, the third film will differ for each area of research. I have chosen these two films as they'll give me a diverse range as they're from different times so it gives me a mix of old and new. Titanic was released in 1997 and TFIOS was released this year in 2014. The third film poster I will analyse is Forrest Gump as it is a drama film and I like the layout of the poster.
Titanic:
The first poster I decided to look at was for the film Titanic. This is arguable the most popular and well known drama film. Except this drama has a sub genre of romance which differs it from some other dramas. This particular poster includes typical things such as the name of the movie, which has been printed in the biggest and boldest font out if all the text. It has also been put in white text as to juxtapose the black image behind it to make it stand out. Above this, also in white text, is the names of the main actor and actress in the film.
There is also a billing block below the title, which is very typical for a movie poster, but this has been put in an orange-brown colour opposed to the white, which makes it stand out less and become an afterthought despite the large quantity of information. This text includes such things as names of the producer, director, writer, more actors and actresses and logos for Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Dolby and Lightstorm. There is also the age rating, for this film it has been set as PG13. And lastly, the website: titanicmovie.com and soundtrack information.
Another piece of text on the poster is the tag line at the top of the poster, which overlaps the image of the characters, but not too much as to hide anything. The line reads 'Nothing on earth could come between them'. When an audience member reads this, it makes the genre of the film quite clear; that it is a romantic drama. But the line hints to something more sinister, as if something is about to test this bond they have and this makes the line ironic as in the film as something does come between them and that is the iceberg and the devastation that followed.
The poster also includes two main images; those being one at the top of the two main characters: Jack and Rose. The other image being of the boat itself in which the film was named after. The angle of the shot used for the image is below looking up at the front of the boat. This angle makes the boat look like an arrow pointing to the image above of the two main characters. This draws attention to the above image. These images have been chosen because they are key parts to the film; as the film is about two people who fall in love on a boat and then the tragic story of that boat hitting an iceberg and sinking. You could arguably say the iceberg is the third key part but to add that on the film poster would be to give away a huge spoiler for people who are unsure what happens, which would've been the majority of people when the poster itself was released prior to the actual film. This poster emphasises the fact that you shouldn't add too much to a movie poster as to not reveal so much about the film to the audience prior to the release.
One thing that this poster doesn't include in which most posters do, is a release date. This may have been because it was expected to be known as the film may have already had some hype around it before it had been released, or it may have been because of the time of release was so long ago, it may not have been a common component. I looked into this further and using the knowledge that the film Titanic was released in 1997, I looked up other films that had been released in that year, then looked at some of the movie posters for these films. I noticed that other posters for films released in this year also didn't have release dates on them, as shown in the two examples below. So it must have not been common to put the release date on the film posters in the year 1997.
Forrest Gump:
The second film poster I chose was for the film Forrest Gump. This film is also a well known drama. This poster has become quite iconic as the film has had a massive hype around it following the release and is known as a 'must see' film. The poster itself follows typical conventions such as the title being in the biggest and boldest font on the poster. Although this poster is interesting as the second-biggest font is almost as big as the title. This large text has been used for the main actors name: Tom Hanks. This is allowed because the film is based upon a singular man meaning there is only one main character. If there was multiple main characters like the film previously - Titanic - then to have the main characters names almost as big as the title would be too much as there would be too many words so it would overshadow the title and throw the overall look of the poster off-balance. The main reason behind having the text for the main characters name almost as big as the title is because the actor is very famous and well known and by displaying the name so large, audience will see it clearer and it will attract audience members who were already a fan of this actor. Another typical convention that this poster follows is that includes a tagline, however the tagline placement is different. The words aren't aligned, instead they have been shaped around the actors name. This is to make it look different from other film posters and standout.
Other text included on this poster is the release date. This has been placed at the bottom, underneath the image, but still above the billing block which also exists on the poster and is placed at the very bottom. The release date is in the same font as the title and the actors name but not as large, however it could be considered quite large compared to the rest of the text on the poster.
One of the key things about this particular film poster is the use of colour. The background is plain white, which is interesting because usually posters have creative backgrounds which consist of images relating to the film, digitally made patterns, etc. In contrast to this plain white background, the poster has put the main text in bold, bright colours. Such as the name of the main actor has been put in the colour red, and the name of the film and the release date have been put in a shade of blue. This makes these pieces of text stand out even more. The rest of the text has been put in black font as to contrast the white background so that is made read-able to the audience.
Another key part of a poster is the images used, these are usually related to the film somehow, such as screen-prints from scenes from the film. This film poster only uses one image; of the most iconic scene of the film which keeps getting referred back to throughout the film. This being of the main character Forrest sitting on a bench. The size of the image doesn't dominate the entire poster but is the largest thing on the page so it still attracts attention to it. Only having one image surrounded by lots of white empty space could be seen as a risk as some people could interpret this as making the poster boring but for this poster it has the opposite affect; it makes the poster unique and stand out. It also highlights the importance of the image and so forth the scene the image is from. This would be to make the audience ponder why an image of a man sitting on a bench could be so important and would therefore watch the film as to find out. I really like the subtly yet importance of such a simple image and how you feel as though the idea shouldn't work but it just does.
The Fault In Our Stars:
The third film poster I chose was for the film The Fault In Our Stars. This film is the most recently released of the three as it came out this year, in 2014. It was based upon a popular book which means it already had a fan base and was a highly anticipated film. This film poster follows typical conventions such as having a title in the biggest and boldest font out of all the text, there's also a tagline and a release date. One piece of text this poster includes that differentiates it from the others is at the top, it notes how it was 'Based on the New York Times #1 best seller'. This is included on this poster specifically because the film is based upon a book whereas the other two films were not so it was almost necessary to include this piece of information, however the inclusion of it is also helps advertise the film even more by showing the readers of the book that this is the film based upon the book they already know and love.
The fonts used on this poster are interesting because they differ for each piece of text. The title itself has the same font as the cover of the book. This is to provide a visual link between the poster of the film and the book, so that the audience of the book know this is the poster for the film much easier. The tagline below the title has been placed in the different font to the rest of the text and then the release date below that has been placed also in a different font but bold this time. The only two pieces of text that have the same font is the tagline and the line across the top that declares it is based on a book. This range of fonts is to make the poster look more interesting and appealing to the eye so that it doesn't all look the same with all the same fonts which would make the poster look monotonous.
There is only one image used for this poster and it is of the two main characters: Hazel and Augustus. The image dominates the poster and acts as a background whilst also being the main visual attraction of the poster. Only one image has been used because the story-line is completely based around just these two characters. The only other factor in the story-line is the fact that both characters have cancer but that can't really be shown through an image, except the inclusion of Hazels tubes around her face that link to her nose and help her breathe.
The last part to note about this poster is the information given at the bottom, in the corners, in grey text. They are the logo for the film corporation 20th Century Fox; the website for the film: TheFaultInOurStarsMovie.com; and lastly, the hash tag for the film being #TFIOS. The inclusion of the last piece of information tells us a lot about the film and when it's a released as including hash tags is a recent modern thing targeted for the younger viewers to find information faster through social networks such as Twitter. So by providing the # for the film, this tells us that the film is a modern film that came out recently and is targeted towards younger viewers such as teenagers.
Another thing I noticed about this particular film poster is that it doesn't include a billing block like the others. The lack of inclusion makes the poster look less crowded than it would and also more visually appealing. I also have noted that it is a modern thing now in which the inclusion of a billing block is optional and dependable on the creators if they decide to put one on their posters. For example, I looked at some other modern posters and saw some with, and some without, as shown below.
I also noticed some films have posters both with and without billing blocks, such as Godzilla:
Another observation about film posters is that although they're commonly portrait, they can be landscape also, such as the following posters:
The final part to a poster is placing it out for people to see. Where they are placed is important as it will target certain audiences. Common placed to place movie posters are:
Billboard
Building
Bus
Phonebox
It's also important to know that there are two types of posters.
A teaser poster
A feature poster
The difference between these are that the teaser poster contains far less information on the film as the feature poster. The teaser poster is also released a lot before as to spark interest into their audience but not to reveal too much, whereas the feature poster contains such information as the actors names, a billing block and the release date.
Conclusions - Conventions
After looking at three different film posters with a drama film on the front cover, I have made some conclusions about film poster conventions. Some conventions I have observed are:
- The title of the film is in the biggest and boldest font at the top of the magazine cover
- The release date is optional, but when used, is placed at the bottom
- Billing blocks are also optional and are always placed at the bottom of the poster and they all look the same and use the same font for every film poster.
- The poster is usually taken up by the main image which provides a background. When the main image takes up the whole cover, other images aren't needed. Also the main characters of the film are usually on the poster.
- The main actor/s names are only included if they're a well known star and aren't compulsory to include.
- Websites are commonly included; especially for modern films. Hash-tags can also be included for modern films also.
- Logos for film productions and companies etc are usually included with or near the billing block at the bottom of the poster.
- The orientation for a poster is commonly portrait but landscape can be used also.
- When it is landscape, the title is placed in the middle and other text is split into two sections on each side.
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