Evaluation 1 - Use of real conventions - Poster

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and Conventions of real media products?

I begin the research for my movie poster by  I looking at a variety of existing posters from a range of different genre's . This enabled me to gain an idea of some of the typical conventions used throughout movie posters. In addition, just like my research on teaser trailers, I wanted to see whether or not the conventions were consistent throughout the different genre's. For example, I analyse posters such as; The Avengers (Action),  Filth (Comedy), Texas chainsaw (Horror) and Titanic (Romantic Drama). After analysing a number of different posters, I  found a number of conventions that appeared in almost every single poster, regardless of the genre.These conventions include billing, credit. release dates, reviews/ rating and a tagline which references the genre.

Introduction to Posters

Once I had decided the genre of my marketing campaign (horror genre), the rest of my research on movie poster all derived from this genre. My research began to be more focused, as I began to anaylse film posters which were specific to my genre, such as; Sinister, Cabin in the woods and Possession. I took a note of how the genre is presented in each poster through its conventions, such as iconography, fonts and props. Another attempt in displaying the horror genre in my poster is through the use of quotations from reviews (taken from appropriate magazines), fonts that reflect genre, taglines which reflect genre, a colour scheme which reflects genre, and an image which reflects genre.  

Poster research specific to 'Horror' genre.

'IMAGE OF MY FINAL POSTER'

Title 

One of the first conventions I had found in terms of posters was that the title was always the biggest font on the poster. I took this into account when creating my movie poster.

'EXAMPLE FROM MY POSTER'

'EXAMPLE FROM AN EXISTING POSTER'

Reviews 

Another convention I found regarding posters was reviews. The majority of posters contained about four reviews each poster. These reviews were mainly used to entice the audience to go and see the film and to create anticipation for its release.

'EXAMPLE FROM MY POSTER'

'EXAMPLE FROM AN EXISTING POST'

Tag-lines 

Taglines was another popular convention, as they appeared in every poster I had analysed. I looked at a number of taglines in relation to the horror genre, before creating my very own taglines.

'EXAMPLE FROM MY POSTER'

'EXAMPLE FROM AN EXISTING POST'

Billing 

Billing/Credits was another convention that appeared in every movie poster I had anylased. In addition, the billing/credits appears not only in the poster of a marketing campaign, but also in the trailer.

'EXAMPLE FROM MY POSTER'

'EXAMPLE FROM AN EXISTING POST'

The release date is another convention used in movie poster. It's main use is to build anticipation amongst the viewers.

Complete list of Poster conventions