What is the purpose of a film poster

There are many purposes of a film poster and the main one is to clearly produce a 'hype' over the film and by giving its release date, the audience are able to establish when it is and to make time to see it. The sole purpose of a film poster is used to attract viewers interest of the film before it is released to draw more profit; for when the film is released the viewers would hit its optimum as it has been advertised a month before and has give people awareness that it will bereleased on a specific date. The conventions of a film poster which makes it highly attractive is the obvious characters present in the poster because if 'A-list' characters are present it would attract a wider audience range. Then the title and tag line of the movie would have to appeal to the audience to get there consideration to watch the film. Furthermore the graphics of the film may suggest what the film would be about and the genre it is fitted in would appeal to people who enjoy watching the genre. Finally it would have the 'BBFC' age certificate to showthe consumers of the age restrictions and guidelines of the film which is very useful as it informs all ages who can view the film and who cannot and if they research the 'BBFC' guidelines they would be able to see what is present in the film.

To the right you can see the film poster for 'The Business'

this film poster can target a specific audience as it seems like a typical british gangster film targeted for male audiences. This is such a male targeted film poster as it shows the typical gangster lifestyle ( guns, money, helicopters and beautiful women) which is ideal to attract a typical male to a british identity film such as The Business. The tagline line is very enticing as it compares classic gangster films to this one which could attract any gangster genre lover.

• Film posters appear everywhere and anywhere that is generally viewed by the majority of the public, a prime example is film posters are seen on the platforms on many train stations as when the public are waiting for their train the majority seem to look around and observe the posters while there waiting for the train to come. As shown in the example below:

• Furthermore the next place where film posters may be shown in a different way would be on a train. A great example of this is the film poster for 'Limitless' as it did not seem like a film poster but the concept was to attract the reader into reading and visualizing it then it becomes apparent it is a film. I Think this is very clever because the first thing many people do as they enter a train and wait for their destination to be reached is either read a newspaper or read posters advertised around. An example of a very grasping film poster:

• Another place where film posters are commonly seen are on the side of buses which is a good concept as pedestrians and bus users can view it wherever and whenever a bus passes alongside them drawing film awareness.

• Furthermore film posters are also advertised on the advertisement board of bus stops so as people wait for their bus they can be aware of the upcoming film and may be interested by the style of the poster which could draw them to go watch the movie as it is released.

• Finally film posters are seen on billboards while driving to bring awareness to both pedestrians and drivers.