Learning Report

In this report I will be discussing the history of film posters and how that has influenced my design. The aim of this brief is to take a poster from a past film production and re-create it so that it meets today’s market.

Film posters were introduced when film became a story telling medium rather than simply a series of moving pictures. As a result of this film became a lot more popular throughout the United States and across Europe. As popularity grew so did the need for advertising to entice people to see the shows and inform them of when and where they would be showing. At first, the standard film poster design was inspired by Vaudeville (carnival) poster designs, up until the 1910s when the audience started to demand to know who the actors of the film were. This meant that the design of the poster had to change, to add the film star names, highlighting their appearance, in order of fame, which became more important than the film itself. Posters became even more important with the increase of movie built theatres and the appearance of billboards being put into use. From 1930 to 1939 movie posters reflected the Art Deco movement where the details of the imagery decreased while being replaced with white spaces, bold colours and geometric shapes. This all changed in 1939 when magazines began printing colour photographs of stars and so with this, posters began using tinted photographs.

There is a definite transition of film poster designs, starting off as pieces of art created to promote the film and location of the showing, evolving from the needs and wants of the public. The introduction of photographs replacing the art work, enabled the stars of the films to be the main feature, which became more important then the film itself, and also kept actors in fashion, if they weren't in the latest film, they were out of fashion.

More recently poster designs have been simplified by removing all the unnecessary imagery around the poster, moving the focus onto one specific image minimalism seems to be trending through the twentieth century and into today’s designs, mostly seen in companies like Apple and Nike.

The renowned film director, Steven Spielberg, who creates huge blockbusters that also expand the minds of the audience, bringing something new and exciting to the screen, creates posters of outstanding quality and creativity. The posters have the bare minimum of information that a viewer would need to know. It can be said that the more simple the design the more effective it is, working better than having the cast/most famous actor or actresses blazoned across the poster. This instills more confidence in the film itself, then if having a famous person on the front, hoping that they will sell the film for you, suggesting less confidence in the story line.

To continue my research I looked into the different genres of film to see if there were a difference in style and format depending on the type of film. The genres I looked at were; action; comedy; romance; family and horror.

In the blockbuster action films there is definitely a theme being demonstrated. In most the same format is being use, with minor tweaks to match the films. Three out of the four posters I looked at also all used the “famous” blue and yellow Hollywood colours you see in most Hollywood blockbuster film posters.

In the comedy film posters, they are simply there to do a purpose, advertise a film. The poster sets the scene, introduce the main cast of the film, and give a tag line that giving a brief idea of what the film content. All the posters use photography for the main image of the poster either of the scene or the actors, mostly they are a collage of stills from the movie itself.

All the posters whether they are family or horror themed, all consist of having at least one photographic image of the main actress or actor with the setting of the story behind. This layout obviously works as it is the most common to be seen in the film poster design. I believe this is because it gives the viewer exactly what is needed in order to decide if they want to see the film. In today’s society people are not so likely to go to the cinema and so the more the designers can give without giving away the whole plot, the better chance of the viewers going to see the film.

The poster I decided to base my brief on was, “The Man From Planet X,” a 1951 science-fiction film, about a spaceship that lands on the Scottish moors, bringing an alien to the planet. There are various versions of the poster, but I based my design on the original design, a layout that consists of the main character, the alien, standing over a human girl looking confused, behind the alien is the space ship. The background is a setting of a house, with fog covering most of it, to create a mysterious setting. Across the bottom quarter of the poster is a bright yellow box with red coloured font, this is makes the title of the film jump out, in contrast to the rest of the poster. The tagline gives the audience a very brief outline of the story. It looks like it has been painted, rather than printed, which shows the age of the poster.

One of the two designs I focused on was a simplified design based on Steven Spielberg designs. I wanted to give the audience a restricted idea of what the film was about, so I limited the image to a very simplified layout. I used the image of an alien I had designed earlier, and put it behind a giant X shape which only shows the eyes, and the shape of the head. I did not want to include a tagline, only the title and who has written, produced and directed by. This is so there is no information about the film other than the raw basics. I also chose a font that was in the style of sci-fi like to suggest the theme. I really liked this design of ‘The Man From Planet X’ poster, espicially the simplicity, though going from my research I found that this did not work so well with getting the audience to see the film, and so I decided to work on a different design.

As a result of this I looked at creating a design that I felt would fit the criteria of today’s poster design, although I did try to keep it simple. For the final design I kept the same alien head that I had created earlier. I added an image of the earth, to demonstrate where the film was located. Having the alien scaled larger than the earth represents the domination of the planet. I also included the tagline, “The Deadliest Enemy The World Has Ever Known” this helps give the audience an understanding of what the film will be about. I also chose a sic fi font, which also shows distress at the bottom representing destruction creeping in, it is a subtle element, but I feel it creates an effect. The font is in white, so to keep it neutral and not to over power the imagery. In addition to the tagline I also included the writer, producer and director, to give the audience more information, and for some this will also persuade them to go see the film as they are a fan of the director or producer or writer.

Overall the poster meets the criteria from my research, it is dark, and limited, giving a mysterious feel to the film. The darkness gives the impression of a horror, but also shows the main figure and where the film is set, using the criteria from an action film. The poster gives the audience information about the film without giving away the storyline. The imagery also helps set the scene of the film, showing the audience who the main character and where the film is going to be set. Using a limited amount of imagery, does not over power the poster, or make it too busy, it has the right amount. By only showing half of the alien’s head, it intrigues the audience and leaves them wanting to find out more about this character, also by positioning it next to the earth, the audience is left wondering what the relationship between the two is about and so will want to see the film. Once the poster design was printed to a larger scale, it became a lot more powerful and the layout worked. I felt very confident in the final product, as before I was not getting the full impact from the computer screen.

The Final Design/ Poster

 

After some final tweaks, this is the final product of this module. I originally had this professionally printed in an A3 poster format, which once it had arived, I felt very confident in what I had produced. It also showed me how it would look if it were used in the film market. I feel it has strong imagery and would stand out amongst other film posters, because of the aliens eye, almost starring at you, making you look at the poster for longer.

The Man From Planet X Idea Two

The second idea was also inspired by the drawings I had previously done. I downloaded an image of the earth from the internet, to put on the poster, I also downloaded a font from dafont.com called Coalition and used that as the main font for the text. I used the tag line from my research to add to the poster, which I think works well to give the viewer something to go on about what the film is about.

I think this design works well, as it shows more of what the film is about. Showing the earth, with the tag line underneath which helps identify the story line of the film for the audience. I think only showing half of the alien's face, make him look more mean and mysterious, so you are unsure about what the character is doing or planning. I think the font works very well with the poster also.

The Man From Planet X Idea One

The first thing I needed to do was take one of the sketches I had drawn previously and re-draw it on Photoshop. So I have re-drawn the alien's head in full, so I had freedom to put it anywhere. I used a graphic tablet and the brush tool to sketch my design.

Once I had drawn it out,  I then wanted to add colour, including highlights and low-lights. Even though I didn't want it to look super realistic I still wanted to work a lot of detail into the drawing.

Once I was happy with the colour and the alien itself. I continued to work on the whole design. I first made a huge X which I cut out from the black background, so you would be able to see the alien's face through it. I then used a font I had downloaded from dafont.com 2015 Cruiser and Planet N, which were both 'space' themed and I think work well on the poster.

I thought I would try another font for the title of the film, so it wasn't all the same, and making the film title standout against the other text. I also thought about changing the colour of the X behind the face, as I thought it was a bit too white. I thought the red would work well, as it works well as a contrast against the green and black. It also represents warning, and danger which is what the alien is about and bringing to the world.

I think this idea does work well as film poster, I think it gives only enough information to entice the viewer to go and see the film, to find out what this poster is about. I like the red, I think it is a lot more eye catching then the white and represents the film in a better way than the poster with the white X.

I will now design a different poster, so I do not just keep looking at the same one. I could also come up with a better poster. who knows!

Posters in More Detail

I decided to put pen to paper, and sketch some more detailed drawings from the initial ideas from before. 

The first idea, is of the space ship leaving his planet to come visit the earth, with the tag line just underneath the earth, the viewer will read this just before reaching the earth, meaning they would understand what was happening. 

The second idea, is of the aliens face up close, with the two main 'human' characters. The background being a house, with the ship 'crash' landing on to earth, showing he has come to earth. The background, introduces the setting, along with the three main characters, all in one poster.

The idea on the left, is a portrait of the alien, with the X covering some of it. I think this is strong idea, I think it gives the audience just a enough to be enticed into seeing the film - showing them the main character and nothing more.

The one of the right, is a close up of the planet where the alien is from - the planet x - with the title of the film going across the center. Again like the first I think it is simple enough to not give anything away, but maybe enough to get the viewer to watch it.

Aliens/ Man

I decided to work on the alien for the poster 'The Man From Planet X'. To experiment with different looks.

I researched other forms of aliens on the internet, so after investigating them, I decided to draw them. I used biro and a sharpie to sketch out my ideas. The first three I wanted to concentrate on more of a human form, but still with the alien eyes. The other three (to the right) are more of a different form and less human like.

I think I am going to with the first on, in the top left corner. I think it looks most like a human, but still has the elements of an alien, making it more obvious. But I will be adding human like eyes instead of the black ones. I think this will make him look more like a 'man' then the alien eyes.

Initial Thumbnails

Today I worked on eight thumbnails of each of my poster designs, they are my very raw ideas of what I want my poster designs to be, it was more to get the ball rolling and get some ideas on paper, and now I can take them forward and expand on them.

The first set of thumbnails are of the poster King Kong. 

As I have said these are very raw initial ideas, just to get some ideas on paper. I think they all work pretty well for ideas for a poster design. I would still have to add text and refine the ideas in order to get the desired designs. I also need to work on some designs that fit other genres as well as action/ horror.

The other thumbnails are from the poster 'The Man From Planet X' 

I quite like these and thing they work well. I particularly like the one with the big X with the face coming through - i think this gives just enough information, but doesn't give anything away. Again I need to focus on different genres of films, and try to make them fit the different genres I have researched.

Now I need to continue working on these, and keep expanding my ideas, as well as focusing on them going in line with the elements of the different genres.