Analysing Documentary Posters

After looking at the conventions of a documentary, and earlier in the year looking at general film posters like 'The Dark Knight' and 'Cyrus' (See Here), I decided that I would look into and research documentary posters to discover the conventions which I could follow to create my own film poster. I looked at 'Supersize Me', 'An Inconvenient Truth' and 'March of the Penguins'.

 

 

 

 

After looking at these three posters, it is evident that there are certain codes and conventions to producing a poster for a documentary:

1) One main image - this large, main image is used to capture the attention of your viewers and usually conveys the main subject of the documentary. It is the first thing that the audience of your poster will see when they glance at your poster.

2) A large title - the title, along with the main image is probably the main thing that a viewer will see when glancing at your film poster so you have to make it stand out. The three above posters have achieved this by having large titles which contrast in colour to the rest of the poster.

3) A small tagline - a tagline allows the reader to learn of the contents of the documentary in one simple sentence and is a key selling point as to whether a person decides if they want to see your documentary.

4) A simple colour scheme - this applies to most film posters as they tend to stick to a simple colour scheme so as to look professional and not too busy to look at.

5) A block of credits - this simply details a lot of the people involved in the production and distribution of the documentary. It is usually made up of a small font and is located at the bottom of a poster. There may also be details of awards the documentary has won.