Different types of film posters

The One Sheet and the Half Sheet: two different film poster dimensions, developed in early 20th Century, for the centre of a film's traditional marketing and advertising. Different sizes used for different locations and purposes, with the One Sheet being placed around town, and the half sheet being the smaller, more versatile option. Later on, the three sheet, six sheet and 24 sheet were developed for the purposes of billboards, roadside posters and signs, and larger indoor displays.

 The various "Styles": When developing a film poster, there is usually more than a single style. Often, there is one poster that emphasizes a single aspect of a film such as the action, and another style that emphasizes the romance between protagonist or some kind of secondary element. One style can be assigned to a single poster size and depending on the film's distribution budget, and if the film is going to be a wide/saturation run, there can be numerous variations of film poster for the same movie. This concept was conceived around the 1930's with Paramount using "Style A, Style B" and Universal using "Style Y, Style Z"

Review Posters: After a film has a pre-release screening for film critics, a review poster is sometimes released to the public to advertise a film's positive reviews. Contains more text than a standard poster with little to no artwork. They are easy to identify but nowadays, quite rare.

    


Above we have an example of two different styles of film poster for the same movie. Note the different dimensions of each, hinting at different locations for each poster style, and the colour palette for the two posters being different. The first uses neutral colours and a blue sky background; as opposed to warm colours, a red title, city backdrop and three (armed) characters in view. This is done to appeal to different aspects of the movie: the first being returning protagonist, the second being action.

If I was to develop more than a single style for my own film poster, I would ensure that each one has a single aspect to advertise and they are inherently different in some shape or form.


This is an example of a review poster. Much less artwork than usual, and constructed mostly by text, this is a creative way to advertise any positive reviews a film may have had during post-production and pre-release exhibition. Once the early viewings to the journalists has been concluded, the film is then rolled out to the public, along with a small collection of review posters based on what was said by the journalist's (positive) feedback.

This may be a somewhat unique way to present my feedback on early drafts of my trailer or other A2 production work. However, as these posters only contain positive reviews and often leave out other criticism, creating a review poster may be somewhat non-representational.

To summarise, the different styles, sizes and purposes of each type of film poster can be important to consider when creating one and these will all contribute well to my finalised film poster.  

Magazine Analysis: Sight and Sound - The Revenant

Sight and Sound magazine appears to be much more subtle to the eye than Empire and Total film. The Masthead is smaller and unlike Empire and Total Film, there is only a slight overlap of the main image over the masthead. While the strapline is larger than usual, it is also in a very clear font and spaced relatively far away from the Masthead, meaning that its increased size still results in a subtle combination of masthead and strapline.

The title page itself actually has quite a small amount of text and does not seem to forefront the other articles like other magazines do. The left-third of the title page is devoid of text and all the additional articles are positioned at the footer, under bullet points. The font size is also small and gives the impression on first glance that there isn't much text on the page. However, if these other articles were exaggerated in bolder fonts, brighter colours and larger sizes, then it would be just as imposing as Total Film would be. It is a design choice and the less expressive front cover perhaps attracts a different audience: a more passionate/serious movie enthusiast. This is supported by the fact that the magazine has been established since 1932 and it is the official magazine of BFI; all of which are attractive to a passionate and knowledgeable audience.

The main image of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in The Revenant features low-key lighting and a relatively low-key background too. While there may be some editing to make the frost in the background slightly brighter and perhaps to apply the low-key lighting effect, it all appears very naturalistic.

One thing of note on this title page is the emblazoned red circle, overlapped by the bold white text that quotes "The Best Films of 2015". This text arrangement is also rotated approximately 30 degrees to look like a stamp on the title page. This is the only article, besides the main story, that is not positioned at the footer and perhaps hints at a larger spread inside the magazine.

Genre research: Thriller

Selecting a thriller for the A2 course of a film trailer production is likely to be the reliable option and most likely the easiest way to create a tense, engaging trailer for a given audience. Thrillers require shock value, and a twist in the plot somewhere; which can be expressed through a film trailer. A film trailer involving a thriller would perhaps begin the first minute with very brief character introduction and bringing the setting to attention. Then, as the trailer builds up, begin to implement the dilemma of the story and within the second minute, any action or confrontational scenes come into play; ending with institutional information and social media links.

The mise-en-scene may include low-key lighting for a more eerie environment for the trailer to take place, but the costume is likely to be normal clothing as the characters may be unprepared for the dilemma at hand and everyday clothes help to portray this to an audience. While this is purely conjecture as the story proposal has not yet been drafted, many thrillers see characters in possibly one or two outfits throughout the whole movie as it is the last thing on the character's mind. In addition, if the characters are going to wear more than a single outfit throughout the film, then the trailer should show a given character wearing each outfit at least once. This helps prove that the trailer is showing and representing the entire length of the film. It is very important that these shots are not in order of appearance in the final product, however. If they are, the audience may learn too much about the film's plot and structure and give them spoilers; leading to not seeing a reason for watching the actual production.

Editing should include quick cuts just like most movie trailers (each shot being about 2 to 3 seconds on average) but there can be long takes for an important conversation that is integral to the plotline or an action scene that requires a slight long take for full impact. Sound, however, is more unique to the genre. Background music can be a quick way to identify genre and in thrillers, the background music is often slow in tempo and deep in the terms of timbre. This is done to further increase tension (the whole premise of a thriller) and can rise in volume towards the last few seconds of a trailer - or within the second minute - for the same purpose.

A thriller is a very likely option for my film trailer's genre and while still under consideration, I have complete confidence in this genre as I selected this for my AS media course.

Magazine Analysis: TOTAL FILM Issue 242

Total film boasts remarkably similar conventions in its title pages to Empire. The publication title (masthead) remains the same font for all issues but the colour alters for each theme of the issue. Also, the text that highlights the main subject of the edition (Main Coverline) changes every issue to coincide with the title's theme and makes each edition look unique.

Total film does contain more text than Empire magazine's front cover, however. Bold sub-headings and captions throughout the title page take up just as much space as the main image does, and the overall look and theme of the title page is less abstract. The addition of more captions and text for other articles makes the reader place more attention on the other features whereas your more likely to focus on the main image and splash article with a front cover placing the majority of importance on the main feature. This edition promoting Deadpool (march 2016) seemingly keeps a focus on both inside features and the main article. This approach, while effective, is something I am not likely to do for my own production as I would prefer to keep the highest priority on my own film.

Another interesting feature of this particular issue is the fact that the main image and background is not heavily filtered or seemingly edited. The background and main image looks natural and once again, gives priority to the text. This is helped along by the colour scheme of this issue; with dark, warm colours for the background and main image and then a very bright white and green for the text. This high contrast colour scheme is something I would consider if my main image is not brightly lit (artificially or naturally). A darker main image can effectively use bright text to stand out in a store or even online.

Also on Total Film magazine's front page is the strapline that is written and positioned as a logo the top right side (or top right pug); layered over the masthead itself. The strapline 'The World's Best Movie Reviews' is arranged in a circle and then rotated to look like a stamp over the masthead. It is an attractive way to present a strapline and it is much preferable to a lengthy sentence under the masthead. I will certainly consider how many different ways I can present my strapline creatively and effectively.

Total Film Magazine has many creative features that I can consider utilising for my own magazine production and presents a different (,somewhat unique) approach to magazine cover design.

Magazine Conventions

Creating a magazine cover should follow a few conventions that that are universal to most publications. Also, there is some terminology that highlights the most important features that should be included on the front page such as:

Masthead: The title, often the name of the publication. The masthead is quickly recognisable to the reader as the font size is usually large, and the font is unique to the publication in question, much like a logo. The purpose is to make sure the reader is familiar with the magazine their reading (or at least the publication).

Main Image: An (often large) image on the front cover with the purpose of quickly suggesting the magazine's main topic of the particular issue. Other text such as the headline and tags may be based around this image.

Strapline: Essentially a subheading just below the masthead that includes a selling line to help boost the magazine's profile on a glance. E.G: London's best-selling technology magazine.

Pugs: The top left-hand and right hand of a magazine, these (can) feature the price and the logo of the magazine.

Buzz words: Just about every magazine will have (at least) one. Buzz words are adjectives or exclamations that make the magazine seem urgently needed. Helps attract attention. An example would be: "Exclusive! Free! Shock!". Using any of these words in an exaggerated fashion (larger font, exclamation mark, etc) could be considered a buzz word.

Main Coverline: Besides the masthead, this can be considered the largest text on the front cover. Placed usually on the bottom half of the page, this text gives the main image meaning. An example would be a film's protagonist on a front cover of Total Film, followed by the film's title being the coverline.

All of the above features can be expected in a production of my own magazine front cover.

Film magazine analysis: EMPIRE

The most prominent feature that Empire magazine has on first glance is how imposing its images are and how it stands out instantly on a page. Every issue - including the one above -  has the main stand-out character of a particular feature film (protagonist or antagonist) on the front cover; dominating the page. The font for the film's title (the main feature/article) is also altered every issue for the theme of the feature film and helps make each issue wildly different in design and very eye-catching. The front cover features high-key lighting that appears edited or filtered and when/if creating a magazine front cover for the A2 course, I would recommend doing the same to have a well lit, imposing front cover. Note also that the magazine has forefronted the articles and content of the film with bordered captions and made other details like the price much smaller; being barely visible from a distance just above the barcode. The left-third portion of this cover takes up more precedence than the "pugs" and other details like the strapline. In addition, the top and bottom banners (header and footer) are quite prominent on the page with bold text in all capitals for the font and the bottom banner is even highlighted with a border behind the text.

Genre Research: Comedy

I have mapped and analysed a comedy hybrid (Central Intelligence), plus researched the genre independently by viewing a large range of other trailers.

Creating a comedy trailer is difficult, but possible when crossed over with another genre. To begin with, every trailer I viewed with comedy in the genre description included another genre alongside it (e.g Deadpool, comedy and action). The structure includes a storyline that is standard action/thriller/horror etc, but has added punchlines and all the comedy conventions present. These conventions include background music that cuts when a punchline is delivered, high key lighting and often quite a few two shots and/or over shoulder shots for the humorous dialogue.

My reasons for liking the idea of comedy as a sub-genre for my trailer is that I believe it will be an interesting challenge to the course and simply make my trailer more interesting and unique. Comedies do not require a large plethora of resources either as the dialogue is the critical component to any comedy in existence. While it is not yet my final decision, comedy is definitely in consideration.