Magazine Textual Analysis

Teaser Posters v Theatrical posters

A marketing campaign of a film has different stages. Early on in the marketing process a teaser poster for the released will be revealed, showing minimal detail compared to the detailed release of the theatrical poster which is revealed closer to the release date of the film.

The Maze Runner (Ball, 2014)

Teaser Posters

These are three different examples of teaser posters for The Maze Runner. Each poster has taken its own approach to enticing the audience. The first poster shows the audience a glimpse of casting and character for the film.This is the only character presented on the poster, allowing the audience to assume he is the main character of the film. The character on the first poster appears to be looking at something out of frame, foreshadowing a possible tense atmosphere felt within the film. The second poster shows only the title of the film and the tagline. The tagline, "Find your way out", is shown in small text in the bottom corner of the poster, drawing the audiences attention to the films title which is integrated into the shape of the maze. The third poster is almost a combination of the first two. The audience see a silhouette of a character, possibly the one seen in the first poster, jumping over a segment of the maze with the title of the film centred at the bottom of the poster. This brings emphasis on the size of the maze compared to the character and evokes a feeling of suspense within the audience about the film.

Theatrical Poster

The theatrical poster shows the audience more of the cast and characters of the film. The character from the first teaser poster I analysed is positioned at the front of the group of characters, thus clarifying that he is in fact the main character of this film. The tagline of the teaser poster  has been changed from "find your way out" to "get ready to run". This adds to the excitement the poster evokes for the films release. The background of the poster shows the vastness of the maze and may be symbolic of the struggles the characters face in relation to the maze. By positioning the audience of the poster within the maze in front of the characters, it brings forward a question as to what the characters are running towards. The added information within the poster evokes a final wave of excitement within the audience.

Film Posters: Positioning and Sizes

Place	Advantage	Disadvantage
Bus Stops	Passers by will see the poster on the bus stop and people waiting for the bus cant help but be drawn into looking at the poster. Drivers stuck in traffic may also pay attention to posters on the sides of bus stops as they are often facing the road so that more people can see them, including people on other buses.	People at bus stops are often only there for short periods of time and may not have time to notice the poster or may even be paying more attention to bus times than the poster itself. Often bus stops can be busy and over crowded meaning that the posters are left unseen by people waiting for their bus.
Billboards	The largest form of "poster". Due to its large size billboard advertisements cannot be missed. Usually positioned near office blocks or next to main roads, people in cars are drawn to look at the billboards as they pass or are stuck in traffic.	people driving past billboard posters may be paying more attention to the road than to the poster. For people on the ground, billboard posters can also be too high up for pedestrians to be able to read and can also be subject to weather damage. Billboards are also only frequently seen in big cities with lots of people and tall buildings to see them from.
Magazine	Often movie posters within magazines take up an A4 page, making it clear and noticeable to the reader. Films can also advertise themselves on the covers of magazines such as Empire or Total Film.	Readers of magazines often aren't "readers" at all they are more like flickers, who quickly flick through the pages and look only at the features they want to look at, often skipping past any film adverts and posters hidden within the pages. Modernly, less and less people are buying magazines and the advertising within them is generally not being seen.
Cinema	Movie posters in cinemas come in different forms. Some US high concept or UK mid budget films not only have framed posters on the walls but also have large 3D cardboard cutouts of the films poster in the lobby areas of cinemas. These cutouts and posters can often cause an audience to react to them and decide what film will be their next cinema experience. Sometimes the cutouts in cinema lobbies are interactive, to try and draw more attention to them.	The large 3D cutouts within cinema lobbies often get in the way of people or even sometimes get knocked over, meaning they are subject to damage but also to being ignored due to causing frustration within the audience. The framed posters in cinemas are also often ignored as people tend to walk past them without paying attention to them because of the excitement they feel as they are walking towards their screening of a different film.

Examples

Bus Stop: Up (Docter/ Peterson, 2009)

The amusing feature of this poster is the involvement of the balloons above the poster itself. The bright colours above the bus stop are bound to draw attention to the balloons and to thus to the poster,as the string on the balloons leads directly to the rope on the poster which the character is hanging on to, if the poster hadn't drawn in attention already itself. With balloons having a large narrative impact within the film, the production companies can save the details of the balloons from the poster, meaning they can add more detail about the film to the actual poster and add balloons above it for marketing and also comedic effect. It could be seen that having the title "UP" towards the top of the poster is almost telling the audience of the poster to look up at the balloons.

Billboard: Deadpool (Miller, 2016)

This billboard feature hardly any text apart from the release date of the film. The feature of the Emoji's on the poster creates a game for the people who see it, trying to decipher what the images mean. This is another example of companies using comedy to promote their films, using modern "language". The simplistic approach to the billboard poster is effective in capturing the audiences attention to the film title and release date alone, without tempting them with pictures of the stars within the film.

Magazine: Ant-Man (Reed, 2015)

There is no other text on this magazine cover which shows that this is a special feature cover simply for Ant-Man. The editors of the magazine have even included altering the font of the magazines name by creating the word "Film" out of ants. This adds comedic effect to the advertisement but also shows some more detail of the film. The title of the feature has even been "shrunk" to emphasise the ant theme throughout one magazine cover to create as much interest as possible with only minimal text. This poster features only one character but in many different forms to create the illusion of the character shrinking through still images. 

Cinema: Dark Shadows (Burton, 2012)

The inclusion of a red, throne-like chair positioned directly in front of Johnny Depp's character in this film gives a photo opportunity to the audience, allowing them to theoretically take a photo with Johnny Depp. This is another comedic approach to poster advertising drawing attention to itself easily. If someone were to stand far enough away from the poster, an audience member may be able to have their photo taken with the entire cast of the film. However, Johnny Depp is the only cast name featured on the poster which shows his dominance and importance within the film.

Poster Sizes

One Sheet Portraits

In the UK, One sheet portraits are typically sized at 27 inches by 40 inches (686 mm x 1020mm).

UK Quad

Quad posters are in landscape format, standardly sized at 30 inches by 40 inches (762mm x 1020mm)

T-Sides

T-side posters, or bus posters, are always a popular choice of advertising in the UK due to the high amount of people who use public transport. These are called T-sides because the poster itself is shaped as a T to fit the side of the bus. 

Film Posters: Purpose and Effect

ALL FIGURES FROM BOX OFFICE MOJO

Many film posters have their own unique methods of drawing in an audience, through the use of additional selling points, company logos or using well known star or director names. Below I have found examples of these additional features and have analysed their purpose and effect of drawing in an audience.

The Internship (Levy, 2013)

The Internship stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, both known for their roles together in Zoolander (2001) and The Wedding Crashers (2005). The filmmakers chose to star this iconic comedy duo to draw in an audience as their previous appearances together brought in 285.2 million dollars for The Wedding Crashers, showing them as bankable stars to include within the film as yet another clueless pair. This star appeal, helps the film gain popularity within theaters, generating 93 million dollars worldwide gross. 

The Maze Runner (Ball, 2014)

On the poster for The Maze Runner, the text under the title says "based on the best-selling novel". This additional selling point is used to target the fans of the original series of books and attract them into seeing the upcoming series of films, starting with The Maze Runner. However, as previously seen before with the poor success of the Percy Jackson adaptations (226 million dollars worldwide gross), audiences may be unsure to watch the newest book to film adaptation for reasons such as not including important aspects of the book. However with the addition of a well known cast, the filmmakers were able to get over that obstacle and made 348.3 million dollars worldwide.

American Assassin (Cuesta, 2017) 

On this poster above Michael Keaton's name, the text says "Academy award nominee", by including this piece of information audience members will determine the success of the film by the success of the actor. Audience members care more for awards and what they stand for than they do the story of a film. With an academy award nomination, the film is given almost a stamp of approval and prestige for the audience to give a positive judgement of the film.

Film Posters

Film posters of all genre have forms and conventions which they follow within their layout. These conventions include:

• Typography

The particular style of font, used as a form of branding.

• Star names

These draw audiences to a film and are often linked to certain roles.

• Tag line

The films slogan which is memorable.

• Language and mode of address

the way in which a text speaks to its reader- often persuasive and direct or inclusive.

• Key image

The main image that often suggests the narrative of the film.

• Action codes

A narrative code that suggests what might happen in a film's story.

• Enigma codes

A narrative code which creates intrigue.

• Iconography

The visual codes often associated with a genre.

Every poster is composed differently and interprets conventions of film posters in their own way. Here are three examples of how different posters are conventional in their own ways.

Secondary Audience Research (Audience Profiling)

Comparing current and future releases.

Sources: Pearl & Dean (http://business.pearlanddean.com/films_guide) 

              YouGov Profiles (https://yougov.co.uk/profileslite#/)

The Limehouse Golem ( 1st September 2017)

The Limehouse Golem is a period thriller staring Bill Nighy and Olivia Cooke. Due to its "period" approach the film may attract more females than males due to the typically romantic idea which comes with the genre which is already clear within the demographics of the film as females make up 56% of the audience. This goes against the typical target audience of a thriller which may be a method of the filmmaker to purposefully attract more females to the audience. For my trailer i will want to attract both males and females within my audience however i would be taking a modern approach to my trailer. 

The audience for The Limehouse Golem mainly consists of people within the C1 social class. The C1 class is the lower middle class, combined with the AB (Upper middle and middle class) create the rest of the majority of the audience. Stereotypically the upper class would not have an interest in the themes of order within this film however the "period" feel to the film is what draws the upper classes into the audience. 

What I find interesting about these demographics is that 25% of the audience is aged over 45, an age group which does not typically visit the cinema or take an interest in films as a whole. The rest of the audience is made up of 15-24 year olds which is becoming the normal majority age of a films audience. This informations shows me that my target audience is naturally the majority audience for most films so attracting my target audience to my film may be relatively easy.

Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island is a psychological thriller staring Leonardo DiCaprio. The demographics of the gender of Shutter island is almost directly opposite to those of The Limehouse Golem. The demographics for Shutter Island show that the majority of the audience are males aged 15-34. This opposition may show how filmmakers are trying to make thrillers attract more females to make the demographics more equal. However, due to The Limehouse Golem having not completed its opening weekend, the demographics may change over time. The social classes hold a similar majority within the audiences for the two films; A, B and C1. With people within the C1 band typically having jobs such as nurses or teachers this may have an influence as to their political positioning.

How will this research affect my ideas?

This research may affect my ideas in terms of attracting both males and females to my target audience. I will have to find a way for my trailer to appeal to women, possibly by having a female protagonist. The demographics for the films I looked at show me that if my female protagonist was of a similar age to my target audience, it may appeal to them more. 

My Target Audience

To demonstrate more of the interests of my target audience I have created an audience profile. 

In my audience profile I have included a selection of films, TV shows and activities which I feel my target audience would enjoy. This includes Black Swan, Cape Fear, The Belko Experiment, Dexter, Heroes and teen wolf. I selected my target audience because they enjoy a wide selection of genres including psychological thrillers but they are not tied down to the one genre, learning from my survey that my audience enjoy a wide range of genres of films. 

Survey Breakdown