Film Poster Conventions

I am now going to look at five film posters, all from different genres, and write a list of conventions found in each one. I am going to look at the film posters for The Dark Knight Rises (superhero), Inception (thriller), Falling (drama), Another Round (comedy) and La La Land  (musical). It is important to look at posters from different genres to see if they have similar conventions, regardless of the genre the film belongs to. This will help me gather together the basic, general conventions of posters.

The Dark Knight Rises

- Names of stars (surnames underneath 'Christian' names, in capitals)

- Tagline (A Fire Will Rise)

- Name of director (A film by Christopher Nolan)

- Title of the film (largest font on the poster)

- Billing block/credits (towards the bottom of the poster)

- Certificate/rating (PG13)

- Production company logos (Syncopy, Legendary Pictures, DC Comics, Warner Brothers Pictures)

- Website

- Release date (July 20)

- Format (IMAX)

- One main image from the film

- Reference to genre (through iconography, including setting and costume)

Inception

- Names of stars (Leonardo DiCaprio's name in largest font out of the actors and below are the other stars)

- Tagline (Your Mind is the Scene of the Crime)

- Name of director (A film by Christopher Nolan)

- Title of the film (largest font on the poster)

- Billing block/credits (towards the bottom of the poster)

- Certificate/rating (PG13)

- Production company logos (Legendary Pictures, Syncopy, Warner Brothers Pictures)

- Website

- Release date (July 16)

- Format (IMAX)

- One main image from the film

- Reference to genre (through iconography, such as setting and props)

- Reference to other films (from the director of The Dark Knight - at the bottom of the poster)

Falling

- Names of stars (Lance Henriksen and Viggo Mortensen)

- Name of director (A film by Viggo Mortensen)

- Title of the film (largest font on the poster)

- Images of stars

- Billing block/credits (towards the bottom of the poster)

- Production company logos (Ingenious, Scythia, Lipsync)

- One main image from the film

- Additional smaller images

- Reference to genre 

- Reviews and star ratings (Little White Lies 4*, Total Films 4*, Empire 4*, Farout 5*, "A beautiful controlled drama about age, memory and forgiveness " - The Wrap, "Henriksen is a revelation" - Deadline)

- Reference to awards (Sundance, Festival De Cannes, Tiff, Camerimage, SSIFF, Best Actor International Competition)

Another Round

- Name of star (Mads Mikkelsen)

- Name of director (A film by Thomas Vinterberg)

- Title of film (largest font on the poster)

- Billing block/credits (towards the bottom of the poster)

- Production company logos (Mongrel Media, Zentropa, Topkapi, TV2, Eurimages)

- Website

- One main image from the film

- Reference to genre

- Reviews and star ratings (Screen Daily "Compelling and more than a little sobering", Indiewire "Mads Mikkelsen's best performance in years" and The Independent 4*)

- Reference to other films (From the director of The Hunt and Far From The Madding Crowd)

- Reference to awards (Festival De Cannes Official selection 2020, Official selection tiff)

La La Land

- Names of stars (Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone)

- Title of the film (largest font on the poster)

- One main image from the film

- Reviews and star ratings (The Times 5*, The Telegraph 5*, BBC 5*, Cinevue 5* and TimeOut New York "Romantic, extremely stylish and endlessly inventive", The Guardian "Ryan and Emma shine in a musical masterpiece")

- Reference to awards (Winner Toronto International Film Festival, Winner Venice International Film Festival)