28 days later

All I did here was to make the background black and white wile keeping the flames and Cillians charcter in color it separates and focuses the image a bit compared to the original.

Come & See

Come and See is one of those pieces of cinema that will never leave me. Very few have ever seen this russian film but is is the most powerful antiwar film I have ever seen. Come and See dose not romanticize war it shows it for what it is dirty and horrible. We watch the loss of innocents of Kravenko a child whose life is forever changed by Nazi occupation in Russia during WWII everything is taken from him and he is just trying to survive. I love this image it is so raw and you can see his pain and anguish grinding his teeth and holding his head like it is about to split in half it is captivating in every sense of the word. I took this image and tried to make it look caked in blood and dirt layers caked on top layers of the filth of what is happening. The image also lends itself because of Kravenko arm that he is trying to shield himself from it all but he cannot and he will never be the same.

Funny Games

So here is two covers for two different versions of the same movie the original 1997 german release and the 2007 American one. Both versions are directed by Michael Haneke and are essential shot for shot to each other. These films are horrifying and yet comical they make you shiver and close your eyes in anticipation of what is about to happen. The thing is throughout these films you never see the actual act of violence is all in implication and that is far worse your mind takes over and you imagine what isn't visually there, this is far more effective than the approach of films like saw or hostile. With these covers I wanted them to do a bit of the same you really are not sure what is going on but in you mind you know it isn't good you can kinda find yourself filling in the blanks which can lead your mind to dark places. I find these images to have a very unsettling effect even though they are really showing you nothing and that is how the films are. I did one for each version of the film figured it would make a nice criterion collection box set.

king of comedy

I loved the image from the film of DeNiro performing in front of the black and white audience pasted on the wall. It is a great scene in the film showing his psychotic obsessive delusions of grandeur, but the shot by itself does not pop enough. It feels muddy as a poster so I took a front color shot of DeNiro and replaced the silhouette.

Barfly

With this cover I wanted to try and make something out of nothing, which is not my forte. I have never seen this film though I want to, and there are very few images online, most of which are tiny. This is what I came up with.

Tale of two sisters

I just made this one... not sure how I feel about yet, but I figured I would share it. To me, even though A Tale of Two Sisters is a horror film it is also a very dramatic film so I tried to portray it dramatically while still giving it a ghostly eerie feel. This is another design that has about 6 layer overlays of texture to accomplish the feel I wanted.

2001 a space odyssey

When I think of 2001 I think of the mysterious black object. Provided, there were several shots of this I could use but this one is my favorite, so sterile. Thank you to Kubrick's brilliance; perfectly framed and flawlessly symmetric. After that all I did was place the equally beautiful image of HAL's reflection on the astronaut's mask.

Conformist

So The Conformist is one of the most visually breathtaking films I have ever seen. Trying to find good images was so easy. Trying to find appropriate ones was a little harder. I took a shot I adore of Marcello about to sell his soul because he is weak because he is afraid. The shadow overlay symbolizes Marcello's regret and hatred of himself for his weakness.

Pulp Fiction

In honor of the release of Inglourous Basterds I decided to make a cover for the Tarantino classic, Pulp Fiction.
This movie is hard to pin down in an image; there are just way to many story lines and characters so I went for the pulp side and just tried to give the design a kind of oldschool pulp comic feel with the halftones and beat up grainy overlay. Plus, nothing says Tarantino like people talking. He is famous for his dialog so big red juicy lips talking into a mic just makes sense.

Oldboy

This cover is inspired by the "A Clockwork Orange" book jacket (shown below). It's an image that I love and it was in my view when I was trying to figure out what to do with this cover. It just made sense. Provided, Old Boy is not A Clockwork Orange, but nothing is. There is something about the content in Old Boy that gives me the same feeling I get watching Clockwork. Therefore, it is a bit of a tribute to one of my favorite classic films within one of my favorite new ones that carries on the spirit of great fearless filmmaking. (Side note: I hate you, Steven Spielberg and Will Smith, for having the audacity to try and remake Old Boy)

Last Detail

I chose this shot because I love it and the blocking in it is perfect. You have your 3 characters that are the only important people in the film. The star, Jack Nicholson, sits subtly in the foreground but not overtaking the other 2 characters who are equally important to the story. Farthest back you have Randy Quaid, smaller than the other 2. Randy is staring off into space like a wide eyed child which is all he really is in the film. He's a slow simple kid who doesn't quite understand what he is in for. Jack and Otis are the grown-ups and the way the shot is framed and blocked helps enforce that. At the same time, these 2 characters are freezing their asses off and look like they are over it, which is how they feel in the film about their military duties.

I used big text to fill the open space and put some snow over the top to add some interest and bring together the image and text.

New world

This design consists of the original image overlaid with old paper and a copy of the original image with a halftone pattern plus alot of brightness and contrast adjustments. Below is my process terminology. It's kinda boring but shows you the process if you care.

proposition

There is not really deep meaning to this design. It just shows the beauty of this film and the breathtaking Australian outback. I took the original frame, played with the contrast a bit, painted over it in photoshop through a watercolor filter, and then overlaid it to make the colors pop and make the picture to feel more like a painting.

The original image

and below the overlay

I painted in photoshop

Closer

I love this film I think it is very underrated. It's brilliant in the most brutally honest way. We are flawed and often times selfish and horrible people. Closer is about that. If you have ever fallen into love with one person while you fell out of love with another, or done something purely out of spite, this movie is an amazing reflection of those feelings.

That being said, in this design the idea of the layout is that all four characters' lives overlap and they do so through each other. This cover tries to show the connection and the path of the connection through the image sequence. As for the images I chose and why I chose them, it is because in each picture each character is staring in a different direction. In each picture the character appears unhappy and you can feel they are all thinking different thoughts and have different intentions. The contrast of color and black and white is simply to separate the images so they stand out from each other. As for the text, it subtly moves closer together or, to me, it blurs farther apart. This represents our characters falling in and out of love and not knowing what they really want.

Irreversible

If ever there has been a hard film to watch, it is Irreversible. Nauseating at best, the erratic camera movement and spinning is disorienting. This image is from the one static shot in the whole film. It is the most difficult to watch and yet stunningly beautiful in its composition and color. I cropped the image just to the side of the horror, leaving enough reference to what is taking place but giving you breathing room. The text itself is the image inverted once again. I think it's simple but eye catching.

Persona

I have to thank the genius of Ingmar Bergman for giving two flawless images from the film to work with for this design. They are overlaid images of 2 women's faces. The film revolves around these two characters living together and one of them becoming the other in her mind, acquiring the persona of the other woman, if you will. So in the design we see the two women's faces together, one almost a shadow of the other, merged into one person. It's simple but effective.

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This may be my favorite cover that I have created. It's just crazy, fun, and trippy. I took a classic image from this 1920 German masterpiece of Avant Garde and modified it to conjure the feeling I got from the movie. My intention is for it to feel like a diorama inside a wooden cabinet or box. I tried to create this by using a picture of wood texture and piecing together with a little perspective and shading. The rest is much of the same: taking selected elements from the original image, enlarging them, and adding some shading and perspective to make it feel 3D on a 2D plain. If you haven't seen the movie, this is how I think the basic sets feel.

volver

In this cover I simply overlaid an image of Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) with a picture of her mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), who she believes to be dead in the film. If you examine the image closely, you will realize that they share an eye, a symbol of their relation, but also of their connection in their actions and their secrets. It was also my intention with the overlay to give Irene a ghostly feel, essentially what she is in the film. The red is solely a tip-of-the-hat to the film and the director's, Pedro Almodovar's, wonderful use of strong reds in all of his films.

The two images I used:

requiem for a dream

The is one of the first designs I made and still one of my favorites. Provided, in my mind, it is one of the most difficult and powerful films ever made and my favorite film as well. This image comes from right around the fall in the film where everything starts to go downhill, the mood changes, and the world falls apart. We see Harry (Jared Leto) and Marion (Jennifer Connelly) sitting on the couch mere feet from each other yet worlds apart, unable to connect, ashamed of their own actions and the actions of each other. I think, at its heart, that is the real idea of the film: people's inability to quite connect; so close, but not quite. The rift that causes that makes our characters fall, retreating into their addictions, and eventually destroying themselves and each other.

All I really did to this is was enhance the blues and add a bit of glow to the frame which is flawlessly shot and blocked by Darren Aronofski. Then I added the text with the same hue and subtle glow.

little children

This is as simple as you can get; a screen shot and small text. I chose this image because I feel it totally encapsulates the film. It is obviously sexual, as is the film, but in her eyes you can see everything: her shame, her regret, her fears, and desires and yet she is in this amazingly safe and protected situation. It is a perfect reflection of the conflict and beauty of the film. There is nothing I am capable of designing that is more effective than this single shot.

gomorrah

This cover I did without any actual images from the film due to the fact I couldn't find any good ones, and, as it hasn't been released yet, I can't really screen capture anything from the film itself. The image you see is that of the apartment complex in Naples in which most of the film takes place. It is such a central part of the film and a representation of the numerous characters and shorelines that I think it works perfectly in conveying this amazing film. I then added an overlay of splattered blood staining and tainting the location much as the Commora Mafia that occupies it does.

I was really pleased with this cover until I saw what Criterion Collection published as their dvd cover, and once again they put me to shame. Amazing work. That's why they get paid.

history

This cover is very simple and straight forward, but I feel it is effective and to the point. I took an image of Viggo Mortensan, and added a sliver of peeled back paper revealing his dark past. I darkened that half of the image and made it slightly more grainy as a representation of the unclarity and violence that resides in his past. I also placed and colored the type to enhance these ideas.

devils

In making this cover I decided to go to the root of the information. I really liked the book cover upon which the film is based, The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley.

I replicated the texture composition and layout but replaced the image of the demon with that of Oliver Reed, our dominant character. I found this image of him on trial as appropriate because at that moment in the film it is him against the world, standing with his beliefs in the face of being burned at the stake. I also added the subtle overlay of an upside down cross as a reflection of church corruption and the perverted and backwards thinking that was taking place at the time.