Marketing can be just as crucial to a film’s success as the
production processes; good marketing through media like film posters may often
help a film achieve recognition just by catching the public’s interest which is
why they are very important. Below I have created some tips for me to follow in
order for my film poster to grab an audience’s attention:
1.
Grab audience’s attention- Don’t design a poster
for art, their purpose is to sell tickets so creating a piece of art for
decoration will not be effective. Have a large title that immediately conveys
to the viewer the genre and overall tone, many indie films have small font that
is difficult to read. 
‘400 Blows’ too much text of varying sizes, the poster
appears too complicated
‘X’ 1992, Black and white symbol is very eye-catching,
little text to balance out large font size
2. Iconography- Having an image tell the viewer the
themes and plot of the film without directly telling them. Image must convey
central idea, problem or conflict of film, not necessarily all your actors and
locations. Don’t use too many colours, film posters are designed to catch the
eye and then create a sense of intrigue, with too many colours it will begin to
look like an art-piece.
‘Lincoln’ iconography conveys drama genre,
black and white image of famous American President.
‘Sssssss’
The bright colours and font suggest comedy but the image suggests horror, the
genre is mostly unclear to the viewer and the sizing of the images in
unrealistic.
3.
Incentive- Putting the viewer in the middle of a
scene from the film creates tension and an incentive to see film to find out
more. It is unwise to feature characters on a poster unless they are film
actors, the viewer will not care unless they are recognisable. For well-known
stars, directors or producers, often film poster designers don’t need to emphasise
their involvement as current fans of them will already know and new fans will
not be as interested.
The
King’s Speech’ has too many well-known actors in one small space, overcrowded
and it is not clear who the focus is supposed to be on so the viewer is put
off.
‘About Cherry’
An image of an attractive woman, using sex appeal and intrigue by not revealing
her face.
4.
Bold/Unique Style- Having a bold/unique artistic
style which is consistent with all film promotional items. Stick to film poster
conventions, especially those pertaining to our genre, there is a certain
layout that notifies the viewer that it is a film poster and not an advert
selling something else.
‘Tooth
Fairy’ The tagline completely takes over the whole poster, making it unclear as
to the title of the film. The main image is also very small and not clear,
making the poster bare, with many empty spaces.
‘The
Odd Life Of Timothy Green’ The title itself is unique with a distinctive font
style the mirrors the main image. The text and iconography work together to
balance out poster and blank space is not noticeable.
5.
High resolution- All images should be in high
resolution as film posters are large. Generally film poster designs are used
for the DVD release cover, meaning that the design can’t be too complicated
otherwise it won’t be clear to the viewer. In the past illustrations were more
common than the photographs used in today’s age.
‘The Frost Witch’ A made-up film and poster by Nathan Brown, he uses a very clear image of a girl’s face, emphasised through
Photoshop that immediately pleases the eye to view all the tiny details.
‘Corky
Romano’ The face cut-out appears amateur-like, and is lit too brightly in a way
that is unflattering for the whole colour scheme, the viewer would rather look
away.
I found a lot of my information from this website which has helpful tips on making successful film posters: http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/11/how-to-design-a-movie-poster-%E2%80%93-top-ten-tips-to-grab-the-eye-of-a-sales-agent-distributor-or-audience-member.html
And this website was where I found the stunning 'The Frost Witch' poster, and instructions on how to make one similar using Photoshop which I will definitely keep in mind: http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/11/how-to-design-a-movie-poster-%E2%80%93-top-ten-tips-to-grab-the-eye-of-a-sales-agent-distributor-or-audience-member.html
No comments:
Post a Comment