Conventions of the Film Poster

After my research into several film posters in the horror/ psychological thriller genre there can be many clear conventions seen across most, if not all of them

• Colour Scheme - Nearly always in just the three colours white, black and red because of its connotations with blood, danger and passion
• Title - Usually placed in the bottom third of poster in the largest font of any test on the poster to draw your eyes. It is nearly always in red to make it stand out though sometimes, such as in the poster for Awake, white on a black background is used
• Key Actors - Their names are normally found in the second largest text to bring a guaranteed audience to the film
• Background Image - One image will take up the whole background, frequently showing a close up of one of the stars of the film
• Release Date - This will be likely at he bottom of the poster and highlighted in some way, whether that be red or slightly larger
• Memorable Slogan - Where this is varies but usually in the top two thirds of the poster there will be catchy 3/4 word slogan to sum up the film in an easy to remember fashion

EB