Viral
Viral: The tv pilot about a shy office drone who tries to save the 'Viral Reality' project. The company responsible for creating every viral video.
In this month's BGB Photography Exclusive, I take you through the process of creating a poster for a movie or TV show.
The process mainly includes planning, scheduling and multiple drafts of different ideas, concepts and arrangements.
Viral started out as a simple idea in Ryan Thomas's (the director) head. He envisioned something rather simple, but it didn't really turn out the way he intended in the beginning. Below is the first draft of the logo that was imagined.
The first concept ideas of Viral.
Something wasn't right. It wasn't striking the team's vision. It wasn't representing what we had as a story. Eventually, it was up to me to take his idea and turn it into something that pops to a viewer.
I took a couple days and thought deeply about the story I read from the script. I imagined what it would feel like working at this company. I imagined what kind of environment these workers spent hours in working on these viral videos. And then it hit me. I remember seeing photos of the YouTube and Google offices. They were so modern and simple. Yet their design stuck in your mind. You know who they were the minute you saw their logo or office.
The first 'modern' logo design.
The first draft of the new Viral logo still wasn't that great. It still lacked that aesthetic we were looking for in a modern company. It wasn't until flipping through a couple magazines where I saw a sign on a building that was made of some sort of 3D acrylic. It was exactly what I was trying to envision. I finally had my idea.
The Final Logo
We had our logo.
After principle photography wrapped, we spent the next couple of weeks thinking about poster ideas. At first, we were thinking of just using the logo and nothing else. But that's obviously a lazy and boring choice! This is show business! You have to go out with a bang!
We ended up scheduling our actors to come in and do a complete photo series for Viral.
The set up was simple. We used two Kino Flos set up next to eachother camera left and right. We shot against a white background which was illuminated with a 580ex ii flash directly behind the actor.
The end results were absolutely amazing. They turned out exactly the way we wanted them to. We ended up with 4-5 great ideas after the shoot.
A simple ad for Viral with a great hashtag quote for each character was created.
One of the multiple ideas we had with our actors. This one was used as a Facebook banner.
The poster was created simply by applying all these elements into one full image. A movie poster consists of the actor's names, the logo, the picture or element for the film, and finally the credit block. All these elements combined create the poster. Sounds simple right? Sure- Until your idea doesn't work with the film. As stated above, Viral has been in the works for quite some time. It wasn't until about a week ago where we finally locked picture and moved onto sound and music.
The final product turned out to be quite amazing. It's simplicity is so intricate. It leaves the viewer wanting to see Viral. That's exactly what a poster is supposed to do after all.
The Final Image
- Brendan