Creating a movie poster

I think some users should post images of their poster and links to high-resolution jpgs of their poster. A full scale, uncompressed poster is going to be 150 megs...but if someone posts a 6-8 meg jpg that's good enough to study.

We could critique the posters, both artistically and technically, and help each other get better at this craft.


Great Idea Prodigi, should we post images of our posters that someone else did for us or only Posters we did ourselfs? Or doesn't matter.

As you know I'm trying to work on my poster and with the budget I have I want to make it look the best way it could. I was thinking of doing it myself... but I don't think I'll be able to.

Maybe this thread can be a resource as I start putting the poster together.

This is a grat sticky Mods...
 
Little trick

Little trick

I don't know if any of you guys have done this before but this one time i was on a tight deadline with a client's poster (27"x40") and all i had was movie clips to work with so i used screen shots of different selected frames, saved them in a CD in PNG format and took 'em to CVS and had photo slides made out of each frame with surprisingly good quality, then i took the slides to a roto or drum scanner and scanned them at a 5000 dpi res, then using those files i designed my poster, long story short, awesome quality, just a trick to remember when there's no other way.
 
My movie poster...

My movie poster...

This is a poster I made from my last short, it will be for a bizarre film festival in Argentina.
It's a 70's class B movie poster style, I tried to mimic the colors and wear out paper. I composed this image with stills taken on location.
I used Illustrator for the title and Photoshop for the rest.
Original file is an 8mb A3 300dpi high quality .jpg.

postergv4.jpg

URL%5D
 
Great advice about posters, here's mine

Great advice about posters, here's mine

I really found these posts very instructive -- great poster discussion. Here's a poster I did for my movie BUTTERFLIES IN THE WIND:

<img src="http://www.releasing.net/images/butterflies_poster_2op.jpg" align="bottom" border="0">

I don't know if this will show up, but the poster is at http://www.releasing.net/images/butterflies_poster_2op.jpg

I'd appreciate your feedback. If interested I can answer questions about the project and what I was trying to achieve with the poster.

Thanks!
 
prodigi, i have nothing to say here other than to kiss your ass a little. thanks for your insightful and selfless contributions to this forum. have you found a satisfactory replacement for overnightprints.com?
 
Think of the most iconic image that represents the dramatic question of the film. Shoot that as a still. It doesn't have to be actors. It could be pavement, a bullet casing, a thousand bullet casings, a wine glass. Choose something iconic, something that tells a story in a single image and shoot that with a 10 MP camera.

probably the best advice i've heard as far as indie film posters are concerned. "hollywood" films are plagued by the "big heads" and only in cases where the "icon" is pre-established logo will "hollywood" use it as a poster, and then only as a teaser (think superheroes). if it's done well, a poster ups the credibility of a film before anyone ever sees it (or diminishes it if done badly).

not to say i'm an expert or that my poster is the best, but i did try to find something that was iconic in the film (a short) that i felt gave an immediate feel of what it was about. the film is about two men who place a wager on the fate of those unfortunate enough to cross their path. while this could come across as torture-porn (which it's not) i wanted to hint at both the griminess of the atmosphere and the underlying religious allegory. hence, the dollar bill folded into an origami angel. this is an item that appears in the climax of the film and felt like it summed everything up in one iconic image. then placing it into a grungy surrounding (and the contrasting colored, grungy type) and the placement of the film's tagline, and i thought i was good to go.

bet_poster.jpg


one of the reviews of the film started out by saying that you'd never guess what the film was about by looking at the cover. apparently, i missed the mark, at least in the eyes of that person.

what's funny, is that a lot of the merchandise and marketing for the film centers around fairly minor characters, played by puppets) who are foul-mouthed newscasters. the image we shot during filming where we made the puppets flip the bird has created more interest in the film than the overly-planned one sheet.

flip.jpg


t-shirt image:
shirt.png


i guess this is a case where the audience responded to something in the film to a degree i hadn't expected (plus, the crass humor seems to be a draw).
 
i think your poster is beautiful, rubbersquare. i admit to being surprised it was for a film featuring puppets, though. perhaps add a puppet hand holding the tip of the dollar bill as though it were placing it there? or some puppet legs and feet, out of focus in the background? hey, whatever... ignore me. it looks good.
 
actually, the puppets were minor (though important) characters that were only seen on a tv screen for about 2 minutes of the total run time (19 mins). but they struck a chord with the audience (and were integral to the plot), so i figured i'd run with it. the majority of the film is real actors. btw, thanks for the compliment!
 
Just joined this thread...and hope Prodigi Pictures doesn't charge us for his insight and advice...Because it's worth thousands $$$$ Thanks!
 
ah yes, missed that word "minor" (characters). guess i'll post the work in progress poster for my feature...

nowpostercityv106be4.jpg


still working on it. will be adding some grain. but a little early feedback can't hurt...
 
looks awesome to me. if i had to guess (as if seeing it up at the theatre) i'd think it was a drama, possibly somewhat of a tear-jearker or at least some intense moments and could even have some sort of darker edge to it. almost feels like the woman is hiding from something or someone, or trying to escape. if any of that is remotely close, good job. if not, well, it's still an intriguing poster. better (i think) to get the viewer wondering rather than to just go "oh, that's an 'action-star in a comedy' film" and dismiss it.
 
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