Poster Research

Common Conventions of a Film Poster
In order to create a quality poster for our documentary, we felt that doing some research on existing ones would help us to do just that. We found that in order to make just as good we would have to follow some common techniques that were noticed when looking at examples of other documentary posters. These were:

• A picture from/to do with the film that takes up most or all of the poster as a background. This becomes a main focal point, so it must be eye-catching.
• A large title that is easily visible, with both it's style and position relative in some way to the film's genre.
• A tag-line that gives some insight into what the film is about is usually found near the title or at the top of the poster.
• An age certification.
• Release date for the film.
• Reviews are usually found somewhere on the poster.
• Other information such as a website, legal information and production companies can also be found.

I have chosen to analyse a poster for a documentary called 'Touching The Void'. Although this documentary has nothing to do with sexuality like our short film, by analysing it, it can still help us to create a good poster of our own.

Touching The Void - Poster Analysis

This poster is perfect for what it is supposed to do as it grabs the audience's attention/interest and gives insight into the film. The background picture is quite big and dramatic which catches the audience's attention. The picture has also been edited so that the person is blue and has icy cracks over him. This, along with the white background colour; gives the poster a very cold, icy and isolated effect. The picture also gives insight for a dramatic storyline as the character is falling from a rope.

The poster's title is eye-catching as it is large and red, contrasting the background and pictures. This title is also further interesting as the 'V' of 'Void' provides extensive insight as it is shaped to represent a void-like shape and can then be linked with the picture of the person falling.

This poster does not happen to have a tag-line, but however, the review and "based on" credits are very clear at the top of the poster.