Are Hollywood movie posters just lazy? From horror movies,
to sci-fi, to a lot of Marvel films let's talk about the floating head.
Hi it's Divya G what does the G stand for the g stands for great movie poster design is hard
man! You want something that encompasses the mood, the tone, the essence, the characters, the plots,
the film narrative- all condensed down into one movie poster art! You want something that fits on
a billboard. You want something that fits on your screen. You want something that's eye-catching.
You also want something that's like visually memorable but you also want something that's gonna
get audiences to look at the poster and think "okay yeah let me just fork out my wallet and
pretend to still be a student so that i can get discount and i don't have to pay over 10 pounds
to watch something in the theatre and sit there for two hours and visually buy into the fantasy"
or you can just use a floating head. Okay because hey guys- nothing and I'm telling you nothing says
"hey this is an interesting movie let me tell you exactly what it's about" than a bunch of
celebrities' big ass heads. And honestly this one is like so ubiquitous in Hollywood movie posters
and it has been a thing since before the age of Photoshop like the olden days you know... 1950s.
2022 what are the most anticipated films coming out this year and i searched up all the movies
that had this trend and brav! It's everywhere. You can have floating heads in a row, floating heads
in a triangle, floating heads in a circle! Like here two romantic leads floating above a scenic
beach in sepia... muted tones. Floating heads floating above a scenic war... scene
in sepia tone. We also see this in like children's fantasies so Beauty And The Beast here is some
conflict and also a love story and also every single character in Beauty And The Beast.
Boxing, horror movies, Leonardo DiCaprio. And possibly one of the worst offenders
is this- there's just something so like unpleasing about this i'm just- *shudders*
Menacing head floating! Looking down above you all! You're like hey that's the villain! This
is the villain and the main source of conflict for the story. Um we see this like
a lot in star wars. I've never seen a star wars film i'm not gonna lie. And this one- I
kind of like it i don't know if it's just the color palette or what. I feel like it's very
striking like you have the high contrast with like the red and the white and the blue and we
get a sense of conflict through the colors and the angles and the symmetry. I feel like this is just
it's very pleasing to my eye. You know you've really made it in life when the size of your head
is bigger than everyone else's. Take this dune poster for example, here we've got a subtle use of
teal and orange which are very prevalent in action films. And that's because teal and orange are very
aesthetically pleasing complementary colors. You get a sense of the backstory in the environment.
Here we have here Timmy boy lead character main selling point. And secondary to that we have oh
my gosh it's Zendaya! Super pivotal to the plot of the movie right? Right? And yet she only had
seven minutes... I would argue this poster isn't really for like super engrossed already die hard
Dune book fans- it's- it's basically for the average person who plods along they see it,
they see zendaya they see timothy chalamet and they go all right! I'm going to purchase
ticket hi yes let's go. And that's and that's kind of the point... and it works! And let's
compare that type of marketing there's something slightly more creative guys
oh my god just this is very high contrast and they're very sharp tangy orange just um my eye is
just like oh! You get a sense of the scale of the story here. Lost in the desert or whatever it is
this journey that he's taking ( i i haven't seen Dune ) and the negative space is almost ominous
it's like it's like a it's like a black hole and something about it also makes it feel very
like otherworldly too. I can see the pros and cons of either poster which one do you think
if you saw would make you go yeah! Have my money! So here's a poster for the current war,
featuring the names of all the male actors in the wrong places and none of the female ones! You
know what I really appreciate- you know what i really think screams "this is equality!
this is feminism!" in Hollywood cinema? Nothing says that better than when the woman has the
largest head. Valentine's day. This is not quite floating heads but it's close enough so let's talk
about it. At least we have some sort of heart shape. Oh my god is this about love?! We have
these like little boxes with the different actor's faces on which says hey it's probably going to
feature like a bunch of different plot lines but also look at all the famous people that we are
contractually obligated to share because we paid so much money for them to be in the film.
Yeah uh okay so this version i just i just i love it i know it's like probably stills from the movie
but it just looks so much like stock photos to me. What's this like floating head scenario all about?
Basically it's very prevalent- i really don't think that it's going to stop because firstly,
it's like a slightly easier option. It's not just up to the designer there's like so many people
involved you kind of sometimes want something safe. Three well,
hey! Celebs, they sell! The whole floating head shebang isn't like inherently like a bad design
unless you're talking about the spider-man poster- what happened here? There's just
there's just too much things going on there's too many things that are crying for my attention
like this flame and then what what what what what what is this the actors heads like okay yeah new
york new york wow. What do you think about this movie trend? That's the end of the video thank
you for watching until the end if you liked what you see and see what you like then subscribe for
more book design and bookish design content. I'll see you guys next time follow my social medias
see me chat shit. And also for those who are able to i've linked a bunch of resources
um and charities that you could donate to and give aid for the Ukrainian people right now.
For anyone who is you know in ukraine right now or is trying to flee or if you have family or friends
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who is able to help out in any way, donate in any way, to you know really do that and yeah! I
hope you guys are safe. Okay so here like honestly would i even watch Dune if it wasn't for Zendaya?
Probably not I mean i still haven't watched it but