Prior to making April Showers I made my living creating movie posters and television ad campaigns for several leading entertainment-advertising firms in Hollywood. Chances are if you’ve seen a summer blockbuster or enjoyed any of the programming on ABC, CBS, TNT and others you’ve probably seen some of my work, yet few know what truly goes into creating a poster or ad campaign for a feature film or television show. Few even attribute the art to an individual let alone a dedicated team of artisans working tirelessly to create a single piece of art that will resonate in viewers’ minds enough to get them to buy a ticket or tune in. Most audiences don’t know that the poster that grabbed them was but one of a hundred (sometimes thousand) designs created before the final poster was chosen. On this website we given you a taste of the various designs and layouts we considered before choosing the final poster we did. Trust me, there were far more posters created than the half dozen or so we show you on the site. However, our design exploration pales in comparison to that of say “Harry Potter” or “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
While I’ve tried to give you a glimpse into the process, what I haven’t really discussed is how a single poster, be it a rough idea or final design, is created. Well, that’s what this post is all about, to walk you through the process a little bit so that maybe you’ll have a better understanding if not appreciation for the posters you see the next time you visit your local theater.
For starters theatrical movie posters or one-sheets are 27 inches wide by 40 inches tall and are finished at 300 DPI, though most poster companies generate their working files at half that size and resolution. Depending on the artist a rough sketch or block layout will be created using stock photos or simple pencil and paper. This is a guide for the artist to not only work off of but often “sell” his idea to the powers that be before spending the time to generate the artwork itself. Personally, I like to sketch and rarely used stock imagery in the initial design phase unless the client called for it. You don’t have to be an impeccable illustrator to be a poster designer; in fact most poster designers can barely draw a stick figure.
Once an idea is chosen the designer often has to look through countless photographs taken on set or during a special shoot to find that one image that will lend itself to the final poster design. It’s not uncommon for the final image of the actor or actress to be a composite of several different shots, a head from one pose mated to the torso of another and so on and so forth. We call that Frankensteining and it’s huge fun but also a pain in the butt if you’re on deadline. If a shot of the actor or actress doesn’t exist the artist will create it either by using stock photography or photographing a fellow co-worker and simply replacing their head or face with that of the actor or actress. This happens all the time. Don’t believe me? Here’s two examples.
Both Matt Damon and Edward Norton in these two posters are actually yours truly with the actor’s faces placed over mine.
Once the photo(s) are chosen they are masked out or separated from the original background image so that they can be more precisely manipulated along with all the other elements. The idea, in most cases, is to create an image that appears to be untouched or altered, though even the simplest poster designs, I assure you, went under the digital knife. Once the artist is done creating the art he or she will often layout the type (if it wasn’t part of the art or concept already) before submitting it for review or critique. During a critique dozens of ideas are presented for all the designers to go over together and try and make better before the final presentation to the client.
Above is a quick illustration of the pieces that went into April Showers and the various stages of touch up and effects before reaching the final poster.
Once the client has signed off on a design it goes to finishing where the comp or designer created art is upresed to the poster’s final dimensions and essentially rebuilt from scratch with the utmost attention to detail. During the finishing stage a finishing artist will pour over every pixel and clean up the image to a degree that defies belief. Well, most of the time.
From there the file is delivered to the printer(s) and within days of a poster leaving a design firm it will be hanging in a theater. Most posters are on display weeks if not months before a film’s release and in most instances that poster was worked on for months, sometimes years, before that.
So the next time you’re out to the movies, take second and really look at the posters hanging in the lobby. See if you can spot mistakes, it’s a fun game. If nothing else take minute to appreciate someone’s hard work and efforts even if you don’t plan on seeing that particular film.
That’s all for now, until next time, take care and stay tuned…
If you’d like to purchase your very own copy of the April Showers poster you can by CLICKING HERE
