Research into professional film posters, to help shape the way in which my own film poster will look.

1. Connor Evans

3. The title is repeated
here to ensure that it
can be read by
everyone, as the title is
not as clear above. This
may be something I
should recreate if my
title is not completely
clear elsewhere.
The poster’s use of editing
makes the characters and the
main body of text ‘NOW YOU
SEE ME’ become part of an
optical illusion which fits into the
film’s theme of illusions.
Although this is a clever feature
of the magazine, I feel that this
would be hard to achieve within
my own film poster.
The poster features all of
the main cast in order to
show off the talent in the
film. There are big stars in
the movie, that they are
bringing attention to by
putting in the poster,
regardless of the
importance of their
character. As my film does
not feature any big
names, this is not
something I will need to
employ, however it is a
common feature to have
at least of the actors on
the poster.
Here is the important information
often found in the credits of a film,
and in the trailer (such as the still I
created and edited into my film
trailer). This holds details such as
stars, production companies, writer,
director e.t.c.
The date is included on the poster in
bigger, bolder writing, in order to bring
attention to it. This is a common feature
of posters that I will need to use in my
own poster

5. This poster does not have a fit image,
and instead shows white background
behind the silhouette figure. Although
the silhouette works in creating an
ominous feel and showing the thriller
genre, I feel that I wouldn’t want a huge
section of white, considering my film
has a darker feel to it.
This poster singles out it’s big star in two
ways. One of which is the name of the star
written above the film title, and the second
is an image of the star. I would consider
doing this, as it adds to the poster, and
brings attention to the star, an important
aspect of a film that can draw in audiences.
The poster makes use of social media and internet resources at the bottom of the poster.
This has become more and more common in trailers and is something that I think will be
useful when creating my own poster. Although there will not be social media sites for the
Travis film – such as Twitter and Facebook – I could include these on the poster regardless.
The film’s tagline ‘NO ONE
BELIEVES HER. NOTHING
WILL STOP HER’, is drawn
attention to by fitting a
white background into the
image for the text to be
placed into. I feel that a
concise tagline can add to
the image I want to create
with my poster.
Instead of a set date, this
poster has ‘COMING
SOON’ in a bold, red font
that is again, slightly
bigger than the typical
‘credits’ section. This
draws attention to it, and
gets the audience excited
for the film. However,
because I decided on a
date in my film trailer, I
would want to include
the date on my poster.

7. This film poster fits in with
it’s theme of family through
creating the poster as if it is
a family portrait. You can
see how this is done
through the border around
the poster, with the picture
of the stars in the centre.
The director’s previous work is mentioned on the
front of the poster. After some research, I found out
that Oldboy is also a mystery-thriller film, like Stoker.
Oldboy did well both critically, and in the box office,
earning around $14 million. This would help to
promote Stoker, but is not something I would include
as my previous work – the AS film opening – does not
fit with the style of my Travis film trailer.
It is mentioned that the film was
part of the official selection for
Sundance Film Festival 2013,
showing it is a noteworthy film.
This would be helpful in promoting
that film and mention of a film
festival on my poster would help
to show my understanding of this.
The poster is not particularly thriller-
like, however, the image in the centre
contains a hint of the genre. It is subtle,
possibly going unnoticed at first, which
adds to the psychological element of
the film, something that I may want to
consider in the process of creating my
own film poster. Mia Wasikowsa’s
character has blood on her hands.

9. This poster has a much more
simplistic style to it. The
promotion around the film is
highly secretive by withholding a
lot of information, so this
simplistic style adds to the mystery
element of this thriller film.
The film tries to engage it’s
potential audience by having a
tagline question ‘WHO IS SALT?’
This question is repeated through
the website URL,
‘WHOISSALT.COM’. ‘Summer 2010’ is used, withholding the date, and adding to
the simplistic and secretive style. This is something that I may
want to consider as I had ‘THIS SUMMER’ appear on screen in
my film trailer. However, I feel that this trailer does not meet
typical conventions, and I want to show an understanding for
conventions in my poster.
Angelina Jolie, as a big
Hollywood star, is able to
bring in audiences to a
film before that audience
knows anything else
about the film. The
promotion relies heavily
upon this, including her
name, and face, therefore
seeming to answer the
question ‘WHO IS SALT?’
However, this question is
explored in the film.

10. After reviewing and analysing the four posters, I feel that I have a clearer image in
mind in regards to what I want my own film poster to look like. I liked the first poster,
Now You See Me, but felt that it was a little plain in it’s presentation, and not as
interesting as the other three. The dull greys also made it unappealing to me. I feel
that I will take less inspiration from this poster than the other three. The second
poster, Gone, brought attention to it’s star, which I feel I may want to do with my own
film poster. However, the white background does not fit in with the dark style of my
film trailer, and therefore my poster. The use of social media to promote the film is a
modern promotional technique that is becoming more and more popular, and is
something I want to include in my own film poster. Stoker’s poster used a lot of trailer
conventions that I really liked, such as the tagline, the mention of director, and the
links to Sundance Film Festival. I feel that in particular, I plan to use links to a festival
and/or critic to showcase my film, Travis, as a noteworthy psychological thriller. The
final poster, for the thriller film Salt, was my favourite of the four film posters. It had a
very simplistic style, not including many poster conventions. Although I would not
want my poster to be as bare as the Salt poster, I do want it to look presentable,
bringing attention to star, and to not be cluttered with text.