Examples of a few film posters I have looked at.

The Dark Knight

When I first saw the film poster for The Dark Knight I was instantly drawn in, not only does it appeal to my love for the Batman franchise, but it suggests some serious amount of action in the film itself. The burning ash floating down, the on fire batman logo, the smoke rising from the building all gives the feel of an action packed blockbuster! With the great cast with the likes of Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Micheal Caine and Morgan Freeman it is hard to go wrong. The names on the poster are key to grasping certain audiences that appreciate these well respected actors, its obvious that the movie is trying to play on that fact by mentioning these big names on the front of the poster. But in comparison to the rest of the poster, the names only take up a small percentage of the room. The poster seems to put more emphasis on the Batman franchise itself rather than the actors present in the movie, the complete opposite to the John Wayne films. The iconic Batman image is evidently present as in all the Batman films, it would struggle to be a Batman movie without that logo, however it has been developed over time and in this case set alight to suggest that this is a very action packed Batman movie. This is also reinforced with the line "Welcome to a world without rules" this most likely being the first line someone reads as it is at the top. It gives a clear indication of the whole big action packed Batman movie. All of these little things add up to produce a mouth-watering poster fundamentally emphasising the action blockbuster style of the movie.

The Dark Knight produces also "abused" the fact that it was Heath Ledger's last act by making posters solely focused on the joker (Heath Ledger) this is questionably unethical as it is a sensitive subject, but it can also be seen as appreciation towards the great actor. So there was not much opposition to the use of Heath, playing on the fact that it was his great last act. However this poster is not just there to highlighting Heath's last big act, it plays a crucial role in advertising a main character in the film. It also has the famous quote the joker says "Why so serious" this quote is very popular across the Batman fan base and most people that watched the movie, many people attempt to imitate the way it was said and became a popular quote in society with those that watched the film. The red blood writing is also highlighting some blood is involved, this suggesting some kind of action is going to take place, Batman is renowned for his serious face during the movies, this quote suggests a quote said directly to Batman during a potential action scene or some kind of face off between the two. The long bloody smile is also iconic in this film, the joker uses this is a malicious way to make people smile permanently.

This film poster is Pineapple Express, a comedy made by Seth Rogan. Seth Rogan is well known for his comic methods of entertainment and is quite successful in connecting with the audience. He has this certain essence of "loveablity" surrounding him. This film poster is quite comic in itself, there is smoke in the background and knowing Seth Rogan is a comedian and features weed in a lot of his movies, the chances are the smoke is something to do with the weed. His face also enforces the idea that the smoke is weed, after all his face is in weed terms "monged" both eyes quite small but one smaller than the other, and the big cheeky smile are all well known effects of weed, the laughing/smiling at anything stage. This film poster also uses previous big comedy hits such as Superbad to advertise the product. Stating that it is "From the guys who brought you Superbad" this is another technique films use to advertise, using previous hits to gain reputation for the new movie, the audience will also know what to expect from the movie. In this case a bundle of stupidity, laughs and most likely to involve drugs!


Compared to The Dark Knight the film poster is almost converse. It is different in pretty much every way apart from advertising the actor/actors name's on the front of the poster. Both of the posters are clear example for the differences in genre. The comic poster is very laid back, nothing confusing, a few questions answered. But if you watch Seth Rogans movies you would quite quickly understand what the poster is suggesting. Conversely The Dark Knight is quite clearly going to involve some kind of action scene most likely involving a building blowing up as seen in the background of the poster. Both posters give a clear indication of how the traditional action and comedy genre's represent their work in the form of posters. Actions predominately involve some kind of explosion in the background. Comedies usually involve some kind of comic picture on the front, in the case of Pineapple Express it is Seth Rogans "stoned" face.