Film Poster research...

Before I get started with the construction of my film poster I thought I should research and analyse film posters, especially of my particular genre, which is psychological thriller. I decided to pick one out of my researched poster to analyse in further detail in order to help me with the construction of my film poster. The film poster I chose is the Film poster for Shutter Island as it is a modern, recent film that would directly relate and link into my idea. One of the first things I focused on in analyzing this film poster was the codes and conventions that was reoccurring through all the film posters I have seen. This included: the positioning of the title, the contents of the main image and the positioning of all the text such as actors and dates. Arguably the most important of these is the positioning of the title. In the example of the shutter island poster, the title is placed in the lower third of the poster, where it is noticeable and is sized as the biggest out of all the text due to the obvious reason that it is the title. The main image is made up of two picture blended together: one of the location and the other the character of Leonardo DiCaprio. One image depicts what seems to be a mental Institution/Prison on an island that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. This, itself, creates a buzz as the image is dark and includes the stormy weather adding to the sense of this film being a thriller. The other image, of DiCaprio, is very iconic because of the actor but also adds this very eerie feeling to the type of film this is as the matchstick and flame suggests he is looking for someone and works well with the film’s tagline: ‘Someone is missing’. Holistically, image itself doesn’t give too much but at the same time gives enough information and relates to the title. This is something I definitely need to include in my film as it will surround my product with ambiguity and the ability for everything on the poster to work with each other complies to the industry codes and conventions so nothing is out of place. In addition to this, the colour scheme of red, white, black and blue do very well in making the poster holistic and the idea of everything working with each other. It is important that the title is red as it is the main text and is one of the things that must stand out on a poster and is something I am looking to re-create in my work, a title that stands out and is as eye-catching as the image.  The saturated blues and greys give off that sense of psychological thriller and add to the effect of the concept of the film. Furthermore, I have noticed that throughout my research in posters that all of them vary on where the tagline of the film is placed and it seems that there is no set conventional place for the tagline of a film. ‘Someone is missing’ is the tagline for shutter Island and is a prime example of a good tagline for a film as it acts as drip feeding to the audience, giving them information about the film in pieces so that the poster doesn’t tell the whole story and the audience can begin to have an idea of the story’s plot. I also chose this poster as I believe it responds to the target audience I am attempting to recreate an idea for. The mix of mystery, horror and ambiguity calls to my target audience and is something I must have in order to make my product successful and that complies to the industry codes and conventions. Another thing I noticed was the poster credits. This adds a professional class to the poster is always positioned at the bottom of the poster. This is because it is the least important information in relation to the rest of the poster but has to be put there because it credits everybody involved in the production.

Through my research into film posters I hope to emulate all the aspects and codes and conventions of film posters into my own production work. I am hoping to include all the key features in my production of the film poster and I am hoping that I can produce a full and professional piece of work. The next steps of my project will be to produce a draft of my poster and using the draft to create a film poster for my film.