Film Poster Research: Purpose

Film poster research: purpose.

The main purpose of a film poster is to promote the film to the public, in order to make them want to watch the film. In order to do so, film posters are made to appeal to a specific target audience. Film posters are also used to promote the main stars of the film. When viewing a film poster, one should be able to gain an insight into the story line of the film, and just by looking at it, establish the genre and the tone of the film; wiether it be horror, comedy, romance etc. Generally, a film poster will establish the genre/subgenres of a film. Commonly, films have more than one poster to promote it in order to appeal to different demographics, resulting in them having wider target audience therefore bigger viewing figures. For example, the modern posters for the classic Romeo and Juliet.

This poster advertises the romance genre of the film.
As the main image is of the hollywood stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes kissing, one can assume from this poster that the film is going to be mainly about a passionate romance. This poster, therefore appeals to a female audience more so than it does a male. It also appears to be aimed at a young adult audience. In the background of the poster, there are male characters equipt with guns, demonstrating aggression. This gives the impression that a sub genre of the film may be action/thriller. The tagline, 'My only love sprung from my only hate' emphasises the romance genre of the film whilst leaving the viewer intruiged.

This poster was also used to promote the film Romeo and Juliet, however the title given to the poster is simply 'Romeo'. This insinuates a more masculine tone to the film, as a result targeting a male audience. The mise en scene creates a ganster genre. As an audience we are faced with the main star of the film, smartly attired with a ciggarette in hand seated in front of an explosion. From this one can assume that the film will be action packed fulfilling the conventions of a thriller genre. This poster has no insight into the romance genre of the film contrastingly to the previous poster. This stresses how different film posters can be made for the same film and can yet appeal to such diverse target audiences.

Over time, the characteristics of film posters have developed and changed to ensure they succesfully fulfil thier purpose. This poster advertising the classic horror film, 'Jaws' was created in 1975. Horror posters, trailers and magazines were often more over the top in comparison to more subtle posters today. For instance, in this poster as you can see, Jaws (the shark) is the main focus of the image and is central to the poster.

The poster shows a female character swimming directly above the shark, suggesting that she is the menacing animals prey. Suspence is created through the fact that the female is unaware of the sharks presance and therefore the fact that she will be attacked, this also emphasises the females isolation and vulnerability. This portrayl of women is a popular convention in horror films and was particularly popular in the 1960's and 70's (around the time of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho') as they are presented as weaker than the attacker making the film more horrific. From this poster, it is clear that the film is a horror, the black background connotes evil and violence and the red headline connotes anger and blood. These colours have been selected to emphasise the gory and violent eliments of the film. The simple layout of the poster makes its audience focus mainly on the image, however there is a phrase at the top of the poster which enhances its advertisement, 'number one best seller.'

When comparing the most recent 'Jaws' poster, created in 1987 to the created in 1975, we are immediatley aware of how film posters have developed over time. Unlike the older poster, this has a clear BBFC certificate allowing the viewer to know the target audience of the film. The graphics used on this poster seem of a higher quality, the shark has been merged into the title, suggesting that we as an audience are now familiar with the fact that 'Jaws' is the name given to the shark. This poster also has a tagline, 'Mans deepest fear has risen again', the word 'again' gives the audience an idea that the film is part of a sequal all the while creates suspense. The fact that the main stars of the film have been included in the poster means that the attention of the audience is taken away from the horrors of the image, making it less over the top as the previous poster. The colours used on the poster are much more high key than those used on the previous, and the water is alot more realistic highlighting the improvements in technology over time.