Art and Marketing Direction & Design
Making the Brand and the Poster
Part of the fun of making a movie is making a movie poster. Part of the work of independent filmmaking is then making a brand and marketing materials to help promote that movie.
Film festivals are smothered in posters and cards, each trying to get you, the festival attendee to view that film as one of the few in your limited time at the event. To evoke its film-noir inspirations while portraying the film’s dark humor, I designed a pulp-fiction style poster of the film’s anti-hero holding one of her favorite weapons (a cupcake) to said festival attendee.
I organized the actress and photographer, supervised the photo shoot, and then ran lead on art direction over the photographer, before eventually finishing the final touches personally in photoshop. The result was a 3×5 foot poster that could easily fit on a smaller 11×17 inch sheet for smaller surfaces.
Mailer / Flyer
The Bedford Devil needed a business card, so to speak. Wall space at festivals is limited, and they screen films at different venues, dates and times. Not to mention, many prospective audience members (producers, distributers, etc.) are not necessarily seeing the locations where information is posted.
Thus, I created a multi-purpose postcard/flyer. The back offered a place where we could either mail the card to interested producers and/or directly print festival screenings and their information. The card could also be sent to send notices to funders, as well as help promote the film when accompanied with the screener to film festivals.
Now on DVD
One of the most pleasurable parts of art directing The Bedford Devil was the opportunity to geek out over the DVD jacket and label. The DVD, including directors’/writers’ commentary and other features was created as a special gift to funders, cast and crew and was also made available for sale.
Social Graphics
Along with the print materials came sundry online and social media graphics needed. Here are a few I created along the way.
