Movie Poster Research

For one of my auxiliary tasks I'm going to make a poster to promote my film.
This post shows my research of movie posters, I'll choose the ones I like and post them on here:

First of all I've got Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
I really like this poster for its colour scheme; sticking to a mainly auburn spectrum which enhances the 'old' feel of it (as the film is all about ancient things (Jones is an archaeology professor, not your typical one though)) and makes the writing 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' stand out really well.
I also like the fact that in the centre of the page stands the main character in his character's pose, and also the way that the lesser characters are on the outside, making it clear that they aren't as important. The cartoon style of the page fits in with the other 'Indiana Jones' posters and carries on the tradition of this. I like this cartoon style as it is different to most film posters, and gives it an '80s' feel (Many film posters in the 80s tended to be in a cartoon style).

Next up: The Goonies

An iconic film from the 80s, The Goonies' poster fits in with the film well, giving a taster as to what the film is essentially about: a group of kids in a cave. The treasure map beneath them also hints at treasure so again gives an insight in to the storyline of the film. This poster tells the audience a little without giving too much away, and the cartoon style again gives it a very '80s' feel. I like the way that the film's main characters are 'hanging' across the page as it gives the poster depth, however, the ones at the bottom aren't very visible. On a poster though, I suppose that they would be enlarged so you can actually see them, so this would be ok. The writing is also very neat to one side of the page.

Vertigo

An Alfred Hitchcock film this, so as you would expect this poster is a bit psychedelic to fit in with his mind. The red background hints at a violent film, and the title 'vertigo' along with the twisting picture and falling people shows it to be off-balance. It's simple but effective as the white on red stands out well and catches people's eye.



Singing in the Rain:

A classical musical, this singing in the rain poster features the umbrella from the title song. This poster is very simple with vertical black and white bars above the umbrella as rain. The writing is also drawn downwards, giving the impression that it is part of the rain, thus making it fit more cohesively with the rest of the poster. 

The very simple colour scheme of only black, white and yellow ensures that there is not too much going on in the poster and keeps the whole thing very tidy. I like the simplicity of this poster as it doesn't give too much away and leaves the audience guessing. 

However, I do think that it is a good idea to have the main character(s) of the movie on the poster as it shows the audience who is in the film.  

The Lion King:

This poster is really clever for its use of background. I love the way that the poster is nothing unless it has the large picture of the lion as its background, this could hint that a pride is nothing without its 'lion king' as where there is no lion background there is nothing. The colour scheme used here is really simple, sticking to mainly warm colours to fit in with the African setting, with the striking white to make the colours stand out more. The title of the film is also quite simple, with a simple font in white writing. Because of the small size and lower-corner placing of the title, however, I don't think that people would see it very well, as a poster though, it would be enlarged and thus would probably be big enough. 

Love and Other Drugs:

This poster (and also the name) very clearly shows that this film is a RomCom. The placing of the characters shows the 'love' part of the title and the background colour of maroon also hints at 'love'. 

The white writing against the dark background ensures that it stands out well, thus making sure that its audience sees it. 

I like the placing of the actors names to either side of the title, as they are both well-known, it draws in more people to watch the film. 

For my own poster I like the idea of using the main characters from the film and having their names on the poster along with the title and release date etc. Although I like the cartoon style displayed in 'The Goonies' and 'Indiana Jones' I believe that for a RomCom poster it will be better to not use this style but simply have a 'real' style, with little effects added to the poster. Most of these posters stick to a simple colour scheme, so I too will have a colour scheme to my poster depending on which story line I choose. 'The Lion King' poster used a cut-out style in the shape of a lion, fitting in with the characters of the film, I like this idea but I am not yet sure how I would use it in a poster for a RomCom. 

4th Story Idea

• 2 friends (a girl and a boy) are talking online on a video call, they do this everyday before they go to bed.
• They are finishing their call and the girl goes to sleep.
• She hears a strange noise but passes it off as her dog in the house.
• Camera goes to the boy getting ready for bed, his window flies open.
• He looks outside for anything that might have done it but nothing is there so he passes it off as the wind and goes to bed.
• The next day they go to work in their separate towns, shows them at their everyday lives, nothing strange.
• They talk again online before going to bed. However, their connection is bad.
• Again they both hear things but ignore them.
• The next day things seem to go out of place, things go wrong and the girl sees cuts on her collar, the boy notices bruises which have appeared all over his legs.
• They talk at night and tell each other about their day and their strange injuries.
• Their connection goes really bad, and a loud squealing noise comes from their computers. The door behind the girl opens and a shadow comes through it.
• The boy warns the girl and tells her to get out of there.
• The shadow envelopes the girl and she disapears, screaming.
• The boy shouts, cursing himself for not being able to help her. The scene ends on him.
• The girl wakes up in a field in the middle of nowhere. There are numbers and sequences floating in a wall in front of her, seemingly stretching on forever, it curves, giving the impression that it encloses the area.
• The girl tries to go past the wall, but she can't, the wall bounces her back and gives off a tech-like screeching noise. She is trapped.
• A robotic-like insect creature comes out from the wall, screeching, more follow it.
• The girl backs aways on the floor, terrified, and starts to run away.
• The boy spends his entire day trying to save the girl, looking for help on the internet and desperately looking for the thing which might have taken her.
• Eventually, after days of looking, he is contacted by a voice on a telephone. He is creeped out but the voice offers to help and gives a meeting place.
• The boy goes to the cafe where the voice said to meet and a waiter comes up to him and takes his order.
• The owner of the voice approaches the man, calling him by name. They talk, he knows how to save her, however, there is a chance she will be killed and the creatures of the area will be released.
• Girl is still trapped, she is living in terror, hiding from the creatures.
• She hears a voice, telling her what to do, it guides her to a hole in the ground where she can see the boy and the man. They pass a ladder through and she escapes back to her world.
• Later she is living her life as normal, the boy and her are getting married, it is their wedding day.
• The film ends with one of the creatures screeching at the camera.

3rd Story Idea

• Man is at a dig in Egypt at Tanis, the ancient city where in 1939 a French archaeologist named Pierre Montet unearthed a royal tomb complex that included three intact and undisturbed burial chambers.
• He is at the dig as Montet's right hand man, looking in contempt for these tombs, when he discovers an ancient treasure. Following this he unearths an entrance to one of the tombs.
• As he begins to enter it an arrow is fired from a clifftop, near to his head, where a shrouded woman has fired it. She shouts down to him not to enter and wrapped around the arrow is something written in ancient egyptian. On it is the same writing he finds inside.
• He enters anyway and soon goes home to glory and the second world war.
• Montet enters a deep depression when his work goes unrecognised, shadowed by WWII. The man is there to comfort him but Montet dies anyway.
• In the British museum the mummies begin to do strange things - artefacts beging to glow at night and move etc. Strange noises are heard, people go missing.
• At the funeral the girl is there, watching from a distance. When the man turns and sees her, she disappears.
• One by one, the other people who were at the dig die, at each funeral he sees the woman.
• Eventually the man begins to feel ill, and starts to think the worst.
• The woman seems to be everywhere the man is, but disappears with the wind.
• He eventually reads the piece of paper with the arrow which states a way to save the people who died. He discovers that they aren't actaully dead but are in a deep coma, induced by the curse.
• He finds the woman and they work together to save the others by breaking the curse.
• They dig up the others where they begin the ritual by placing them at the foot of the temple of Amun Ra.
• Before they can complete it, however, the man realises that the mummies are not defeated, they missed out that step.
• The mummies arrive as they were in life, intent on stealing the life force of the others.
• The man and woman fight the mummies but almost are defeated when a horn blows and the woman's people appear at the top of the hill and defeat the mummies.
• They complete the ritual and the others wake up.
• The man and woman can no longer stay together and are split up to go to their normal lives.
• The film ends on them together under a moon, on the day of the festival of Hathor, the goddess of love. This is the one day they can see each other every year.

2nd Story Idea

• Girl gets run over and dies
• She goes to heaven - there is a waiting room to pass through the gates - St Peter is a really sarcastic, bored person
• She has a boy angel buddy who shows her around heaven
• She hates him at first
• But eventually they fall in love
• She hears 'Clear' and wakes up in a flash of light with a crowd of paramedics around her
• She screams as she realises that the boy is lost to her
• She continues her normal life after being released from hospital but she is depressed
• He is in fact following her in her normal life - she can't see him as they are in different dimensions
• He helps her in her normal life
• She receives presents from an anonymous admirer but has no idea who it is (The boy)
• The presents give the girl a clue as to where they can meet - however, they are completely random gifts so she has no idea
• She hears him one day and realises it was him
• They break through the dimension boundary and are finally together
• Throughout the film God provides a comedy relief as the girl's doctor or therapist who she regularly sees for check-ups after her accident. 

1st Story Idea

• A girl can't go anywhere without being hit on so she moves away to a secluded island to get away from this.
• Her new neighbour is a normal, good-looking guy who doesn't hit on her.
• She is happy at first but then she starts to miss being hit on and tries some stupid things to get him to like her.
• In one completely failed attempt she bursts out that she wants him. He likes her too but didn't want to say anything.
• They are happy and become engaged.
• Everything is going fine until their parents come to the island to meet.
• They break up from the stress.
• They get back together after the girl reattempts the stunt which got him in the first place.
• They get married.

The Genre Conventions of RomComs

After much considerartion I have decided to make a RomCom as I watch these more than horrors so have a better idea of what should go in to the trailer to make it stand out to the audience.

I have looked on the internet for the general conventions of RomComs, here are a few:

"Romantic comedies are movies with light-hearted, humorous dramatic stories centered around romantic ideals such as a "true love" able to surmount most obstacles or the "perfect couple." Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as of romance films.
The basic plot of a romantic comedy is that two people, usually a man and a woman, meet and then part ways due to an argument or other contrived obstacles. Initially, these two people do not become romantically involved, because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner, or social pressures. However, the screenwriters leave obvious clues that suggest that the characters are in fact attracted to each other, or that they would be a good love match.While the two people are separated, one or both individuals then realize that they are "perfect" for each other, or that they are in love with the other person. Then, after one of the two makes some spectacular effort to find the other person and declare their love, (this is sometimes called the grand gesture), or due to an astonishing coincidental encounter, the two meet again. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other and the film ends happily.There are many variations on this basic plotline. Sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each other's arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character (e.g., My Best Friend's Wedding). Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, as in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall. The basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as Shakespeare plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream. A movie in which a romantic intercourse could happen, but does not, is referred to as Platonic Comedy."

 (Taken from http://www.filmbug.com/dictionary/romantic-comedies.php)

"Billy Mernit, is a purveyor of romantic comedies. Like all genre conventions, there are various patterns which consistently emerge.
Boy meets girl – boy gets girl – boy loses girl – boy gets girl back, with the inverse being true as well. Either way, after much bickering and overcoming obstacles, the lovers end up together.
Here are the some secrets of romantic comedies according to Billy:

1. Write the Chemistry – The outer journeys should oppose or duel with each other, but their inner journeys should converge
2. Expand the Genre – Move it from the bedroom to the jungle or disguise it within another Genre (Romancing the Stone, Wall-E)
3. Be Cinematic – Make it visual… show the concepts, don’t just speak them.
4. Make sure the concept is a ‘high concept’ to get noticed (50 First Dates)
5. Tweak the Formula – Mix up the structure (500 days of Summer)
6. Romantic means sexy and comedy means funny – Use the characters’ flaws against them in comedic situations, misunderstandings and comedic reversals
7. Show a bit of skin (or a lot)
8. Many great comedic moments happen when the private matters of a relationship are made public.
9. Add a rawness and authenticity to show the path to love is never smooth.
10. Ensure your lovers work hard to be together, even though they hate (or don’t notice) each other at first.

Daniel Manus mentions the following common setups for romantic comedies:

• Finding a lost love or childhood sweetheart
• Getting a message to the person you love before it’s too late
• Connecting with the friends or family of the person you love
• Overcoming distance
• Trying to break up a couple because they don’t belong together
• Getting someone’s attention who doesn’t know you’re alive
• Finding out something about the person you want to be with so they think you have something in common
• Proving you aren’t lying or cheating to someone
• Having to track someone down
• Best friends who fall out of touch and then find each other again later in life"

(Taken from http://gideonsway.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/key-elements-of-the-romantic-comedy/)

And so finally, my own idea of RomComs;

1. Boy meets girl (or girl meets boy)
2. They hate each other (or at least don't get along)
3. They both start to realise their love for each other
4. One of them moves away/starts a relationship etc (something that moves them apart)
5. The protagonist's friends/parents/sibling (or whoever else they hang around with) asks them why they aren't with the other person.
6. That same person helps the protagonist to realise that they are in love (However, steps 5 and 6 the protagonist can do on their own)
7. Protagonist goes and wins the heart of the other person.
8. It's a happy ending for everyone (except, perhaps, for the person who the loved person was in a relationship with, and if there was a bad guy keeping them apart then they would probably be punished)

Here is a wordle I made of the word 'RomCom' using words which people gave me when asked to give one word to describe a RomCom. The descriptions in this Wordle will give me inspiration when creating my trailer.