Creating a traditionally illustrated one-sheet for a new comedy in an age where geography plays little part in reaching your goal…
Director, Daryl Goldberg was kind enough to recollect the beginnings of the creative process that led to the creation of a film poster through to the release of his film.
When it came time to make the poster for my feature-length comedy Made For Each Other, I knew I wanted something eye-catching, beautiful, and as fun as the movie itself to help build an audiences interests. I also knew that if I left the poster to the distributors, it would likely end up being a couple of generic looks from my principal actors with their faces simply on their as big as possible. In other words, generic. Like every other poster in the genre with only the combination of faces swapped out (remove Sandra Bullock, insert Jennifer Aniston, etc.). The fact of the matter is that the tendencies in posters these days, especially “romantic comedies”, is that the faces sell the movie and there is a sort of a paranoia towards taking any real chances in letting personality shine throw in your marketing materials. It seems the days of the poster as a work of art itself had largely past us by.
I thought back to movie posters I loved as a kid, the kind that stuck in your mind well after you had seen the movie itself. Posters that weren’t simply informing you of what faces you’d be seeing on the screen, but were themselves entertainment.
Once I had set my heart and mind on that style, I discovered my real challenge. Given the current tendencies in movie posters, they are primarily made by Photoshop artists rather than the traditional types of artists that produced them in the days before such digital technologies had even been conceived of. Simply put, there weren’t that many people around who still do what I wanted.
I knew what I was looking for was someone with talent who shared my affection for those classic posters. I quickly discovered the best, and perhaps only, way to discover those people was through exploring the world of fan art. As I began looking at various fan art competitions, I noticed some work that was drastically far and above the rest. I also noticed it was always from the same artist. Without fail, Paul Shipper’s work was always incredibly striking, his talent was simply undeniable, and, most amazingly of all, he seemed to somehow be plucked from a different generation. A generation where such incredible skills were still respected and exploited in the movie industry. So, always of the “can’t hurt to try” mentality, I hunted Paul down through his website.
At first I was surprised to realize he was somewhere on the other side of the globe. Being in the film industry, I know people are often reluctant to work with you if you’re not in the right zip code, much less continent. But hey it’s the computer age, and its as easy to chat with someone in New Zealand as your neighbor these days. After all, I was so ecstatic to realize Paul was enthusiastic about the idea, geography seemed of little consequence. So I ran off to the post office and sent a copy of the film around the globe to get his thoughts.
Then the real fun began, designing the poster. When you do a traditional poster you sift through photos either from the movie itself or shot just for such marketing purposes. You pick and choose, and then let the photo-shop magic happen. But in painting an original work I actually found a tremendous amount of liberation. Everything was somehow now possible. Everything was an option. Every look could be changed, body position, background, etc. As we got into it we changed scenery, we changed activities, and yes I confess, we may have even changed an actresses bust size. But unlike photoshop where the natural response would be, “oh they changed her bust in photoshop. That’s so fake.”. Ours was illustrated, so of course its fake! It’s a caricature, that’s the beauty of the genre; exaggeration is expected and embraced.
In the end Paul created what is not only an incredible poster but also an incredible work of art. One I am proud to have hanging on my wall, and one I’ve gotten countless requests from other people wanting to have it hanging on their walls. The poster has served us incredibly well on the business front as well. It has played a tremendous part in the marketing of the film. And it seems without fail, wherever the poster is seen there is a fondness and nostalgia for its classic artistry. Most importantly of all, at the end of the day a poster is a marketing tool, and I challenge anyone to pass by the poster Paul Shipper made for “Made For Each Other” and not be curious to find out a little more about our film.
Daryl Bob Goldberg
Director
Made For Each Other
Official Website: www.madeforeachothermovie.com
