Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince poster

The Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie poster meets the conventions of a movie poster because it has a central image, which is usual for a movie poster. The central image is a midshot and is quite dark which contrasts with the light background, this makes the image stand out and shows the audience it is important. Harry's face is lighter than the rest of his body, which shows him as a hero. His facial expression and positioning shows him as a dark, serious character as he looks like someone who is ready to fight. The movie name is behind Harry, which means more attention is shown to Harry than the movie name. This is because Harry Potter's apperance is so iconic the movie name does not need to stand out. The movie name is slightly darker than the background which makes it slightly stand out, and it is in the font that all of the Harry Potter movie names are in, which makes it instantly recognisable. This movie poster does not have a tag line, which subverts the conventions of a movie poster. This is because most people who are going to see the film already know what happens, so there is no need to say. The date line is quite small at the bottom of the page, this means it doesn't stand out that much. This is because people would already know when it is being released as it was such a highly anticipated movie. However, the text colour is white which means if you look at movie poster closely you can see the release date. There is a lightning scar in the middle of the release date which is iconography because lightning scar's are known to symbolise Harry Potter. It also subverts the conventions of a film poster because it does not have a large billing block. It mentions a few people at the bottom of the poster, but it does have the usual large billing block. This adds focus to Harry on the poster and makes the poster seen more dramatic as it does not have much to draw attention away from Harry. This film poster attracts it's target audience because it is dramatic, and the people who are interested in Harry Potter and going to be excited for the drama in it. It is also simple which leaves the audience in suspence as they do not know a lot about the film from the movie poster. The cohesiveness with the trailer is achieved because the trailer and the movie poster are very both dark with serious facial expressions. Harry is dressed the same in both the trailer and the movie poster so it gives the audience the idea that Harry will mostly be wearing dark clothes, to represent the dark mood in the film. I have drawn the conclusion that movie posters can be simple and effective, and they do not have to follow all of the conventions of a usual media poster. I have also learnt that backgrounds on movie posters are important as it gives off the mood of the film, and also helps the central image stand out.