For my mini multimodal project, I decided to make a movie poster for Dry. I thought about all of the different formats and what elements of each appealed to me. The movie trailers in particular were fun and interesting, but I shied away from making one myself since we already saw a few in class specifically for Dry. Looking at other mediums I liked such as zines and PSAs, I got the idea to combine elements of each of these mediums and make a movie poster. Before I started, I had a few things in mind that I wanted to achieve with this poster:
- Use shades of humor while still conveying the grave circumstances through urgency and seriousness. This is something I noticed the book did quite well.
- Give the viewer an idea of each character's personality without spoiling/giving away too much.
- Create a poster that is visually cohesive and remains faithful to the book. In other words, though I was making a movie poster, I still wanted to make a poster which could be appropriately used to advertise or introduce the book.
With the finished product, I think I achieved these three core goals. I used canva to create the poster, which was generally pleasant to use, but my main gripe with it was a lot of tools that it provided were behind a paywall. As a result of this, four of the five character illustrations are watermarked which is lame. Beyond this though, I will give credit to canva for it's vast yet easy to navigate toolset that it provides the user. All of the graphics, fonts, and images were as easy as searching or clicking around for your desired tool. I tried my best to get character illustrations that were both cohesive (keyword tried) to each other while still resembling the characters of the story in some ways. I think the characters that mimic my internal interpretation best are Kelton and Jacqui. This is mainly due to their physical features and their posture/stance, such as Jacqui's sassy and aggressive presentation, to Kelton's shy yet approachable personality.
Beyond this, I knew the pictures alone wouldn't be enough to tell the viewer which character was who, so I included their names along with a short descriptor. I found this to be harder than I first expected, as certain characters differ depending on if we look at them outwardly, versus how they portray themselves from their own perspective and point of view. For example, throughout the book, Jacqui reveals that she doubts her strength and abilities to make tough decisions, while the other characters see her as a "badass" type character who is capable of anything. With this in mind, I defined each character through how they were viewed from an outside perspective, and not how they viewed themselves internally.
Another struggle I had with this project was maintaining a balance of visuals. I wanted to make something that looked half decent and also gave the viewer a good idea of what Dry is about, whether in movie or book format. At one point, I had a water faucet graphic along with some fire illustrations, but however I orientated them, it just made the poster look too cluttered and busy. I think one of the best visual elements of my poster is the background, which helps the title stick out while also maintaining the tone/style of the book. Without the background, I just had a red/orange gradient background which fit the theme of the story but looked a bit unprofessional and was too clean/friendly for the story.
With the multimodal approach, I think the process of brainstorming and creating the poster very much amplified learning. Although canva provided me with a lot of useful tools and resources, it was still up to me to pick and choose them and then arrange them in a way which I was happy with and fit the book's already established identity. I would definitely consider having movie trailers/posters as an assignment in my own class, as it would give students an opportunity to think back to their experience reading the book, and force them to be selective in what they choose to then create something artistic while remaining loyal to the story covered in class.
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ReplyDeleteHey Seth!
ReplyDeleteI really like your movie poster. I also used Canva for my project and find it to be one of the easier platforms to maneuver and use, so I am glad you also found it useful! The first thing that sticks out to me is the great color you chose. It really draws your eye in and seems to be a great visual setting as to where this book takes place. I also really like how you gave each character a little blurb like, "The Boy Scout" for Kelton or "The Leader" for Alyssa, great additions that make me want to know why they have these titles. The poster definitely makes me want to check out the book, Dry! Awesome job ◡̈
I love the idea of a movie poster! I think yours came out really well and is very captivating. The taglines are amazing, and the images can help it feel relatable to a teen reader right off the bat. I think movie posters are a great idea for assignments for students because it can assess their knowledge of the book while also encouraging them to put thought into audience, marketing, and visualization. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Seth! Really cool poster! It looks professionally made which is very impressive with just the free version of Canva, even with the watermarks. Quick question, are there any actors that you think would be good as any of Dry's characters?
ReplyDeleteHey Seth! Love the poster! A good movie poster can make or break a movie, or at least somebodys interest in it. I really like the modern animation feel to it! Did you make the characters yourself? They each have a certain feel to them jsut by the image that I think is really helpful and engaging. It makes me want to know more about them and drag me into the book which is about as effective as you can wish to get! It looks sick, nice job!
ReplyDeleteGreat poster Seth! I think your short character description work wonderfully in your poster. If I had not read the novel the short character description would really catch my curiosity. I would be tempted to find out how these very different characters function together. Having read the novel I think your description really highlight each character's dominant trait. I particularly liked "the charlatan." That was spot on! LOL
ReplyDeleteHey Seth! I think your poster is a nice blend of both creativity and representation of the characters in the novel. You were able to accurately illustrate how the characters were described in the novel, while also being able to put his on twist on them, and I found that to be admirable. Overall, I think posters are an interesting creative artistic outlet that I hope students utilize while doing projects in my future classrooms!
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