1. Codes and Conventions of Film Posters
By Ewan Berry

2. Introduction
The history of film began in the 1890s, when motion picture cameras were invented and film production companies started to be established. Due to the limits of technology, films of the 1890’s were under a minute long and until 1927, also had no sound.
Films were created for several reasons such as Conveying emotions to the viewer, raising awareness about an issue, to educate about a subject, for Entertainment purposes and primarily to make money. However, when films first came about, they were not as efficient as people had anticipated as the film companies were not profiting much from the films and the messages that they were trying to portray were not getting across to as many people as they had wanted. In order to change this, the companies had to think about why it was not working out and realised that they had to come up with an idea to attract more of an audience to their showings. The first film poster was estimated to be printed in the 1930s and was used as the main advertising technique as digital advertising was limited due to the lack modern technology.

3. The posters I chose
The posters I will be comparing are;

4. Content
I feel that the poster represents the idea and meaning of the film very well because the whole idea of the film is adults going to back to high school and trying to fit in whilst trying to work as undercover police and the main image on the poster is the 2 main characters in suits standing in front of a banner that says, “senior prom” whilst holding guns.
Similarly, on the 22-jump street poster, the main characters are shown holding guns, wearing beach clothes as the film is heavily set and based on the beach. The 22- jumpstreet poster is very obvious in showing that it is a trilogy film as it does not include the words “jump street “and only has the number 22 in the middle of the main characters.

5. Language
The language used In the 21 jumpstreet poster is very effective as it tells the audience the rough idea of the film using very little language. The “senior prom” on the banner in the background is a very good way of showing the audience what the main idea of the film is.
Although the 21 jumpstreet didn’t necessarily have much writing on it, the 22 jumpsreet poster has less because it is a trilogy film and has a similar plot to the first. Due to the first film having major praise, the 22 jumpstreet didn’t have to try hard to sell the film much. Due to this factor, the poster is extremely minimal and only has the number “22” between the main characters.

6. Typography
The typography of the poster is extremely important as it subconsciously emphasises the genre and meaning of the film. For example, a romantic film would not have the title in bole, block capitals in huge writing across the poster whereas an action film might.
The other major effect that the typography could have is giving away some idea of what the film could entail such as a film about teenagers could have the title in spray paint type font to show the audience what the film is about. In addition, the typography could help to sell the film by emphasising the big actor’s names such as “Chaning Tatum “and the audience could be fans of certain actors and by a ticket because they like that actor.
The picture on a film poster is the main component of a poster as the image is what people’s eyes are attracted to first. It also has to represent the film and be a still image version of a film trailer. The image on 21 jumpstreet poster is the 2 main actors standing in front of a banner that says, “senior prom” and shows them holding guns which would make the audience want to find out more and make people buy tickets to go and see the film.

7. Photos and illustrations
The 22 jumpstreet film poster is very minimalistic and also only has the main characters standing next to each other with the number 22 between them. They are also holding guns in this poster which shows that it is a trilogy film and the plot is similar. The characters in this poster are wearing shirts and sunglasses which show that the film is heavily based on a beach. Additionally, the actors are holding gold guns which add a comedic effect to the poster which could also sell tickets.
The characters in the 21 jumpstreet poster are represented as ‘wanna be heroes’ as they are posing like big action characters such as James bond however they are wearing suits and standing in a senior prom. The characters are standing back to back which is usually associated with actions movies when 2 people are having to fight against multiple enemies.
 In the 22 jumpstreet poster however, the characters are standing next to each other and looking straight into the camera with a smug look on their face which shows the difference in the 2 films.

8. Colour schemes
 The importance of colour schemes in a film poster is similar to the typography in the fact that it represents the films genre and plot. For example, an action film would have bright colours such as explosions whereas a horror film might have darker colours to represent the genre. A romantic film wold be heavily influenced by red and white as they are the colours that are usually associated with romance and love.
The 21 jumpstreet poster is very heavily influenced by the lighter and colder colours such as blues and whites. This represents the good rather than the evil and I feel that the film is all about good and evil therefore the use of the colour correspond to the storyline.
On the 22 jumpstreet poster however, the colours are mainly reds which represents evil. I feel that as the film is a sequel to the prior, the colour on the posters are contradicting to show that the films are connected.