Research into TV Drama Posters

When i was looking into researching on soap opera posters i found it very difficult to locate any.  I think its quite hard to find soap opera posters as there is hardly ever a new soap being released .  This could be as existing soaps are very successful so it is hard to come up with a new idea that will be just as successful as the existing soaps.  So in this blog entry i have looked at TV Drama Posters.  I have done this as TV Dramas are regularly being advertised on posters as a new series with diferent storylines start very often.  This can give me ideas into how i could layout and make a successful poster.  I have listed posters from a British television drama and an Americian television drama.

This poster is from the ITV 1 drama, marchlands which is a supernatural drama.  The story is set around three families at three different generations in the same house.  They are all linked together by the spirit of a young girl who drowned in mysterious circumstances.  I liked the use of the image that they represented for the storyline of the show in this poster.  It tells the viewer that this young girl that drowned is haunting the house by the fact water is running down the stairs, also informing us how she died.  The light at the top of the stairs behind the girl suggests that she is a spirit and giving the viewers perspective can ultimately tell you that she is good rather than evil.  However this opinion can be altered by the fact the water is streaming down the stairs so you wonder, why would she be allowing this to happen and in doing so makes you think about the narrative behind he character.  I thought this poster is very effective as it has one image and not a selection of images. Even though it is one image the image itself is very thought provoking and along with the information on the left side stating the programme title, date, time and channel it is also simplistic in design.

This is the poster for the Hit American drama series, Dexter.  The programme centers around Dexter Morgan who is a forensic stain pattern analyst for the Miami police and by night a serial killer who targets criminals who he believes have escaped justice.  The poster like the marchlands poster is very simple in design but detailed in imagery.  It contains the main character dexter and him running his finger along a butchers knife.  He is made to look guilty in this picture but by his actions you can tell that it is actually the opposite.  His smile also makes him seem menacing.  There is a blurred image behind him, personally this makes it seem like that image is who he has to pretend to be when he is working and the dominant image is who he really is.  The reason why i think its blurred is because that person he pretends to be is almost an illusion.  The poster also has the same font that is at the beginning of the programme.  The colours in the picture are very clean and neutral compared to the title which is presented as a blood splatter.  I think this is made to represent his personality when he is the serial killer, that he has to ensure to do a clean job.  The poster also states when the show is being played and what channel it is on.

Overall the posters i have researched for TV dramas have one dominant image in them not a series of images showing different aspects of it.  This is the main point i have picked up as without prior looking at posters i would have thought various images would be across the page.  The images however normally have two meanings depending on how the viewer interprets it this is what interests the viewer on the information on the drama, they wont to know which side of the meaning it is.  Also the poster contains the shows title, the date its on, the time it begins and what channel.  This informs the viewer about relevant information on the show rather than crowding the page with points about the show that are saying too much about it .