Codes and Conventions of a Film Poster

The poster on the right is of the horror movie "Quarantine". The main image is placed in the centre of the canvas. By keeping it in the centre the director has made the main focal point of the poster the centre. Furthermore, the image itself has been given an effect that makes it look like it has been captured on a video camera on night shot. This makes the whole document look a lot simplistic as it doesn't use sophisticating editing and makes it look more realistic and with the girl looking  terrified creates the horror aspect of the poster. Apart from the  primary image, the tagline / synopsis written across the top of the poster adds to the creepy aspect and gives the audience shivers down their spine. The name of the movie is written in a clear / standard way across the bottom of the primary image. The style that the name has been written in is much more emphasising than the rest of the text as it is in a larger font size than the rest in bubble writing, with a slight glow. At the very bottom of the poster is the billing block. Within the billing block there is reference to when the movie is going to be available in cinemas, some main character names, production institution names etc.

Just like the "Quarantine" poster, the "Paranormal Activity" poster is set out in a similar fashion. However, instead of a tagline / synopsis, this poster displays a review from a viewer who has went to see the movie. Below this is the primary image, but unlike most other posters, this poster just uses an image that is taken normally and not posed for or anything, this makes the poster in general look really simple. However, the poster above displays the image being taken from a camera as it shows the record button and the rewind button, this poster too shows that this image was taken from a camera as it shows the time at the bottom of the screen. Furthermore, this poster unlike the poster before, also uses a tag line combined with the film name. This in my opinion as an audience creates a much more creepier feel to the poster. Unlike most other posters of any genre, this poster doesn't include a billing block.