Why (oh why?!) must producers insist on designing their own posters/dvd covers?

Grug

Grug

Veteran
Little bit of a vent here, but the last three projects I've shot have all had their posters and DVD covers designed 'in-house', i.e. by the producer, at home, on photoshop... and every single one of them has been woeful. I'm mean wince-in-embarrassment bad.

Is anyone else running into this constantly?

When you've got so many people working their arses off to make a production look as professional as possible, be it the acting, cinematography, production design, sound recording and mixing, editing, colouring - it just seems so unfair to have all of that hard work cheapened by promotional/marketing materials that make the film look like it was created by 6-year-olds in Microsoft Word.

Marketing materials are SO vital to getting people to actually consider sitting down for 90+ minutes to actually watch your production, why aren't more producers giving the design of those materials as much care as the rest of the film?

I just don't get it.
 
Quite normal and just demonstrates that the care and attention you put into having high production values was wasted on them. My experience suggests they just don't see it, despite having seen so many good examples their look ridiculous in comparison to. I liken it to people who can't sing, and don't know. You cannot convince them they are our of tune - and they take your advice very, very badly!
 
I think a lot of people (myself included when I made my film) mistake poster and title for being a part of the actual film.

They're not. They're part of marketing, and they're the two biggest factors that decide whether someone will watch the actual film or not.
But they don't exactly tell you this in film school...
 
It shouldn't be that difficult once you step away from all the artistic integrity that sometimes tend to get in the way of creating something you can actually sell.

1) Find a list of the highest grossing films released in the last 12 months.

2) From this list, pick out all films that are in the same genre and style as your film.

3) The teaser posters, posters, DVD-covers and VOD thumbnails of these films will likely have a lot in common, make a list of all the common features.
For example, horror films these days tend to be minimalistic with a color spectrum of white, black and desaturated red, and use a serif font.

4) Copy. Whatever these highest grossing films are doing obviously works. Being creative and different here doesn't pull people in and make them want to see your film.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
It shouldn't be that difficult once you step away from all the artistic integrity that sometimes tend to get in the way of creating something you can actually sell.
Click to expand...

I think that's probably the kind of thinking people who design bad posters have though.

I've seen filmmakers reference where they've gotten their inspiration from when designing a poster and normally it's something that looks really cool....it's just they can't even come close to duplicating it. Those blowjob fantastic poster designs that normally catch people's eye in theaters are typically designed by very skilled designers who've spent years honing their craft and have had lots of practice, constructive criticism and experience doing so. The problem with bad poster design is that too many people think just having photoshop and knowing a few things like masking and using the gradient tool qualify as them "knowing photoshop". The devil is always in the details right down to the pixels and that in addition to having professional photography to work with can be the difference between a professional and cool poster versus one that looks like your 5 year old niece did it while playing with the dog :)

If it's a serious production people who don't have a background in design work should consider just farming it out to someone who has a nice portfolio and knows what they're doing from concept to creation.
 
I don't seea problem with producers making their own posters.
I do it all the time and they look great!
 
Last edited:
This is very common. Regardless of Producers, most filmmakers in general seem to misunderstand the importance of a good cover. They spend all their money and time on a film and then release a trash cover, practically ruining the chances of a sale. The same goes for trailers and promos. It's just a symptom of inexperience and naïvety. I've seen some atrocious covers, and despite my pounding and hollering to some folks…they insist to do their own. Granted, I did mine, but I spent quite a long time on it and have a knack for design. The cover helped my film a great deal, particularly at Redbox.
 
The question is: are those same films actually any GOOD themselves? Are we talking movies with great stories, writing, acting, production values, etc. that simply have bad covers or is it just badness throughout? Seems strange that someone (i.e. filmmakers) with the talent to get everything else right or at least competent would be so shortsighted as to let the public face of their movie slip through the cracks.
 
I made the one for my film - I had the picture in my head from the beginning and shot the still as we were shooting the film.
afposter.jpg
 
dont want to be mean Joe C, but this is exactly what everyone is talking about. Your poster isn't awful per se, but it's not really great either. The font you chose for your title is hard to read at a distance (esp with the fish shape), Designers choose certain fonts for the purposes of readability. Theres also tons of what wed call "dead space" around it that couldve been used to make the title and image bigger and bolder. Also your font choice is a lil cheesy and paints the impression of a lower budget film than it might be. Also Id wager alot of these tiny people, esp the ones on the title, are gonna turn into inidentifiable blobs at a distance (your image will get small on a netflix queue or far away on a shelf). These are things designers know and the average person doenst have the training for (Ive been training as a visual artist since I was a kid)

Im not saying these things to demoralize (I mean your movie could be great regardless of the poster) , but again, you've basically put up an example of exactly what the thread is about.

On the plus side you clearly have a funny concept and the poster does get it across for the most part, but bottom line the poster wouldve been twice as strong and "sold" your movie better if done by a competent graphic designer.

get this book below if you insist on doing your own graphic deisgn- itll go into some of the stuff I mention:

The below is just an example, if I was to actually do this poster Id find an even "thicker"/fatter/chunkier font (a darker, bolder orange too)...also its orange because orange is the complement of blue and pops best. Again, art/design training.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Non-Desig...882&sr=8-1&keywords=non+designers+design+book
 

Attachments

  • afposter.jpg
    afposter.jpg
    87.9 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
The reason we have so many posters and DVD covers that suck is that they are made at the end of the process, when the stupid producers have run out of money and favors to pull. Their objectivity has completely gone out of the window. In short: they are just bad producers.

But yes, a bad poster is both very bad and very stupid.

On the other hand, it makes things easy for potential viewers choosing what to watch because they can take one look at a movie and say "Wow, they didn't respect the audience enough to even get a decent poster made. I'll skip that film then because I'm sure they won't respect my time by providing me something interesting to watch."

This allows your good movie, which has a good poster, to get a head start.

To Grug: sorry the movies you worked on have bad posters. Personally, if given the chance, I would never work for anyone whose previous work had a badly-designed poster, unless that work was damn amazing. It shows they just don't understand the film business.

Actually I'll admit it: I'm a treatment snob. The treatment needs to be either beautifully designed, or just great writing in simple black type on a white page. If it's in some in-between hell where some guy who obviously doesn't know what he's doing thinks he can "design" then RUN. RUN! RUN! RUN!

Disclaimer: I work for a movie marketing company, designing titles for a living. Our department usually does trailers but occasionally they take our designs and make them the poster titles, like for Thor: The Dark World. It's a lot of work but compared to all of the other things in a film's budget, getting a decent title made is quite cheap and definitely money well spent. If the movie doesn't look expensive and professional, good luck getting the public to watch or pay money for it.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
I gotta say though, after talking so much smack about my art training, that graphic design IS teachable and learnable (its kind of an art but its mostly a craft with clear principles), so even though ideally you'd pay someone to do it, I do understand the nano-micro budget desire to do everything yourself o save money, so again, if you choose to do your own graphic design, you can learn it, but the first step is realizing that there IS something to be learned. Someone with no design training that tries to design something wont generally be succesful at it--

Even though the average viewer doenst know the principles, instinctively they WILL notice that your poster and by extension your movie feels "cheap" somehow, even if they cant articulate why (or related, they may just click past your movie on the netflix que or wherever else advertised because perhaps they literally CANNOT READ your title cause you chose a wacky font, etc- design is largely about catching attention).

so again, go learn it if you want-- its not rocket science, it'll just take some time. ( a year or so? I dunno- i mean if your going to continue to be a filmaker itll be time well spent, and youll have the skills for life, right?).

Start with the book I mentioned above, thatll be a big help

The book below is also a gem, for when you want to get more advanced:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Understan...&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+use+design+and+layout
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top