Movie Poster Research

For the research for a possible poster idea for our short film, I chose to research posters where the focus is a face made out of other objects, as I think it would be a good idea to make our poster a photo of the mask in a similar way. For this, I researched the posters for Thi13en Ghosts and American Psycho.

THIRTEEN GHOSTS

1. The main image on the poster is a screaming female face, made up out of smaller photographs of the 'ghost' characters in the film. This is a clever technique of showing two parts of the film without making the poster appear overcrowded in an unappealing way - as at first the audience focuses on the large face before noticing the smaller photographs making it up. This also means that the gory ghost characters are advertised, which would draw viewers in to see how the ghosts relate to the screaming face - and who the screaming face is. 
2. The colour scheme is based on reds and yellows as well as black; these colours are associated with blood, fear and darkness respectively and this conveys the theme of the film to the audience. However the bright white colour of the eyes means the audience eyes are drawn straight to that - and eye contact (even through a poster) psychologically draws people in. 
3. The text is stylised, with the thirteen written 'THIR13EN' in order to highlight the number 13 - which is linked to being an unlucky number, which may cause audiences to wonder why the film is unlucky. The bright white colouring also draws the eye to the title, which makes an audience remember it in order to go and view it.
4. The taglines'misery loves company' and 'terror has multiplied' describe the main themes of the film without being too outright about it, showing that it is the ghosts that have multiplied. Whilst doing this, it also describes the genre of the film by using the word 'terror', showing that it is a horror/thriller movie.
5. The release date being 'halloween' also adds to emphasize the fact the movie is clearly a horror film, as most scary things are related to halloween, most conventionally ghosts.
6. There is also basic information about the film at the bottom for people who are interested in it to read and discover the cast and film company. However on the poster, the cast or any reviews are not shown, making an audience think that the film must be good enough to not need promotion by a big cast or 5 star reviews.

AMERICAN PSYCHO

1. The main image on this poster is the photograph of the main character in the movie, Patrick Bateman; as well as having a large focus on the knife which is placed in the centre of the poster, directly where the eye travels to first. This shows straight away that this film is about death/serial killers and is somewhat a 'slasher' horror movie. However, for people who haven't read the book, the character's dress could intrigue an audience as to why a man in a suit would be holding a knife; as well as this, one half of his face is in shadow which implies multiple personalities or two-faced-ness. 
2. The colour scheme is mainly blacks and purples, which connote darkness and injuries - as purple is a colour that represents bruises. However, the use of purple and the yellow in the text could also be a stereotype subverter - using bright colours in a poster for a horror movie when conventionally reds would be used could make an audience interested in what makes this horror different. 
3. The font is stylised, with the 'psycho' part in bright yellow handwritten-style font, which draws the audience's attention to that word; which shows the audience that this film is about psychopaths- therefore instantly expressing the genre of film. 
4. The tagline 'monsters are real' plays on the human fears of monsters as well as implying that maybe the humans in the movie are the monsters, which would attract an audience to see who the monsters in this film are. 
5. There is also basic information at the bottom for people to view the actors and film company - however once again the poster doesn't make a big deal out of the actors (despite having a well known actor, Christian Bale) therefore instilling confidence in an audience that this film is good enough to not need large promotion by it's actors.