While reflecting on the development of my ideas for the comedy film poster, I read this funny, but thought provoking comment from the internet, regarding Eddie Murphy’s appearance and the recurring, similar, red font typeface in film posters featuring this actor in popular mainstream comedies. The resulting film posters have a striking similarity:
“The guy loves doing wacky shit in funny costumes above or below huge red font, thats the only explanation I can think of. I mean, one or two covers is one thing, but really? Every damn cover from the last 15 years needs to look the same? And while the art on the cover isn’t all identical, at least not like those first examples, every one of those looks the same. It’s always either a giant mug of Eddie Murphy, usually dressed up in cooky shit, or its him interacting with other ZAAANY characters in a family friendly way. And, I would like to point out, other than Bowfinger, every one of these is after his “good” period. It’s very obvious that Eddie Murphy’s decline in humor matched his DVD and VHS cover’s rise in the use of red font. 48 Hours? Nope, no red block letters. Coming to America? Nope. How about Beverly Hills Cop? Really? Thats not the same generic family-friendly font either? Wow.” (Anonymous blog)
The comments
are thought provoking; in the way that the reader is encouraged to realize that
the designers were deliberately trying to maintain the hype surrounding Eddie
Murphy’s history of successful comedy, through repeating the upbeat image of
Eddie Murphy’s portrait or mid-shot, and those of his funny supporting cast
against blank backgrounds. The easily recognizable font and typescript – bright
red, with or without the white outline or shadows (possibly Helvetica or Comic
sans) can be seen in a similar context to the distinctive ‘M’ of McDonald’s
which had proven popularity and success with the public. (See earlier blog on
evolution of 2 typefaces) It is obviously important to the movie producers that
their movie product is anticipated by the public as’ just as funny’, or, ‘more
of the same.’
While I planned
my final comedy film poster to be structured in much the same way as the Dr Dolittle
posters above, so the movie going public would easily identify the comedy
genre, the evolution of my movie posters has not been as straightforward or as repetitive
as the Eddie Murphy, film poster history; I was interested in the aesthetic
elements, such as the placement of a credible and easily identifiable New York
street background- note the gradual change in street views during my poster
evolution; I am very happy with the final background solution as it creates a
deep sense of space, the view behind the characters is increasingly cinematic.
To my mind, this is a great improvement on the simply constructed Eddie Murphy
Doctor Dolittle posters.
All initial
images for my poster seem to have been conceived with such a strong idea of the
back story in mind, that I chose portraits of people with thoughtful,
preoccupied, non-funny/non - happy faces. My first poster draft contained a
figure with an interesting silhouette, because I wanted to define his
stethoscope and doctor’s coat in a subtle way. Unfortunately, subtlety is not a
characteristic of mainstream family humour, so I was disappointed with the
outcome.
Although the
draft for the second poster was directly related to the obvious characteristics
of the Eddie Murphy posters, with the image of the happy bald ‘Dr’ (Dr Phil) laughing
crazily, my poster appeared like a duplicate of these, with no hint of a unique
back story. The final poster solution is more satisfactory in terms of the
interconnectedness of the characters; although my profile portrait is serious,
the faces of the woman and the man to the right and left, are smiling –
implying that they don’t take my character seriously; the back story is hinted
at, enticing potential audiences.
I am also
satisfied with the final font choice and typeface; it is huge, bold and echoes
the name of Doctor Dohuge, while still keeping the similar red tones of Eddie
Murphy posters. I think the addition of the tag line ‘Size Matters’ in white,
adds another comic dimension to the poster back story, and the white lettering
for the actors’ names visually links the
tag line.
Unfortunately
to conclude my reflection, I realise that I still need to pace myself with my
working approach to design. It is adrenalin that drives me, to create, often at
the last minute; I have not previously documented the evolution of the wallet,
minute manila folder and prescription- style ticket which I created as part of
the design brief, to celebrate the Doctor Dohuge theme. Although I am satisfied
with the process of creating the template for the tiny manila folder, and the
realistic prescription, with the hand written typeface, which I deliberately
wrote in typical illegible, Doctor’s writing, I aim to improve my time
management next year.
.
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