Exploring types of Movie Posters

Teaser Poster:
A teaser poster is one that is often released long before production of the movie or in some cases during. They will usually contain a release date from the film ranging from specific dates to more vague release details such as the year. Teaser poster's aim is to insite awareness around the flm therefore in some cases they feature characters from the films as can be seen in the SAW V poster to the left. Nowhere on the poster is the title for the film, instead the roman numeral informs the audience of which film in the series it is which paired with the mask of the film's well known killer is enough to inform the audience of the film. The early exhibtion advocates simplistic design but this basid design is enough to generate hype without revealing too much about the movie's plot in order to allow the audience to explore there own ideas.

However, subtle clues are often used in teaser posters to entice an audience and wet their appetite as to what the film might ensue. This can be seen in the left poster for THE CRAZIES where a shot of a sign originally with the text 'friendliest place on earth' is juxtaposed with the blood written 'HELP US' and the bullet holes in the sign all connotaing danger and death emphasised through the contrast of what looks like a quaint village in the background and the dark sky again creating negative feelings of danger. In the poster for THE DARK KNIGHT the technique of using a tagline (in this case 'why so serious?') is very effective as Batman films have cultivated an audience that would instantly be familiar with the term as well as the character 'the joker' that is being portrayed in the painted pictures on the brick wall.

  

Character Posters: These are posters like those used to promote Harry Potter 7 Part 1 that can be seen above. They are often used for a film that's importance/storyline is based on several characters, all of which have the potential to create awareness and hype within an audience during an advertisement campaign for a film. This is why they were successfully used for Harry Potter as the series of films have characters that have all obtained a substantial amount of popularity and value within the storyline. Another prominent feature of character posters is again the use of taglines such as 'Nowhere is safe' and 'The end begins'  both hinting at the dramamtic storyline of the film. The dark ambience of all 3 pictures reinforce this with connotations of danger with the red splatters and dishevelled looking characters hinting at the action that will be shown in the film.