A filmmaker’s guide to movie poster design | BFI Future Film Festival 2023 event

Are you a filmmaker working on your next short film? Do you need an effective poster that will get people to watch, but don’t have the design experience? Look no further.

A film poster is arguably the most important tool you have when marketing your film. It can be the reason someone wants to watch your film or the reason they don’t even get past the trailer. Luckily, it doesn’t necessarily require a ton of resources or expertise to produce something creative and unique.

Join us for an introduction into the fundamentals of movie poster design, its history and role within distribution. And most importantly, we will take you through step by step how you can create your own poster for your short film, nailing your film’s tone and story in just one image.

Hosted and curated by BFI Film Academy Young Programmer Nick Willis.

TIME STAMPS

00:00 - Intro
01:54 - History of Film Posters
03:51 - Poster Formats
04:44 - Film Poster Styles
06:11 - Which Style Suits Your Film?
08:23 - Short Film Poster Case Study (Thunder Road)
11:04 - Colour
13:10 - Titles
13:29 - Taglines
13:53 - Billing
14:52 - Laurels/Reviews
15:16 - Determining Your Concept
16:28 - Parasite Film Poster Demo
27:15 - Outro

RESOURCE LIST

Case Study - Thunder Road

Finding Inspiration

Software

Royalty Free Sites

Photoshop Tutorials

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The BFI Future Film Festival is the UK’s largest festival for young, emerging filmmakers aged 16 to 25. The 16th edition of the festival runs from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 February 2023.

The 2023 festival will take place both in-person and online creating a hybrid festival experience designed to reach as many attendees and viewers as possible from across the UK and throughout the world.

[JohnDoe-txlq]

Excellent, great video - I had to keep stopping to look at all the Posters, some of which I hadn't seen before. 😎👍

[topquarkbln]

Thanks for the explanation 👍 interesting in general, also for film-fans ♥️🦄

[tomcat]

Why do film posters always seem to have the names above the wrong people?
It basically boils down to this most of the time:
The top billed star is first name on the left but the central, focal point of the poster. Other actors in the billing are then (possibly) included on the poster based on the designer’s choice.
I found this answer on Quora, just a little bit crazy. I always assumed they were designed by people who never watched movies.

[DCI-Frank-Burnside]

In terms of conciseness I thought the poster for Nil by Mouth was on point. Ray Winstone's boat, a ambiguous expression of possibly rage or ecstasy, captures the dilemma of the lead character.
Fucking good film too.

[CinematicDependency]

The good ol days of drew struzan are long gone. Still see some great theatrical poster art but it’s a needle in haystack at this point.

[bfifilmacademy]

What are everyone's favourite poster designs?

[DCI-Frank-Burnside]

So many have a man in early middle age clutching a gun at thigh level, looking intent whilst moving at speed.
Why?