VCA116 Digital Photography

Project: Movie Poster

Assignment

Applying what you have learned about portrait photography, you will create a movie poster using multiple portrait photographs. Your design must incorporate at least five different portrait images, but it can contain several dozen. How you lay them out is up to you; the most direct way would be to use a strict grid, but that could be quite dull. Consider using diagonal elements, or photos placed slightly out of skew. Consider scale and shape. Think about the edges of the images—they need not be straight, clean edges. Consider adding graphic elements (shapes, colors) to break-up, sit behind, and/or overlay your images. The images themselves can (and should) be retouched & modified in Photoshop. You can tint them, saturate them, desaturate them, add effects, etc. You can cut-out the backgrounds and drop in your own. You can do just about anything, as long as it makes sense for your design.Have fun with it.

You must also include a title for your movie. You can choose your own title, but if your stuck, here are a few: "Black and White," "Conspiracy," "No Tomorrow," "The Itasca Incedent," etc. Think carefully about both the placement of the title and the typeface you use.

Also, list the names of your actors (your classmates). These should be placed on or near their images. Consider carefully your typeface.

In addition, you must incorporate all the junk that falls at the bottom of a movie poster (credits). I'd recommend copying a real one and then swap out the names, using your name and friends' names. Don't feel like typing? Download this sample file. It's important that you use a compressed font similar to the ones used in actual movie posters. Here is one such font. And here is another. You can find more on-line, just search "movie poster font."

The poster may contain other images as well (landscapes, backgrounds, full-body shots) as long as you include the reaquired portrait images.

You also could incorporate a tag line of some sort ("In space, no one can hear you scream," for example).

The final design can be laid out in InDesign or Photoshop.

Consider the project to have four different stages:

Specifications

Procedure

  1. Brainstorm.
  2. Do sketches of possible poster layouts.
  3. Use studio lighting techniques to take portrait pictures—of yourself and fellow students in the class. Be creative; consider different angles and lighting techniques when taking the pictures. You will also need to consider what backgrounds if any you will be using for the individual images.
  4. Once you have done the photography you may alter the pictures using photoshop, although you should aim to keep the final design consistent throughout, using different techniques on each picture would create a confused and inconsistent design.

  5. Lay out your poster in InDesign or Photoshop.
  6. Print it out in color, mount it, and present it to the class.

Examples

Course Outline

Syllabus

Student Resources