Film Poster Conventions

The main conventions of film posters in terms of Technical codes are:

-The title: These are specially edited/ created with special effects to make the font suit the theme of the film.

-Name of the star: The main celebrities present in the film are normally mentioned on the  poster.

-Picture/Image of the star: The main stars have their image as the main attraction on posters, they are shown through their characters

-Billing Block: This the the information bundled together normally placed at the bottom of the poster, people generally don't read this information however it is what helps to make the poster look like a film poster instead of a general advert

-Tagline: This is an important element because it give the audience more information about the film. The taglines normally follow a pattern to make it catchy and something the audience is most likely to remember. They can have the 'rule of three', rhyme, a contrast, balance, or repitition.

-Background: This has different effects on the audience as some posters are incredibly simple with not much background but with the main stars, however if there is a background it shows other features of the film again giving the audience more knowledge about what the film is about.

-Age Certificate: This helps to let the audience know the minimum age it is suitable for therefore about if the content would be suitable for minors.

There are different options available in terms of which ones appear and how they appear because there is certain information that the creators would like the audience to know. For example, the movie poster for the film Avatar had ‘From the makers of Terminator’ therefore as this was a successful box office film it would make the audience the creators are back with another great film so manipulating the audience into thinking to go and see this film as well. You would not see a film that would mention a box office flop film as they are trying to give the film a positive impression on the audience.

Due to technology, even fonts can be utilized to make them suitable for the theme of the film. If there was a new actor who was going to debut in a particular they may not be on the poster as no-one would know who they are therefore there would be no point in placing them on there representing the film. This is the same with Short films which is why on posters there are normally iconic images placed.

Teaser Posters are more simple as these come out before the main final versions.
The techincal codes they have are:

-Actor's Name
-Character's Name
-Character's Image
- A tagline/decription associated with the characters
-Simple background which is same for each character