Poster Research

Aswell as making a film trailer I had decided that making a film poster promoting the film would boost sales to the film, as not everyone would see the trailer on television but out and about posters can be seen by alot more people, if they are up at bus stops, billboards etc. So how was I going to design my poster to fit the genre I was aiming for. I looked at posters which are for professional films like the ones I researched for my trailer The Strangers, Halloween etc.

The first poster I researched was the one for the film The Strangers.



The poster here shows the three "strangers" and their two victims, the poster instantly gives the genre away with the three masked people staring at two hopeless victims without seeing their eyes there is no evidence of how they are emotionally, in other words their eyes cant give anything away. At the top of the poster is the films tag line "Because you were home." which in the film is said by one of the "strangers" when asked "why are you doing this?" from their victims, but before seeing the film you wouldn't have known this, so when you hear it in the film you get that cold chill because you think where have I heard this before. The title of the film is below the main image in a unique font, just above that is the two names of the actors of the victims and at the bottom the film companies and the sponsors who made the film. This particular poster I really like as it does give across a very clear message of what genre it is especially with the way that the image has been taken and the use of text with the fade to black at the bottom. This poster would be one that I could take ideas from to make mine look as professional as possible.

The next film poster I am going to analyse for my research is the Halloween film by Rob Zombie.



This poster straight away gives you the genre with the main character Michael Myers holding his trademark knife in the foreground of the image. In the background there is the house where he grew up into being this physcopath. This poster has done something that I wouldn't have by using a very white background as most people would associate white with hope/god etc. so having it on the poster for a horror film is a clever thing to do, as they have made the character shown a very dark and dirty colour making him stand out alot more. The title text is across the middle of the page in near enough the same place as "the strangers" poster. The colour of the text is a dirty green the same colour can be found on the face of the killer this colour for me represents rotting/death which is maybe one of the reasons why they have gone for it. At the top right of the poster is the tag line "The evil has returned" that alone is enough to give away the genre. Behind the killer is the faded out house which I really like as it shows mainly the outline in the same colour as the text but a much more faded version again keeping the same colour scheme throughout the poster. Below the title of the film "Halloween" there is the directors name, companies names to do with the film and a release date. So all the important information about the film is present on this poster which is what I must remember to have on mine.

Now I have a better idea about what makes a good horror poster for a film I can now start making my poster.