After reflecting on my previous essay, I started from scratch and completed a first draft. After getting a critique on it, I got this feedback:
- Condense case studies - more efficient
- More critical discussion earlier on
- More quotes from web sources
- What can modernism do that postmodernism can't and vice versa?
I'm happy with the feedback I got and it makes sense when considering the order of the information given, making it easier for the reader. The changes I need to make aren't too large so I can amend the essay quickly, more importantly, I have gained more insight into the format in which my physical responses will come in so I can simultaneously work on that.
What constitutes a good film poster? Why do tattered Scarface and Pulp Fiction posters adorn the walls off every young adult’s flat who’s trying to demonstrate that they’ve got a bit of culture, whilst some posters, of all be it of great films, fulfil their task to advertise the film, and then slip away into the saturated graveyard of the film industry. Many people have written about the basic function of the poster, (Barnicoat, 1973) wrote that ‘Their function is to communicate as well as to be decorative’ whilst (Vignelli, 2010) states that communication is more important in a design - ‘We strive for a design that is centred on the message rather than the visual titillation’. Alternatively, (Purvis, 2002) cites critic Raymond Needham’s words on what makes a successful poster - ‘take any representative Japanese print - a book illustration, a broad sheet or a theatre bill - and it will be found to embody all that a good poster should. One dominant idea is presented graphically, beautifully’.
What is clear from these sources, is that a successful poster should combine a clear message to communicate, with an aesthetically refined and ‘beautiful’ way of communicating it. Though they may disagree on which factor is more important, this idea is still abundantly clear. In the assessment of the film poster, one can apply these same values, as the film posters function is to communicate and advertise. What will be explored in this essay, is how successfully film posters communicate their message, and whether they measure up to the standard of aesthetic and beauty that many have used to quantify the success of a film poster.
One of the first things that must be considered when evaluating a film poster is the era in which it was made. Many great film posters can easily stand the test of time, however does a poster have to be timeless in order to be successful? (Vignelli, 2010), a true modernist, believes in refinement and the achievement of timelessness in a design - ‘We are for a design that lasts, that respond’s to people’s needs not to people’s wants’. On the other hand (Nourmand, 2006) believes that posters should have some indication of what decade they are from because this provides context - ‘the film posters of any given period offer an unerringly accurate reflection of the tastes and aspirations of the audiences they were designed to attract’. Ultimately, Vignelli thinks of a design as a more functional long lasting piece of visual communication, that needs to be timeless in order to stay relevant in the future. In the case of a normal poster, this is important to consider if its function is long lasting, however a film poster does not need to be as concerned with being timeless, as it only advertise’s a movie for a shorter period of time. Therefore Nourmand’s idea of a movie poster reflecting the era it was made is perhaps a good thing because it offers people looking at these posters in the future, an insight into this time - it’s a piece of history.
From the beginning of the 20th century, movie posters were very illustrative and often depicted particular key scenes of the movie with the lead actors faces very prominent within the design. In the 50’s, Saul Bass came onto the scene and started applying modernist design values to movie posters, swapping out these illustrative depictions of scenes for minimalist symbolic imagery and basic shapes.
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
(King, 2003) summarises Bass’ design process effectively - ‘when developing identities for films, in each case Bass attempted to find a strong graphic symbol that would act as a summary of the plot. He maintained the modernist belief that it is possible to strip away layers of the complexity and arrive at a single visual essence’. Bass’ poster for ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ does just this; the dark cut out rectangular shapes enclose the title of the movie and serve as a visual device that draws the viewers eye towards the white space in the centre. This centre also contains a simple visual metaphor - ‘the twisted black arm is an expression of the central character’s struggle with drugs’ (King, 2003). This is the exact process that (Nourmand, 2006) describes to be the purpose of a film poster designer - ‘the poster artist strives, of course, to carry the process even further by capturing the magic of a movie in a single graphic image’.
This poster is an example of one of Bass’ most famous works, and it definitely aligns with Vignelli’s modernist beliefs - ‘We like the use of primary shapes and primary colours because their formal values are timeless’ (Vignelli, 2010). This quote taken from the chapter of Vignelli’s Cannon titled ‘Timelessness’ emphasises not only why The Man with the Golden Arm’s poster is a successful example of a film poster, but also why it is so much more than that. Saul Bass’ film posters are the most famous film posters in the world, and this could be because of his modernist approach towards designing them; by ‘stripping away layers of complexity’ and creating minimal posters using primary shapes and colours, Bass created timeless posters which do not reflect the styles and prevailing fashions of the era it was created in, instead it’s minimal approach to graphic communication creates a timeless poster that is so widely known because it is constantly and continuously relevant - ‘We like design that is clear, simple and enduring. And that is what timeless means in design’ (Vignelli, 2010).
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Stephen Frankfurt’s poster for Rosemary’s Baby lies between earlier modernist designs and the postmodernist designs that would follow it, demonstrating a more complex photographic image within a composition that is still laid out rationally and minimally with symmetry. The image dominates the composition and is bold and eye catching and the black silhouetted pram attempts to assume the role of this singular symbolic image mentioned by (Nourmand, 2006) - ‘the poster artist strives, of course, to carry the process even further by capturing the magic of a movie in a single graphic image’. Despite this, (King, 2003) contests the effectiveness of the pram as a visual metaphor, whilst still acknowledging the visual impact and prowess of the poster - ‘Farrow’s profile looms over the horizon as if it were the setting sun, in contrast to which the silhouetted pram looks insubstantial and vulnerable. The poster does not communicate much about the film, but is a powerful free-standing image’.
Taking into account that this visual symbol within the poster does not communicate the movie as effectively as possible, could one come to the conclusion that this is not an effective movie poster? (Barnicoat, 1973) would seem to think so, claiming a poster must instantly and clearly communicate its message - ‘a poster can never be obscure’. Alternatively, (King, 2003) talks about how it’s more important that the poster grabs peoples attention and is visually engaging, rather than it having to strongly communicate the movie - ‘Posters are primarily advertisements and their task is to connect with the people on the street, not with the images on the screen’. Ultimately, the poster is visually stimulating, sophisticated and bold, and if this is sufficient enough to engage with people on the street and advertise the movie effectively, then arguably the poster is successful.
(Hutcheon, 1987) describes postmodernism as ‘a value-free, decorative, de-historicised quotation of past form and that is a most apt mode for a culture like our own that is oversaturated with images’. And as postmodernism became the prevailing form of graphic communication, in movie posters, the resurgence of the illustrated poster was seen in popular culture.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
This poster for Apocalypse Now, designed by Bob Peak, really does demonstrate how in the postmodernist era of design, these illustrative design sensibilities not used since before the modernist era were reverted back to and their grandeur was inflated into what everyone would come to know as classic 70’s/80’s film posters - ‘Peak’s Hollywood career reached its zenith in the late 1970’s. Sometimes described as ‘the father of the modern movie poster’, Peak had a style that perfectly fitted the overblown, almost camp nature of the main stream cinema of that era’ (King, 2003). Clearly from the outset, this poster does not align with Vignelli’s modernist design sensibilities - ‘We strive for a design that is centred on the message rather than the visual titillation. We like design that is clear, simple and enduring’ (Vignelli, 2010) - there is a lot of visual titillation and it is evident that the poster is not particularly ‘simple’. However even though Peak does not replicate Bass’ approach, finding a ‘strong graphic symbol that would act as a summary of the plot’ (King, 2003) it would be incorrect to say the poster does not communicate the movie effectively because in actual fact, the tone, setting and style of the film, along with a couple of different plot points are all represented in this poster. Just because this method of visual communication is more convoluted and may take more time to unravel, by no means does it make the poster any less effective.
Going back to what (Purvis, 2002) wrote when he sited Needham, that - ‘One dominant idea is presented graphically, beautifully’ - this really does encapsulate Peak’s poster, however more so than having one dominant ‘idea’, Peak’s poster has this one dominant feeling and tone, which is communicated by Marlon Brando’s expression. This almost gives whoever is viewing poster this sense of empathy. And thats why the poster is so effective, it’s just so striking.
Brando’s dominance in the poster despite his lack of screen time in comparison to the film’s star, Martin Sheen, is an example of this consumerism and formulated marketing that has always been present in the film industry, but really started becoming bigger in this era - ‘In line with the demands of marketing, Peak concentrated on the star, Marlon Brando, emphasising what he described as Brando’s ‘Marvellous Head’’ (King, 2003).
Moving into the 21st century, the film industry became bigger and bigger, and with this, these formulated marketing strategies become more prominent; the stars of movies need to be a certain size within the poster depending on their status within the film, and posters started to heavily rely on an actors ‘star power’ to advertise the movie. With so much money riding on these big blockbuster films, studios started playing it safe, if one marketing strategy was successful for a movie, they weren’t afraid to completely repurpose it for another film, and this went as far as using the same colours and layouts for posters.
With the superhero genre becoming so successful, these action packed illustrative montages that came about in the 70’s with movies such as Star Wars, evolved into digital, heavily edited, explosive compositions, with as many as 20 actors featuring in them, all sized in order of their ‘star power’. Ultimately, these movies are trying to cater to as large a target audience as possible, which means they have taken the approach of just adding as much into the poster as they can. And this is where the stigma that movie posters aren’t as good as they used to be has come from. Perhaps it’s easy to have this retrospective opinion, and in 40 years, students will have overcrowded superhero movie posters hung up on their wall, wishing they were born in the good old days. It’s more likely however, that Hollywood’s formulaic marketing approach is to blame; these are the biggest movies in the world, so of course the majority of movie posters that the general public see are going to be these heavily funded blockbuster movie posters. So what about the posters that the majority of the public aren’t seeing? The independent films, documentaries and more creative endeavours? Well it’s with these films that some really well designed modern movie posters can be seen.
Hal 2018
Hal is a documentary film about the life and work of director Hal Ashby. It’s evident that in films that aren’t as commercial, and with directors who have more creative autonomy, aspects such as the marketing can be more creative, and with the film having a smaller audience that its targeting, it can have a more focused and relevant poster. This poster, designed by Midnight Marauder, is a far cry from the blockbuster movie poster sensibility of throwing everything they can onto one poster. What is abundantly immediate upon first viewing the poster is the use of white space, an aspect of design which (Vignelli, 2010) has stated the importance of ‘One should not underestimate the importance of white space to better define the hierarchy of every component’. The next thing the eye is drawn to is the refreshingly refrained application of colour, used specifically as an attention grabbing tool in the hierarchy of the composition - ‘Most of the time we like to use colour to convey a specific message, therefore, we tend to use it more as a symbol or as an identifier’ (Vignelli, 2010) - in this case, seeing as the documentary is in celebration of director Hal Ashby, the orange circles seem to replicate the halos of a saint one might see in a renaissance painting, as well as depicting a general energy emanating from his head, assembly his creativity and ideas.
It’s no wonder this poster seems to align so well with Vignelli’s modernist design approach, it is quite modernist in its simplicity. So like Bass’ posters, does this poster have a clear symbolic image, communicating the movie? Well firstly, the movie is a documentary, which means it does not have a storytelling narrative, and is instead more informative. The main message of the movie really, is to inform about Hal Ashby, so having an image of him seems fitting. (Purvis, 2002) writes about what makes a successful poster, and one thing he says summarises the Hal poster very well - ‘The composition gives an idea of balance and breadth, but affords no hint as to how these qualities have been attained’. This poster eloquently grabs the viewers attention, with seemingly very few visual aspects - ‘one dominant idea is presented graphically, beautifully’ (Purvis, 2002).
Conclusion
I had no preconceptions about what conclusion I would come to when I started writing this essay; I knew that modern blockbuster movie posters seem to be less focused upon the craft now and more focused on revenue, leading to flashy overcrowded posters. I also knew that Saul Bass’ movie posters are impressive in their sophisticated yet simple modernist design, and their strong visual communication. It seems clear that a good movie poster should combine refined and aesthetically pleasing visuals with a communicative aspect evocative of the movie and its message, however what I have learnt is that these two aspects can come in a variety of forms. Midnight Marauder’s ‘Hal’ poster communicates its message distinctly and simply with visual prowess, whilst Bob Peak’s illustrative Apocalypse Now poster combines multiple images and ideas into one composition which still communicates the movie effectively, and does so with evocative grandeur and emotion.
So if a movie poster can be successful in a variety of forms of communication, how else can its success be determined? Ultimately it’s down to this: if the poster communicates the movie with effect and visual elegance, if it’s design is relevant and appropriate to it’s target audience and genre and generally, if it is eye catching, evocative and memorable, it is a successful movie poster.
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