Creating a movie poster

Prodigi Pictures said:
Normally, I'd be happy to give a critique, but I suspect my advice will fall on deaf ears. And I doubt it will be taken as the objective analysis that is intended.
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I don't believe I have 'deaf ears'. At the same time, I may not agree with your opinion. Opinions are like that. I'm always willing to listen to input, suggestions and opinions -- it's orders and commands and "I'm right and you're an idiot if you don't agree with me" that I tend to not listen to. Condescending attitudes turn me off too.

And I'm not comparing my poster to White Knuckles. I'm just trying to see how the suggestions apply to other posters besides just my own. It helps me assess whether the truths are universal or not. And sometimes it's easier to see how things apply to someone else's work -- something you're not personally invested in. It helps with objectivity.

Now when I look at the White Knuckles poster, I see a great photograph that really grabs the eye -- but it doesn't convey to me anything about the film, nor does it really make me interested in seeing it. But that's just my opinion, and others will feel differently.
 
Prodigi Pictures said:
Here is my analysis for White Knuckles:

PROS: As usual, Zak demonstrates mastery of typography and layout. The layout of his text is extremely precise. He picks extremely attractive fonts (I'd have to know the content of the film to know if the font fits the story, but evaluating the font on its own is still possible...he has an eye for fonts that read well and compose on a poster well.) He also demonstrates restraint with his fonts, something most people struggle with...most designers will try to cram as many disparate fonts as possible into a single poster. Zak demosntrates he understands "less is more." At most, there are three fonts on this poster. His color theory is fantastic...the alternating black & white on the logo and "a film by sabi" are strong, minimalist choices. One might think his credits aren't legible, but I'm assuming this poster is designed for 27"x39" or 28"x40". At that scale, an 8 point font is quite legible. And the photo's technical aspects are quite strong. The contrast, particularly the variations in blue, are fantastic.

CONS: The concept of the poster doesn't communicate the content of the film. If I saw this in a movie theatre, I'd probably stop and appreciate the poster's technical strengths...but it doesn't make me want to see the movie. I don't know the genre, the characters, the story elements. Even if the poster is inspired by a critical shot from within the film it doesn't matter...that's not enough for me, the uniformed audience, to guess at the film's content. If I forced myself to guess, I'd assume it is an arthouse film taking place in the fall...but, audiences don't force themselves to think about these things and it is futile to ask millions of people to rewire their brains. They are what they are. The #1 flaw of this poster is that the core concept fails to communicate what the movie is about to an unfamiliar audience. And it is important to remember that the average audience members GLANCES at a poster (as they are stuffing their face with popcorn, checking their cellphone and jabbering at their friend about where they're going after the movie is over).

Despite this, I think it's important people recognize that Zak's one of the most proficient graphic designers on dvxuser. His stuff is so slick, so tight, so precise that we could all learn a lot from it.
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Very interesting. And I agree completely. I hadn't thought about the font issue, but you're absolutely right about it. That's good information to know.

And I absolutely agree that it's a beautiful thing from a graphic design standpoint. Really excellent.

Thanks for that analysis. That was very helpful and informative!
 
And now, Prodigi, I invite you to critique my poster. Let me say up front that it was not created by a graphic design expert, but rather by a professional photographer who, though he's quite good in his field, has never (to my knowledge) attempted to design a movie poster before.

Let me also say that the text part of the poster was put together by me, and I'm certainly no expert or artist -- so I'd welcome any input in that area.

So how can we make this poster better?
 
Prodigy, I appreciate your input. Again let me say, I didn't hire anyone to do the poster. The photographer who shot behind-the-scenes photos (and, incidentally, was also the movie's Executive Producer) made the poster on his own. As far as I know, he'd never made a poster before in his life. I did add the text elements -- those being the credits at the bottom and the "It's a KILLER connection!" tag line at the top, so I'm responsible for those. Oh, and I did add the spiderweb design, which even I don't much like and will be taking out.

I'm not an artist or a graphic designer, so the fact that I like the poster probably stems from my bias -- since I wrote, produced and directed the movie. I'm certainly not objective about it.

The movie isn't a scifi -- it's actually more of a character-driven suspense drama. There's really nothing involving 'science' in the movie -- there is a technology element, but the major focus of the story is the relationships and conflicts between/among the characters. The technology element, though pervasive, is really secondary to the story.

If you know the story, then you would connect with the poster. But of course the poster is supposed to draw people in who DON'T know the story, and clearly it doesn't do that like it should. That's a good point.

I will say that I've seen a LOT of posters for 'real' (meaning 'studio') movies hanging in the movie theaters that don't convey one ounce about the story, and they seem to get away with it -- but I'm always among the first to complain about that, so I need to heed my own words.

A poster is like a trailer -- it needs to make people want to know more about the movie. If ours isn't doing that, then I need to fix it. Wish I could afford to hire a pro graphic artist who could come up with a good poster concept for us, but I can't.

Anyway, thanks for the critique. I do appreciate it, and I hope you don't feel it 'fell on deaf ears'. I'll give a lot of thought to what you've said. If we can get a new poster designed, I'll put it up here for further review.
 
Prodigi Pictures said:
I'll be posting the final poster for my feature film, A Lonely Place For Dying, soon.

We've planned it out. It will take a full day to shoot and about two days of photoshop work. However, it's well worth the extra effort, considering posters sell movies at the AFM.

The concept is simple. The camera is approximately 20 feet from the ground looking straight down on the abandoned front steps Puerto Cobre, an abandoned prison in the Chihuahua desert. Nikolai Dzerzhinsky is in the upper left corner. Robert Harper is in the bottom right corner. Both men are running towards the center firing their guns. The logo of the film is stenciled onto the stone floor they are running across. bullets, dust and straw are strewn across its surface. Wind whips through the hair of the two actors and dust blows through the vast frame.

Hopefully, it communicates the concept of two enemies stuck in combat in the middle of the nowhere. I doubt any Jane Austin fans will want to see the movie...but I'm not making it for them! Hopefully, it screams action/espionage/thriller.

The concept is VERY simple. It's just an image of two people shooting at each other. The complexity comes in getting the dust, bullet shells, wind-tossed hair, muzzle-flashes, spray-painted logo and lighting just perfect. That's why it will take all day...and a ton of gear. The still camera will be on my 12 foot Advantajib, which will be raised off the ground on some scaffolding. We'll have to rent some Ritter Fans. We'll have a bag of Fuller's Earth. We'll be stopping by a shooting range and collecting several thousand spent shells. We'll arrange each detail precisely. We'll shoot the shot twenty times...

...and then, it's photoshop time. I'll carefully dodge and burn every element. I'll stick with only two fonts for the poster. I'll carefully paint out any unwanted details.

And then, I'll show it to you guys!
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I started to read this post, then stopped. I don't want to know the concept -- I want to see what the poster conveys to me as a person who knows absolutely nothing about the film. Looking forward to seeing it!
 
oh man, i missed all the action! i was on a plane all day flying into philadelphia (interviewing m. night tomorrow). anyway thanks for the critique on the White Knuckles poster, prodigi. that was something I whipped up with existing materials and all i could come up with was something that emulated a pretty significant shot from the film. it has since carried over to the web site too, but the plan is to overhaul everything before we take it out. it's funny, this was really just something for the cast and crew to get excited over as we went into post production early in 2007. did it in a few hours, probably spent more time on the billing block than anything else.

anyway, i've put together some concepts for the real deal and hope to have the actual White Knuckles poster in a month from now... after the onslaught of work for 'the happening' has passed.
 
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king jerk? no, no, no! please dont feel that way...i just re-read my post and see I came across as rather defensive -- making excuses for the poster. what I regretfully omitted to mention is that i'm grateful for your "notes", as they force me to ask the right questions as I conceptualize the official White Knuckles poster.

all your amazing insights are more or less what i've been saying to the director. he is hesitant to reveal the key thrust of the story because the film is structured in such a way that it isn't revealed until halfway thru the picture (very effectively, i might add). so he has defaulted to more abstract representations of the film, mainly because he doesn't know what he feels safe revealing. that's the challenge at this point. but now i can tell him i've effectively "test marketed" the poster he likes online to bolster my argument. he's not an idiot, mind you. he knows he poster says little to nothing about the motion picture it represents. i think he just struggles with "giving away his story" which leaves us with a big question mark on how to help this picture find its audience.

so pleeeeaaaaaase, don't hesitate to share your detailed impressions of the posters here. this thread is a pretty unique resource for indie filmmakers, and thats all owed to you.

sorry if i came across as hurt or insulted in my response. truth is i'm just thrilled to have you as a resource. the Heart of Now poster wouldn't "pop" like it does now if you hadn't suggested adding a little white to set a reference point for all the orange.
 
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now that is what i'm talking about. prodigi, go ahead and take the rest of the day off. no, take the week. you've earned it with that little nugget.
 
that's a really interesting wa of doing it, pulling only from the first act. the poster for "the bet" with the origami angel was definitely not from the first act. i can see how using that technique definitely presents a question (or questions). i agree, take the week off.
 
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