Movie Poster Research

Movie posters, in general, tend to attract the audience in a similar way that a trailer does. The poster contains iconography and a brief introduction to the characters in order to attract a target audience. When it comes to movie posters in the Thriller genre, there are a few key aspects.

For the iconic thriller The Shining, the poster features the two main characters, with the actor's name highlighted at the top. The iconography of the knife not only allows for both characters to be in view but also to indicate that this specific film falls under the "slasher" genre, popular at the time of the film's release. Posters like these typically exploit color theory to elicit certain feelings and allude to certain aspects within the film. Within this poster specifically, there is a major contrast between the cool-toned blue and the warm-toned red, both significant to the piece, representing the cold forest and blood respectively. When it comes to my movie poster, I also want to be able to allude to certain portions of the film. I find that many of these posters "look cool" at first glance, but as you watch the trailer and the film, many of the covert details becomes part of a clear wider picture. Some other thriller posters that have similar characteristics include:

Mnay of these posters seem to follow a template of: main character profile, key names on the top, title at the bottom middle, sometimes a release date below the title, and some extra credits at the very bottom. When it comes to the editing and composition of these pictures, there also seems to be a big of a oval vignette around the character's faces to highlight their face and create a suspense of the darkness behind them. The main image I was thinking of using for my poster is:

I think it would definitely need some editing to highlight the same features as the examples, but I think the composition of the image matches the emphasis on the character's face.