9 replies to this topic

[Sqthreer!]

This is an assignment I just started working on for my crappy graphic design class.

The task is to create an advertisement that would go in a magazine, and I thought I'd do a fake movie ad. Originally the little robot guy was just something I was doodling, but I decided to use it for the class.

There's not made-up storyline or origin for the movie, it's just something I came up with off the top of my head.

I'm not calling it done, so I was hoping I could get some input on what I might do to make it better.

First version:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sqt...rt/Sparkles.jpg

Current version:



P.S. This is all done in Photoshop. Most of everything on the robot is layer styles.

Edited by Sqthreer!, 18 May 2007 - 02:40 AM.

[Dance]

Movie posters usualy gives away the gengre of the movie by showing the enviroment or something related to its consept in general, such as a gun a sword for different action movies, something alien looking for scifi, darkred-black with sharp contrasts for horror and so forth.

Even if there isnt a story for the movie behind that little robot atm the guess i would take on the gengre looking at the picture as of the moment would be horror, something in terms with "the evil doll" looking at Sparkles somewhat murderous expression. So before i would take my kids to watch this magical little house robot movie, id have to make shure the robot isnt going to be crazed and slaughter his family with a oversized meat kinfe.

[Sqthreer!]

I see where you're coming from, and I agree for the most part. But I've seen a lot of movie ads, and even trailers that barely give away anything other than a little taste of what it's about. Just think of that one poster for Shrek 3. Of course you could sort of identify what it was since it's another one in the series, but it's overall very unrevealing and simple.

There's a few different marketing approaches for stuff like this. It's just a little preview to intrigue the potential audience.

I had considered putting in a little phrase down near the bottom like a lot of ads do, but those are often way too corny.

[Dance]

Yeah, it often depends on how far of the release is, when announcing a move thats more then half a year away the ads tend to be very crypitc as they want you to do some research; ask friends, cheak the internet, etc to hype the audience.

When a movie is already in the cinemas you need to appeal to the spontanios movie goers, who tend to flip around the movie ads in the newspaper for a certain kind of movie or who are already looking at posters outside of the movie theater. Beeing cryptic with these people is often a bad idea as you dont want them to feel uncertain with what they are going to get out of a visit to the cinema.

[Sqthreer!]

Very true indeed :]

Well this movie's release date isn't until this coming fall, apparently, so this ad should have a bit more to it. Maybe I'll change the release date to Spring of 2008 or something XD

I really appreciate your input, though. What about the overall design of the thing? I was considering changing "The House Robot" to something else, or just getting rid of it all-together.

[Dance]

You could always ad something like "the amazing house robot" "The house robot who saved the world" "Sandmans house robot"The house robot who malfunctioned-and-got-a-hold-of-something-sharp-and-pointy..." "The house robot with a soul" etc etc if you want to give away more of the synopsis then he beeing a house robot.

About the design itself i dont have anything against anything in it. It all comes down to how much you want to reveal about the movie, right now you know it's some kind of scifi, it's dreamy/magical, the chance of the robot doing something big unexpected and fatechangeing using his imbalanced house robot magical powers. If you speculate...

The concept of semi transparent enviroments over the gradients to show of more of the plot is always a possability, more "save the cheerleader, save the world" type text could do this also.

You may want to change his expression to fit the mood of the movie though with his current posture and expression you cant realy tell if hes a good or bad robot. This to give away abit of the movies ending, if you will walk out of the theater with a smile going "That was a cute movie" (Ofc it could still be a "sad" ending but aatleast something you are content with, im thinking "The Iron Giant" if you've seen it; Ending Spoiler:

Spoiler

The "Iron Giant" robot sacrefices himself flying against a incoming atom bomb to save the people standing below

) Or walk out like on needles after watching the firendly house robot go berzerk with a meat cleaver...



Also why do i keep making these kinds of long posts in the middle of the night...

[Sqthreer!]

Well I took a few of your ideas and made some changes.

First of all, I decided it's no longer a robot, but rather an extraterrestrial, and I also decided to go with your perception of it being some kind of sci-fi/thriller thing, and gave him some 'brows. He mad now.

I changed the subtext to "The First Encounter" just because I have no idea what to put there :[ :[ :[ I'm not sure about that cliche fadey background of the subtext, either, but I like this version better.

[CAMILLUS]

damn that is so tight!

[Bug]

CAMILLUS, on May 19 2007, 01:15 PM, said:

damn that is so tight!

Man, you like saying that word, don't you? It could almost be your trademark

Hey Sqthreer, would you mind posting the original up as well so I can compare the two? I saw the original once but didn't have time to post.

[Sqthreer!]

The original is still up, it's just a link in the first post.