A lot of time and effort goes into brainstorming, designing, making and distributing movie posters as they are a key element of raising awareness of and advertising the movie they are depicting. In many cases, they become almost as iconic as the movies themselves - look at the shark looming upwards towards the helpless and blissfully unaware victim on the poster for Jaws, the fingers touching on the poster for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the rose across the girl's stomach on the poster for American beauty or the lone titular character sitting on a bench on the poster for Forrest Gump for memorable examples - and it's important that they reflect what the movie in question is about whilst being eye-catching at the same time. It isn't just blockbuster movies that need to have great posters, however. In fact, it could be considered more important for smaller, lesser-known productions to have them, given that they generally don't have the star power, cinematic trailers or television spots and commercials to aid with promotion. There's no strict formula for what makes a good movie poster - two posters that contrast each other in every way could be considered great in their own ways - but, as a general rule, they need to grab people's attention, not give too much away, have a decent amount of spacing and, if possible, be a little bit creative and clever. Let's get started...
