Movie Posters Project

Students will adopt a book on digital literacies, social media, or design from the collection at Limestone's A.J Eastwood Library and will imagine the book being made into a movie. They will create iterations of three or more movie posters imagining the movie as different genres (comedy, action, mystery, crime drama, documentary, love story, etc.) and will compose "movie posters" that utilize all their existing skills and knowledge on issues such as:

• Fonts and Types
• Color Theory
• Basic Design Principles
• Digital Photography Principles
• Image Editing
• Rhetoric of Framing
• Semiotics, and more...

They might glean ideas from sites such as Fandango, IMDB, Movies.com, etc. but will also explore the design of great movie posters from the past at Paste's The Top 100 Movie Posters of All Time, and Salon's 50 Beautiful Movie Posters.

Limestone's library has many books that would make ideal movie treatment topics - some sample titles are listed in this ad:

Each Student will produce a project that meets these criteria:

• 3 posters – each a different “take” on the same book.
• Posters should be printed in "tabloid" or "ledger" size - 11"x17" and may be either landscape or portrait in orientation.
• 1 poster must include original photography taken by YOU.
• 1 poster must feature a “legal use” image – with credit given, license identified, and source cited.
• Design consideration should be given to EACH element identified on the full Design/Semiotic/Rhetorical Analysis sheet.
• The Posters will be accompanied by a written “rationale” explaining your process, how your design(s) address the elements on the Design/Semiotic/Rhetorical Analysis Worksheet, skills you’ve learned and applied, etc. Each rationale should be expressive and complete, but each should be limited to 500 words or less.
• All 3 complete drafts due Wednesday, March 20 for workshop and review.  
• Final Drafts to be presented, with rationales, to the class on Monday, March 25.

Vlog for Friday's Photography Session

Analyzing & Imitating Style

Students will look at this print ad piece as an artifact to be analyzed, and as an exemplar for reflecting style.

Students will use an expanded Design Analysis Worksheet to analyze design principles of Contrast, Repetition, Proximity and Alignment,as well as Font/Type issues of Consistency, Contrast and Conflict. - and discussion of color as related to meaning, mood, complementarity, etc.

Students will also invent an ad that displays similar style considerations, e.g. use of fonts, alignments, image, proximity, etc. They will use images that have proper legal permission for use, such as public domain, creative commons, copy-left, etc. They will find an abundance of resources prepared for them at Dr. Nick's Delicious Links.  (They may especially like MorgueFile.)

They will post their creations alongside the original, along with thoughts from their analyses on their blogs. 

They will also post a separate blog entry with brief descriptions of various licenses for digital images, such as:

• Copyright
• Copyleft
• Public Domain
• Creative Commons (various licenses)

Imitation is the highest form of... design?

Our Digital Literacies Students are engaging design principles by imitation... to learn the ins and outs of their software. Here are a couple of project you might want to try...

READY?

Imitate this poster...

by using this picture and this picture.

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And imitate THIS ONE...

by using this image - and this image..

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And while you're at it - pick a color used in one of these designs - or in a design of your choice - and think about what colors "mean" in design.  Explore this interactive site to learn about complimentary colors, split compliments, use of colors as symbols, etc...  http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/colors/Colors.html