The document discusses conventions used in movie posters and how the author applied them in creating their own poster. It describes typical poster elements like the main image, title, tagline, and release date. It also discusses color schemes and how they signify genre. The author analyzed existing horror and tech-inspired posters to plan elements for their poster about a horror film involving computer games. They used a close-up intimidating image, tagline, and computer-inspired design effects and font to represent the storyline and appeal to audiences interested in technology while staying true to horror genre conventions.

1. Poster vs Existing posters
Before creating my movie poster I considered the typical conventions used on existing media
products, here the poster for the Sixth Sense illustrates typical conventions used. One convention
used in the main image, this dominates the poster and is significant in appealing to the audience as it
is the famous actor Bruce Willis represented in the close up shot.
Another convention used is the names of the actors and actresses in the film, here Bruce Willis is the
only name mentioned on the poster, this is significant in appealing to the target audience. Not all
posters include this convention as the cast is not always appealing to the viewer.
The tagline is another convention that appeals to the audience, taglines are used to entice the
audience and create mystery and enigma as to the storyline of the film.
Another convention used on this poster is a production blurb which gives the audience information
about who produced the film.
The movie title is another convention used on movie posters, here the title is smaller than the image
which shows that the poster’s image is mostly important in selling this film, and this is mostly due to
the image being of Bruce Willis.
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I also looked at other horror posters and as you can see they all consist of the typical conventions
which include the main image, a movie title, a release date and some consist of a production blurb.
I also noticed how all of these posters follow a consistent red, white and black colour scheme, these
colours represent the horror genre and enable the audience to decode product, by seeing the colour
scheme alone the audience automatically recognise the genre.
When creating my own poster I will consider all of these conventions.
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Here I planned the layout of my poster by including the typical conventions which include a main
image, a slogan to entice the audience, the movie title and the release date. I decided not to include
names of any actors as there is no one famous in my movie therefore this would not be significant in
selling my film to the audience. The movie posters I researched beforehand consisted of one
character dominating the poster, as you can see I have used the same technique, I have also used a
close up shot of the character who looks straight down the camera which intimidates the audience,
this technique is used on horror posters such as the Devil Inside.
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When planning the design of my poster I had to consider the storyline, my film is based on the
concept of computer games, similar films based on computer technology are The Matrix and
Hackers, the movie posters for these films inspired my own design as I liked the computer effects
used on the main images. Both these films fall under the action & sci-fi genre, I was unable to find an

2. existing horror film based on computer technology therefore I am challenging the genre by
combining the concept of technology with horror.
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This shows how I used a traditional horror poster and a poster based on computer technology to
create my own product, as you can see I used the typical conventions used on all movie posters such
as the image, tagline, release date and movie title.
I used and developed the red, white and black colour scheme so that my audience recognised the
genre straight away as using red and black to connote death, danger, evil and successfully represent
the horror. I used a black background so my ‘villain’ stood out, it also looks like he is emerging from
the darkness, and this enigma code again creates fear and mystery in the audience. This technique is
also used on existing horror posters.
In terms of the main image, I used a close up shot which is also used on existing movie posters. This
shot is effective in establishing emotion; the emotion used in my image is an intimidating frightening
expression, this attempts to create fear in the audience.
When editing the image I took inspiration from the Hackers poster by adding my own computer
based effect, this represents the storyline, the effect also covers half of the ‘villains’ face which is
another enigma code and it makes the audience wonder what this character has to hide which will
entice them to watch the film.
Another convention I used was a tagline, ‘when a game becomes reality’ this gives the reader a small
insight into the plot which aims to excite them and encourage them to see the film, this technique is
also used on existing movie posters.
When choosing a font to use I also considered the storyline, the font used on my movie poster
represents gaming which will appeal to those who are interested in technology, this differs from
other movie posters who use traditional fonts such as Times New Roman.
Overall I have followed existing conventions of the horror genre in order to entice my audience, I
chose to stay away from overused clichés such as having blood and gore all over my poster or knives
and other over-used weapons, I have also avoided putting too much on my movie poster as I found
from my audience research that people like products to be kept simple yet interesting. I feel that this
poster successfully represents the psychological horror my audience demanded.