At The Movies with Heath Killen - Renaissance
17th November, 2011
Today is your last chance to leave a comment and go in the draw to win a custom movie poster by Heath Killen! Heath has offered design a one-off, exclusive poster for any Australian film of the winner’s choice and you have until 10pm tonight to leave your comment. The winner will be drawn at random and announced tomorrow. -Jenny x
In the last ten years, I feel as though Australian film posters have started to catch up with the quality (and qualities) of Australian films. Designers have begun producing more emotional, poetic work that reflects the light, texture and ambiance of the films. Typography is simpler, but also more expressive. Photography is cropped in unique and engaging ways, and illustrative elements are generally subtle and meaningful. It seems that after a decade of Photoshop disasters, we're finally finding a balance between art and technology.
Studios and practitioners such as Jeremy Saunders, Marcus Cobbledick and Carnival are really developing uniquely Australian designs without leaning on any cliches. These posters are modern, cinematic and evocative.
Ironically, one of my favourite Australian film designs in recent years comes from California. Neil Kellerhouse's cover for the Criterion release of Walkabout absolutely captures the essence of the Australian landscape.
- Heath
Some beautiful modern posters for some important films Heath, well curated. Who is responsible for the Snowtown poster? Terrific and appropriate treatment for such a horrendous (but important) story.
The above designs look fantastic!
I should also credit Mark Gowing, whose poster design for The Waiting City is featured above. All of his work for Hopscotch is stunning.
Good question Luke – I’d love to know myself.
That Walkabout poster is great
Beautiful Kate is one of my fave Aussie movies, but I never thought the posters captured the essence of the film. Would love to see Heath’s interpretation :)
really love this work, especially Bright Star, how pretty.
This has been a great guest blog week thus far… love Heath’s work!
I particularly like the posters where the figures are small or almost imperceptible in the landscape. I wonder if this is tapping into a particularly Australian sensibility. My favourite Aussie film remains Lantana.
Snowtown and Walkabout are great.
Also 10 Canoes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ten_canoes.jpg
The Walkabout image is brilliantly evocative, great work!