I have looked at multiple movie posters and noticed some trends between them. One such trend is that when there is only one or two main characters the poster tend to focus on them. A lot of posters are just the main protagonists face.
Above is three posters from three different genre movies yet all the posters are basically the same. They just are the main protagonists face. This is quite an effective poster choice especially when the movie features a big star (like 'The Grey' poster up there) because it shows the audience who is in the movie and sometimes people go to watch movies with big actors because of the actor. Also a trend with these kind of posters is that the movies title will be near the bottom of the poster and will be the largest writing on the poster.
I like this style of movie poster specifically for serious drama movies because it is my opinion quite powerful to just see the characters face. I think it allows us as an audience to see clearly who is in the movie and based on expression what kind of character they will be.
Another kind of movie poster I noticed mainly in Sci-Fi/ Superhero movies is when you have an image of multiple people with the main character front and center.
This is my favorite kind of movie poster because I think they usually have great artistic value. They are usually very spectacular looking with lots of special effects this kind of poster works great for movies that are going to be blockbusters/ sci-fi movies.
Something that nearly all posters seem to have in common is to have the title be in bold large writing that usually appears at the bottom of the image. Some posters also feature tag lines at the top/bottom of the page while some omit this detail altogether.
Movie Reviews
Magazine movie reviews follow a fairly similar layout of having text/ a rating out of 5 stars/ a few screenshots from the movie.
Most reviews follow the same pattern of telling us a bit about the movie (plot/director/actors) they then proceed to tell us the reviews opinion on the movie. Most will list a few positives before moving on to the negative.
Here is what I found the be the general layout for movie reviews obviously there are variations but this seems the basic layout.
Why are tag lines effective on film posters?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you believe most posters have only used one or two characters rather than including more of the cast?
ReplyDelete1. Tag lines are effective because they give you sense of the tone of the movie. With 'The Grey' poster up there the tag line is "Live or die on this day" which is essentially a quote from the movie, but it lets us know the movie is about survival in one simple sentence.
ReplyDelete2. I think posters tend to feature only one character because usually there is only one or two main characters. In movies with an ensemble cast the posters usually feature all the characters. Sometimes however the posters will feature the big actor just to let people know that the actor is in the movie.