These posters are advertising the horror film The Thing, and it uses many different conventions to make audiences interested to watch it in cinema's. I chose these posters as they both are similar in their styles and it has been made obvious that they are interlinked, even though one is more detailed and edited than the other. The top poster is a teaser poster, therefore it doesn't advertise any dates for the film release.
- Unique selling point - It stands out to the audience by using John Carpenters name as their unique selling point as he is a well known horror director. This makes horror audiences want to see this in cinema's because guarantees a good horror film. By using John Carpenters name audiances who are interested in his films will go and see the new release which will raise sales of cinema tickets and DVD sales.
- the target audience for this film will be an 18, this is because of the genre that it is, which means that horror, gore and sexual content may be included which can't be seen to younger ages of the audience.
- Genre indicators is shown through the use of director John Carpenter in bold for the teaser poster. This is beneficial for the sale of tickets in cinema's for people who are fans of John Carpenters films. The tagline of the teaser poster 'man is the warmest place to hide' adds atmosphere to the snowy setting that this film has been based around. It gives an indication of the genre as it is supposed to add tension to the audience which is supported with the use of editing with the crack in the ice.
- Because this is a horror the target audience is for the older ages of 18+, as younger ages would find certain aspects of the film disturbing. It is effective to have the 18+ mark on films as it signals an approval that the film is considered too violent for ages of 15, which can tend to make older audiences avoid these films for a higher certificate rating.
- The Enigma that these posters leave to the audience is 'what is hiding in the crack?'. This would be the enigma because both posters advertise a crack in the ice that is a disturbed image with the use of titles, which describes the film as 'The Thing'. This tells the audience that there is something hidden.
- The Font size for the first poster is large, and is incorporated in the ice. This is effective as it makes the audience focus on that specific area of the poster and draws the attention first because it is in the middle of the screen. Like the other poster however, the colour is contrasted with the white ice in the background. The second poster is in dark blue and stands out to the audience because it is the biggest writing on the poster, and is almost the size of the crack of ice. This could signify that this is something that needs to be focused on, and is the most important part to understanding the film.
- The conventions that have been used in these posters is the use of an intertitle for the teaset pioster that attracts the audience to the horror film. This is effective as it is backgrounded with an atmospheric scene which is also a popular horror convention. Another convention that has been used is the choice of colours for the poster, dark colours have been used to achieve the correct feel of the poster.
- The layout has been considered to outline these conventions. For example, the crack in the ice has been put in the middle of both these posters to outline the importance of it to the rest of the poster, this is the main plot. The titles and credits have been included underneath as this is something that is focused on later. What has been considered twice however is the location of the intertitles, which are placed at the top. This attracts audiences because it reveals a part of the plot to the audience, which interests them in wanting to watch the film when it is released in cinemas.
