Film Poster Research
On this page I will be researching film posters. The purpose for this research is to help be decide how I would like to design my own poster and the typical things that are included in a poster to attract certain audiences.
I am going to compare feature length film posters and short film posters to analyse the differences between them
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |
Feature Length Film Posters
From looking at some of these feature length film posters, I can tell that a majority of the recent ones use lots of CGI, special effects and not alot of original images, for example, the 'Drag Me To Hell' poster, I can tell that the image of the woman screaming was a real photo whereas the background and fire has all been added in digitally. This makes the posters look professional and sophisticated due to the advanced nature of tachnology in this day and age, allowing people do add lots of detail and make thing look realistic using software like photoshop
I also decided to look at feature length horror film posters from different time periods, since I am interested in the style of 80's Horror, I decided to look at the difference in posters from then and now.
I found out that alot of the 80's posters were hand painted or painted using air brush, which I think is interesting and appealing. I would personally like to explore doing a poster in the same style of the 80's horror poster. I predict this would be successfull as posters ar not made like this anymore therefore I believe it would atract audiences of the new generatio whilst providing nostalgia for the older generation
Short film posters
When I look at the short film posters in comparison to the feature length ones, the ain thing I notice is that there often is only one base image hich is usd with the text over it. This is obviously due to the budget of short films and the fact that feature length films have to pay for advertising and posters. There is definately a very distinct difference in the quality of the posters although some of the short film posters I have found are very intriguing and show strong skill and imagination - My personal favourite being 'Rex' and 'Hypnagogia' (Left)
This is a poster I really like for the short horror film 'Rex'. I like this poster because it is simple but yet intriguing. I also like how there wasnt much editing to the picture as for amateur film makers like myself, it can come out looking dodgy therefore when it comes to me making my poster. I would like to keep it as simple as possible. This poster uses one image that has used prostetics/makeup to create the mutant hand and the text on the jack daniels bottle has been edited on photoshop or handmade. This shows me that the budget for this short film was significantly higher then most student made short films as they could afford to make a realistic, professional standard makeup. I will use this image to influence my poster as I will likely only use one image, unlike other posters which cut and edit multiple layers of an image together.
My Final Idea
For my film poster, I want to hand paint the image and the text to show my inspiration from 80's horror films. I think this would be really unique and interesting as not many people would have seen a hand painted poster in the recent years, from feature length or short film posters. I plan to use a still frame from my actual film to paint from although I am depating if I should do an shoot for the poster. for example, a close up of an eye surrounded by darkness which would connote the character witnessing and not acting on saving the girl