I didn't expect to do something so serious, but I decided to make a poster of the 1930 movie version of the novel 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. Specifically, the poster is about the scene where Paul reaches for a butterfly( it was established earlier the Paul used to collect butterflies). Paul (who's hand is reaching out) is a young German Boy who, along with his friends, are convinced to enlist to fight in WW1. During the novel( and film) him and his friends slowly die, either mentally or physically. At the end, a psychologically damaged Paul reaches out to a butterfly almost as if he was reaching out to his innocence that he lost to the war. I chose the coloring of the poster to match this symbolism. All around the image is dark, and devoid of life symbolized by the dark browns, and grays. Even the hand lacks color, in reference to how destroyed Paul was. The butterfly represents the innocence and humanity that Paul was reaching out too, so if is full of bright and vibrant colors that completely contrast the dark surroundings.
85% of the image was made in illustrator, with the hand being the exception. The sky is a dark grey, over the ground which is made from a picture of dark brown dirt. Those gray lines at the top are supposed to be trenches, but their real purpose to invoke a sense of forced perception to create a background. The butterfly was created by tracing over a picture of a butter with the pen tool. I tried to trace over a hand( specifically Paul's hand from a screenshot of the movie) but it proved too awkward and didn't look good at all. Instead I got a scan of my own hand, and applied a gray-scale filter over it in photo shop(the hand was the last thing to add). The idea for a poster like this was inspired by abstract movie posters like the few I posted below.
This is a really good poster that you did! I like how the gray background represents a somber tone. i know i've never seen this movie or read the novel, but it just feels so right. the hand feels a little off, mainly around the tips of the fingers. maybe it had something to do with the scanner or something? also, the dirt doesn't really seem to mesh with the background for some reason. i don't know, maybe it's just me who thinks this.
ReplyDeletegreat job!
I think your issue with the hand wasn't the scanner, just my job at photoshopping the hand out from the picture. The dirt could have been that the sky was done with the pen tool, and the dirt was from a picture of gravel off google images. -Josh Bonto
DeleteI do like the grayscale of your poster and how the butterfly is meant to be the center point since it is colorful. Something that concerned me was the the gray on top and then soil, makes me feel like its underground. I'm not sure if that's what you were going for. Also the the way the characters are listed makes me feel like this is a credits scene rather than a poster. I really like it though, good job.
ReplyDeleteI would actually bring the color of the hand into the poster so it doesn’t blend in as much with the background. Make the smaller font at the top a little longer so it doesn’t look like the letters are all being squeezed together. Distinguish the trenches a little more, if you hadn’t written about it in the description I wouldn’t know what the three lines were. The colors used seem to match the description you made about the movie very well. The font also seems fitting. I like the color of the butterfly making it stand out more.
ReplyDeleteLike your idea of having the butterfly as the main focal point for your poster. I would change the the text a bit, to me the names of the characters are too cramped. I would move your hand down onto the dirt so that it doesn't blend in too much with you background.
ReplyDeleteWow this is deep and I love it! Everything works and the colors are gorgeous. Great job. but I would try to make the hand a little more realistic as opposed to animated. Overall a great job.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I would change is to make the by line a little less stretched out.
DeleteI like the color of the butterfly. It holds viewer's eyes well. Half portion of texture and half portion of flat base looks good balance. I like the color choice overall. Perhaps you didn't want the text to be dominant but I still want to read the text at a glance.
ReplyDeleteI think for this poster i would change the layout. I would flip it so that its horizontal. Movie posters flow better that way. With the actors name at the very top and the title in the middle.
ReplyDeleteEverything seems very out of place in this photo. None of these look like they belong together but I understand what you are trying to do here by giving only the butterfly color.
ReplyDeleteThis poster has a very somber feeling to it. I don't know if that's what you were aiming for, but that's how it comes across. I like the grey scale and the contrast between that and the butterfly. I feel like the transfer of the hand into the piece was probably difficult but ended up looking sort of choppy, which pulls away from the image a bit. Also, maybe the butterfly should have looked more realistic to match the hand? Unless you were looking for a contrast like how the top of the poster is simple and the bottom looks textured.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this movie and it was a great movie. I understand what your intend was with this. I like how butterfly is the main attraction since it has such deep meaning in the movie. The text and color for the name of the movie was a good choice, but for the list of actors maybe move some of them down a bit so it's not so cramped. Also maybe move the hand down a bit and move the butterfly up a bit and some of the gray background because it doesn't blend well together. Maybe try to make the dirt a little gray but still be able to tell it's the ground just a suggestion since I understand what you were trying to do with it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thorough description telling us the information behind your decision making. It is also helpful for those of us who are not familiar with the film-we need that background to get all of the symbolism here. I really like that you went the extra mile to scan your hand as the other option was not working out. The scan of the hand adds an interesting 3D, life-like element to the piece-amidst the bright colors of the butterfly and graphic texture of the dirt. You could work on the selection of the hand more-it could be a little more clean. The font works well with the concept and portrays the tone and time of the film. There are some things that could be improved or explored to enrich the design even more: I would play with the angle of the butterfly more. Right now it appears very straight horizontally. In real life, objects are hardly ever like that. There is usually some kind of slant or angle to suggest descent into space. I would angle it up towards the right slightly more, to point towards the hand. The general spot it is located in works. I would also play around with the gray background. Because this dominates about half of the composition, that is quite a large amount of space. It would be nice for this space to be more active- the text does activate it in some places, but more would be nice. The soil is such a nice area of the design, and creates detail and movement from object to object. Something similar (although less prominent) would be helpful in the gray space. Perhaps a transparent/faded texture creating the illusion of distance-a far off continuation of the battle scene perhaps...a texture even...something in a light gray so it fades away slightly. In the credits, you could move the names on the right over further to the right more. They come too close to the title.
ReplyDeleteOK. So I really like the cut paper effect of the ground, as well as the flat color used for the grey sky. I would have liked to see more of that effect in the butterfly. I'm not sure what it is that bothers me about the distance between the hand and the butterfly but I'm bothered. I'm not sure if bringing the hand closer would help or maybe just changing the scale. Still I do like the design.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting choice for a movie poster. I like how the old style of movie poster was attempted here. I like the colors of the butterfly. The edges of the hand look like they could've been traced a little more accurately. The empty space in the grey seemed odd at first, but it actually puts a little more emphasis on that hand. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteI love the juxtaposition between the bright butterfly and the somber grays of the poster! The only thing I'm not a fan of is the text. I don't believe it fits and it looks a little cramped.
ReplyDeleteReally love the butterfly! More skill in tracing than i have. but overall, nice job. The hand seems a lil out of place though.
ReplyDeleteThe only things I would like to see happen is a smoother tracing. That and this photo feels a bit dar and really stale. But I do like the poster overall, the design overall is creative.
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