Thursday, January 22, 2009

Function of a movie poster

It is often said that movie posters communicate the essence of film. This is not entirely true. In some cases poster and film are tied closely together and speak with one voice. the former summarizing the latter. In others, they are utterly separate, created by identical messages. Instinctively the former situation would seem more satisfactory than the latter. -indeed I tend to judge contemporary posters on their fidelity to cinematic style but in the fullness of time, the film poster takes on a life of its own. More than echoing the evolution of cinema, the independent trajectory of the film poster reflects the changing nature of the audience. Posters are primarily advertisements and their task is to connect with the people on the street, not with the images on the screen. To some, the distribution of films might seem to be the grubby commercial end of a creative endeavour, but once explored in any depth it is less easily written off. The history of the film poster is the ongoing story of the link between cinema and the society.

quote from "A century of movie posters from silent to art house"
                      Emily King

Some key points about film poster:

Film poster reflects the changing nature of the audience.
Task is to connect with the people on the street.

Some personal thoughts:
If adv have been constant changing to cater the changing pattern and nature of their target audience why not movie poster?

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