Conventions of film posters

This film poster shows many of the main technical conventions for creating a film poster. Firstly, it shows where the film may be generally based, in this case, mainly out on empty fields, showing they are at war, which is further emphasised by what the characters are wearing. Also, where the characters are placed in the poster seem to be up in the air, in the mist, connoting that these people have died. Furthermore, there is one person standing in silhouette, showing that the army will carry on through day and night.

The main character in this film, played by Tom Hanks, can easily be identified because he is in the front of the three other people, and the markings on his helmet show he is in charge of the others in the film. The colours of this film seem to be quite dark and grey, connoting that the designer wanted to show a message that there is no bright side to war. Moreover, the tag line and title of the film work very well and close together as the word ‘saving’ is in bold; and the tag line ‘the mission is a man’, connotes that a squad has to go and save this man, that is their mission. The poster shows that the conventions of film posters were created for the purpose of

showing the audience what this film is about, without revealing too much information so they will watch the film.

Generally, film poster will definitely have the film title, the name of the star and an iconic image for the film. However, occasionally designers of film posters will not include the title of the film, when it is coming out or any of the stars; for this to work effectively the film must be well known and the poster must include a very iconic image, for example, Harry Potter six.

Moreover, semiotics of film posters are equally important because this is what makes the poster eye-catching, and they will be used to make the audience quickly process a lot of information, just from the visual imagery contained in the film poster. Film poster designers must be aware of images, colours and the layout of the poster, if they want to make it successful where the audience is able to remember a lot of information.

After analysing the film poster for the film Johnny English, I have seen that taglines are very important for a film poster to have. They must be catchy, able to sum up the plot, tone or themes of a film, and has enticing short phrases. In this case, this poster uses short sentences and the rule of three. The tag line of a film should reinforce what the film is about.

The tagline is possibly one of the most important aspects of a film poster as the audience will always read it and see if they like the film, therefore, the tagline must give extra info about the narrative and what audience it would suit. Also, tag lines should be easy to remember so the audience can check out possible trailers later. Furthermore, they will become well known over time, even to people who still haven't seen the film, so it must be effective, for example, "Same make. Same model. New mission"-Terminator 2 and "He's having the worst day of his life. Over and over..."-Groundhog day.

Moreover, film tag lines must give a bit of the narrative away because occasionally they may pick a title that it strange to the current audience and time, for example, Groundhod Day; it was known as just a holiday, but now is a well known film about a person having the worst day of his life. The tag lines for films become effective because they use many literature techniques, for example, the rule of three and short sentences, used in Johnny English. Also, balance, repetition and rhyme can be used very effectively for film posters, like in Sleepless in Seattle.