Film Posters and Magazine (Research)

• What is the purpose of a film poster? Where to posters appear?
  Film posters advertise and encourage audiences to view a film through the images, text and composition. The posters use a number of techniques to reach their target audiences, they can alert audiences of the genre of the film just through images of the starring actor who is known to play characters for a genre e.g A poster of a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger the audience will immediately assume that it is an action film with unnecessary violence and countless fight scenes, this is part of the semiotics used by film posters to help the audience process the information just from the imagery alone, without even reading the title audiences should be able to tell what the film is about and only need to use the title as anchorage and confirmation to go and view the film. That is the purpose of a good film poster. Film posters can be displayed on the outside and inside of major mainstream cinemas as well as smaller ones, they can be found in billboards or in shops. Film posters can also incorporate third party endorsements to be viewed in magazines an newspapers.

• What are the conventions for film posters? What elements do all film posters contain?
  Film posters have three main codes to follow which are Technical codes the techniques used in the construction of the title which include the title 'Tag lines' and billing block.
  The written codes are the range of contexts in which words are used in the text itself, i.e. the actual words creating the film title and the 'Tag line'.
  The symbolic codes are the system of signs embedded within the text itself i.e. the connotations of the images, colours and font styles.
  All Film posters need a Film title, the title of the film. Tag lines are catchy, enticing short phrases used to advertise and sell a movie. They can also sum up the plot, tone or themes of the film, they help reinforce the film so you remember to go and see the film e.g. 'Same make. Same Model. New mission.'- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) the tag line refers to the 'Terminator' robot. Some may require you to think slightly where as others are straight forward as 'Part man. Part Machine. All Cop. The future of law enforcement', Robocop (1987). Tag lines are usually short sentences can have what you call a 'Rule of three' which are to do with the sentence structure which are; Rhetorical question e.g. 'What if someone you never ever net, someone you never known, was the only some one for you?'- Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Rhyme and Repetition e.g. 'Whoever saves one life saves the entire world' - Schindlers list. Billing Block, the block of text at the bottom off the poster listing distribution rights supporting actors and other legal small print for the film, these all need to be present for it to be classified as a film poster.
  
  
• Title, 300
  
• Tag line, Prepare for glory
  
• Billing Block, located under the '300' Title
  
• Symbolic codes, blood splattered posters suggest it is going to have a lot of blood. The bright light shining down makes the scene look glorious, could mean the Gods are watching over them. The armour worn by the characters indicates their soldiers taking part in some sort of war, are they just wearing red capes or are they soaked in blood?
• Technical codes, blood red Tag line and blood splattered font for the title and the positioning of all the text to fit into the shape of the cliff.
• Written codes, '300' the title of the film and the number of the soldiers shown maybe, the 300 are the ones preparing for glory.
  Christopher