POSTERS - How are films promoted?

One way in which films are promoted are by promotional posters. Posters usually include a picture of the protagonist or antagonist, and suggest the genre of the film to the audiences. Directors rely on the pre-existing understanding of colour, lighting and facial expression to attract their target audience.

This is the promotion poster for Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio is a world famous actor and features on the front of the poster, the darkness surrounding his face suggests that the film contains genres of danger, secrecy and mystery. As well as this, the picture of the island suggests isolation and crime and this matches up to the blood-coloured title "Shutter Island". The poster creates enigma and therefore is an effective method of promotion. 

This is the promotional poster for Avatar. The blue overlay and the starlight in the top half of the poster suggests the audience is about space travel and other planets. We also see the main character and the words "From the director of Terminator 2 and Titanic". This would gain attention as both are popular films and so the expectation is that this film is also very high quality. On the bottom half, the orange overlay, dragon and hovering mountains suggest that this is a science fiction film. Another selling point is that audiences can view it in 3D.