Film posters and Soap posters

The fact that I have not found much information about posters for advertising Soaps, I have decided to look at some film posters to try and gather further understanding of what the poster should include to promote the soap. The main posters that are seen for soaps advertise storylines rather than the actual soap itself because the storylines are constantly changing and evolving. However, only big storyline's are normally advertised, for example, the "Who killed Archie?" story on Eastenders was heavily advertised with posters as well as trailers because it was such a big storyline for the Christmas special and a way of gaining many more viewers and promoting Eastenders.


This is a poster advertising the film Trainspotting. It shows the characters and gives a small indication as to who they are/ what they are like. The name of the film, Trainspotting, is boldly displayed across the front of the poster. There is some more information at the bottom of the psoter, telling the viewer looking at the poster more about the age certificate and the actors and who made the film etc. However, this is a poster for a film and not a soap so I don't think that this kind of information would be on a poster for a soap. The actors might be named on the poster and the channel it is broadcast on, but not information about who produced the soap. I think this would be too much information for a soap opera, whereas for a film it is more important because of promotion for all the companies involved and companies that distribute and exhibit the film.


This poster is advertising The Dark Knight and it is in my opinion much simpler than the Trainspotting one. This poster has the actors at the top, a large picture of one character and then the name of the film at the bottom. It doesn't have a release date but simply says "Coming soon". The image suggests that it is going to be an action film, and the fact that the character on the poster is holding a gun implies that it will be aimed at an older audience. From this, I can see that certain props will imply the age of the target audience and that the nature of the picture will imply a storyline. I think that the poster for my soap will need to have a picture of a character or a couple of the characters together, either doing something that implies a storyline or simply together as two characters with the name of the soap boldly underneath the image. The Dark Knight poster still has companies and a website at the bottom, again to promote the companies. This reinforces that the poster, although its for a soap, will need to have the channel that it is broadcast on at the bottom.


This is a poster advertising Love Actually. I have chosen to look at a Love Actually poster because it is near to the kind of storylines of a soap. In a soap there are alot of relationship's and different problems arise revolving around peoples relationships with other people. The poster says that it is a Romantic Comedy so the viewer knows what to expect, that it will be about relationships between different people. By the amount of characters shown on the poster, it is suggesting that there are alot of people in the film, which can be the same for a soap. The poster could display alot of the characters or only one or two, like I have looked at in the previous posters. I think that by having more characters on the poster, the target audience can work out alot more about the soap as it gives that much more away. The colours and pictures on this poster connote love, happiness and Christmas, a time of showing your love for others.
Similarly to the other posters that I have looked at, the name of the film, Love Actually, is boldly printed at the bottom along with other information about the film, such as its release date, its certificate rating and the companies that have distributed and produced the film. The fact that the actor's name's are on the poster also has an effect, as if a member of the target audience like that actor, they are more likely to pay attention to the poster and want to watch the trailer to find out more.


I have chosen to look at this poster because it is very different to the ones I have already looked at, in the way that it looks and how the information is presented. The shape in its self attracts the target audience, and to understand the shape it requires one to look at the poster and therefore read the information. To make a poster similar to this for a soap would be difficult but effective in the way that it would connote and suggest to the target audience what the soap is about, like this poster does by its shape along with the name of the film. The information about the film, like the main actors, director, producer, and the companies that funded, distributed and produced the film are on the poster, so I think that some similar details are needed on the poster for my soap however I don't think that it is necessary for as much information to be there as there is on a film poster because a soap has less companies and people involved in the actual making and putting money into it, so less companies want there name advertised on the poster and trailer.

From looking at all of the posters, I think that the necessary information to have on a poster advertising a soap is minimal compared to a film poster, possibly the names of the actors if they are already well known but it is less important for a soap. The channel it is broadcast on is needed for definite and the time it will be shown to suggest the target audience it is aimed at need to be on the poster along with the date it will be released. A picture of one or more characters and the name of the soap boldly written on poster is needed. What the picture shows is important because not only will it suggest what type of characters they are but also set an atmosphere and expectations from the soap itself.