Judges Votes and Feedback on the Poster Competition!

First of all a big thank you to our amazing judges, for giving their expertise and their valuable time to our poster competition and helping us to find the right poster for "Clowning Around" while also sharing some of their insight and feedback about the particular posters they chose, both for the competition entrants and for us all to benefit from their collective knowledge.


MATTHEW LEYLAND from 'Total Film' Magazine

OK.... thought they were all quality but these 3 really made my bow-tie whirl!

1) MYISH ENDONILA - The caption "Will work for booze" made me laugh straight away but what I really love is how so much is packed into the picture without seeming cluttered: the rivalry, the haplessness, the alcoholism, the violence... the flying pies add a great dynamic element. I would definitely, definitely want to see this film!

2) JENNY LAW - Another instantly witty image - love the use of red that guides you to the noses but also the bottles, which hint more subtly than some of the other posters at the alcoholism theme. A simple, strong, chic, cool composition.

3) ANDREW SMITH - Harks back to classic film posters by Saul Bass; nice use of metaphor - you immediately 'get' what this film's about - but it retains an air of mystery that makes you want to know more.


CHRIS JONES, Filmmaker and Author of The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook

1st: Ramon Bonilla
I liked the fact that it worked from a distance, was bold and iconic. The more I looked, so more detail revealed itself. Great work.

2nd: Myish Endonila
Again strong, simple and clear message that worked the irony of the concept in very well. Felt very much like a film poster too. It's also a gut choice.

3rd: Jenny Law
Simple and effective. I like the boldness of a graphic design and composition and colour worked very well. Lovely artwork that any film maker would have been delighted with.


BEN AND CHRIS BLAINE, UK Filmmaking Brothers from Charlie Productions

1st: Stuart Johnston
This suggests loads. Feels like if you had him looking up out of the bottle that would give this poster all it needs - that sense of hope. Him staring straight out of the bottle feels like there's not much hope. But the idea of him being stuck in the bottle is nice. The colours work well. The park bench and the balloon floating off give it something extra, a feeling that the film is going to give you those pertinent little details that will make it a deep and affecting film. However... the bottle doesn't quite sell alcohol to us. feels more like a bottle of premium water than booze - don't know what the tipple of choice in the film is but if it's wine he's quite a refined alcoholic. And if you went for a different, broader bottle such as one for whisky, that might give the chance to use more space - there's lots of blanks here. Love the rival staring in via the balloons, feels nice. Also like the font used for the title

2nd: Andrew Smith
Like this one a lot. Don't quite like the colour choice though - it might just be the compression but the red nose and the red splurge on his chest clash horribly with the blue. And that splurge doesn't need to be there. If it were just the nose it'd feel much stronger - you're telling me he's a clown, all I need to see is the nose. And perhaps you could have made him have clown shoes. Having him stuck inside the bottle but looking up gives me the story that he's an alcoholic clown who's looking to sort himself out. It's hopeful, and the simple but artful design makes me think of French New Wave films and makes me feel like I'll see something a bit different. Maybe that's not the film though...

3rd: Myish Endonila
This in many ways feels like the most polished of the posters. Certainly the one that sells it most as a comedy. However it feels like the main chap could do with being closer - there's a lot of wasted space below the sign round his neck which could have been lost in order to make him larger on the poster - there's a certain distance thanks to the pies being thrown at him which makes it feel a little like we're being asked to laugh at the loser, rather than necessarily empathising with him... The curtains feel a little sharp on the edges. The bad guy hovering in the background letting our main chap take the pratfall is nice, though is the story that he's aloof and better than him, or is it that he's actively trying to do the main chap in? In which case a different image of him might have worked better. However, not sure if that is the tale - if it is that he's aloof to it all, then it works ok.


CHRIS PATMORE Editor of Film & Festivals Magazine


1st: Andrew Smith
Simple graphical approach that captures the eye, while explaining the film's concept.

2nd: Miguel Ibarra
Striking use of illustration (not enough illustration used in film posters any more)

3rd: Ramon Bonilla
Powerful use of the photography and interesting use of typography, just a bit concerned that it is a little hard to read and much to close to the trim.


DEAN HARMER Creative Director at Aitch Creative

Myish Endonila
Just has all the ingredients for a good movie poster ... has focus and clarity, tells a little of the story - certainly enough to be intriguing (though i think a little TOO much blurring on the pie-dishes ... and some twinkly lights which don't seem to add anything, for me!) think that this submissions' designer is a designer - with a good sense of balance and impact and order of information.

Miguel Ibarra
I really like the simplicity and clarity of this ... though I can't help thinking that it's not quite finished - in that I think that the addition of a bottle in the hand, the cast along the top and a good strapline which adds a sense of context - would pull it right up!!

Jenny Law/Andrew Smith
i really cannot decide between the two illustrative designs. The blue bottle is a gorgeous, arty-house styled image - with good, strong type .. again - i still think it needs a little more to give you a better indicator of context - a good strong look. The orange one has a much more 'appropriate' feel - with the pair of clowns, the sense of fun with the balloon and the bottles - with an irregular border - makes it more 'rough and ready' but the whole is dampened by a muddy colour scheme ... resulting in the character images being indistinct if i were walking past...



JOHN CONDON Founder of OTT Films and Professional Creative Director

1st Place
Myish Endonila - In here is a good film poster, trying to get out. The story is all there - The drunk clown. The Antagonist literally 'waiting in the wings' for him to meet his seemingly inevitable doom (represented by the custard pies). Bonzo's expression, clearly that of a broken man and one resigned to his fate. So, all present and correct. However, the poster is very busy as a result. The curtains distract the eye. The blue background is unnecessarily lacking contrast from Bonzo, which it should have to ensure he stands out and remains the focus of my attention. So, a darker background, the curtains more realistic and partially hidden in the shadow, Bonzo caught in the spotlight and the removal of the tomato (an idea too far, albeit a good one) and you would have a solid film poster here. As it stands, it lacks the level of polish that the rest of the project has benefited from. If you can get a second round of tweaks from Myish, without it breaking the competition rules, this could be a very tidy and descriptive poster. At the moment it's my begrudging choice for your WINNER.

2ND PLACE
Miguel Ibarra - Very nicely sketched with a simple colour palette and one 'captivating' image. In graphic terms it's an engaging image too. However, much like many of the other 'style over content' posters it misses the 'story' and focuses on only one of its themes...that of depression...there is an unhappy clown! So? There are loads of films, stories and paintings of 'Unhappy clowns'. What makes this one so special? This poster fails to answer that question adequately enough for me. It tells me nothing of any consequence about the film and whilst it would catch my eye (job number one) it would fail to engage my curiosity enough to part with my money (job number two). But it excites me. So I'd want it to be developed and pushed further. How would I suggest Miguel do that? Perhaps Bonzo holding a balloon in his right hand (left as we see it) with Fernelli's shit eating expression doodled across it, looking down on our hero. A bow tie ribbon tied to the base of the balloon. A great visual representation of Fernelli's over inflated ego and his lofty position of popularity above Bonzo. Perhaps a bottle in Bonzo's hanging right hand? That may end up being too much but I'd have liked to have seen it. And of course I'd add an effective tagline. My pint being that if this poster had a second idea in here; something more relevant to the story (what I described is just an example) then this would probably be my WINNER. As it stands though, it would be my runner up.


3RD PLACE
Ramon Bonilla - This is a seriously bold image. Were I to walk in to the foyer of a cinema to be confronted by a 1 sheet with this on it, I'd certainly investigate it further. Unfortunately, there is nothing else to be found. Once again, I am confronted by an image of an unhappy clown but little else. It's left to the title to do all of the work and a title alone can not do the work required of the poster. The typography should have been painted (or appear to be painted) on to Bonzo's face and nose to at least maximise the effect. Yet again, no tagline.

There could only be one overall winner of course so a points system of 15 points for a first choice, 10 points for a second choice and 5 points for a third choice were employed with Matthew Leyland to make the guiding decision if there should have been a tie but in the end the clear overall winner was, as we've announced Myish Endonilla, followed by Andrew Smith and Miguel Ibarra as runners up. Well done to them and we're delighted with the Judges picks and our winning poster design!

"Clowning Around" ~ The Poster Design Competition!

Today kicks off a poster design competition we've been planning for a little while now.

Since our photo shoot at Tower Bridge Studios where we got some amazing imagery of our ensemble of main characters for the film in full costume & make-up we've been wanting to see them turned into posters. And Damien thought, instead of just getting a graphic designer to make posters to our brief, why not invite people from the online filmmaking and creative design community to see what they would do given the script and imagery and allowed to add their own creative magic. And we can get their creative work seen and out there amongst film and design people and the winning poster design would be used as the film artwork and be seen wherever the film and news of the film will travel. Which we plan to cover all seven continents!

We're also inviting our winner and runners up to the film premiere at BAFTA (or the online premier and Q&A for those too distant to travel) and every entrant will be invited into our online community of supporters and backers where they can follow the project updates from start to finish and interract with us and the rest of the community.

The competition runs from 12th August to 12th September 2011 and will be judged by an amazing panel of film and design world judges who liked our project and were happy to give some time to helping us choose the branding that will best serve our film.

They are:

Matthew Leyland from 'Total Film' Magazine

Chris Jones author of the Guerilla Film Makers Handbook

Ben and Chris Blaine the top UK filmmaking brothers behind Charlie Productions

Chris Patmore Editor of Film & Festivals Magazine

Indiegogo Go!

It's been just over a week since I last blogged and it seems like an age. We had a lot to do in order to be ready to kick off the Indiegogo.com fundraising campaign last Tuesday, including getting a website up as the one being built for us wasn't quite ready and in addition to that, creating the online community site for our backers and putting content on there ready for them to enjoy when they logged in. This is something we wanted all our backers to have, a space to engage with the project and network with us and each other. It's a hub where people can also ask us questions about what we're doing so if they want to see something specific

We also needed to finalise the Indiegogo.com pitch video and so Luqman, Damien and myself were looking over clips and footage to get the right tone and pace and make sure it would be appealing, informative and also show a bit about Damien and his personality. I was really pleased with the result which I think shows the true atmosphere on Damien's sets of seriousness of filmmaking craft from exceptional crew members mixed with relaxed fun and efficiency.

We launched the campaign on time and it felt like a rollercoaster week as we went through the process of putting word out there and waiting to see if we'd made the project appealing enough for people to want to become a backer of the work and which would prove to be the popular perks.

In the first three days we raised $1,412. It's been an amazing start thanks to some really stellar support from our backers who have gotten behind the project with gusto! We can't thank people enough as every dollar will make a difference to the film and our cast & crew who are working so hard on this project to give everyone the very best quality of film we can. We've got a long way to go, and nothing quite prepares you for the highs of seeing the figure rise and the anticipation of quiet days like today when nothing happens at all. However it's been spectacular so far and I have confidence we've got a project happening that people will be hugely proud they got behind. In fact it's my job to make sure of that and I intend to do so. *:O)

As well as the funding support we've also had some great support in getting word out about the project. Filmmaker and author of the Guerilla Film Maker's Handbook, Chris Jones is a backer and invited me to do a guest blog on his site to talk about crowd funding the project and the things we've been doing around the project to make it special and make the experience a good one for everyone involved. Also Mubi.com have invited us to add some video about our work in thier production journals and they've been speaking to me about documenting more of our behind the scenes work on their site in the near future. More about that when it's up and going.

Today, as I mentioned, has been quiet so far on the funding front but lots is going on still with more behind the scenes footage being edited by Luqman which I've been providing notes for and plans getting underway for the next production meeting as our thoughts turn towards the pre-production of the actual film. We want to begin early to allow for holidays etc. and gather our Clowning Around HoD's to plan ahead and begin thinking more solidly about locations etc. Since the photo shoot I think the whole team has been energised by how well we worked together and how great it's been to create something from nothing, before we'd done any fundraising at all. The funds Indiegogo.com provides will help us to expand that into the greater amounts of costumes, make-up, logistics, transport, equipment, travel, feeding people etc. we need for the film production proper and we're a good step in the right direction to getting the funds to get that happening but there's still a long way to go. I feel rather like a salmon swimming upstream at the moment but when we get to the top we get to create something amazing and that is worth the work. And you know what.. the water feels great! Jump in with us!