Codes And Conventions Of Short Film Posters

Cashback

This award winning, film follows the antics of the staff at a supermarket during the night shift. It is unequalled for originality, artistic quality and execution.

The film poster has a very basic design and layout. The audience is drawn to the woman who dominates the poster. Her clothes are pulled down but her naked body is covered by the title of the film. This is very effective because it makes the audience wonder why she is in this situation. She has a very plain facial expression which looks as if she is unaware of the fact that her clothes are pulled down.

The background is blurred to draw the audiences attention to the character but the background can still be established as a supermarket which is built further by the character holding a shopping basket. This makes the audience wonder why she is half naked in a supermarket which makes them interested in the film therefore it should encourage them to watch it.

The title is of a dark red colour and stretches across the whole poster. This immediately makes the audience aware of the films name and gives the audience a slight clue as to what the film may be about.



For The Birds

This short film is about a group of snooty birds roosting on a telephone wire who get what they deserve when a happy, larger bird drops in.

The movie has quite an innocent look to it which gives the audience a good idea of the films genre and age group. Vast amounts of blue has been used to give the poster a bright and happy effect to it. At the top of the poster there is the production company's name, this is very clear but does not dominate the page. The title of the film takes up a vast amounts of space and is very clear. This is good because it immediately tells the audience the title of the short film and gives them a good idea of the plot, genre etc. The main image is at the bottom of the poster and is of a number of small birds and one big one. This shows the nature of the film and highlights the characters in it.

Overall the poster gives a clear indication of the genre of the short film and who the short film is aimed at. This is done mostly by the use of images and bright colours.



The Lethal Innocents

This short film is about Rita, a 15 year old girl, who is relentlessly bullied by the queen bees. But when they kill her cat, they go one step too far.

This poster has a main image of the protagonist which dominates the page and is centered in the frame. It shows a girl with an unhappy and menacing look on her face which leads the audience to believe that she is up to something. The background is blurred in order to make the audience focus on the girl. This is a very effective technique which was also used in the 'Cashback' poster.

The title of the short film is positioned towards the bottom of the page and is in quite scruffy, white writing. This leads the audience to believe that the protagonist is of a lower class because of the untidy writing. This supports the stereotype that lower class people are quite untidy. This could be developed further by audiences thinking that violence could be involved. This gives the short film quite a negative image and shows a thriller genre. At the bottom of the page there are more details about the short film which gives audiences more information about the film.

Overall the poster is quite clear about the genre because of the style of writing used and the look of the protagonist.



From my research I believe that I should use appropriate colours in my film poster in order to make the audience aware of the genre and the nature of the film. I also believe that I should use one main image of the protagonist with maybe a blurred background to focus the audiences attention on the character. I believe the name of the short film should be bold and clear and a suitable font should be used to match the genre. I could also include other details about the film such as the main actors name, production company etc.