Bullseye Productions: Film Poster Conventions

Thriller Film Poster Conventions

One convention of thriller film posters is the use of dark colours. Thriller film posters typically use dull colours as they connote mystery, suspense and death. For example, colours like black, grey and red are conventionally used in thriller film posters. Alternatively, thriller film posters will also use bright colours to contrast with the darker colours. For example, colours like white will be used to represent the innocence of characters on the poster.

Another convention of thriller film poster is to have interesting images which appeal to the audience. This could include having the main characters on the poster to persuade the audience to go see the film. The poster usually includes the protagonist, which is the main focus of the poster and takes up most of the space as they are typically central. Therefore, this clearly identifies to the audience who the protagonist is. However, thriller film posters could also include pictures which reveal more about the storyline. For example, a thriller film poster could include locations of the film and a screenshot of a scene from the film.

A further aspect of thriller film posters which should be considered is the text. A conventional aspect of a thriller film poster texts would be a tagline. The tagline of a film is used on a poster to create excitement as it gives the audience a feel to what the film is about and creates mystery, which allows the audience to remember the film easily. A tagline could become iconography for a film which would allow anyone to associated in with a particular film or character. The text in thriller film posters are usually bold, clear and sometimes presented in capital letters, in order to draw the audiences attention and allow the text to stand out. Bold text in thriller film posters will usually be used for the title of the film or an actors name. Its important that the text is emphasised because if the audience like the sound of the title or recognise the actor they may be influenced to go and see the film. Alternatively, the font of a thriller film poster could be scratchy, small and rough looking, in order to relate with the genre and themes of that specific film. Typically, in thriller film posters the main text is presented in white, black, yellow or orange writing as they are convention colours for thriller films.

Other significant information will be shown on thriller film posters which could attract or influence the audience to go and see the film. For example, its conventional for thriller film posters to contain director and producer names as people may have particular interest in certain individual who fulfil this role. Also, thriller film posters could obtain reviews of the film. Reviews support the advertisement and selling of the film due to the fact that if well known companies have recommended the film then the audience may be influenced to go see it themselves. Furthermore, a thriller film poster will conventionally contain the release date of the film on the poster. Having the date o a thriller film poster is significant because it tells the audience know when the film is coming out.

Examples of conventional thriller film posters:

Shutter Island (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 2010)