Textual Analysis: Film Poster Conclusion

Through my research and my textual analysis of film posters, I have learnt many things about the expected codes and conventions present, both visually and technically.

1. The title is commonly positioned central to the frame in width and within the first or last third in length- mine will be positioned in the bottom third due to the fact that it would overlap and therefore obscure my image if placed any higher.
2. The typography typically links to the themes/genre present within the short film, e.g. more feminine fonts such as those featuring in sans-serif are often used to advertise ideas of romance or drama- this is done in order to attract the stereotypical target audience associated with the genre of the film. I also found that the most effective title sequences were those in which the text somewhat contrasted the background layer as they stood out more and appeared more eye-catching; due to wanting my poster to appear in black and white/greyscale, it is unclear as to whether this contrast in tone will be be enough to engage my desired audience/onlookers- however, if not, I may consider presenting my title in colour.
3. The credits/acknowledgements appeared at the bottom of the page more so than not- commonly structured in line length also. The posters in which the credits appeared elsewhere seemed to be those belonging to documentary type films; although my own project is of a similar nature I found this to be ineffective and unprofessional. The credits were often presented in a different font to that of the title, appearing much smaller in size.
4. Some of the posters I analysed also featured a tagline- a small quote or synopsis that somehow related to the narrative;this was effective in some posters as it allowed me to have an insight into the storyline of the film. On the other hand, it often made the layout appear cluttered- as if there were too much text on the page, therefore distracting me from the central image. I will not be including a tagline within my own ancillary task poster as I want my image to be the main reflection of the film and would not like to distract the audience away from this key point of focus.
5. The images used and the backgrounds featured within the majority of the posters I have looked at gave some kind of insight into the nature of the character and their importance to the plot; some used the rule of thirds to emphasise the level of dominance/authority and others used the blurring of setting/mise-en-scene in order to highlight the relevance of the character. One of the posters (Catfish) presented the audience with a character that lacked in facial features in order to suggest anonymity and absence of identity; this inspired me to use my character to allude to the hardships of street life- alcoholism and drug use. I plan to use two overlapping images (one of my main character smoking and one of him drinking) to engage the audience and hint at the direction in which my documentary narrative will be taking.