Generic conventions of film posters.

Title of the film. A catch phrase

for the film to entice someone to watch it. Has to be a very brief idea of what the film would entail.

Image of the main character or just an image which is very relevant to the film.

If the image is brightly coloured and excitable you can guess it is a comedy, however the image represents the genre so it’s important it is clear what genre the film is.

All the distributors, copy right information and the crew of the film is to be listed at the bottom

Main cast members is to be shown clearly.

They often have an example of the film creators previous work to give an idea of what to expect from the new film.

This image clearly shows it is a comedy genre as it’s a funny picture and shows a man laughing. Suggesting laughing is what you will do whilst watching the film.

Main characters as often the cast of a film depends on whether people will watch it or not. If it’s got unknown people starring people are less likely to watch it.

Often shows the date of release so viewers can get excited and plan to see it.

All three film posters have similar generic conventions. They all show the title of the film, and the genre of all three films is clearly represented by the images used on them. At the bottom of both ‘Step Brothers’ and ‘The Last Exorcism’ it shows the date of which the film will be released. On all three film posters there’s a small print of the producers/distributors of the film which is a convention which seems to be on most posters. Also as the actors in the ‘Step Brothers’ and ‘Love Happens’ are well known it says their names at the top of the poster because people enjoy going to see a film with a successful starring role in it. All three posters have catchy slogans which also present the genre.

Generic conventions of horror film posters.

An extreme close up image of an eye is often a generic convention used in a horror movie poster. A manipulation of the eye is often used to cause it to creep out anyone who see’s it due to it’s eerie and unusual look. The cropped image of the eye also shows the fear they are feeling as the eyes are often widened with fear. This creates enigma as nothing can be seen other than this terror-filled eye. In the poster for ‘The Candy Man’ we see a silhouette of a person within the eye. Using an eye as a horror film posters image is effective as it can be manipulated in many ways to cause it to look scary. This also creates a teaser for the audience as it gives away very little.

Many horror films are set in an eerie house which is often (especially in more supernatural films) where the evil and the horror is coming from. Blood and gore films sometimes also take place in a house. Usually the house is surrounded by lots of darkness to create that eerie feel to it. The appearance of the house is often very old fashioned looking and not very looked after which is unsettling for an audience as most people associate home with safety and comfort.

- The main character will usually be shown in a dark light to add uncertainty and fear of the unknown.

- Horror film posters, it has become common for font to be almost child-like. This type of font many not be in a straight line and it would be very informal in comparison to the Serif or Script font just like how a young child would write.

- Dull colours - colours associated with fear and loneliness. This is to reflect on the genre of the film and also the emotions of the characters.

- The characters shown on a horror film poster are generically the main antagonist or the protagonist. They will never be very detailed of the characters as an audience would want to keep this as a mystery. Often the main characters in a horror film are really famous ones because if a globally known celebrity starred in a horror audiences may find it hard to believe and may not even get scared because they have seen the actor/actress before.

- The posters background is also typically very dark to keep the audience unaware of what the setting is of the film. Also iconic films such as the Scream franchise where on the posters only the famous mask worn by the antagonist and now is well known on a global scale. A dark background makes the foreground image stand out more indicating that it has a significant role in the film.