First, a bit of history. Starting out in the early 1900’s simply as placards outside movie theaters listing the films being showcased within, film posters quickly began including illustrations of a film’s scenes, and with the advent of Hollywood stardom also portraits of the actors and actresses. Where the early posters were very literal representations of what the moviegoer could expect to see on screen, they later became an opportunity to tease the moviegoers by way of symbolism or suggestive imagery. The visual marketing of a film had become another creative level of the filmmaking process. And it still is. With the current need for quickly digestible promotional content on social media, the iconography of a film may be less prioritized now than it was 20 years ago, but all the more reason for you to explore and use the art of the film poster. A picture is, after all, worth a thousand words.

So what makes a great film poster? Let’s see what some of the great posters of decades past have in common.

The Clockwork Orange poster hints at the central themes of the film (good vs evil, light vs dark, danger, violence, sexuality) while much is left to the imagination. Why the triangles? Why the dagger? Why the eye? Why is Alex lurking in the shadows?

The image used for American Beauty also hints at the central themes of sexuality and desire, while the tag line suggest that not all is what it appears to be. ‘Look closer’ at what? The American dream? The rose? The naked body? Yourself?

Most of Forrest Gump unfolds as a story told by Forrest as he’s waiting for the bus, so it’s only fitting that the poster recalls the iconic bench. But the image says so much more. Many of the film’s central themes are hidden in plain sight: the loneliness, the journey, the anticipation, leaving the past behind you.

This epic poster for National Lampoon’s Vacation is all about intertextuality. The style is an homage to the film posters of yesteryear, with several of the film’s highlights depicted, but it also calls upon the viewer’s knowledge of iconic film posters like Barbarella or Conan The Barbarian to add humor and kitsch. But even with the lighthearted illustrations, the themes of the film are present: feeling powerful vs feeling inadequate, love vs lust, disaster vs triumph, patriarchy.

One of my favorite posters, the Pulp Fiction poster is as ‘meta’ as they come. The design is that of the cover of a pulp fiction novel, which Mia Wallace also happens to be reading. It’s a book in a book, that’s actually a movie. The style invokes the kind of pop-culture nostalgia that Tarantino is famed and loved for, but it’s not ‘all style no substance’ either. The image is not a still from the movie, so why is it there? It’s presenting the themes. Crime. Violence. Seduction. Pop-culture. Aah. Star Wars. An iconic poster if ever there was one. Notice a familiarity with the one for Vacation? Certain elements of the plot are hinted at, without revealing too much. Our main characters are introduced. Luke and Leia are both in white – as opposed to the darkness surrounding Darth Vader. Recognize a theme of good vs evil here? What about Luke fighting to get out of the shadow cast by his father – recurring theme in Star Wars? Oh yes. Add to that the alien landscape, the spaceships in motion and the droids trekking through the desert and you have the theme of ‘the journey’.

So there you have it, folks. Even if it’s not staring you right in the face, the best film posters will somehow hint at the themes of the film. Keep that in mind next time you sit down with your graphic designer.

The take-away from all this? “It’s not about what we’re being told. It’s about what’s being withheld.”

I went out and made a movie. An absolutely terrible movie. Nothing went the way I wanted, and I can’t even look at the finished product. Does this mean I’m a bad filmmaker? Should I give this up?

In a word, no. It’s good that you’re disappointed – if you didn’t think there’s anything wrong with your first dab at filmmaking, that would’ve been a red flag. A bad first experience in moviemaking does not mean a failed career. The first time you tackle anything, it’s bound to be a clumsy attempt, because you just don’t have a feel for it. Not yet.

I made my first movie, Mortal Coil: An Eric M. Blake Noir, for the 2013 Campus Movie Fest. I had this ambitious idea to take up Brian De Palma’s challenge to student filmmakers to make their first movie a silent movie. The story would be told without any dialogue – just acting and camera work.

You can look it up on YouTube, if you like. I already know it’s a mess.

There are many reasons for that. We didn’t have a good tripod at the time, so we had to hold the camera by hand. The way it looked forever alienated me to “shaky-cam”. And the last day of shooting, two key actors announced they’d be unavailable, so we had to improvise by “fudging” the story and experimenting with POV shots. As a result, the plot’s a bit muddled (“Doesn’t the guy have still have the money?”), and if you look carefully, you can see the tail end of the actress rushing out of a shot, because she’s not supposed to be in the scene. In short, “flawed” doesn’t even begin to describe this film. It was my first directorial effort. And it’s a mess.

I don’t regret making the film. It was my first real session of film school.

Arguably, in fact, a bad first movie is one of the best things to happen to you. It shakes you up, keeps you humble, and helps you self-critique, and learn. It’s better to get the “bugs” out of your system early on, while you’re still an amateur. You go out there, make the best film you can, and then look at what you made and ask yourself, “What do I like about this movie? What don’t I like?” Get constructive critiques. And then apply those lessons to your next project. If you truly love making movies – and if you’re honest about yourself – your work will get better.

Believe it or not, some of the great filmmakers of history have gone through this. Stanley Kubrick hated his first movie, Fear and Desire, so much that he apparently tried to gather up all the prints of the film, so no one would ever suffer from watching it again.

In 1996, Quentin Tarantino told Charlie Rose about his first movie, My Best Friend’s Birthday. As Quentin tells it, when he finally had the resources to process the footage, he ended up very disappointed, because “I did not have at all what I thought I had!”

You can see both Fear and Desire and My Best Friend’s Birthday on YouTube, by the way. I personally don’t think Quentin’s movie is that bad, which goes to show that sometimes, you really are your own worst critic.

Quentin went on to add that he did not regret making the movie, because “That was my film school.” He learned a lot about filmmaking by going out there with equipment and making a movie. In effect, he learned what to do and what not to do, in the best possible way.

After all, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice.

We did you a favor and found My Best Friend’s Birthday for you. If you don’t have 36 minutes to spare right now, at least skip to the 20 minute mark to see Quentin himself deliver the lines he later reused for the opening scene in True Romance. Classic.