Shutter Island as of this date is a film yet to be released. The film company are currently in the stage of marketing the film before its released with the purpose of persuading people to go and watch it. They have released a film poster and a trailer which are two typical marketing ploys used with in the industry.
The focal point for this poster is the main central image. This image is of the 'star' of the film Leonardo Di Caprio holding a match to his face above an ominous looking prison (for the criminally insane) surrounded by stormy sea's. The film company will have spent millions of dollars on hiring this famous actor to star in their film for the main reason that there is a very large amount of people who will go to see a film based on whether or not their favorite actor is in it, an idea reaffirmed by Richard Dyer's Star Theory.
The picture does another good job of selling the film by in a way giving the potential customers a small idea into what the plot/genre of the movie is; the very bleak looking prison, dark colour scheme and stormy sea's suggest turmoil and unrest, this being emphasised by the tag line of "Something is missing". Leonardo Dicaprio's facial expression also ties in with this tag line and also the fact we can only see his face via the light from a match which again ties into the tag line because the question arises, why does he have to resort to the light from a match in order to see? It is questions like these that this poster does well in making potential customers think, adding intrigue and a sense of mystery to the film which is a popular way of marketing a film especially a film under the horror/thriller type genre.
The Second focal point of this poster is probably the two piece's of text coloured in red. Red has certain stereotypical connotations, such as murder (blood) and danger. This colour goes against the colour scheme of the poster and therefore stands out to a potential customer, the connotations associated with the colour also, again tie in with the tag line of something isn't right, again, adding intrigue and a sense of mystery about the film. The highlighted text is arguable the most important part of the poster, the text of the poster it contains the name of the film and its date of release, important piece's of information for selling a film as it is helpfully for the potential customer to know this if he or she wants to go and see the film (the purpose of making a film poster).
The final feature of the post is the billing block, this is a very standard convention used on film posters, it contains the names of the production company's, star actors, director and other varies important names. The billing block is in small compact font so not take away attension from the main points the poster is trying to make and the films selling points, this feature makes the film poster look more professional, the production company's names and logos often reassure a potential customer that the film will be of a good or high standard.
Although including the billing block, name and date of a film is a very commonly used convention when a film poster is produced, it is not included on every other similar media text. Posters in which these pieces on information are missing are sometimes known as teaser posters used in viral marketing campaigns. Viral marketing within the film industry is a type of marketing that does not comply with typical conventions, its aim is to familiarise people with the concept of a film getting people talking about it without knowing what it actually is. This type of marketing usually takes a long period of time, can be cheaper and if done correctly and can generate a large amount of excited people so interested in what viral advert mean that they will actually go to see the film without even know anything about it and regardless of its ratings and what critics say about it. A recent and very good example of this type of marketing within the film industry is the film Cloverfield. It used viral marketing 6 months prior to its release, this campaign was so successful it generated alot of attention from the media, which helped the campaign reach more people then it could have on its own. Examples of the Cloverfield teaser poster is shown below.
The teaser poster for Clover Field is very primitive in terms of details, the posters pretty much consist of a surreal main picture that slightly confuses the viewer. The only other consistent detail included on the posters is the data of the films release, this combined with the surreal main image will make viewers/potential customers think of questions and increases their intrigue in whatever is going to happen/be released on the data specified. These posters have been re-designed to a final poster the closer it gets to the date, including more details and stereotypical conventions such as billing blocks, names of staring actors and companies associated with the film. This has been done with the intension of converting any potential customer intrigue, into them actually going to see the film.
In conclusion from my research into film posters, i feel that i now have a greater understanding of the stereotypical and non stereotypical conventions used in these piece of media text and will certainly implement some of these features into my product after i have completed my research stage and my planning stage.
Next i will be carrying out research on film magazine front covers, the conventions used and the effects this form of advertisement have on the potential customers and the companies trying to sell the film.
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