Movie Poster Art

[LGM]

So some of you may remember I'm working on a film. An adaptaion of a Phil Reed story called "Somos Las Bolas"

Anyway, I was wondering if I could get some thoughts on how I'm progressing. There are 6 variations right now http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilgryphmaster/sets/72157594471888626/

And this one is my favorite so far, I think:



Any comments and critique are welcome.

[Andail]

Nice one LGM. I just see before me some kind of filling colour within the frames to make them stand out a bit. Or maybe re-arrange them, so that the don't appear in a strip. Right now they look a bit like the instruction folder in an airplane, if you catch my drift.

[ManicMatt]

*Doesn't quite get what Andail is saying..*

The third picture. Ditch the yellow blob behind it, as it obstructs the image - for a moment I thought it was another ping pong racket or something.

Very nice otherwise.

Gives me an impression of an indie film?

[lo_res_man]

It means If you spot some one playing ping pong, tell your friends, and they will rip open their shirt and pee their pants. I mostly stylisticly like it, but what do the images mean? And how does that relate to the paint splatter?

[LimpingFish]

I like Promo Art Three the best, of the six in the set. It's simple and clean, and centers on a single "message".

Are the panels placeholder or finished art?

I ask this because (and I mean no offence to whoever the artist is) the first and third panels are very...loosely defined.

Plus they make little sense to me. I presume the first is a guy playing table tennis (?), but the third has me stumped. Is the ping-pong guy now dead? Is it some sort of sexual table tennis fetish?

[MrColossal]

Art drawn by my beautiful girlfriend! GO GO FINKENSTEIN!

Now, the poster:

I don't think the yellow colour is working. I don't think it works on any of the concepts. That's my major beef. Or change the splatter image of the yellow since it's kind of the largest colour on the screen besides the blue background. All the other splats are broken up a lot more but the yellow isn't.

Otherwise I like it.

I do wonder though:

What if you stacked them:

o
O
o

like that... Just a question.

[LimpingFish]

Yeah, I think it would look much cleaner overall without the large orangey splat.

[LGM]

I really didn't want to change much, I don't really know what you guys are talking about... But I got rid of the splat that made it look like Enrico wet himself. (he's the guy on the right).

Once I figure out the splats for good I'll try your idea, Eric.

Anyway, you're not really supposed to GET the poster. The images aren't a sequence, they're just elements from the film. They're supposed to get you interested and make you ask questions that only watching the film (or reading the story) will answer.

[LGM]

Alright, here's your idea Eric:



And since everyone seems to like the grey background, I took the first idea and tweaked it:

[ManicMatt]

Referring to the post you last did:

The first image layout: I don't think this works at all...

The second image layout: Ah, now I like the layout of the boxes and text, but putting the splodges inside the frames really messes it up.

[Mr Flibble]

How about second layout with splodges under the text? As it stands, they obscure the actual drawings. Even if you just mirrored the splodges layer.

[loominous]

Here's a warmer, retro kind of a colourscheme of the first version, which is the version I prefer myself, where I've removed the harsh black parts and contrast of the lower section:

Edit: (will probably take a while to load due to the large image files in the thread)


Original:


The lower text is harder to read due to the lower contrast, but it enhances the focus on the title while reducing the overall contrast. The colour spectrum is kind of narrow, but there's still some contrast between the reddish border against the greenish main area.

I have no idea if the scheme fits the theme of the movie, but it's an idea.

PS. If someone prefer the original and feels the need to point this out, please PM your opinion to me, where I'll store it in a special folder.

[LGM]

I appreciate the edit, loominous... And I see what you're trying to do, but I don't prefer it. I like the harsh blacks I have, but the warm tones are very nice. Thanks for the input.

Also, Mr. Fibble, I never thought of doing that. How does this look?

[ManicMatt]

Can you make it smaller? It would be better if I could see it all on one screen.

Might be better though!

Alright alright, I'll "view image"!

yeah I like where this is going, but despite what they said, it looks rather plain now with the plain grey backdrop!

[LGM]

Well I preferred the other backdrop myself, but the author and several of the actors preferred the grey one.. So as to avoid printing multiple posters to please multiple people, I'm trying to find one everybody likes.

Edit: Maybe now that the splashes aren't under the pics, this background works now...

[Mr Flibble]

I like it. Good layout, nice colours, no obscured images.. I think you're onto a winner here, Chief.

[EagerMind]

Hey, I like that last one. Nice work.

One thing that does strike me a little odd about this is that there's paint splotches everywhere but the pictures aren't colored in. I think they end up getting kind of overlooked because they don't really stand out. I don't know, you might want to see how it looks if you colored in the cartoons using a kind of sloppy/messy paint style (don't know if there's a specific word for this). I think Andail was originally trying to suggest something like this. If you did this, you could probably actually lose the paint splotches behind the words, since I think the eye is naturally drawn to the letters anyway.

Just a thought, anyway.

[LGM]

Well originally there was some shading on the drawings, but it doesn't blend well in the poster enviornment. But I'll fiddle with it.

Anyway, what good is a movie poster without a tagline? Here's my attempt. Is it too much? Should I just leave it sans tag?