Poster research

On most romantic film posters there is normally a male and female character so even from looking at the cover we can assume that there will be a romantic theme or at least know that they are the main characters. For example in ‘What Happens in Vegas’ there is only a picture of the two main characters on a plain white background. This has your focus only on the couple. It also helps that the picture fills the whole of the poster to show the story will be following their actions. The white background looks nice and simple and because of this we are going to have a plain background to show the simple characteristics and pureness of the male, as he’s still so young. Also in ‘Titanic’ there’s a photo of the protagonists with a slight fade as they’re at the top of the poster with a picture of the boat filling up the rest. This tells the viewer what is important in the film and from the expression on the actors’ faces, plus the fact that they are facing away from each other, the events aren’t all happy. We shall take the emotion on the faces to our poster as well as it will show that our film won’t always be happy.

Some of the romantic posters just have one actor, as they’re alone and the storylines are about how alone they are and how they deal with it. ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ has a photo of the main male character, filling most of the page, looking sad. He is holding a cartoon love heart that is broken and has cracks in it. This symbolizes how big his love was for the girl and how broken his heart is now. By having just him on the cover, we know he’s going to be a sad character, perhaps comically so. ’27 Dresses’ the female fills the screen again with a cartoon dress. By having the cartoons it also brings a lighter feel to the film and shows it could be comedic yet still dealing with heavy topics of feelings and emotions. Both of these posters have the picture placed on a white background so they stand out and show the simplistic theme of love. We are going to have our male character on a white background on his own to show these things.