Yet to be titled cinema project.

-Warning what your about to read may or may not make any sense what so ever, let this be a reminder to people who put stuff up on the internet, never do it when you're exhuasted. You'll only look silly.-

So, this past week has ultimately been rather quiet. So I've been picking around through some old work to see if it can lend a hand with coming up with a project or two. 

It paid off surprisingly and it leads nicely into my current idea. 

Cinema. Or the be more precise the decline in the smaller lesser known independently run organisations around the UK.

The idea is full of hypotheticals right now as I have yet to observe the current infrastructure of the cinema industry, but what my main goal is to see if I can create a campaign that would help bring interest back to these smaller cinemas.  Some of these establishments are well known for being a little more creative than the much larger corporations such as Vue and Odeon, such has having film nights, replaying classic films, foreign films, and mini conventions showing off artwork and Q&A sessions with film makers. 

These elements help make the smaller cinemas stand out, but in some ways I don't think they stand out enough. The original concept of cinema was to express ideas and to tell a story visually with elements that can't be told in a verbal format. I think over time most of use lost that sense of exploration that comes with cinema instead falling into the pit of one Hollywood blockbuster after another. While I'm not condemning cinema for being a largely American industry, in my opinion I think sometimes the people can be missing out on a more enriching experiance if they gave other films/directors/even different countries a chance of showing what they can do. 

My overall plan then for this campaign is to do something big, (We all say that about our projects but stay with me here.)

So far I only have a rough bare bones idea on what I am working with. My plan is to help bring to light these cinema's that are suffering and perhaps give them a wider audience for people who not only enjoy film, but want to reach out and explore a different format in cinema. 

This could include old films British, American, European - films that are not as well known by the current generation. 

Foreign films - Famous directors such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amile), Hayo Miyazaki, have a large fan base, but sadly because these films are foreign there is often a good chance that they will be pushed to a straight to DVD format, often cheating people of the chance to go see the film in a cinema as intended. 

Smaller independent films - While this is becoming less of a problem in America with the Sundance Film festival I feel that smaller independent films are still suffering outside of these events because of their lack of coverage. The Sundance FF has created a format that has allowed for very small independent film makers to be able to produce and show their work. It could be possible to incorporate these ideas into a scheme for British film makers as well. 

A rough idea of what would work be produced - 

Branding - logo

Website 

Posters

Web ads

Website

While they are the typical bare bones of the idea I am getting across a style already. I'm currently exploring artistic styles relating to older film posters (don't worry it's not more Saul Bass, but you'll be seeing more of that in the future). I'm exploring the old style Grindhouse posters as a style of long forgotten cinema that has a goofy but ultimately different thematic style to them. My only concern though is that it really does limit your visual elements as well as the Grindhouse genera wasn't really a PG setting. So while I could perhaps use it with the connotations for film buffs in mind I am considering exploring outside that element, perhaps even forming a whole new kind of poster. 

Here's a snippet of ideas. It's sort of at the top of my idea chain, (sort of like a food chain but with ideas),

it was mocked up while I was pulling together bits and bobs to help get the ball rolling. I'm prone to sketch out ideas and little snippets, but I enjoyed working on this one a lot so I kept it hanging around. 

I totally forgot John Hurt was in this film. How do I keep doing that?

It needs a good polish though, there are a few things lacking, for example there is no real depth to the poster, and sadly the only high resolution image of the Xenamoprh I could get my mitts on was from Alien Vs Predator. *shudders* I may invest in the fancy Alien skull boxed set purely for a better image of the beastie. 

I may even pull the "Jaws" and not show the monster since that's the ol' trick of cinema (sort of lacking today) is to only show the monster partially and let the imagination go wild. Perhaps I should take cues from the original poster and use the face hugger egg instead as that as always been a far more predominant image in advertising for the original Alien. 

Perhaps a fresh version of this poster may crop up when I have the time as I really enjoyed working on this one, the type especially as it's rare that I make myself do movie posters, it was fun to come up with creative ways of displaying the cast list that wasn't in the conventional 'tiny text and the bottom of the poster' routine. 

Well that's all we have time for today kiddies. Minecraft beckons to me but I'm going to resist and go and scribble stuff for you all to stare in awe at. 

Until next time. Keep cool y'all.