Film Poster and Film magazine and Banners research so far …

Joanne Lloyd

Film Poster Themes, Compare and Contrast The "Struck by Lightning” (SBL) poster uses a conventional layout as the title is bold in colour and scale which is situated at the top of the page. The text is easy to read however for me the poster appears too basic and uninteresting, it has no mystery, it feels familiar and predictable.SBL genre appears to be comedy film as the colours are bright and details look doodled and playful which conveys the correct emotion for comedy

In contrast the “Evil Dead” posters font for the promotion whilst has a tone could be harder the read from a distance. The main title is positioned at the bottom of the page and is much smaller but bright red. This choice makes the poster more visually appealing as it is uncongenial it draws more interest by public eye as its narrative is represented to be strange and dark horror film.

Actors: Chris Colfer is the main character actor in “SBL “, he is mostly tied with the Glee series. This not only interests fans of the Glee series to watch the film but gives the film a push in its plot and narrative to be bouncy and light-hearted which will draw attention from fans of comedy and teen girls.

The main actor for “Evil Dead” is Jane Levy. She has been featured in an American independent film called “Nobody Walks” (2012) this will gain interest from people how have seen her previous roles but also gain interest from reviews as she has been named an up incoming star by some critics.

Film Poster Themes, Compare and Contrast part 2 Framing and images: the “SBL” framing is straight forward; the main character is shown in a upper mid shot to show his posture and expression which appears to be mischievous and cheerful. This gives an indication of genre and mostly attracts a teenaged female audience as the actors is famous from a “hit” girls TV series.

In “Evil Dead” the main character is not shown and mostly relies on atmosphere to convey its genre and narrative. The promotional text is uniquely placed over the image and blends with it as they share the same tonal colour. But the main title is red. The girl in poster is not facing the viewer and her stance is distort and frail to show her struggles and conveys an emotional response typically of the horror/drama genre.

Text : the texts used on “SBL” are different to contrast as the main text is thick and structured whereas the secondary text is doodled which creates a content atmosphere with the main image.“Evil Dead” text is very interesting as the main text is very sharp and is a bold colour which stands out and creates a powerful depiction of the narrative and the other text appears to be an old style of font with gives the poster an modern, urban feel

The information on both posters is very little as slogans and taglines, however the “Evil Dead” poster has promotional text which is one of the main draws of the poster. Both posters mostly relies on tones and flare to convey the plot conventions and genre.

Out of the two posters, I particularly like the “Evil Dead” as the horror convened seems to be unique whereas the “SBL” poster is too generic and doesn’t create any interest to me, on my film poster I would like to rely of atmosphere of the image and details in backgrounds and foreground with tones and shape example being text and shades.

Conventions of Post apocalyptic genre in posters.The first thing I noticed about the film posters is that the text for the most part, is central the rest of the poster especially the main title. I have chosen two example from the same genre of film to compare: Layout, Main images, Tone and Subject of focus

28 Days Later (2002) uses bright red as its main colour which is bold and eye-catching, the focus is on the lower section of the poster as the silhouette shows the relevance to the plot. This image is very distant visually and emotionally which helps express the loneliness of the post-apocalyptic genre. The background helps this notion as the buildings are broken up and fragmented. The text layouts are very central and the main title is large and uses black and white.

That main idea with a film poster is to convey a quick understanding of plot, characters and genre. For this reason images usually focus on one object and use colours and details to add tone, this makes posters simplistic and leave questions for the viewer to engage them in the content.

Brand imaging makes the product recognisable on different formats e.g. trailers and websites. This remind people of the product and can create an interest. Which can be among friends and social networking sites to gain a larger audience as web 2.0 allows shareable content example being trailers and interviews.

Conventions of a film magazine This magazine cover by Empire is effectively targeting their target audience as the magazine usually cover style has been altered in a way that actually portrays the dark, surreal nature of the Modern Batman franchise. The master head of the page uses a stylized font which is used on the cover line. The tagline of the master head instantly gains attention as it incorporates the Batman logo.The other taglines are in a sharp thin font which creates a haunting atmosphere and the actual words describe the behaviour of the main antagonist.The main cover line use a boxed, painted graffiti art style which instantly draw attention and the details are similar and contrast in colour. The background is very dark and is shaped to be an enclosed area. The text springs off the page and the overall dark, drama, action theme