Movie Posters

They also use the Teaser and Official film technique for movie posters to advertise the film in the teaser poster like in the teaser trailer they keep the imagery very simple with clues as to what the film may be about, it creates an enigma again to make the audience question what it is about and look for further clues. Then the official film poser that will appear before and stay out during the release of the film will show characters and give us a clear visual story of what the film will be about.
The teaser poster for Super 8 (2011) is simply the lens of the camera used to make the super 8 film to suggest some sort of mysterious recording but not a lot at all is given as a clue especially if you are unaware of what 'super 8' is like i didn't until a few hours before watching the film.

Teaser

Official Poster

The official poster for Super 8 shows all the main characters, the larger and higher up in the poster they are connotes their dominance within the film similar to the order of appearance in the trailer. It is also made to look like an older/classic film poster to tell the audience that it is set in past times and not the present or future.
Here is another example but with this it is slightly different as there has been films, TV shows and comics that have the same character therefore on the teaser poster they will use some sort of symbol/colour that the audience will recognise to start the hype. (The Dark Knight, 2008) Here you can see the suggestion of 'the jokers' face spray painted on a white wall with the Batman logo for a mouth so straight away all the clues come together but it doesn't give any clues to the storyline apart from inform the audience of the dominant character which would be the Joker.

Teaser

Official

The official movie poster includes a photo of the character with weapon in his hand and a path of destruction behind him telling the audience he is the bad guy and the film is about the Joker and his actions. The poster still includes Batman's logo but its not as prominent because by this time there is enough visuals on the poster to tell us what the film is about, but it is still used to keep the message clear.

I have looked at fairly recent films so i decided to investigate further and see if i could find some older film posters to see if they use the same promotion technique and i found that Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) has a teaser poster before the official one. The teaser poster shows a glamorous womanly figure without any features so you are unaware of her real identity with building as the pattern of her dress including the empire state building telling the audience it is about a glamorous woman living in New York but does not tell us anything at all about the story line.

TeaserOfficial Poster

Where as the official movie poster shows the actress Audrey Hepburn in the famous dress and memorable hair style from the poster above which is how the two will be connected by the audience's memory. But this time there is a small image of a man and a woman who we presume to be her in the right corner of the poster connoting some sort of love story and again buildings behind them to portray a big city in this case New York as seen in the teaser poster.

So in conclusion this promotion approach has been used for years and years helping the film industry to catch the audience's attention way before a film is going to be released to make sure they are acknowledged, leaving the audience waiting with anticipation until the film is finally released!