RESEARCH: WHAT IS THE AIM OF A FILM POSTER?

Film posters are used to engage audience interest. 

Film posters use a high ratio of photography to text to attract and address audiences' visual interest. A film poster is part of a marketing media form - a Poster and Advertising campaign.  

1.   They have to create an initial impact to ensure audiences take a secondary look and to create a hook - a striking central image, creative use of colour, size and style of font or tagline. Due to the nature of the sites of exhibition of film posters, this impact has to be immediate. There are various types of film posters that are used specifically with this in mind – the teaser poster will have limited textual information while a character poster looks to communicate with a knowing target audience who are familiar with the film.

2.   Larger, framed film posters e.g. outside cinemas will have additional text at the bottom of the poster to encourage more convergent links.

3.   Convergent links on a film poster that engage audience interest include the film website address – here it is hoped the link will encourage a potential audience to find out more about the film by exploring rich media. 

4.   Twitter and Facebook links will encourage interactivity and hopefully for the film, file sharing and viral marketing. This references the personal relationships aspect of the uses and gratifications theory. Some posters also use escapism or diversion as a way of attempting to offer entertainment values– this can be an actor or character in a certain pose, or a manipulated action screenshot.

5.   Use of house style is often evident in film posters – the font and colour palette will appear as the same across a range of marketing platforms while the central image will be promoted in a range of media. 

6.   Variations in typography will also attract audience interest. 

7.   Pull quotes are important to legitimise a film and many film posters include reviews from carefully chosen publications that reflect the interests of their target audience.

8.   Finally, synergy can be a factor in arousing audience interest with linking wherever possible to other successful work but also selling the production values of a film by including the production company, and/or distributor’s logo.