Take a director of your choice and use the power of type to promote a retrospective screening of their films.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I watched 7 of the 15 movies Godard has in his French New Wave period (1960-1967) and gained a deeper understanding about him and his films through literature, reading critiques and analyses. As part of the analyses I collected many visuals, such as film stills and posters. This made me aware of the visual language that was common of the era in which the movies were shot. I noticed in particular how typography is incorporated in Godard's films. Godard uses a typical typographic language for his movie credits and intros. Typography is also visible in the scenery, for example, on street signs and billboards. I searched for modern typographic works that were similar to those in the films. Also, I have familiarised myself with existing projects about Godard in order to gain inspiration as well as to differentiate mine from those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through research findings and inspiration I got a framework in which I could develop ideas into more concrete visuals. Brainstorming helped me identify keywords I could focus on later in the process when I would have to be selective about which elements to prioritize. I also selected a few quotes by Godard that represent his views on cinema, made a colour palette that express the mood of his films and experimented with different typefaces that reflect the character of his movies. After this I made a few concepts with variations in layout and colours.

My drafts were based on the typographic language of the movies. The blue, white and red colours refer to the French and American flag and refer to capitalism and the political issues of France that are addressed. However, using solely these colours made the posters look too French. I did want to express some of the Frenchness, but it was not the main goal (which was expressing Godard's style).

 

I felt like the overall mood of the two posters above represented Godard best. It is mainly inspired by the typographic sequences and scenes with coloured lighting in the movie Une Femme est Une Femme. The poster is technically nothing complicated. It consists of information displayed in one typeface in a centered layout. This simpleness reflect the way Godard shot his films (low cost). The practical information (event, date, location) and the film titles are distinguished through size and colour. The colours were based on the colours palette. The typeface is Hype. It looked subtly French, slightly imperfectionistic and less serious than for example, Antique Olive, which I mainly used for the other concepts. In the end I chose the black background, because this gives a more cinematic feeling.

campaign
The campaign serves to promote the screenings of three movies of Jean-Luc Godard in the weekend from 1 to 3 May 2015, which take place in BFI Southbank. The movies are selected based on the popularity on search engines. The BFI is an institution known for it's huge archieve of films. The cinema regularly hosts classic movies, including French New Wave films. Therefore it seemed as an appropriate location. The event will be promoted through a poster, instagram and postcards. 

 

Instagram is used to post quotes from Godard that reflect his views on the cinema and represents the main themes of the movie. Red, yellow, blue and white quotes refer respectively to Breathless, Vivre sa Vie, Contempt and Godard. I also made motion pictures for the movie titles by imitating the way Godard made his titles show up letter by letter in order of the alphabet. Please view them on this Instagram link.

 

 

I selected three quotes by Godard that are typical. The postcards can be distributed at the BFI and other theatres. From my experience I noticed that people like to pick up postcards more than typical flyers with obvious advertisements and logos. They can also be a nice souvenir for the visitors of the event.