Movie Poster

The assignment was to take multiple images and use it to create a movie poster. Typography, adjustments, selections, filters and formatting were all used in this piece.
The technical steps are below.

Two Web Movie Ads

The first one I chose was the “billboard” style web ad. The specifications were 970 x 250 pixels.

Instead of worrying about legalities, I simply strolled through my vast personal collection to find the images that created a story. I followed their lead.

The main image is of my son standing at the edge of the ocean in Virginia Beach. It’s Christmas break, which is why he is wearing a jacket. I think it adds to the ominous idea behind a child being called into the ocean by an unknown source. Had it been summer, it would be an expected, boring image of a kid at the beach.

The other image is a huge statue of King Neptune that is found at the 34th Street Park in Virginia Beach. I took that photo on the same trip.

Steps:

Main Image – I transformed the photo to fit the long, narrow specifications of the web ad. I had to copy and delete Nick out of a second copy of the image since it did not fit all the way across. This dictated the placement of Neptune because there is a seam behind him where the two copies meet. I then made a copy of the layer, changed the type to Overlay. From the Filter Gallery I chose Film Grain. Grain 4; highlight 6, Intensity 5. I went back to Layer 1 and changed the Opacity to 75%, the Exposure to -1.32 and the Offset to -0.289.

Neptune – I selected him on a transparent layer. I copied the layer, changed the type to Overlay. I changed the Saturation to 0 to achieve a black and white image. I increased the lightness to +7. From the Filter Gallery I used Texturizer – Sandstone. Scaling 156% Relief 1 Light from Top Right. I then had to flip him horizontally so he would be facing the inside of the ad and the child.

Title – I chose Kingthings Calligraphy in white. 30 pt. I put a 2 pt black stroke on the letters to make them stand out a little more. I added the following effects: Outter Glow with a Darken Blend Mode and Opacity at 88%. A Drop Shadow, Multiply Blend Mode, Opacity 90%, Distance 11 px. I added an Emboss with a depth of 75% and size 8 px.

PG 13 – I found this on a random website explaining the meanings of the ratings. Motleyvision.org.

Actors Names – I used Calibri Bold in Grey, with a black 1 pt stroke.

Tagline – Calibri Bold, 12 pt. I added a Drop Shadow, Multiply Blend Mode, Opacity 55%, Distance 4 px and size 5 px.

For the second web ad, I chose the Portrait style. Specifications are 300 x  1050 pixels.

Steps:

I used the same effects for the images in this ad, with a little different cropping and transforming to fit. I kept the same formatting for all of the text, adjusting for size, as needed. The only exception was merging the layers of the Actors names and then making a copy on top to make them a bit bolder.

Neptune – I used the same image as in the other ad, but for this one, I changed his opacity to 75% and used to smudge tool to blend him into the ocean a bit.