Trends in Film Posters

When deconstructing my posters, I had tried to select three which weren't conventionally similar in order to demonstrate how each one differs stylistically from the next. That being said, there are still certain traits and features of film posters which frequently recur and so have the impression of being necessary to their success. Below is a list of the possible conventions I have noticed that I could adopt when making my own. 

• Title: Unsurprisingly, the title of the film being promoted is normally the biggest example of typography on the poster, and the most significant piece of text to look at. A title should be as visually engaging as the image, but in a distinctive way. Audiences will come to associate the title logos with the film, so it is important for the title to resonate with the image without impeding it's impact. When making my own, I definitely intend to print the title on the poster because films that subvert this tend to be in a franchise or have a pre-established build up to the release, and so the poster doesn't need to print the title because it is already so well known. My film on the other hand will realistically not be as well promoted and so displaying the title allows audiences to become more familiar with it. 

• Release Date: Most of the posters give some indication as to when the film is going to be released. This is either done through a specific date, often identified as a month and a number (e.g September 4) or just teased to be released some time in the near future, with a phrase such as 'coming soon' used to promote its imminence. Again, I find that this information is absolutely essential to a poster's credibility, because the main aim of a poster is to promote, so without a release date the poster just becomes visually appealing rather than informative. The release date is definitely a feature I shall include on my own poster. 

• Critical Feedback: Films that receive praise and compliments tend to promote these accolades alongside the film, almost as a way of adding an insurance policy. It tells the audience that the film is worth watching, achieved either through a star rating or quotation. Films which don't receive 4 stars or more will not put the star rating on the poster, simply because it suggests mediocrity. As of yet I am not sure whether I want to include a quotation or a star rating on my poster, mainly because I think that it may be aesthetically better without commercial and industrial input. 

• Picture: Normally an image is used on the poster, although in some cases the entire poster has been designed digitally. For example, the poster campaign for the recent film Suicide Squad involved a cartoony emblem to represent each character rather than using an actual image. This is successful when the film has garnered enough publicity to justify this radical marketing campaign, but in the case of my poster, I think I will definitely stick to using an image simply because it will suit the gritty and realistic tone I wanted my film to have. 

• Actor's Names: Films are commercially appealing if they have well-known celebrities cast in them. Even if they are not the main characters, a film's marketing will revolve around promoting the most well known actors in order for the potential audience to recognise them. This is also present on posters, where the names of the main cast are printed somewhere around the title to demonstrate the how the film has appealed to good actors. Whether this is integral to my own poster is debatable, since the appeal of my short film is more based on the narrative than the casting choices. Plus I feel that if the actors are well-established, they will be recognisable in the picture without the need to show their names as well. 

• Other work the director has done: A point of comparison is normally drawn in trailers and posters where it states 'From the director/producer of...'  in order for the audience to familiarise themselves with other notable films that the crew have made. However my personal opinion is that I don't think directors consistently make good films, as I have found in the recent Assassin's Creed film. Justin Kurzel made a fantastic film in 2015 with Macbeth, but Assassin's Creed lacked the depth of character and stylish finesse. Therefore although these statements work from a commercial standpoint, I don't think that they necessarily mean anything and so I won't adopt this feature on my own poster. 

• Varying the typographical features: With posters that are covered in text, I think that it is important to present each part of the writing (the film title, actor's names, release date etc) in a way that is visually unique but also coherent with the rest of the text. Therefore slight variations in font, size and colour help to distinguish each bit of information is an easily accessible way. I don't plan to overload my poster with text, but I intend to make sure that the text I do include is visible and creatively balanced. 

• List of credits: Usually in a thin font and small print, some film posters opt to include a full list of credits at the bottom of the page, consisting of all the main cast and crew. This is quite a traditional technique and although it recognises a larger number of the people involved in the production, I always feel that the additional information is slightly unnecessary and doesn't really make you engage with the film more. Therefore I wouldn't want to use up valuable space on the page to credit those behind the filmmaking process, simply because audiences are drawn to the picture and main pieces of information, not the small print. 

• Company logos: Company logos are often a compulsory aspect of posters, done to recognise the financial support behind the making of the film. It is almost a form of branding, since this is an advertisement and so the institutions involved are concerned with the commercial profitability of the product, making ownership of the film a sign of control and industry. They are often unobtrusive and subtly printed along the bottom. Personally I don't think that company logos should be compulsory and so I don't want to include them on my poster. The very concept of a poster is promotional and based on marketing, so I don't feel like this needs reinforcing with institutional recognition. 

• Tagline: Taglines are beneficial for being informative, often providing more of a hint towards the film's focus whilst still maintaining ambiguity. This is done mainly when the film title contains too much ambiguity and so the tagline exposes more about the content of the film. I think that especially with my title, 'Shades of Reason', the audience will need some sort of clarification or direction as to what the name alludes to, so this is a feature I intend to use on my poster. 

• Visually reflects film's themes: As seen on the three I deconstructed, the visualisation of the poster cleverly reflects the film's exploration of its themes. So after watching the film, it should be easy to determine how the poster resonates with the film. To some extent there should be a synonymity between the poster and the film, be it through the colour, props or general tone being denoted. I completely agree that the film and poster should complement each other, otherwise the audience are being misled by the poster and so it fails to fulfil its purpose.