Re: Project 2

My mind has been all over the place with this project. I have been struggling with combining numerous concepts into one main focus. I decided to go with focusing on the era in which the movies have taken place. The colors displayed represents the decades along with one major  element from each movie. Throughout John Waters movies, he uses a lot of nostalgia to depict his bizarre wickedness and satire humor. 

Re: Project 2

Project 2

My director is Guillermo del Toro and the three films I chose are below. My theme is the doorways between earth and the other side – whatever the other side may be. I tried to illustrate a veil lingering over the doorway. Del Toro focuses a lot on lighting, mainly using primary (or something close to primary) monochromatic colors, so I used those throughout my posters as well. I originally tried to use my own illustrations, but wanted a more realistic look so I spent a lot of time manipulating scenes from the movie, since there is never a direct shot of the doorways without something or someone in the way.

Re: Project 2

I'm so glad this is the topic!!! I have been struggling with bringing my concept to life. My director is Antoine Fuqua and the movies are Equalizer, Shooter and Olympus Has Fallen. All three movies have lots of shooting with blood splatter so I decided to use that along with an ocular view concept. In Equalizer, there is a close up of Denzel's eye where you can see the reflection of whats happening in the room. In Shooter, there is a sniper view through the scope of the shot gun. In Olympus Has Fallen there is also a sniper view but they also use binoculars. I started out using photos but decided to try illustrations.

Santoria

Re:re: Project 2

Monique, these look fantastic!

Re: Project 2, update

Jen: I think your posters look great! I know you were considering illustration last time we were in group together, but I think you have done a fine job with images.

Monique: I like the three different explosions... it looks great, and still ties everything together, I think.

Well I am still working on mine, continuing to make the illustrations better. Aja suggested a green background, and that's what I have added. Jen, I did work with doing more of a cut off, but didn't like how it looked in cutting too much of the image off. I had a plan with the border, but if it isn't seen as relatable, then I will have to give it up.

Everyone's suggestions actually helped me to create a totally different layout that I like better. I'm not 100% sold on my direction. But here is where I am so far. Thanks everyone!

 

Re:re: Project 2

Hey guys,

With all your words of encouragement and direction I think I’ve decided to do three different types of explosions for my individual posters. I mean I have so many different types of explosions already that it would be a shame to use just one. I think it would bring diversity to my posters and it still relays my concept. Besides no two explosions are the same.

I'll post which one's will be my final 3. Later tonight!!

Thanks!!

STRACH EVERYTHING I SAID HERE THEY ARE DONE BASICALLY JUST DOING SOME FINISHING TOUCHES.

re: Project 2

So my posters are based on Clint Eastwood's signature lighting style. The main characters in these movies each look for some sort of spiritual redemption. Eastwood captures this visually through "shadow lighting."

Bird is about jazz musician, Charlie Parker overcoming a heroin addiction.

Gran Torino is about a bitter, old Korean War vet who lives in an all Asian neighborhood (the street light is part of the neighborhood), and befriends his neighbors.

Million Dollar baby is about an old boxing manager, estranged from his daughter, who takes on a 30 something year old women. 

I'm currently working on giving Bird and MDB a more obvious light source. I was also hoping to achieve a better lighting depiction of a boxing ring for MDB sort of like this:

Brittany: So I agree with everyone about the size of the type. I also think you should explore using the type to ground the objects. I have a quick sketch of what I'm saying. Don't laugh at the sketches :)

I also think you could choose a solid light house and make it a little larger to possibly sit right under the "S" and the "I" of the light house.

Shana: I agree with everything thus far. I also think you could bring down the opacity of "Tim Burton" so that it competes a little less with the sketches. Maybe, there is more contrast in print. Otherwise I think your sketches are done really well!

Monique: I think you are soooooooooo close, if not already there to creating an explosion. I want to be able to look at this having not known it was an explosion. So I asked a friend what did he immediately see from the shapes and he said an explosion for this:

And I like Kimberly's idea of using this one but larger.

Juanita: 

The white space is not at all a problem, but here's an idea that may totally suck or may work…try a complementary green background instead. Perhaps this could help the red pop.

More glaring though, is the hierarchy in the directors name and title of the movie. They are competing with each other which makes the illustration look overwhelming. I see why the black strip in the AIP title isn't the same as the other two. Maybe if you made the "An" and "in" smaller as you did with the "The" in The Band Wagon, the title could fit on one line.

Carolyn: A larger scale of the silhouette would do justice to help highlight what's inside a bit better.  Perhaps even a few grey sketches of sky/clouds in the background may add to anchoring the figures.

Jen: These look really good from the last time I saw them! You, of course just need to be sure the type doesn't conflict with the background image in print. I just question two things: 
the type hierarchy and the reason for capitalized "S" in the bottom "Soderbergh." As for type hierarchy, Out of Sight seems to compete with focal type. The other posters are pretty balanced. Maybe the portion with the director, place, and time doesn't need to stretch across the whole poster. I don't know, because I like its position, but I just get the feeling its too big.

Tiffany: I think you also are at the point of just making sure it works in print since you loose it on screen. I think you did a really good job on positioning the patterns. I just feel like the title of each movie needs a little more finesse. This is soooo last minute and probably entirely too difficult, but how cool would it be if you could work the type into the print? Unless that's what you're already doing with the opacity. 

Re: Project 2

My project first...

After printing yesterday, I made a few adjustments which I hope fixed some issues. I also worked with a bunch of different placements. Here's where I'm at:

I still need to print these out to see how they look not on a screen. Hopefully you can zoom in on these, if you so choose. I'm pretty pleased with them so far. But that can quickly change once they're on paper :)

Everyone's posters are coming along so well! I'll just add a few bits of feedback, but a lot of what has been said already is really good feedback.

Jen: These look so much better as photos rather than illustrations. 

Caroline: I think adding a shadow will help, because things that float have shadows, too. It just can't be connected like the AFI one. But I'd match the shadow angle to the logo, cause it'd look really weird having two different shadows.

Juanita: The Brigadoon poster's white space is distributed less evenly than the others, which is my only major concern about the white space. 

Monique: I really like somewhere in between the first Armageddon and the last Rock. The last Rock one is amazing, but the blast is too stark, I think. 

Shana: The illustrations look great! I think you could bring Lydia out a little more just by scaling her up just a bit, so the tops of all their heads are even. I also like the way you treated the background characters. Keep cleaning up the type, too.

Brittany: Like others have said, the biggest issue is the scale. But the concept is great.

Re: Project 2

My director is Steven Soderbergh, and my concept is distance, basically. He tells stories about characters who keep others at a distance using various objects, but who ultimately want to break that distance down and have some connection with others. His directorial style is held at a bit of a distance, too, because he says he wants to help his actors understand their characters and then "get out of their way." Visually, I focused on the objects the characters use to keep people at arm's length and tried to show the title as being at a place of distance but almost as if that distance is keeping it from breaking through.

I already know from drafts I printed yesterday that the blue on sex, lies, and videotape needs to be lighter to read against the gray of the video camera. For that movie, Graham uses a video camera to distance himself from others; in Side Effects, most of the characters use prescription drugs to distance themselves from themselves (and others); and in Out of Sight, Karen uses her gun and Marshal's badge as armor to keep people from hurting her. I didn't use illustrations because it didn't seem to fit with Soderbergh, whose work usually feels almost documentarian in its realism (partly due to his mid-distance shooting style). I wanted to use images that implicate the viewer in that distance, as well, because most of his movies seem to be meant for the audience to think about their own reality and perceptions/behaviors. I chose the dates in 2014 because the premiere of Sex, Lies was in January of 1989 (and looking at them, I need to change its date to the one in January--my b), so the purpose for the director's series is to recognize 25 years of Soderbergh making movies. So, that's where I'm at. I don't have specific questions, but I'm open to comments/critiques if y'all have 'em.

Re: Project 2

Brittany: I think the concept makes sense, and I suggest that in making decisions that you always come back to what reinforces/adds to the concept. I think the design is close, so some of these are detail-specific questions, and others are things that make sense to me in terms of your concept. Here are my suggestions (I hope something will be helpful):

• Look at/think about scale--The rat and hat both appear much larger than the lighthouse (I imagine this is something you've thought about?), and the type inside the rat appears much smaller than the type inside the lighthouse and the hat, both of which appear pixellated, as well. For me, the size of type in the rat makes it the most successful image of the three because you get more detail from the outline. With smaller text size, you'll probably get those windows to show up better in the lighthouse. I agree with Monique about the hat--the GONY one seems it should be taller. 
• The text at the bottom--Do change the text at the bottom--remember that these are posters for the series presenting the director's work, not for the films themselves, and the info we need to have is on the assignment sheet. 
• The titles typeface--While I understand the appeal of a grunge typeface for Scorsese films in general, I have to ask: how does it add to your concept about Scorsese as a director? Does it add to the concept about characters who are not who they seem to be? Is the grunge typeface distracting from the concept of the images? 
• Color scheme--is black and white the best color scheme to address your concept? Black and white suggests an either/or situation to me, and it seems like most of these characters are actually both. What if you work in shades of gray? Or use the black background with gray type? I realize that would bring down the contrast, but perhaps that would be interesting because the viewer would have to be closer to see the words inside the images?

Shana: The concept works and the illustrations are super cute, which seems appropriate for Tim Burton and these movies. Same thing as before--these are detail-specific or things that make sense to me in terms of your concept:

• Titles--I'm okay with the type for the movie titles being smaller since the focus for the poster series is on the director instead of the movies themselves. That being said, I suggest you work on the alignment between the title and the theater/time/date information. Since the titles are in all caps, it seems like the height should match the two lines of text next to them. So maybe make the titles a bit larger so the cap height meets the cap height of "Charles Theatre." 
• I love the illustrations, but Peewee really stands out the most, then Edward, who is weird-enough looking and has enough emotion in his face to connect with, but Lydia draws the eye less. It's partly that Peewee's skin tone is warmer, and partly based on positioning. Both Edward and Peewee take up more visual space than Lydia, and their bodies are in more dynamic positions. I realize it's a bit late in the game, and that the arms crossed seems very Lydia, but is there another position she could be in to make her stand out more? Alternately, perhaps making her smaller and the other Beetlejuice characters larger would help reinforce your concept, especially since those background characters are weirder than she is, and weirder than the outsiders in the other posters. Maybe being smaller and less weird makes her the outsider visually and helps draw attention to her more?
• Director's name--I can't decide about the director's name across the posters. I partly really like it, and like the typeface for Burton, and wonder if it could be even more fanciful to match the illustrations? On the other hand, I partly understand where Carolyn is coming from in whether it is confusing. I do think that if you're going to do it, go all out, so maybe make it even bigger and running off the pages even more? I think these are recognizable enough that people who know Tim Burton well and would go to a retrospective of his work would recognize what's going on, especially if you're imagining them posted side by side. I agree with Monique that the spacing around Tim is a bit problematic. 

Monique: Again, detail-specific/things to think about:

• I agree with Kim about the first, more simplified explosion--it appeals to me more. I thought the shadow/white look on the Armageddon image works better than the others. Have you tried making all of the city buildings the darker shadow and the sky the white in the other posters? Or is there a reason that that one is flipped? 
• What if the interior of the explosion were larger so you can see the skylines in more detail? I just wonder if the differences will be noticeable at this size. Could you even push the explosion so it extends off the page in some places?
• The text at the bottom--Is there a reason that you're giving all of the production information on the individual films? Remember that these are posters for a series that recognizes Michael Bay, not for the individual movies themselves. Would that be clearer if you made the director's name larger? They also need the location and date/time. The text we have to have is on the syllabus/assignment sheet we got that first class. 

Juanita: I think your posters have improved from the last version I saw of them. I don't think that you have too much white space. In fact, I think you could open it up more by working with some more unexpected layouts?

• Scale--I remember that our group talked about zooming in more and showing the women in a more dynamic layout than just centering them. If you're struggling with the details of the illustrations, that may be a way to work around that; maybe focus on their legs since these are musicals with big dance numbers? For example, what if you placed the girl from Band Wagon off the right side of the page so that all we see is her leg sticking out of the dress and her arm with the glove and bracelet? The woman from An American in Paris could also just be her dancing legs, or her torso up with the focus on the jaunty hat and her arm? 
• The black outlines/bars: how are these helping your concept? Does the use of a frame, especially one that is such a solid black, say something about your director? The reversed type for the titles separate them from the director's name--what does that separation say about your director or add to your concept? I appreciate the details of the feet breaking the box, but I wonder if that shouldn't happen more? Maybe the V or the M in the director's name should cross over into the title area? The heavy boxes just don't allow for as much movement or joy as would be associated with a musical director, at least for me. If you do keep them black background for the titles, should they all be the same size even if the title doesn't take up the entire strip? 
• Take a close look at the director's name and the titles in this typeface--are there some letter combinations that need to be modified individually, like the Mi in Minnelli? Perhaps check the alternate glyphs in the typeface to see if there are versions of the letters that might combine more effectively? 

Carolyn: I haven't seen the movie, but I'll try to address your questions as best I can:

• If you want the image to suggest floating, perhaps the legs of the outline are a bit misleading. The image looks like the character is walking away to me. Is the character always in this position when it/he/she is floating? Are there other leg positions you could use that might look more like floating/flying/whatever it is the character does? 
• You wrote that the image inside the outline shows a girl approaching a new place. This may not be an issue because presumably people who've seen the movies might recognize this better, but I am having trouble seeing the image of the girl(s). I see a hat with a ribbon (?) in the bottom, so this is the girl? I think that I see a dome (?) with a face/monster in the character's back, which is cool looking, but is there a placement of the image that will show the girl better, or maybe the scale of the image could be smaller so that more detail can be fit into the outline?
• I'm not so concerned about the image looking like it floats because it seems a bit whimsical and that probably fits for Miyazaki, right? But the text at the bottom does appear to be floating to me. Should it be closer to the bottom of the poster? And is the size of the AFI logo a bit distracting? It's red and the text next to it is so light that the logo competes with the illustration for me.

Sorry for the length--I hope some of these are helpful and make sense. If not, feel free to email me and I'll try to explain better.

Stuck.

Concept:

Each of the films I chose features a young girl (or girls) who moves to a new place and befriends a supernatural being who ends up changing her life. Thus, each poster shows an outline of the supernatural being, with a shot of the girl(s) approaching her/their new place. Bearing that in mind, here's the one for Howl's Moving Castle:

How can I make this better? I was told the design was "floaty," which is true, but I'm at a loss for what to do because (1) the character actually is floating and (2) I don't want to add a shadow because the AFI logo already has one. This is a problem that somewhat carries over into the other two. Thoughts? Suggestions for improvement in general? (It was also suggested that I add a box around the design, but that didn't work out.)

Re: Project 2

Brittany
I love your posters! I think they are stunning. I have not seen the movie, however I have heard of them. I do agree with Carolyn about the lighthouse. I think it's not an issue that it looks floating for me however, more so that The Departed and Gangs of New York illustrations are centered regardless the placement of your title text, and Shutter Island is not. I am not sure if you tried it, but perhaps making the quote "Who is 67" smaller with more lines forming the image (like the illustration in The Departed) may give it more definition.  It does stand out as different, but I am not sure why; and hey, maybe you meant to do it! Other than that, very fine job.

Shana
Your posters are also fantastic. I struggle with illustrations, so ultimately, I don't have anything I could point out, because I do feel like your talents are much further than what I can conjure. I have the same issue and can't pull up anything other than the Pee Wee's Big Adventure poster. Going from what I can see as it sits on the blog, the backgrounds seem to be three different shades. Since they are excellently tied together in the background with Tim Burton's name, for me visually I would prefer the shade of the background to be consistent. I do like the placement of your information and the title text.

Monique
I like  how you accomplished the skyline and the look of explosion on your posters. The second poster (first one, second column) I think I like the best because the triangles are broken - so I feel that the explosion is going out of control (as explosions do). I also like that the explosion is coming out of the city, and not so "clean" like illustrated in the first poster. I hope this helps!

Me
Okay, didn't get the feedback I was hoping for last week. I am struggling with illustration so I would like to share my updated posters so far... My director is Vincent Minneli, and I chose to show his favorite color that is used in almost every single one of his movies (red, specifically known as "Minneli Red"). The three movies I am using are big production, musical numbers. While I originally used black lines to shape the images, I took them out hoping the grey would create a softer - less dramatic look. I also took into consideration some of the suggestions/comments made this page week in group. I am still working on refining the illustrations but any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Questions: Do I have too much white space? 

Does the placement of The Band Wagon title need reworking?

Thanks all! 

Re: Project 2

Okay, continuing with the layout of the other posts, here's what I think:

Brittany - Your concept is awesome! And your posters are a really nice combination of minimalist style and grungy texture, which is perfect for those movies. I agree with most of what has already been said in terms of getting rid of the film logos and extra details at the bottom, making the text in the lighthouse and hat a little smaller to match the rat, and grounding the lighthouse. Hopefully you've already started playing around with that. If not, you can always try extending the words into a thin horizon line that grounds it a little, but doesn't stretch to the edges of the page. I do like how they all stay away from the edges and sort of pull you in. Other than that, I would suggest to be careful with printing, especially on the poster printer. The variations in different blacks can show up very clearly on the matte paper, as I've learned with this project. It can sometimes be a cool effect, but sometimes it makes mistakes super obvious.

Shana - Your illustrations and lettering look great and definitely give off the feel of Tim Burton. I agree that you can play around a little bit with spacing in his name to make it a little more connected, and adding "Tim Burton presents" or something similar wouldn't be a bad idea.
One thing that I noticed, and it might just be me, but the Pee Wee poster seems to be a lot darker than the other two. I see what you're doing with the different variations in gray, but when I first saw it, my eye was immediately drawn to that one. Not sure if that's what you're going for, or maybe if my eyes are just weird, but it's something I noticed. Overall I think they are really great. They are very fitting with his movies and your characters are so cute. I'd love to more of his movies done like this.

Monique - I know you have been so stressed out about those explosions! I did like the versions you had before that had a little bit of a bubbly look to them, but I understand it's hard to find a balance with that. Of these, I think I prefer the simplified versions more, with my eye being constantly pulled back to the first one with just one outline. To me, it seems like the layering somewhat takes away from the city inside the explosion, so you just need to find a balance. If you did go with the one in the top left, you might be able to enlarge it a little bit so it is taking up more of the page. That way it really feels like a larger-than-life explosion. Have you decided to do them in black and white?


As for me, I won't post anything. At this point, I feel like I am just psyching myself out over concept and details and why my work doesn't look as good on paper as it does in my head. It seems like everyone feels that way about this assignment. It has definitely been one of the most challenging for me. I've just tried to step away from it for a few days so that before I go to print I can look at it with fresh eyes and make my final adjustments. That's one good reason to avoid procrastinating in the beginning :)

Re: Project 2

Brittany:

I love the concept for your posters but I agree that the one with the lighthouse is a little distraction because of those 3 black spots in the center. I thought it was a secret message too because of the concept in the movie. I don’t know if you need the other logo I think the AFI logo is fine on its own and if you decided to keep the text at the bottom it would make the words seem more ground because now they seem like they are floating which is weird. I almost wish the hat for Gangs of New York was longer like in the movie this hat reminds me more so of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland than Gangs of New York. I was wondering is there a reason why you decided to make the text size bigger in your posters for Shutter Island and Gangs of New York. I think the smaller text might bring some more clarity to the poster. Overall, I think its an amazing posters and concept.

Shana:

I really love you poster. Amazing!! The only thing I think is a little weird is that space between Tim and Burton at the top since it’s a name that we are associating with the movies I think the space is a bit much. If Tim was centered a little I think it would work better.

Me:

So on to myself I’m still having problems with my explosion looking well like an explosion. Here are some ideas I can up with if you can tell me, which on you thinks works that would be awesome.

Re: Project 2

Brittany:

Nice concept! I love the font you used for the titles, and the way you made the rat. I don't mind that the text edges don't align to the shape of the objects and in fact kind of like it that it runs off, but the Shutter Island poster looks a little plain: when I was scrolling down to look at it I was expecting to see a complex rather than just one lighthouse, since the lighthouse is off-center. My main issue is that without anything else to ground it, the lighthouse looks like it's floating: the rat seems to be grounded by the curve of its tail and the hat is perfectly fine floating in mid-air, but the lighthouse seems like it needs something more, like maybe a few extra buildings beside it (idk, whatever the asylum has). I'm also not sure what those black marks are near the top--are they supposed to be windows? A hidden message? I can tell from the shape of the lighthouse that it's a lighthouse, but the windows/hidden message/whatever distract the eye from the actual message. Also keep in mind that for poster information you will need the date (time optional) and location of the movie viewing, and the name of the director. I agree with Shana that the credits text is distracting, and since you don't need it I'd get rid of it and just use the AFI logo and maybe the WB logo, along with the viewing information.

Shana:

I love your illustrations! Only problem is that when I tried to get a closer look at posters 1 and 2, they all linked to a larger version of the Pee-wee poster? (Not sure if that's an issue with the files or with Blogger, though I'd be willing to bet on Blogger.) I like your concept with the colored illustrations vs. whitish-grayish, and I like the idea of having Tim Burton's name broken up among the three posters, though I'm not sure if this would be confusing to someone not familiar with the movies: I don't know much about Pee-wee, so if I saw just his poster alone I wouldn't know what "Ton" meant, and wouldn't associate it with Tim Burton because I didn't know until this class that he directed Pee-wee (though I do recognize the font--Burton's Nightmare, right?--so maybe I'd be all right). The size and opacity of the text also take the focus away from the illustrations and the other text, which should be emphasized more strongly than Burton's name, and make the name snippets seem like an unnecessary distraction. Maybe it would be better to have "Tim Burton presents" directly above the titles, with the top aligning to the location text?

Re: Project 2

Just like Brittany, I was also out of class on Thursday. So I'm biased, but I think this is the greatest topic ever!

I like your concept, and I think you've executed it pretty well. However, when I look at the words that make up each image I wish they moved with the boarders of the actual shape to get it a little more depth. Instead of just straight lines of texts. You also may want to show more of a focus of the actual concept/images rather than the movie credit text, that stuff can get distracting. Hopefully that makes sense! Other than that, your font seems to be a good choice to cohesively bring each movie together. Good work!

My director is Tim Burton, and my concept is focusing on the outsider aspect of his movies. The main character of each chosen film is an outsider or outcast in some way, whether its by looks, behavior or both. I showed them in contrast with other important characters of the movies who many times seem like they are the 'norm' but are probably even more outsiders than the main character. I tried to capture Burton's style through the type as well as the sketchy style of the background characters. Any feed back is greatly appreciated! Let me know what you think!