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Comedy Movie Poster Tutorial
Comedy movie posters have a recognizable style that communicates: This. Film. Funny. Follow this simple tutorial to create your own comedy movie poster and avoid the horror of anyone taking your film seriously. -
Author: Enni Tuomisalo,
Filmmaker, Writer & Designer with 10+ years of design experience.Related Posts
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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.)
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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.
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3. Add your title
Make it big and fat. To see some great open source font options, click the image.
Red and yellow are the safest color choices, along with black (or white on teal background). We’ve used a slight gradient and a light shadow / outer glow.
Play around with 3D effects if you must, but avoid default ‘bevel / emboss’ filters on Photoshop. Instead, download some sophisticated actions, like this. Many of them are free and save you hours of trouble.
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4. Add one-liners
No rules, except that they have to be funny. Clever. Brilliant. Otherwise, this poster will fail. So no pressure. Go sit on the toilet and think.
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5. Choose your color
If it’s a romantic comedy, go with white, soft blue or yellow. If it’s not so romantic, go bright. Again, blue and yellow are the safest choices but there is some room to experiment, just stay within the primary range.
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File format & size: Zipped PSD, 3.2 Mb
Resolution: 150dpi
Color space: CMYK (print ready)
Print size: ONE SHEET (27 x 40″)
Actual size: 28 x 41″ (with bleeds and crop marks) -
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