About Me

FAQ #3

Q: Hey, will you design key art for my film?

A: You know what, I might. I don’t actually care that much what your budget is. I just want to be inspired by you or your work. If it’s an interesting idea, a compelling script, or the talents involved are people I’d like to work with, then yes, yes, yes. I don’t really care whether you are making a short film or a feature, a doco or a three-part epic. It’s easier, more fun, and also produces more interesting key art when the project moves me.

A few points to note:

Market posters can be produced, but you’ll need a good script and/or some compelling filmmaking talent to get my gander up.

I know: you’re not finished cutting and the sound is temp and the effects are placeholders and some of the dialogue needs fixing and the grade will save the visuals. It’s okay. I rarely see films these days that are finished.

You really don’t need key art as a cover for your unfilmed script. Trust me on this one. Save your money for a rewrite instead.

Any project promoting any form of religion will be rejected immediately. Other than that I’m pretty open to anything.

I’m more than happy to do shorts and no-budget-feature jobs, providing I have the time – and the fiscal room to manoeuvre at the time. These jobs tend to be the most offered and least-taken; it’s nothing personal – despite my good intentions I still have bills to pay. Golden Rule is: get in as early as you can.

I’d much rather work with nice people than be rich.

I reserve the right to do a job just because it pays well even if I think the film is a dog. My principles have limits, except for the religion thing.

Copyright

All unused art is copyright ©2002-2010 Jeremy Saunders.
All published artworks copyright ©2002-2010 Jeremy Saunders except:

The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Don’t Move
The Door in the Floor
Good Night and Good Luck
Look at Me
PS
Marigold
Masai
The Motorcycle Diaries
Tarnation
Vera Drake
Water
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
The Weeping Camel
The World’s Fastest Indian

copyright ©Becker Group

Candy
Oyster Farmer

copyright ©Becker Group/Sherman Pictures

Little Fish
Suburban Mayhem

copyright ©Icon Films
Reproduced with permission.

Works ©Jeremy Saunders may be reproduced online for strictly non-commercial purposes, with attribution. Please contact me regarding use or reproduction beyond this. Reasonable use is rarely refused.

My first poster

Comrades –

I grew up in a tiny village tucked away in the heart of the Cotswolds, in the west of England. In the 1970s, exhibition was feeling the pinch from television; as a result our nearest cinema was over twenty miles away, which is a long way when you’re six and an impatiently budding cinephile. So trips to the cinema felt rare and were much cherished.

There was a more regular source for my passions, however. I’d often see key art reproduced as advertisements in my Mickey Mouse or 2000AD comics. Seeing Robert McGinnis’ wonderful artwork for Live and Let Die for example — even in low-resolution black and white — meant on some level I could experience the film in the absence of actually seeing it. I remember imagining the films based on the details of each poster: the events that led up to this boat chase, or the appearance of that crocodile, or what could be causing that composition-defining explosion behind Roger Moore’s laconic, iconic figure. So I suppose my current vocation was in some way predestined.

It took some time for me to arrive where I am; a brace of aborted attempts at a real education and adventures in music retail kept me off the streets, until one day the fates smiled on me and lent me a bent copy of Photoshop 4.0 LE for the weekend. It’s not a great exaggeration to say Adobe saved my life. I have never looked back (but I have purchased legitimate versions).

It’s still my ambition to inspire in the viewer that same sense of excitement or intrigue that I felt lying on my bedroom floor leafing through monochrome advertisements: that need to discover precisely what feelings, ideas or emotions the key art represents, what treats and surprises are in store when the viewer steps into the darkened auditorium. For me cinema is still the most magical of mediums; having the opportunity to work with filmmakers and compressing their ideas into a single, reductive, seductive image is a dream come true. Hopefully there are some six-year-olds in country towns (with admittedly advanced art-house sensibilities) who may be similarly inspired.

I’ve yet to have a chance at designing a Bond poster, but like my six-year-old self, I live in hope…

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to get in touch.

Jeremy

FAQ #2

Can I buy one of your posters?

Unfortunately Australian posters are only produced for the theatres and not reprinted for the general public.

I’ve decided to sell off the very few copies I have in my storeroom. They are unused and somewhere between MINT and VERY GOOD. Plus, it’s not like you can get them anywhere else, right?

Well, there is one place: try Phil Edwards at www.cinemarts.com as he manages to get his hands on some of them, and he credits me by name.

Note: Don’t, don’t, DON’T buy the horrible quality, copyright-breaching shit from Pop Culture Graphics on Amazon.com. They are not original posters, and are exactly the sort of quality you’d get if you were to print out images you’d nicked from IMPAwards…

EDIT: The shop is closed at the moment, but will re-open shortly.

FAQ #1

How can I get into making film posters?

Okay, firstly we call it key art, not film posters. It sounds Far More Important and we can also make believe we’ll still have jobs in five years’ time when no-one prints posters anymore.

Basically any design skills are secondary to your ability to analyse and dissect a film, and interpret the film in a creative way (this is a good thing as I — obviously — cannot design for shit). Which takes a lot of watching and discussing films — the design bit is just a simple spewing out of ideas you’ve already worked through in your head. Stay away from high concept blockbusters and immerse yourself in stuff with ideas. Watch The Cremaster Cycle. Watch The Holy Mountain. Watch The Seventh Continent. Watch Inland Empire. Anything that makes you think ‘what the?’ but is obviously dripping with ideas just beyond your grasp is a good place to start. Watch stuff in other languages, from other cultures.

Analyse and interpret, and work out what you want to say about what the film wants to say. Think about who would enjoy the film and what they would enjoy about it. And even if you hate it, you have to analyse what people who will like it would want to see on the poster, that will attract them to come along and pay their $15. So aside from the gut response you have to have a really strong marketing instinct. It’s not art — graphic design is about selling stuff and all the technical skill in the world will not help if you don’t understand sales and marketing.

Roll it all up and design ‘posters’ for everything you watch (if only in your head). Visit IMPAwards.com regularly. I’d suggest trying to do book jackets or cd covers as well, given they are solely metaphorical and ideas-based, rather than measuring actors’ heads to avoid getting shouted at by their agents, which is dull.

Short film-makers always want posters and dvd slicks for their films whether they need them or not, so that’s a good place to start. Hassle the local film school or theatre companies for work. You may be doing stuff for free or cheap but it’s all about getting contacts and a portfolio up together. Don’t think of it as selling your soul.

That comes the first time you have to disregard everything I’ve just said and stick three actors’ heads floating in the sky.

Good luck!