Influence of movie posters

WRItING AND ARt by mAyA KoRNyEyEvA

You blink away the darkness as you dazedly make your way from the movie theater. A moment later, you come face to face with a giant movie poster. Red sweeps before your vision, and expressive typography makes you stop in your tracks. Without a second thought, you promise yourself: “This is the movie I’m seeing next.”

Since the days of early television, movie posters have acted as one of the most high-stakes forms of advertisement. They are responsible for attracting an audience to the theaters and relaying the most important details of the film through a single image.

“The key idea behind a movie poster is to prominently show what the selling point of the movie is. Regardless of our conscious realizing, most people have a general sense of what makes a good movie poster and what makes a bad one,” said Nolan Scheetz, a senior and film enthusiast. “For a movie that doesn’t already have a built-in audience, a ‘bad’ poster can easily sink any chance it has at succeeding at the box office.”

According to a Classiq interview with Dylan Haley, a Californian artist and graphic designer based in New Zealand, movie posters were most commonly commissioned by artists through the early 1950s and into the 1970s. Professionals would typically hand-draw, paint, or create a collage that featured key motifs or characters. As photography became more readily available, scenes from the films themselves became the central selling feature, inspiring the public to see the static images in action for themselves.

“Sometimes, a good poster comes down to just picking the perfect image from the film, which is not as easy to do as it may seem. Some images look great, but they aren’t dynamic enough to carry a poster design,” Haley said.

If you think designing a movie poster sounds stressful and challenging, you are right. Movie posters often go through dozens — even hundreds — of variations, and designers must balance various elements such as font, color, and style to effectively capture as much of the public eye as possible. Even today, in the age of digital design and technology, creating a movie poster is no small feat. “One of the issues with [the modern film industry] is that the studios really want their actor’s faces on these posters, as it has been confirmed that the public loves their celebrities,” Haley said. “Even with current technology, digitally editing dozens of overlapping photographs and adding color adjustments takes a lot of time to compose and render.” Scheetz describes this celebrity-oriented trend as an embracement of “floating head” posters, which arrange the most prominent characters in a semisymmetric manner based on relevance. Another phenomenon frequently observed in the cinema industry is a “copycat” incorporation of certain popular design trends. When a movie poster does exceptionally well, it can influence other film companies and designers to duplicate certain details. This replication tends to give way to a new era of design, as seen in the incorporation of the “floating head” pattern within many 21st-century action films like “Avengers: Endgame” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”

According to Scheetz, the basic design elements included on any movie poster are the title, stars, director, release date, and featured review quotes or slogans. In addition, movie posters must reflect their film’s genre, whether it be thriller, comedy, romance, or action.

“Posters follow many trends, depending on the genre. Many are minimalist or try to experiment with art styles. Some of the best movie posters are those that don’t show a ton about the movie but still get me invested, such as ‘Gravity,’ ‘Underwater,’ or ‘Robin Hood,’” Scheetz said.

Science fiction posters like “Gravity” are known for their atmospheric lighting and futuristic sans serif fonts. Drama films tend to advertise through vivid colors, serious theatrical tone, and immersive photography. On the other hand, a comedy poster is easily identifiable through its light colors, fun shapes, and expressive photography. A horror poster may include dark color palettes accented by harsh colors, illustrative typography, and references to gore or fear.

Regardless of genre, Haley stresses that what matters most is the intent and personality behind the poster.“As long as there is a little bit of love and soul in the poster, that is the most important. In the end, that’s what will bring audiences running,” Haley said.

Next time you see a movie poster advertising for the latest film, why not apply a critical eye? Perhaps it may be promising you a celebrity, or it could be simply pulling you in with emotional colors or intriguing symbols. Whatever the case, movie posters often give you much more insight into the film than you may initially realize.