Comedy Movie Poster Tutorial

1. Photograph your cast

Use a studio or other controlled environment. Set up flattering lighting with no harsh shadows. Even if you decide to go for the popular brick wall background, your cast must glow with health and vitality.

The safest bet is to photograph each cast member separately. This way you have more choice as to how you will position them later. Unless it’s a romantic comedy and you absolutely want to have your lovers touching in some way – Back-to-back being the most utilised (overused) position.

Plan the scene. The poster should pitch the story of your film in a very VERY simple terms, i.e. “Hipster is caught between an ample bosom and a rich bitch who walks around holding bird cages, as his dog does yoga.” Have each cast member (over) act out the appropriate thought / emotion. You can include some key props, weirder the better.

(Our sample photos are from Bigstock.com. They are not included in the PSD template for copyright reasons. Also, you don’t need them.)

2. Create the scene (and polish)

Remove pimples, spit bubbles, scars and other imperfections. If you’re not a Photoshop wizard but want to reach that proper flawless-but-not-plastic look, follow a good tutorial such as THIS.

Bring your polished pics together in a correct size Photoshop file. Download the ONE SHEET (standard poster size) template on this page. It has the bleeds and crop marks, you don’t have to worry about those. This is the largest size you will need and can be easily scaled down to create various digital sizes later on.