Codes and conventions of posters

Most posters have conventions including:

Coming soon or release date
Main focal picture relating to the film
Large title
Icons of film genre
Tagline
Age certification
Cast and crew list

The tagline is normally short and snappy, revealing enough about the film too draw people in so they want to watch it however being careful not to reveal too much and spoil the film.

Posters also include positive quotes from critics of popular newspapers and magazines which give credibility to the film. This is useful as it means people may want to go out and see it as it has been rated positively by esteemed critics who have experience in reviewing films.

Here are some examples of film posters

This poster has several conventions including the tagline 'Some thing has found us' which relates to the horror genre of the film and for this reason it could draw people who like horror films in. The main image is of a destroyed Statue of Liberty, this is slightly unconventional as it doesn't feature the main characters however it it showing the destruction of an American iconic statue which will entice people. particularly Americans, to see the film as this image will make them want to see what happens in the film as they could perhaps relate this to similar real life events such as 9/11. Other features include the release date and all the cast and crew being detailed on the bottom. Furthermore, the institutions logo is also placed on the bottom of the poster.

Much like the Cloverfield poster this one has the title of the film, logo of the institution, date of release and cast and crew on the bottom of the poster, however instead of a tagline this one has the main actors names on the top as they are big names and all related to their individual characters as the Avengers is a film made up of several Marvel characters. This main image is more conventional that Cloverfield's poster as it includes the main actors and this will make people want to see the film as they are extremely famous A-Lists stars and the fact they are dressed as their characters will also draw the audience who read the comic books as they will want to see the movie as it features their favourite characters.