Movie Posters
In the 1920's, silent movies made by amateur film groups were usually advertised at the movie houses or in the newspaper of the town in which they were being shown.
Colour posters were expensive to create and reproduce. Often amateur filmmakers were on a small budget and did not have the funds to print a large number of colour posters. For this reason, announcements or posters were usually simple line drawings with the names of the stars on them.
The announcement for A Race for Ties appeared like this in the Port Arthur newspaper in 1929:
Usually a movie poster would have a line drawing of a scene or character from the movie that would capture the interest of the viewers and encourage them to attend the movie. Other items included:
- the title
- the names of the stars
- the script writer or director
- show times, and
- theatre name
Here's an example of the movie poster that was created in 2004 to finish the movie The Fatal Flower; the original film was created by the Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society in 1930. The use of colour, letter outlining and highlighting or outlining of figures is common during the 1920's. This particular poster was painted and then reproduced.
ACTIVITY 1: CREATE A MOVIE POSTER
As a class or group, watch a silent movie together. As you are watching consider what elements or drawing you would include on the movie poster to encourage people to watch. Consider the following questions:
- What genre is it: Suspense? Mystery? Romance? Comedy? Drama?
- Who are the stars? Were they well known at the time?
- What is the most interesting scene in the movie?
- Who was the screen writer or director?
- When was the movie first shown?
Draw, and then apply colour, to create a movie poster to accompany the film.
ACTIVITY 2: CREATE A MOVIE POSTER FOR YOUR SILENT FILM
Using the following list, create a poster for your movie. Consider using shadowed or outlined lettering, and line drawings with some colour.
Details:
- Genre (Suspense? Mystery? Romance? Comedy? Drama?)
- Stars / actors
- Interesting Scene
- Screen writer or director
- Dates and place of showing
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