I collaborated with the Puerto Rican Filmmaker Ariel Orama López. Over the last three years, I have designed posters for five of his short films: One (2018), Mariano (2018), #Bóxers (2018), 2Hoom (2020), and [Y] (2020). His critically acclaimed short film One, an homage to the victims from Hurricane Maria, has won several international prizes, was eligible for the Oscars in 2020, and it has been in official selections of 34 international festivals, such as the Five Continents International Film Festival (2019), Los Angeles CineFest (2019), and the Festival Internacional de Cine de Yécora (2019).
As I mentioned in my book, Ecuadorian Cinema Poster: 1963-2013, “The poster’s main function is to promote films to potential viewers in an easy and economical way. Consequently, the poster is a byproduct of graphic design, graphic art, advertising, marketing, and the film itself.” (p. 27) Therefore the design of the film poster is always a conversation between designers and filmmakers. Designers explain the reasoning behind fonts, colors, layouts, and theme selections while filmmakers express the film's essence, genre, and tone. There may be circumstances where the illustrator and filmmaker differ, but the filmmaker has the final word. Both designers and filmmakers search for a concise unit between the poster and the film. The poster appeals to potential viewers to watch the film creating an expectation. After watching the movie, viewers will consciously or unconsciously reevaluate the film poster deciding if the expectation was met.
I invite you to watch his short films and see if the posters fulfill their mission.
Reference:
Dillon, M. (2013). Ecuadorian Cinema Poster: 1963-2013. CCE.
March 2021