POSTER - Pitch

IDEAS FOR A POSTER



Here are some rough first ideas for film posters, based on my research. I used the strong reds, mixed with the most photographic stills from my film. I also tried out showing guns on the poster. Showing the antagonist and protagonist, the characters the film is about, I also felt was important. The font is changeable, but is similar to recent and old western film posters, and I personally think that it is quite effective.

1+2. I wanted my poster to show the two characters who have the main conflict. I think this one is fairly effective, the silhouette working well with the symmetry of the background image. But I don't think the red works very well with the colours in the background image. So to make this one more effective, I think I would need to adapt the background image, so maybe it was also edited to work with the silhouette: I could maybe change the colours, to make them silhouette like, or make the background more red/black/white.

3. This poster is less effective. Because I felt the red clashed with the other colours, I matched the silhouette with the title. But I think white has now become overused, and is not strong enough. It makes the silhouette less strong and has shows less indication that the film involves a big conflict.

4+5. I like this poster. The two characters having the conflict in the film are face to face, foreshadowing the stand off. The grave gives connotations of death, and is a key prop from the film - it is involved in the reason behind the conflict narratively. The red and black clash together and it is clearly an action-western. It is similar to recent posters for the xbox game 'Red Dead Redemption' and the old cowboy posters of the 60s. To improve this poster however, I think the title 'Spaghetti Western' should be enlarged to have a bigger impact and be more noticeable.

6. The red is now switched with the black - but I think the poster is less effective this way. The red cross gives the wrong connotations to a British audience, and it over all looks less like an action film.

7. Again the white on this poster is inneffective. I like the silhouettes of the gunmen, but the title needs to be bigger, and the poster gives away too much about the narrative of the film.

8+9. In these two I am working with the silhouettes of the gunmen, which I think are very effective. As I found through research, most action themed western posters show guns.  I think the space in the middle needs to be filled, as there is too much open space, but I could always put the grave silhouette in there.

10. I quite like this idea as the title is easily read, and I felt it made me try and work out what the ambiguous shapes in the background where, making me stop and think, and in the end it becomes very clear that it shows two cowboys pointing guns at each other. There are problems too: the yellow makes it look too happy, not representing the film properly, so I would need to change it. Also, I cannot imagine where the essential poster information could go: actors/directors names, rating etc. 

A final comment on my posters: I think the red I have used throughout is the wrong shade. It is too bright and although dangerous looking and vibrant, could almost be viewed as slightly comical. On my next drafts I will make it darker. But don't those silhouettes look great?