Hi everyone, I hope I'm posting in the right section. If not, I'm sure the admins will move it to the right place.
How are your projects going? Today I want to share with you my latest experiences as a graphic designer for some upcoming short film posters, and I'd love to hear about your projects too!
I was asked to design the poster for a short "dramedy" film. I struggled to understand what the director wanted, he asked me to do a poetic and passionate atmosphere, I used the color red (inspired by the protagonist's dress in the film) and focused on a key element between the protagonists.
The idea was well-received, but during the final screening, I discovered the film was actually a comedy... YES, a comedy!
It hit me that the poster was promising one thing, but the film was delivering another.
Although the director wasn't entirely honest with me, I learned a valuable lesson:
make sure your poster accurately represents the genre of your film.
Let e get to the point, If you see an Indiana Jones poster, you know what to expect, right? It's not a nursery in a hospital. Same with Harry Potter - you expect magic and fantasy. I'll say it again: make sure your poster tells the story of your film's genre. There's nothing more disappointing than expecting one thing and getting another.
I'd love to see some of your projects.
Feel free to reach out if you need tips with your poster design. Best regards from Italy ;)
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If you have ideas about wich lounge I can discuss aboutmovie poster, I'll be glad _
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The Anything Goes Lounge is fine for discussing movie posters, Ugo Cavallo. This Lounge is for discussing the industry, movies, shows, plays, etc.
I like the poster. The picture and color say "Drama," and the font says "Comedy."
Great lesson!
I'm rewriting two feature scripts and working on other projects. I made early script posters for the two features I'm rewriting.
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Maurice Vaughan can't wait to see them
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Here's the one for my Horror Action feature script, Ugo Cavallo.
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Maurice Vaughan Did you create this by hand? Photoshop? Other? Looks great! The title is cool - Vampire Proof.
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Thanks, David Horton. I made the poster with Canva Pro.
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Hi Ugo,
I really liked your post — and yes, what you said about visual tone and genre makes total sense.
I once had a similar experience from another angle — one of my stories was inspired by someone very close to me, and coincidentally, she shared the same name as one of your film titles, Maryna..
That name alone still carries a lot of emotion for me and became part of my creative world.
I think it’s beautiful how art and life mirror each other like that.
Great work on your posters, and greetings from Liguria!
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Maurice Vaughan Hey maurice, thanks for sharing, I just commented your image with some notes ;) Cool idea
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Franco Decker Hello Franco, thanks for sharing your experience! Everytime life inspires art and viceversalooks like theuniverse is purely magic! Thanks, I would be happy to receive other feedbacks from you with my other upcoming posters, have a nice Day :))
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Tom Schaefer Hey Tom, cool concept, how you made this image? is it the poster or an artwork inspired by another poster? let me know, curious to know more about it
You're welcome, Ugo Cavallo. Ok, thanks.
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Hi, Ugo. Here is one of my sequential pages. All the best and talk to you soon!
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Tom Schaefer Hey, Tom, thanks for sharing your work, as a storyteller I enjoyed a lot the way you shared the passion for your work and I wish all the best for your ideas. As a graphic designer i do everything withoutusing AI tools, because (you'll notice in a few years) that every imaginary/artwork made with the Ai will look just all the same and definetly in a long term of time it will be boring as H*ll, I use to say it to the directors who ask me if I can do a poster for them, sure I can and it will be only ONE in the world because no IA would produce it. Thanks for sharing, it was an inspiring moment of reflection
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Rich Terdoslavich Hello Rich, it looks insteresting, how's going with your project?
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Hi, Ugo. Projects are going good. Just finished a job for a fashion client. Waiting to hear back from a film director for a virtual meeting. Project in the works. Yourself? Hope you’re well. Your work looks great. All the best.
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Tom Schaefer Hi Tom, and thanks for sharing your experience. If my judgment sounded definitive, I'll correct it: it was actually just a comment inspired by dynamics we'll see in the long term, where the logic behind all trends is always the same: a boom at the beginning, a normalization, a decline, and then we'll talk about and do something else. It will happen with these tools too.
As you well know, in this initial phase none of the tools you mentioned can create from scratch, they need access to a database containing information and visual references from which they take the information to make a mash-up by adding the things we add in prompts, ok.
So this is already a fragility in itself, no matter how, but whatever you ask to be done, it will have at its core something that already exists. As a photographer, you know better than me that when you work in Photoshop, everything you do with layers will be unique and no one else will have or will be able to replicate how you work it and this brings me to the final consideration, as a graphic designer, I wouldn't talk about resistance to tools like this but I would just talk about style, I have colleagues who use brutalist styles in their posters and others who exploit AI and that's fine.
In my experience, when filmmakers asked for posters, when they saw those made by Gemini and those made by a human, they always opted for the human ones because, in the end, they have the exact uniqueness of a film. Anyone could enter the same prompt and have thousands of images of the same type, which leads me to the conclusion that, Despite a period of free choice (creatively speaking), there will always be a gap between those who prefer a human touch and those who prefer an extraordinary yet concise touch, and that's okay.
I had the translator help me write this answer; you know English isn't my first language :)
Ciao!
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Rich Terdoslavich Dear Rich, from my side I am finishing a shortfilm poster for a sci-fi shortfilm meanwhile I'm having many talks with filmmakers in order to help them with their visuals, wishingyou the best :)
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Same here. Have a great weekend! All the best, Ugo..