Film Posters

A film poster is a form of advertisement used by the publishing company to gain attention for their new release. The general idea of a film poster is that it needs to attract a certain audience to watch the film, and as such will need to make use of different codes to attract different audiences. A film poster conventionally contains a title, a tagline, a billing block and actor credits, and will vary greatly between posters about what is shown in terms of imagery. Symbolism is important in a film poster, as the poster has to tell the audience what the film is about, the main focus and the genre of the film in a  small space.

Film posters originally began to be used only in theatres that they were being shown in, only being used by the theatre itself. All posters were created and distributed by a 3rd party distributor, such as the National  Screen Service in the United States. Once the films ceased showing at that theatre the poster was returned to the distributor, who would recycle the poster at another theatre until the film stopped running - as a result, posters would often be severely weathered before they returned to the NSS for storage.  This was the general process of poster distribution until the 1980s, when film distributors took over the publishing of their posters. Posters were initially made similarly to theatre posters, and until the introduction of digital photo editing, many posters were painted or produced by an artist. Due to the nature of the posters, however, artists were not credited, or decided to stay anonymous, and as a result not many became big names in the film poster industry. Film posters are still occasionally produced physically, often as a homage to these older posters, however nowadays nearly all film posters are produced digitally. As a result of this the means of distribution and advertising influence has increased due to the changes in technology and the independence of film studios. With the advent of the internet film advertising has also become easier, through the use of Alternate Reality sites based around the film or through viral marketing such as videos and advertising.

Another form of film 'poster' is the "Lobby Card", also known as the "Front-of-House Card", which is a smaller type of poster, generally used to display a still from the film. While this is rarely used, they do display another way in which films are advertised through posters. Modern-day posters have begun to utilise digital methods, such as 3D, or even going to showing a brief trailer for the film in place of the poster, with use of projectors or screens, such as seen to the right. Some films even create interactive posters, such as the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film in 2005, which made use of a touchscreen that played different trailers when you pressed a 'button'.