1. Factors and
conventions of movie
posters

2. Introduction
Many Movie Posters follow a set code of conventions to the layout and
composition in order to achieve their marketing goal of promoting the
film, these conventions may twist slightly dependent upon genre and plot of
the film; but the core beliefs and traits will always stay the same. Due to my
chosen genre of horror I will base the conventions on existing Horror genre
products but use a wide array of horror genre from ‘slasher’ to ‘Ghost House’
traits to insure I have seen a wide array of techniques and approaches to the
factors and conventions of a movie poster.

3. The Title
Arguably the most important feature to a product, the Title will say the most about a
film and is far from mistakable upon a poster as will always be of the largest text
present. The title will commonly be of a unique font that is eye catching, boasts bold
colours that will work in sync with the genre of the production, for instance
conventions insist dark colours for horror, with light blues and pinks for rom com.
These conventions are perfectly shown in the poster below, from the production ‘The
Last House On The Left’, as you can see the title is the main feature, accompanied with
bold, eye catching text and the word ‘House’ in an extremely unique font with a blood
effect that connects it to the horror genre.

4. Main, Representative Image
Another vital part for the movie poster, the
main image normally features an action still of
the film, usually focused upon a main
character, location or plot key; or sometimes
all of the options. The image will usually be
inviting to the viewer that suggest a mystery
without revealing the answer; for instance look
to the ‘Halloween 2’ poster featured and note
how it features the villain holding a knife
(automatically adding action and horror to the
product), but other features to the image adds
a sense of mystery that makes you want to
watch the product to find out what they are,
such as why the mask, why that remote field
background and more importantly what’s the
villains left hand grasping hold of??

5. Simplistic Review
Many modern day movie posters will contain a simplistic critics review of the movie, this will
normally consist of a few words that ‘big’ the movie up to add hype, followed by a star rating out
of 5. these reviews can be film and genre related such as “Scream Out loud Scary” that is featured
upon the movie poster below from ‘The Pact’ or general review such as “One of the Most
Breathlessly Entertaining movies you'll see all Year” which is featured on ‘The Cabin In the
Woods’ poster below. Another rare review that will sometimes be seen upon a poster is awards
that the film has won in nominations and film festivals for instance ones seen on the ‘Hate Crime’
poster below. Either technique will have the same impact to ‘hype’ the movie up, and have
others trust the review and watch the film.

6. Strapline
Straplines often referred to as advertisement slogans are short, memorable phases
used on the movie poster that will address the viewer with rhetorical questions,
factual knowledge etc. based around the films genre and plot. Straplines are
extremely common and very effective within the marketing of a film product and can
vary a lot, an example of a strap line would be seen below on the ‘sinister’ poster of
which says ‘Once you see him, Nothing can save you’; in which directs the audience by
using words such as you, while also adding mystery to whom this ‘him’ character is;
resulting in the strapline playing on your mind un till you watch the film and find out.

7. Age Rating
A factor to the poster that is extremely important to the viewer when debating to
watch the product for a number of reasons, obviously with a Disney film you
know what to expect, but in the horror genre the age classification can tell you a
lot about the film for instance; rating 12 will suggest the product is more suited to
younger teens and will have limited ‘scary parts’, rating 15 will suggest that the
production will contain moderate language, gore, torture (not sexual or
sadistic), this would be the favourable age classification for a ghost movie such as
paranormal activity; rating 18 will suggest the movie is horror filled will
torture, gore, and everything else that could possibly be featured, this is favoured
as horrors revenge slasher/torture films such as ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ or ‘SAW’. As
you can see from the poster featured below from the production ‘Wolf
Creek’, there is the number ‘18’ featured to the right of the title to indicate the
age classification.

8. Credits
Featured at the bottom of the poster, the credits are the text that simply
credit the key individuals involved with the production of the feature such as
the listing of the distributors, directors, producers, actors etc. the rule of
thumb is usually the more important the credit, the bigger the font size and
vice versa. The typography is to be set normally in a white colour format and
of a font called ‘Steel Tongs’, to give a professional look. As well as text, the
credits will also show logos and corporate images with companies that have
worked on the production or distribution of the product. These credit
techniques can be seen below from a cropped shot of the ‘Edge of Darkness’
poster.

9. Release Date
Simply what it says on the tin, the release date is to indicate when the feature
will be open for screening to the public in cinemas and theatres across the
country, this is usually positioned at the bottom below or just above the
credit field and to a more larger, bolder font to grab attention.

10. Other factors
There are many other factors and
conventions to the film poster, that can be
dependent upon a lot of factors such as
the genre of the feature, the target
audience and the plot etc. some of these
less common/important conventions can
consist of website details or the infamous
‘inspired on true events’. These
conventions or factors may not be as
important as others but they do add
another point of interest of a real scare to
the thought of the plot.