Analysis of film posters.

Film posters are all designed to grab peoples attention to make them interested in the film, so they will either look further into the film i.e. find out what it's about, or even go to see the movie.

What a successful film poster needs:

. Actors (if the film can be sold on star power)

. An important image associated with the film.

. Date of release

. Tag line

. Production companies responsible for the film.

However some films choose to break this routine. Cloverfield is a film famous for is advertising strategy, it released poster with only a release date

this actually forced people to investigate what the film was (there were clues etc. about the film on its website http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/). Closer to the films release date were poster with a title and tagline released.

Often certain genres of films will have spercific charateristics on their poster, for instance an action film might have an explosion, guns , or the main character with cuts on his face. A teen comedy will most likely have the main characters laughing (or having a similar amusing expression), cheerleaders, or school uniform. This lets the potential audience have an idea as to what the film is about, letting them know if they wish to see i or not. As my film is about a distressed school girl i could possible have her with a similar expression in a classroom, or by a locker. However as my film has the unusual and slightly abstract name "Toast" i should make a poster with similar attributes.

Analysis of film posters:

Where the wild things are:

This poster has some of the typical conventions, title, release date, and a tagline, however there is an element of mystery the poster. The only face on the poster is that of an unknown child actor, so although this may not interest the audience he appears to be shouting/screaming for an unknown reason, which gives the poster some mystery. Also a large amount of the poster is taken up by what appears to be a furry monster, but even this monsters face is hidden further adding to the mystery.

This poster of the film Star Trek released in 2008, directed by J. J. Abrams is very stylised and strong. The film will automatically be a big box office smash because of the fan base surrounding Star Trek. The film poster has some key images to tell the potential audience what the film is (Spock as the focus point, and the Star Trek badge) but other than these images, a release date and a website, the poster gives no real hints or details. The poster is black and white with a black background giving to hint to setting or story, the poster mainly uses the fame of the actor (Zachary Quinto) and the popularity of the character.

My posters:

1. The poster will have Amelia leaning on a wall with a sullen look upon her face, next to some blue lockers with a red school bell above her on the wall. The title "Toast" and the release date will be in black lettering in the space between her head and the bell. This will show potential audiences that the film is based around a student in a school, also it will give teenagers the chance to immediately relate to how the character is feeling.

2. The poster will have Amelia curled up on her bed with "TOAST" at the bottom in the middle of the postcard. This will highlight the pressure she is under, yet will not reveal to much of the story giving the film some mystery, intriguing the audience further.

3. The poster will be of a plate of toast on some school work. On the toast spelt out in butter will be "TOAST", and on the school work, bigger than the rest of the writing will be the release date. Again this gives a hit of school, however this time the audience has no idea who the main character is and what the film is about. But the toast is a constant image throughout the film and this posters quirkiness does fit better with the abstract title.