Film poster - purpose and analysis

Before you can begin designing your own poster, you need to research and consider the role and purpose of the poster in the first place.

Task 1:
Research the role of posters - consider ideas beyond just advertising.

Task 2:
Find an example of each of the following - make sure it's for the same film and ideally one in your genre.

• Teaser poster - basic info, no credit block
• Main poster - credit block, more info
• DVD release poster - all the above but contains reviews
• Character poster - features one main character

Task 3:
For each of the above, analyse the poster for the following:

• Standard poster features (credit block, tagline, use of star names, release date, etc.) - what are the purposes of these features?
• Main colours and connotations
• Symbols used - does the audience need foreknowledge to decode them?
• Main figures/objects/background and connotations
• Use of graphics/photographs/illustrations
• Intended audience and how you know this
• Genre conventions
• USPs
• 'Expert witnesses'
• The gratifications that are promised
• How it grabs attention (humour, shock, etc.)
• The tagline (humour, pun, etc.)
• Alternative readings that might harm the marketing message

Task 4:
Identify similarities and differences between these four types of poster and discuss why these are important.

Film promotion

You need to consider your target audience and how you are going to potentially reach them through a combined marketing campaign.

Film promotion Cloverfield from Sarah Ghost

Task:
Research a film of your choice, ideally within your genre, and identify the following:

• What the movie was about, how much it cost to make and how much revenue it generated
• Its target audiencs
• What methods of marketing it undertook (teaser, viral, magazines, etc.) and for each type discuss what the aims of the marketing were and how it reached its audience