How to Make a Poster for the Film
A complete guide to making film posters
Poster is perhaps the first thing that can attract viewer's attention. Festagent has figured out the basic principles of a good film poster.If it is possible to make it yourself and what tools will you need.
The poster's value is difficult to overestimate. Of course you can start the film without a poster, but if you predict a happy future for your project, then you should think about it. American books on film festival promotion are full of information about the importance of work "in the fields". The authors are advised to come to the screenings in advance in order to "buzz" about their picture. The best way to do this is to bypass local cafes and hang posters there; you can come up with inexpensive options for handouts (for example, a standard invitation flyer with a seal with the date of the show). Not to mention the fact that at large festivals posters hang in the halls - it helps the audience to make the right (that is, in your favor) choice.
Firstly the poster is intended to:
Firstly the poster is intended to:
- give an understanding of the genre,
- rise an interest of selectors and spectators,
- broadcast the main idea of the picture,
- sometimes introduce the main actors,
- demonstrate the author's statement.
History
Today a poster is an eye-catching illustration, a clear tagline and generally a real bait. But at the beginning of this journey, more than a hundred years ago, film posters presented mostly short films. In one session they held a whole pack, so that the earliest posters looked cheap and angry: the list of titles, the names of directors and producers. About the exact moment when the understanding began to appear that the drawn picture has a greater commercial potential and how the approach to the posters' creation evolved you can read in "Kinoslovar" of the film.ru site.
You can freshen up in your memory the names of the Stenberg brothers, learn about the power of the national poster school in Poland and get acquainted with the concept of the corporate style of the Rotterdam Film Festival in the article "Film Poster: A Brief History in Pictures". And in the collection at lookatme.ru you will find the names and examples of the works of designers specializing in makinf posters for the films.
You can freshen up in your memory the names of the Stenberg brothers, learn about the power of the national poster school in Poland and get acquainted with the concept of the corporate style of the Rotterdam Film Festival in the article "Film Poster: A Brief History in Pictures". And in the collection at lookatme.ru you will find the names and examples of the works of designers specializing in makinf posters for the films.
Poster philosophy
Petr Stabrovskiy
Designer, author of the anniversary corporate style of the IDFF Flahertiana — 2015
"Cinema cannot be shown in one poster, but in a poster you can just say a lot about it. The language of the poster is figurative, it conveys certain information using minimal means. A poster must be read in a second. Therefore, you need to leave only what helps convey meaning, and everything else should be thrown away.
In addition, the poster is an independent artistic statement, such as a painting or sculpture. It is difficult to single out any separate "components of success": it must be formally qualitatively solved, there must be a deep and at the same time a relevant statement. In general, it must be honest. That is the means of expression should correspond to it's idea and promise. If you need to talk about the beauty of the trees, then you go into the forest and sketch or photograph the trees. If you make a poster for the conditional film "Hairiness", you can simply shade a piece of paper. But the main thing here, as I said, is expressive means. You use a simple pencil or a ray of light from a flashlight - this also contributes to the statement".
In addition, the poster is an independent artistic statement, such as a painting or sculpture. It is difficult to single out any separate "components of success": it must be formally qualitatively solved, there must be a deep and at the same time a relevant statement. In general, it must be honest. That is the means of expression should correspond to it's idea and promise. If you need to talk about the beauty of the trees, then you go into the forest and sketch or photograph the trees. If you make a poster for the conditional film "Hairiness", you can simply shade a piece of paper. But the main thing here, as I said, is expressive means. You use a simple pencil or a ray of light from a flashlight - this also contributes to the statement".
What are the posters like
If you clicked on the links above, you have already known that most of the posters created today are distributive. Mighty designers or even design studios stand behind the creation of such posters, but those work under the guidance of marketers and film producers (because box office is one of the indicators of the quality of these specialists' work). Film posters for wide distribution can hardly be called innovative.
But posters for emphasized independent films can be more eloquent and intricate.
By the way, posters created for the film festivals themselves are usually also very non-trivial.
In addition to the appointment of movie posters differ in genre. A horror poster for melodrama will mislead a potential viewer. Just like an action movie poster for a romantic comedy. Try to avoid this.
Horror
Melodrama
Action movie
Romantic comedy
Preparing to make a poster
Alexander Mikhalev
Festagent art director, creative director of the Soda Creative Band
Creating a poster for the film involves the formulation of two types of tasks - technical and, relatively speaking, ideological.
Ideological
Ideological
- Think of the main idea of the film. This will help to make more accurate visual image.
- Decide on the style. Moreover, when looking for references, not only images that you like can be important, but also those that you absolutely do not like. Sometimes it is more useful to know how it should not be.
- Selecting auxiliary images, focus more on advertising. Since the final tasks of a poster are often similar.
- Borrowing is a bad idea. And the line between the working standard and frank cliche is very thin. Jaded samples doubt on the interestingness of the film itself. Think about whether it is effective to make a poster of an art film inspired by the mass-market-poster.
- Remember the simplicity of understanding. Pointing in the forehead is bad, but it can be even worse to be misunderstood.
- Provocation. There are a lot of ethical and ideological criteria that are properly taken into account when making a poster for a film sent to foreign festivals. For example, in Muslim countries, the embodiment of the human image is prohibited, and in Europe they may not understand the cinematographer who has departed from a respectful attitude towards ecology or national minorities. Consider the relevance of your provocation.
Technical
- Poster size. Decide on a placement. If you want to put the poster only on the Internet, then the poster can be made in A4 format. If printing is required, I recommend A1–A2. The largest is A0, with its layout it will be necessary to work out a greater number of details, but this will allow to obtain a higher result. It is also necessary to take into account that the sites where the poster will be placed may have their own requirements for proportions.
- Handout for the film. Handouts (flyers, film business cards, for example, with a frame from it) will be useful for the premiere and festival screening. Remember that "givings" should not be a reduced copy of the poster. This is possible if the text remains readable. Although this is still not the best option. As a rule, adapted materials act as a paper trailer for the film. Dimensional European standard is third of A4.
- Typography. It is important to determine it before the layout, since different printing houses have different technical requirements. I recommend to analyze the printing companies, and then, choosing the best option for production time, price and quality that satisfies you, to request technical requirements.
Getting started
Petr Stabrovskiy: "To create a poster you will need a regular package of graphic editors (Adobe Photoshop for processing raster graphics, Adobe Illustrator — for vector graphics). At the same time, the poster can be photographed, drawn, or created in a complex 3D editor. It is clear that as a result, everything will be tailored to certain typographical parameters so that it can be printed. To study the program — the easiest. You can watch video tutorials and surf the net for any nuances. It is much more difficult to learn the poster language, to understand its rules and technologies, to explore world experience. In general when creating a poster myself, I recommend not to focus on technical performance, but to experiment".
Information on the poster
- 1Film titleWithout this, of course, you can move nowhere. You can also use the slogan if it is available.
- 2Director's name and production studiotitleAfter all, it is your merit.
- 3Premiere dateIf it is already known. And if not, then surely known at least a month or season. In the case of a festival show, the date and time of the actual session should be indicated.
- 4Age restrictionsNecessary requirement in the Russian distibution. If you are taking a film to a foreign festival, find out the conditions for putting age qualification in advance.
- 5LaurelsBecause they are a viewing factor. If you already have something to brag about do it. All festival wins (at least, the most significant of them) can be specified.
- 6Blocks of sponsors and information partnersWe recommend asking them for the permissible size of the logos used. Often this is a crucial moment for marketers.
- 7Film site addressIn case it is (well,it's better to have one) and the audience will want to know more information about the film.
Useful tools
- Free fonts. Do not get carried away by the public things to remain original. In addition, if you are not familiar with the mechanisms, do not distort the fonts - do not compress and stretch them mindlessly.
You can download the fonts via the links below:
- The laurels generator. On the benefits of these elements on the poster, we have already said before. You can generate raster and vector laurels, enter text into them and choose different design options on the website laurelleavesawardmaker.com.
- Typographic characters. Very convenient, all in one place, disassembled by type copypastecharacter.com.
Sources of inspiration
- Behance is a well-known platform where you can see the work of contemporary illustrators and designers. Allows you to search for projects by author, field of creativity and other parameters. And what is more important — to be inspired.
- Pinterest is a worldwide catalog of ideas, also known to everyone. A good place to search for references. Score tags, scroll through pictures, subscribe to boards.
- Typographicposters is a platform for inspiration and promotion of quality design through poster culture. Focus on posters that can challenge.
- Colorpalette.cinema an instagram profile that tells about the significance of color in a movie and its effect on the unconscious. Each post - frame, spread out on different shades.
- Baubauhaus — according to the description of the site, this garden is cultivated by two guys from Romania. They aim to meet the daily needs for design, photography, illustration and other things related to visual arts.
Selection of the best posters by the version of IndieWire
- 50 war movies posters
- 50 superhero movies posters
- 20 posters of the XXI century horror movies
- 50 science-fiction movie posters
- 45 TV Series Posters of 2017
- 50 movie posters of the 1940s
- 50 movie posters of the 1950s
- 50 movies posters of the 1960s
- 17 Stanley Kubrick's Movies Posters
- 40 posters to the films about rap (yes, it happens)
- 50 posters to erotic films from the 60s and 70s
- 36 posters of iconic designer Sol Bass. Among his most famous works are the legendary intro in the film "Vertigo", as well as the titles for the films "West Side Story", "North through North-West" and "Psycho".
Дизайнер Сол Бас
- 60 posters for films of the American company A24. In their piggy bank is triumphant "Moonlight", winner of the jury of the 68th Cannes festival "The Lobster" and "Under the Skin" with Scarlett Johansson), which was shown at the 70th Venice Film Festival and 38th Toronto Film Festival.
4 books on the subject
Yaroslav Subbotin
Design laboratory researcher at the Higher School of Economics and curator of the “Communication Design” direction
The list of books from Yaroslav Subbotin is not so much about posters, as about the subtleties of graphic design and typography.
- "Canon", Massimo Vignelli. The author of the famous saying "The life of a designer is a constant struggle: the struggle against deformity" tells in "Canon" about discipline, accuracy and visual expression.
- "Ways of Seeing", John Berger. The Sunday Times described this book as follows: "Berger does not just open our eyes to how we see works of art, he will almost certainly change the very perception of art by the viewer."
- "Graphic Style: From Victorian to New Century",
Steven Heller, Seymour Chwast. Actually, the essence of the book is set out in its title - it is about the history and evolution of graphic design.
- Grid Systems in Graphic Design (Rastersysteme für die visuelle Gestaltung), Josef Müller-Brockmann. Пособие для графиков, типографов и оформителей выставок, которое может вызвать интерес у по-настоящему любознательных.
About mood
- Analyze key visual images of the filmWhat are the metaphors of the picture? What archetypes are played up in it?
- Remember the purity of the posterThe text should be readable. Leave place to free space.
- Develop artistic tasteKnowledge of graphic editors alone cannot be enough.
- Experiment!
Personal experience
Mikhail Barynin
director and screenwriter of the documentary “24 Snows”
"Initially we planned to use for the poster beautiful footage from the film depicting horses. This would tell about the case of the main horse breeder. But then we realized that our project is a portrait film. So the protagonist should be placed on the poster. Then I decided to watch my archives from the shooting - I have been interested in photography for a long time, often even working as the second or third operator on the set. For the poster, they took my picture, taken by chance, - we were riding a reindeer team and stopped to warm up a little. At one point, I noticed how well the hero falls on the light. It seems he did not even remember when I pressed the shutter button.
I made the poster myself. Firstly, it was interesting to me. Secondly, it allowed to save a little budget. Creating a poster took no more than two days. I worked in Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. For the Russian version of the poster I used a serif font, it seemed to me, a certain angularity and at the same time, the elegance of the characters expresses the brutality and harmony of the plot.
It was clear that there was a need in making changes to the layout in accordance with the requirements of various festivals and venues. For example, the management of Berlinale independently increased the size of the layout. An initially vertically oriented poster was not suitable for printing horizontal press-walls. To print flyers, I also had to revise the presence of some elements. I always had the desire to modernize or completely remake the poster for this film, sometimes it seemed to me amateurish and ungainly, but knowledgeable people convince me in opposite".
It was clear that there was a need in making changes to the layout in accordance with the requirements of various festivals and venues. For example, the management of Berlinale independently increased the size of the layout. An initially vertically oriented poster was not suitable for printing horizontal press-walls. To print flyers, I also had to revise the presence of some elements. I always had the desire to modernize or completely remake the poster for this film, sometimes it seemed to me amateurish and ungainly, but knowledgeable people convince me in opposite".
Who if not you?
We assume that recommendations on the independent development of the science of creating posters may not be useful. Then call for the help of designers.
3 reasons to see a specialist
Petr Stabrovskiy: "A designer is not a mechanism that owns Photoshop. He is also a man who has his own qualities and vision of the world. His main task is to analyze the source data and find the optimal way to solve the problem. In particular, he must balance the images. It is important for the designer to understand not only the idea of the film, but also the person who orders him, because this is also material for analysis and can be a starting point for the concept of the poster".
3 reasons to see a specialist
- You seriously doubt in your abilities and do not have enough time to experiment.
- You are convinced that everyone should do their work: the director makes a film, and the designer makes a poster for it.
- You are ready to invest in your project not only personal resources, but also finances.
Petr Stabrovskiy: "A designer is not a mechanism that owns Photoshop. He is also a man who has his own qualities and vision of the world. His main task is to analyze the source data and find the optimal way to solve the problem. In particular, he must balance the images. It is important for the designer to understand not only the idea of the film, but also the person who orders him, because this is also material for analysis and can be a starting point for the concept of the poster".
Ekaterina Danchenko
screenwriter and director, author of the film "To Bury Lenin?"
Ekaterina Danchenko, screenwriter and director, author of the film "To Bury Lenin?" Poster for Ekaterina's film was created in cooperation with the graphic designer Rik Labe, whom she found in one of the social networks. Prior to this project, he had never made movie posters. After seeing his other works, Ekaterina was delighted and secretly planned the possibility of cooperation.
Ekaterina Danchenko: "The works of Rik Labe are completely unique, and most importantly free! But at first it was quite difficult for us to work, because the terms "plot", "fabula", "composition" are intrashop. I had to look for simpler words in order to convey a thought, and translate my wishes into sensual language. For example, I said: "I need it to be closely over here." And after half an hour of detailed descriptions of what "closely" means to me, the designer began to give options. As soon as the first of them appeared, it became easier. By the way, the compositional scheme was known to me at once: the figure of the monument to Lenin with the head in the shape of the Russian Federation, is located either on the airport platform, or on the road in the center, the location is vertical. One of the central themes of the film is the manipulation of social consciousness. Therefore, in the poster were used recognizable symbol — gears. Quickly enough, I had a vision of the fact that on the left side, where the hand of this monument points, are industrial buildings. And on the right - a group of residential buildings, with a burning light in the windows. Dead and alive, in the center of a kind of "it." As in Russian fairy tales. The viewer is offered a choice: go left, right, or straight. This is a visual solution to the "pseudo" question, which is beaten up in the film: "Should Lenin be buried?" A week later, after several options, the designer and I approved the layout and finalized the details".
How to build a dialogue with the designer
We tell you what to focus on when preparing for the first meeting with a professional.
- Make sure you know everything about your movie. Facts, style and desired sensations from the picture. A competent designer will start a conversation with this.
- Clearly formulate tasks. For favorable cooperation, you can even register your expectations. Read them out loud. Consider whether comments will be understandable to someone other than you.
- Respect the input of the designer. Carefully review his portfolio. If you understand that your aesthetic ideas about the world do not match, continue searching. And having found your own, agree in advance on the phased work: the idea, sketch, implementation. Remember: a sketch is only a sketch. Do not be strict, say the wishes delicately, but clearly. Get involved in the process, but don't run ahead of the professional.
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July 16, 2017
The title image is based on the Bonjour Tristesse movie poster
The title image is based on the Bonjour Tristesse movie poster
