The document provides information about genre conventions for action and mystery movies. For action movies, it lists common elements like death, destruction, fights, chase scenes and fast-paced music. Mystery movies often involve a detective investigating clues and evidence to solve a murder, using props like spyglasses. Examples are given of posters for movies like Godzilla and Zodiac that effectively communicate the genre through visual elements like fonts, colors, characters and lack of narrative details to build mystery.

1. Poster Research
BY JACK SMITH

2. Genre conventions: Action
• Great risk of death (Mission Impossible)
• Theme of revenge (John Wick)
• Massive destruction (Independence Day)
• Killings – death of loved ones (Punisher)
• Fast paced music (Heat and John Wick)
• Long and intense chase scenes (Dark Knight and Baby Driver)
• Brutal fights (broken bones, death etc.)
• Up beat or rock soundtrack (Transformers and Die Hard)
• Dark clothes or military based uniforms (Inception and Die Hard)
• Constantly on the move (Speed)
• Hero in a constant struggle (Die Hard)
• Characters would wear either expensive clothing like suits, or combat based costumes such as military clothes.
• The props used in action movies mostly consist of guns, knives, fast cars, military vehicles and jewellery.

3. Genre conventions: Mystery
• Deductive ability (Sherlock)
• Main character is usually a detective or P.I (
• Murder
• Clues
• Red herring
• Twist
• Psychological
• Set in a modern city
• Seeking of evidence
• Use of heavy shadows
• Soundtrack
• Props used in mystery movies consist of spyglass, murder outline, blood, guns and evidence.
• Costumes in mystery movies are formal detective clothes and police uniforms.

4. Action Movie Poster examples.
The title on all three posters
is done in bold text, the font
isn’t hand written, the
Godzilla and Terminator font
is coloured so it links with the
characters.
The colour on the posters help
suggest the theme of the movie
and in the case of Godzilla and
Terminator, belong to that
character. The colour is also dark
and not at all vibrant, which implies
the danger and violence in these
films.
The font style on these
posters help sell the
genre as they
immediately catch the
eye of the audience.
The taglines on the posters also
keep within the theme of the
movie, for example, the
Terminator 2 tagline relates to
the fact that the Terminators are
programmed to kill a specific
target.
We are also told the
genre via props being
shown on the poster, for
example, the T2 poster
features our main
character holding a
shotgun which is his
trademark weapon.

5. Mystery Movie Poster examples.
The title on these posters is done in a style that
matches the film and links to the narrative, for
example, the US poster has US done in a way
which it looks like another US has been laid on
top of it, linking to the theme of doppelgangers.
The title placement is also something to take
note of as US and The Sixth Sense, have their
titles placed below the main image while Zodiac
has it placed in the middle, near the top.
The colour on these posters stay within
the conventions of a mystery movie. A
example could be the Zodiac poster
shown below in which we see a dark
fog/mist enveloping the Golden Gate
bridge. When fox is shown in any form of
media, it usually insinuates the feeling of
mystery or that it is hiding something.
Something these posters shy
away from showing is any idea of
the narrative. The only two
posters that give any possible
hint at the narrative is the use of
a mask in the US poster and the
tagline in the Zodiac poster. In
the Sixth Sense poster, the only
hint we get is a child walking out
of the six.
Speaking of taglines, the only posters to feature
a tagline are the Sixth Sense poster and the
Zodiac poster. These being “Every gift is a
blessing” for Sixth Sense and “There’s more
then one way to lose your life to a killer” for the
Zodiac poster. These can imply the overall
theme of the movie and also creates more of a
mystery for the US poster as it appears to lack a
tagline.

6. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters
poster campaign.
(Teaser poster shown at
Comic-Con 2018)
(Character poster for King
Ghidorah, the villain.)
The poster campaign for Godzilla: King Of The Monsters has featured a variety of
poster designs, some examples could be the character posters for the four main
titans (or Kaiju), various theatrical posters for the cinema release, DVD cover and
also the teaser poster seen in 2018.
The posters that have been released focus on the rivalry between Godzilla (the
main titan/character) and King Ghidorah (the main titan villain) with the DVD,
teaser and various theatrical posters showing them in conflict. This helps hype up
the fight being shown.
Something to note about the character posters, is that the titans are displayed
next to humans or human vehicles (jets, helicopters etc.) this helps to convey to
the audience the scale of these monsters.
Something else to note about the Ghidorah and Rodan character posters is that
they are in a smoke or mist, this creates a mystery about how big they truly are.
The posters also have the colours that link with the titan being shown, for
example, Ghidorah has yellow due to his skin and lightning being of a yellow or
gold colour.
The main title is always placed at the bottom of the posters and is also done in
the same font, the character posters also have the exact same, bold font type,
and are also placed on the titan being shown. This helps the audience to identify
that these posters are all for the same movie. The colours used for this campaign
consist of blue, yellow, orange and also turquoise.
(DVD cover)

7. Zodiac Poster Campaign.
(Quad Poster)
(Teaser poster?)
(DVDcover)
(Theatrical?)
For the Zodiac posters, there are only four posters that have been
released. These include the theatrical, teaser, quad and DVD.
Something to take note of about the theatrical and teaser is that
they are unlike most teaser and theatrical posters, this is because on
the supposed theatrical poster, there is a lack of any release date,
only “coming soon” while on the teaser poster, we are told the
release date but not the actor’s names.
It could be possible that the reason as to why the company went
with this route as it creates a mystery and conveys to the audience
about the theme, it also helps get people talking about the movie as
they would take to social media to find out the release date.
Something else worth mentioning is that on the quad, theatrical and
teaser, we are not shown the main characters, only the names of the
actors in this film, a possible reason as to why this was done is so
people can focus on the title as it is placed in the middle of the
image, implying that the title is important, it also links to the fact
that film is based off of the Zodiac Killer, this is because we can see
the Golden Gate Bridge in all forms of promotion for the movie
itself.
Moving onto the font, it is the same on each poster, with a Zodiac
killer symbol being placed in the name. the audience can tell that
that this is a poster campaign is due to the bold uppercase text that
is bold and stands out, as well as the dark and damp colours that
are always present.