On Monday, we had James back in school teaching us how to use Adobe Photoshop.
The previous week, we had our first lesson in cutting objects out of background, creating layers, using transparency and putting layers together to create an image. I, feeling silly, turned a simple pumpkin into an evil pumpkin with big red eyes, an evil grin and a Dali-style moustache and layered all that onto a haunted house background. It looks downright ridiculous:
This week, we had the task of creating a film poster using the grid tool to help us arrange a layout. We could either use a still from a movie that's already been made or use a still from our AS work. I chose to take a still from my AS work as I remembered that I still had all my files from the AS project. I took a nice still of the film (where my protagonist is side on and looking up, out of the window. I thought that this shot would be good to evoke questions to a viewer on a film poster.
Firstly, I got rid of the background and created a feathered edge around the outline of the protagonist and her hand against the window. Then I layered and blended the image into a black background and added all the appropriate text. When I looked at it though, it didn't look very professional, the title of the film didn't work very well with the poster at it was too prominant on the poster. So, I played around with Photoshop and found the tool that allows you to add a gradient to either text or a picture. I added a black gradient and was able to make it look like the title is emerging from the darkness of the background.
I didn't have very long to create this poster and so it isn't as good as I could make it. After I saved the poster using the photographed image as the main image, I wondered whether I could use any of the filters to make my poster look better. I applied a paint-like filter and I think that this made the poster look slightly more intriguing than just using the photograph.
Olly Moss (born 1987) is an English artist, graphic
designer and illustrator. He is best known for his re-imagining of movie
posters. His work is regularly featured in the Empire magazine.
Moss was commissioned by Marvel Entertainment executives
Craig Kyle and Kevin Feige to create a poster for the cast of Thor.
Other notable works include the cover artwork for the Resistance
3 video game, which prompted a trailer to be created in with artwork style.
He graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2008
having studied literature. Moss is a
regular guest on the IGN UK podcast as well as the A Life Well wasted podcast.
CLIENTS:
Sony Entertainment
Lucasfilm
Nike
Apple
Paramount
CBS Films
Penguin Books
Threadless
Urban Outfitters
Levis
The New York Times
Time Magazine
Some of his posters:
This 'Dirty Harry' poster is probably my favourite poster of Olly Moss' due to it's simplistic brilliance. It shows a gun in the centre of the bright orange background, which captures the viewer's attention straight away. Then, you can see the profile of a man against the gun. The merging of two images into one creates a simple illusion and tells you information about the film in a subtle way. Also, when looking through Olly Moss' posters, I noticed that there is a slight reminiscence of another film poster designer called Saul Bass, particularly with the 'Rocky' poster.
You can find more of Olly Moss' projects on his website at www.ollymoss.com
Bill Gold was born on January 3, 1921, in New York City. He
studied illustration and design at Pratt Institute in New York. He began his
professional design career in 1941, in the advertising department of Warner
Bros and became head of poster design in 1947. In 1959 his brother Charlie
joined him in the business and they formed BG Charles to do the film trailers.
Charlie operated BG Charles in Los Angeles, while Gold operated in New York
City. In 1987 Charlie left the business and retired to Vermont where he died on
December 25, 2003 at the age of 75.
In 1962, Gold created Bill Gold Advertising in New York
City. In 1997, Gold moved the company to Stamford, Connecticut and continued
his business, producing posters for every film Clint Eastwood produced,
directed, and/or acted in, among others. In 1994, he was awarded a Lifetime
Achievement Award from The Hollywood Reporter. Richard Benjamin was the MC for
the ceremony at the Directors Guild, and Clint Eastwood presented the award to Gold
on behalf of The Hollywood Reporter and in 2011, Gold agreed to create posters
for Clint Eastwood's film, J. Edgar.
Gold is currently an active member of the Society of
Illustrators, the Art Directors Club and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. A limited-edition, oversized one-volume retrospective was published in January, 2011 in coordination
with Gold's 90th birthday.
All of Gold's posters have had a distinctive style. Each
poster gave a film its unique identity, often creating the only lasting
impression of a film that many would get. Gold's ever-changing style reflected
a wide range of current tastes, trends, and approaches, yet never strayed from
the tried-and-true basics of film promotion. Together, Gold's poster art
represents many of the most important American films since the advent of color
photography. After his first film project, Yankee Doodle Dandy, he collaborated
with the American film industry's top film directors and film producers.
Especially fruitful was Gold's relationship with the illustrator Bob Peak. Gold's
work has spanned eight decades and has inspired numerous other designers.
The following are some of Bill Gold's better-known posters:
Radoslaw Sienski was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1987.
After completing high school, he decided to move to England to pursue his passion - filmmaking. He signed up for a Video Production course at Bucks New University in 2007 (which is a University that I am considering applying for towards the end of this year) and graduated in 2010. He has recently completed a horror/comedy feature as an editor/vfx artist/colourist and did an editing course at the National Film & TV School in January 2011.
One of his short films, 'A Question of Time', which was his first dissertation project at Bucks New University, won multiple awards:
Winner - Best Short Film at the 2nd annual Soul 4 Reel Film Festival 2011 - Winner - Campus MovieFest 365, London 2011 - SFFA Film Festival - Official Selection 2010 - Exposures Film Festival - Official Selection 2010 - 5th annual international LUMS film festival - FiLUMS - Official Selection 2011 - Nomination - Best Thriller at The National Student Film Festival, London 2011 - 36. Polish Film Festival Gdynia - Young Cinema Competition - Official Selection 2011
The film is split into two parts and is about a man coming into possession of a pocket watch after his father dies. Little does the man know, the watch has special powers. After his son gets run over, the man discovers, in his grief, that he can turn back time using the watch. He experiments by holding his watch up against Big Ben and turning the hands. As he does so, the hands on Big Ben spin too. I learnt that Radoslaw Sienksi didn't use special effects to do this shot. he asked permission for the employees in Big Ben to turn the hand of the clock for him when the protagonist turned the hands on his watch. It apparently took a lot of shots to get it just right and if you are paying really close attention, you can see the tree in the right hand side of the shot jump about slightly where the different shots have been edited together. He then runs home and turns the watch back to the time where his son got run over but he cannot change what already happened. The scene then cuts to the man 25 years in the future where he is still mourning those he has lost. He beats the watch against the table trying to break it and the audience see the Latin inscription on the back of the watch. However, it doesn't break and the man, frustrated, winds it back and we see a child, presumably the protagonist, holding the watch and a black screen with the translation of the engraving is shown - we cannot change what has already happened.
I found an interview with Radoslaw Sienski on step2collabo.tv which I've copied here:
Whats the background to the film? How did you come up with the story?
The film was my dissertation project for university. It was shot over 6 days and edited within one month but the pre-production took about 2 months. I was always keen on making a film with a story that broadens the viewer’s imagination and by that I mean creating something that has an underlying symbolic layer. I was always fascinated by the issues of passing time, inevitability and fate and it is these concepts that the film is based around.
How many cast members/crew did you use?
I wrote, directed, shot and edited film by myself but I was occasionally receiving help from my friends with sound recording on set as well as with general on-set duties.
What has been the greatest outcome from your film?
The film was finished quite recently but it was shortlisted for screening at the Exposures Film Festival in Manchester in November. I also used it as part of my application for the National Film & TV School in England and I got in. Also thanks to this film I got my first editing job on a feature.
Anything learned from the shoot itself? Did something possibly not turn out the way you expected?
As it always happens with film production, not everything goes according to plan, in fact it never fully does. I learned to be open to possible alternative solutions but most importantly to think creatively. Every problem has a solution that works, don’t be afraid to alter your film slightly when you meet obstacles on your way, it’s always better to leave a few doors open rather than follow the narrowest path. You can achieve the same impact in many different ways.
There were many things that didn’t turn out the way I expected, but I think I managed to find satisfying solutions that work the same or even better in the finished film. It’s more clear in my previous short film ‘Memories’ where I had to re-write the story three days before the shoot which surprisingly made the film much better and so far it still remains my most successful film.
Briefly tell us about your style of filmmaking?
I don’t like straight-forward topics that’s why quite often in my films the reality blends with dreams, fantasies or other symbolical elements. I put an emphasis on the technical side of projects but I realise the value and importance of a good story. Without a good script there is no film, but without a good quality production a good story can’t be really convincing or appealing.
Whats next for you?
At the moment I’m working as an editor/vfx artist/colourist on a horror/comedy feature starring Keith Chegwin. It’s a low budget production but having just graduated from uni it’s a big step for me and a good chance to further develop my editing skills. Next year I’m starting an editing course at the National Film & TV School.
Any advise to budding filmmakers?
Send your films wherever you can, let other people see it and judge it, get some exposure. Don’t be afraid of critical comments – every comment is valuable for a filmmaker! How else you can make a progress? If you working on something very hard and you put your heart in it, by the end of the production process you lose your objectivity and fresh eyes. In most cases by the time you finished your film, you will hate it, but that’s the point where you should show it to people rather than hide it, at this stage your opinion doesn’t matter anymore, it’s up to a viewer to decide whether it’s good or not. That’s the only way to learn and ultimately get some exposure and your dream film job. No one becomes a director overnight.
It's good for me to read about University graduates creating award winning films as it is fuelling me to push myself to the limit to achieve the best I can and hopefully follow in Sienski's footsteps.
