For this brief, I was allocated a group of students from the FTT (Film, Theatre and Television) Department to design a poster and other needed promotional materials for their film project. My group was the creators of 'Maternal', a film following a single mother and her strained relationship with her son and absent husband in a dystopian setting.
A collection of moodboards and specific film poster inspirations were provided from the students, as well as their film’s storyboards, to allow the ideation process to begin. From these resources, a selection of specific visual and storyline components was created to be used as possible focal points for the poster, listed below and reflected in the initial sketches.
- Dark lighting and colours to reflect themes (dystopia, mystery, thriller)
- Visual effect depicting a faceless father figure (mirroring the absent father being purposely faceless throughout the whole the film)
- Steaming teacup
- Bright red rose (in reference to the Red Rose company from the film)
- Family setting
Concept 1
Concept 1 revolved around the family setting idea in form of a family portrait poster and a visual representation of the absent father. The left sketch depicts a zoomed in concept, where the film title and credits would act as the photograph’s name and details, as if it were on display; although sketched poorly, the zoomed-in feature was done to cut out the father’s presence. The middle and right sketch are essentially the same, though the right sketch depicts the photograph as a display object, whilst the middle makes the photograph the poster itself; here, the father’s face in the family portrait is scratched out with a rose, the rose staying stuck in the photograph itself. The middle version of this concept was favoured by the students and further developed to the eventual final output, where the rose is instead in the mother's hand.
Concept 2 evolved around the red rose concept. The first two sketches took inspiration from the moodboard with the teacup images. The left sketch is an above perspective of a teacup filled with a liquid and rose petals, the petals also being scattered on the table to represent the Red Rose company’s omnipresence. The middle sketch is a front perspective of the left sketch in a kitchen setting. The right sketch depicts the mother clutching a bouquet of roses, with blood on her hands to show inner turmoil.
Other concepts
Other concepts included: To mirror the end of the film, the son and father are seen walking into a forest and there was an idea of potentially having the son look back towards the camera. The third sketch depicts the mother looking into a mirror with a cracked frame, her reflection being the film’s title and credits, to suggest an identity struggle; is the mother only seen for her maternal aspect?