Genre Research

Posters
As we are doing a promotional poster for our film, it was important to research similar genres to romance to build our knowledge on what is expected regarding layouts and colours.

This poster is for the film 'The Notebook' which is a well known drama/romance film. Just from a glance the genre is obvious, the intimate image of the couple is a clear indicator that the film is based on their romantic story.
The layout for this film is quite effective; the main actor's names are contrasted against the background picture, including well known actor's names which will encourage the audience to watch it. The poster also mentions 'From the best selling novel' suggesting it will attract readers of the book to watch the film. There is also a slogan at the very top of the poster, which is bold and would stand out to the audience.
The outline of the characters is somewhat blurred which adds to the romantic genre connotations. The blurred edges reflect the dreamlike portrayal of romantic stories. The colours of the characters are very bold and dark, along with the stormy background which could suggest that the story line of this film is stormy.

This is the poster for the romantic film Titanic. It is obvious this is a romantic genre as the two characters are in a loving embrace. The clouds and hazy effects enhance the romantic aspect. Again there is a slogan which adds dramatic effect; we will need to consider  slogan for our poster. 'Nothing on earth could come between them.' is written across the characters indicating it is about them and the picture symbolises this quote. The colours of the characters are warm tones, again symbolising love. This is highly contrasted against the harsh image of the Titanic ship which is black. The title 'Titanic' is written in the form of ship metal which further contrasts against the dreamy image of the couple. 
 
When studing both of these posters it is noticable that the couples are both embracing with their eyes shut. This is a hugely obvious indicator that it is a romantic film therefore we will need to do this for ours. The characters are also positioned at the top of the poster with the title underneith. For the Titanic this positioning along with the clouds shows the dreamy connotation. Again the Notebook also has sky in the background, however it is dark and stormy. This stormy sky could reflect the difficult effents in the film and the light behind their faces could indicate that there is hope.

To begin with the title of this film is 'Love Happens' which instantly shows the genre is romantic. Again the couple of interest are in a loving embrace with their eyes shut. As all three posters have this in common it is likely that the characters in our project will be photographed in a similar embrace. The colours are also hazy and dreamlike, with warm tones; this represents the usual warm connotations we apply with love and romance. 
The background and green colour of the font implies that this film will be set outdoors, something we need to consider; the relation between our setting location and our colour scheme of our poster. 
The layout is similar to the previous posters with the title below the image of the characters. It is also highly contrasted against the plain background. Like the Titanic poster, the actors names are displayed above the characters but in a slightly smaller font than the title. This clearly addresses the audience and the famous actors would be appealing. 
In addition there is the use of a slogan, this time it actually refers to the title implying that love happens sometimes when you least expect it. This is possibly more effective than the slogans on the previous posters as it ties with the title and gives a the audience a clear shot at guessing the plot. This is an important factor of the slogan, it needs to give an clue to the story plot. 




Overall from doing this research on romantic posters from films already on the market has highlighted some things we need to consider and include in our poster. These include: 

• focus on main love couple in a loving embrace
• colour scheme to reflect the plot of our story
• blur the image of the couple
• have a clear title, most likely under the image of the couple
• clearly shown names of actors
• slogan that gives a clue of the plot
• list of names and producers, not very clear at the bottom of the poster