Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman
In
this post, I would like to suggest how movie posters can help to
suggest plots. Before I get to a couple of examples, though, I offer
a few guidelines for anyone who might like to try this approach to
plotting stories. They have served me well.
- If the poster you select promotes a movie you have seen, pretend it does not, and don't reference the film, even in your thoughts, as you analyze the poster. The poster should speak for itself, as it were.
- We are taught to read from left to right and from top to bottom. Graphic designers know this and use our training to their benefit in creating designs and art and in communicating to us.
- A poster is likely to have a central image, and this central image will be emphasized in some way—through its position, just off center; through color or intensity; by being of bigger than other images. It is obvious that the artist wants the viewer to focus attention on this central image. Text and other images, if any, will relate to this central image and help to develop its figurative aspects.
- Most art employs various “visual” figures of speech—metaphors, similes, allusions, personifications, exaggerations, understatements, symbols, puns or other plays on words, synecdoches.
- See all there is to see—not just size, but color, intensity, depth, balance, negative and positive space, shape, texture, size, density, position, arrangement, patterns. facial expressions, hairstyles, costumes (i. e., the models' clothing), age, sex, gender, class, income level. Also consider whatever props might be displayed.
- Analyze visual evidence of behavior: care, neglect, attendance, abandonment, support, and so forth.
- Consider the other four senses, too: what sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations does the poster suggest?
- The text is the key that unlocks the visual imagery's figurative meaning.
With
these guidelines in mind, start by describing the poster. Start at
the top and work your way down. Include quotations of any text you
encounter. Be detailed, but don't be flowery. At this point, be a
camera operator, not a sketch artist, an objective viewer, not an
interpreter.
After
describing the poster, use the elements you identified to complete
this list, creating a complete sentence in the process. In doing so, stick to the poster itself.
WHO?
WHAT?
WHEN?
WHERE?
HOW?
WHY?
Next,
question yourself about each of the six phrases you entered into the
table. In doing so, make observations; draw inferences from what you
see and read in the poster. Look for potential relationships among
the poster's elements. Look, also, for possible connections between
your own thoughts, between your own feelings, and between your own
thoughts and feelings. Ask yourself how the answers you listed in the
table could be “flipped,” or reinterpreted.
As
a result of this process, you may develop an idea for a story or even
a synopsis of a plot for a story. At the same time, you will have a
sequence of elements that are logically related and which, together,
form a narrative thread upon which, by the questioning process and
the use of your own imagination, you can embroider, or develop
further.
FRIGHT
NIGHT
Text
above the image reads: “There are some very good reasons to be
afraid of the dark.”
It
is night. There are stars and a full moon. Spirits swarm above a
house. One appears to be the ghost of a vampire; its wide open mouth
is positioned above the center of the house, near the domicile's
rooftops. Two other spirits have a bestial appearance. The rest are
heads with faces and fanged mouths—demons, perhaps.
Behind
a simple white rails, a front porch runs the length of the
three-story Victorian house. In the center, second-floor room
(perhaps a bedroom), the silhouette of a standing figure, hands on
hips, is visible between drawn drapes, against light.
Five
low steps lead to the porch from the end of a sidewalk, the other end
of which connects to a sidewalk that parallels the street out front.
Low shrubs are planted along the front of the porch. A tree flanks
each side of the front of the house; each is almost as tall as the
house. The lawn is cut. Behind the house is a line of trees, perhaps
the front rank of a forest.
Text
below the image reads, “Fright Night: If you love being scared,
it'll be the night of your life.”
Observations
Although
the house could be in a suburbs, it seems more likely that it is in a
more rural area. Not only are there large trees present, but the
visibility of the stars suggests that the house is some distance from
the street lights common to suburbs.
The
swarm of spirits seem to fountain from the house, suggesting that it
is haunted.
Although
rather indistinct, the figure appears to be wearing a dress, which
would indicate that the figure is that of a woman. It is impossible
to tell whether she faces forward, but her presence at the window
suggests that she is looking out of the room.
The
house is in good repair, and the lawn is landscaped and well kept.
The
text suggests that this is a special night; it is Fright Night. The
text also suggests that the spirits are the “reasons” that one
should fear the dark.
The
text that reads “it'll be the night of your life” suggests that
Fright Night will be momentous, probably unique.
The
figure stands in a lighted room, surrounded by darkness. The room may
be her “safe place,” but only as long as the light continues to
burn.
WHO? A young woman
WHAT? stands watch
WHEN? at night
WHERE? in the lighted room of an otherwise dark Victorian house in a rural part of the United States
HOW? ready to become a conduit for spiritual warriors
WHY? to ward off a horde of demons that appear every decade on Fright Night.
Questions
Over
what, if anything, do the demons rule? What powers do they have? Why
do they appear every decade on Fright Night? Whom do they seek to
frighten? Why is one the spirit of a vampire? Why are two of bestial
form? Why do the remaining demons look similar? Where are the
spirits' bodies? Why have they gathered here, at this particular
house? Is the house significant in some way? Who is the young woman?
Why is she in the house? Why is she alone? How can the story line be
flipped?
IT
FOLLOWS
Text
above the image reads, “it doesn't think. It doesn't feel. It
doesn't give up.”
Looking
frightened, a tense, young blonde woman, eyes wide, stares into her
car's rear-view mirror, which she adjusts. Outside, it is dark and
perhaps foggy. Her headlights don't seem to penetrate the gloom.
Text
below the image, the film's title, reads, “It Follows.”
Observations
The
woman wears makeup, and her nails are painted red-orange. Her
eyebrows, like her eyes, are brown, which suggests that she is a
peroxide, not a natural, blonde. She wears her hair in a bob or a
pixie cut.
WHO? A young woman
WHAT? looks into her rear-view mirror
WHEN? at night
WHERE? on a lonely stretch of country road
HOW? as she is driving her car
WHY? fleeing from a relentless, inhuman pursuer.
Questions
Who
is the young woman? She appears to be alone—is she? If so, why? If
not, why not? Where is she going? Where has she been? Is she on some
sort of mission or is she just trying to escape? Why is she driving
at night? Who or what is she fleeing? Why is her pursuer chasing her?
Why is her pursuer relentless? Is her pursuer
behind her, as she appears to believe, or in front of her? Her
tension and fear suggest she may be involved in an emergency
situation? Is she? If so, what is the emergency? If not, what else
explains her tension and fear? Is her car a sedan? A convertible?
New? An older model? How large or small is her car? Is it in good
repair? Is someone expecting her? If so, who? Why? If not, why not?
In
future posts, I may model this technique for plotting by posters
again. There are many posters, after all—an inexhaustible
supply of them. To generate a strong, intriguing, suspenseful plot,
we need only one. Meanwhile, why not try your own hand at this
poster: