C.C

Film poster photographer & designer www.clairecurtis.co.uk

[clairecurtis]

New website launched!

I've finally got round to updating my website and am completely design smitten with the brand new, beautifully flowing conveyer belt felt site which lets me share all the contrasting poster campaigns I've designed over the years side by side. With the old site only allowing viewing of one artwork at a time, I'm excited to finally be able to share one sheets, quads and character poster campaigns together like the true key art nerd I am. 

There's also a handful of new projects I've been working on of late, with some thrillers, horror's, mysteries and even gangster flicks thrown in to the mix! 

Here's a few little screen grabs, and I would love for you to check out the site in full over at www.clairecurtis.co.uk

Thanks for reading

CC

[clairecurtis]

Lemon Tree Passage film poster

Earlier this year I was commissioned to create the film campaign for exciting Australian Horror/Thriller Lemon Tree Passage. In true horror fashion, one early morning I received a call that said I had 7 days to create the artwork. 7 days to cast, clothe & make up a group of disheveled teenage victims & shoot the several elements needed for the end composite, locate & shoot a beautiful vintage car with an inspiring dashboard, composite & retouch the whole artwork in both Quad, Onesheet & TwoSheet format, create the title designs, as well as 2 days of solid file transferring ready for Berlinale festival. A challenge? Definitely. 

The concept was fantastic - very filmic with a classic, almost old school horror style envisioned by the director & producer themselves. With a lengthy background in advertising, they had a really clear vision of how they saw the end design. I got started casting the models & locating the car as soon as I ended the phone call & within a few days everything was ready for the shoot with a beautiful Ford Consul Interior already shot & ready for the remaining elements to go in. A huge thanks to the amazingly kind Mike Yarm over at Windmill Motors for letting me take over his sales garage for the shoot. 

The bodies photoshoot involved a group of beaten teenage back packers thrown together in a lifeless pile in the centre of an eerie set road. Having to position each model thrown over each other was definitely a first and I am truly grateful to have cast a group of models that were amazing sports and were happy to be flung, buried and awkwardly squeezed together in a gruelling 4 set up shoot. It was an amazingly fun day with lots of laughs and a fantastic end result. Thank you to everyone involved again.

Here's some behind the scenes from the shoots.

Behind the scenes Ford Consul Photoshoot 

Got to be f22

The original raw shot for the OneSheet

Behind the scenes Bodies shoot

A massive thanks to the amazing make up team Juliana Ratcliff & Emilie Heyl who did an outstanding job creating all the cuts, grazes, bruises and altogether dragged through an Aussie outback look that we needed. 

And lastly a very big thank you to the amazing models on the day; Ana Maria, Harry Ashby, Christine Quinney-Spencer, Richard smith, Minty Macliver, Violeta Peneva Charadzhieva & Melissa Brown! 

I shot 4 different body pile set ups, all photographed at different perspectives & angles to keep it aligned to the road & car perspective already in place.

Here's the remaining elements that were brought into the poster to give it that extra horror feel

Me & the model team after the final set up

Here's the final One Sheet & Quad designs

A little about the film

The story follows a group of American backpackers travelling across Australia when they are warned of a chilling local legend that haunts the nearby Lemon Tree Passage. Seeking to see the ghost for themselves, they uncover something much more sinister that stands to take hold of them forever. 

You can check out the latest updates on their IMDB below & I'll be posting the fantastic trailer & cinema release information in the coming year!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2396436/

Thanks for reading

CC

[clairecurtis]

Lion Film Poster Shoot

I’ve been a little quiet on the blog post front lately; so in true bombardment fashion I’ll be going loud in the next few days recapping what projects I’ve been rustling up!

So without wasting any time - first up is my One Sheet & Quad posters for the beautiful, emotionally driven film “Lion” by the ever-impressive writer and director Simon P. Edwards over at Kill The Sunset Pictures. The film stars the very talented and surprisingly lion looking Ian Virgo as the protagonist - a broken man in the emotional transition as his family falls apart. Beautifully shot with an honest, raw narrative, the poster had to show the rollercoaster of emotions he goes through.

The challenge was to shoot Ian in a powerful lion-like mid-roar, soaking in all the heartbreak, pain and anger that falls within a family break down.  This was definitely one of the more unusual tasks I’ve been handed over the years and was a lot of fun to create something quirkier. I may have mentioned before how I tend to be a little like an investigator or down right nerd when it comes to preparation for a project, but unlike the usual unhealthy amount of research I compile, I found myself examining the pages of national geographic and contrastingly at awkward disjointed‘roar’ shots of footballers celebrating goals. In short I was very disappointed to find the limited amount of supporting data to encourage people to photograph humans as lions – who knew it wasn’t a popular creative theme! So it was all up to the fantastic protagonist himself and how much he could delve into the concept.

We did the shoot over at my home studio in Birmingham and I was instantly impressed how much Mr. Virgo really did embody a Lion.  It’s not often as I’m sure you’re surprised to hear; that I get commissioned to photograph humans pretending to be animals - so I was a little taken a back how easy it was for this man to switch into Lion-mode instantaneously.

The final shots were locked down in a short 2-hour shoot, complete with a very achy jaw and a few time out sessions with the ever present variety pack of my Granddad’s biscuits on offer – What a host I am!

What really made the final images special for me was when it developed into something bigger with the idea of a single tear running down Ian’s cheek. It seemed to merge the anger and harsh expressions into something much softer and heart felt. All we needed to do was bring the tears to set! Now Ian assured me he could cry on cue if necessary, and I believed him – the tears shown in ‘Lion’ are heart breaking. But instead of showing off his talents, he introduced me to the amazing instant powers and double identity of Vapo Rub. Yes, we took said Vapo Rub and the tears, red blotchy eyes and actual real pain we shot in the final shots really brought it to life.

With the design, Simon wanted something clean, simple and bold – Locking in the viewers attention strait to the key art, then falling softly onto a classic, subtle title design. On the colour spectrum, I created a warm, golden colour palette to reinforce the ‘Lion’theme, with matching sand toned title colour’s and a light warm gradient to match.

The final posters are below,

Thanks for reading

  CC

One Sheet

Quad Alternative

[clairecurtis]

A very belated happy new year!

Just a short post reflecting on what’s been a very creative, fun filled & exciting 2013 for me. Every year I’m very lucky & proud to get to work with more & more amazing people & exciting projects than the year before, always amazingly touched by everyone who recommends my work.  A massive THANK YOU to all my very talented and fantastic clients this past year as well as all my AMAZING friends & family. I’d also like to say a HUGE thank you to James Little, my new agent from the fantastic Screen Talent Agency, very excited to be represented by them. 

I hope that 2014 will be filled with as much fun, creativity, amazing projects & new friends!

A really big, happy new year from a very nerdy, art loving brummie on the eve on what will be the best year yet!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

CC

[clairecurtis]

301 Troop: Arawn Rising Film poster shoot

Finally getting round to posting about one of my latest poster campaigns for Only The New Breed Productions upcoming feature “301 Troop: Arawn rising”, the story of 2 best friends struggling to make it into a specialist marine corp; but find themselves fighting for lives within something much more sinister. It’s a dark thriller/horror with fantastic characters, costumes and special effects, so this was a lot of fun to take from concept to the final designs.

I was commissioned to create a full campaign of One Sheet, 2 Quad & 6 Character One sheets below, which you can check out below!

Character posters:

Captain Dunn

Campbell

Dragor

Mason

Michaels

Walker

The shoot was a lot of fun and easy to get creative with the shots with such fantastic characters. Its always amazing to see actors slowly become their characters through fantastic make up, costumes & props – And despite having pre-mediatated concepts on board (the usual Curtis doodles & shot lists in hand), these are the kind of shoots where you want everyone to stay on set endlessly because there’s always a million different shots you could create.

   The film is heavily inspired by classic action films, and it was important to the director (Lee Bennett) that the poster reflected this with a strong standing montage with dramatic expressions & poses in true action star fashion!

   With the design, it was integral to emphasize the horror element of the story as well as the armed forces storyline – to show that there was going to be a lot of action, violence as well as something much darker and supernatural. This was brought in with eerie cyan/green tones, dramatically lit forest imagery from a dusk shoot, Blood red title sections to match the blood on the characters & gritty overlays on the classical typeface for the main title.

   I shot the cast in a studio in Shoredtich on a day shoot with the very talented Lee Bennett (Writer, Director & actor as ‘Mason’), Silvio Simac (as ‘Dragor’), Jon Campling (as ‘Captain Dunn’), Alan Calton (as ‘Campbell’) & Spencer Austin (as ‘Walker’). With the final cast member Cat LaCohie (as ‘Michaels’) photographed over in the US, thanks to photographer Jack Wiant for getting Cat in the campaign for us!

   You can see some of the behind the scenes from the shoot below, featuring possibly the best behind the scenes shot ever taken of a photographer taking a photo of a photographer taking a photo of a photographer taking photos. Thank you to the fantastic Del Folwer for these!

Behind the scenes:

  The trailer will be up soon which I’ll be posting early next year! 

As ever, thanks for checking this post out,

CC

[clairecurtis]

Fighting Heart Film Poster shoot

The poster campaign for feature film ‘Fighting Heart’ has been released today! I shot & designed the campaign recently for the lovely Lee Hampton (Writer & Director), taking in the sights on route to the location shoot in rural Norwich from my home town of industrial Birmingham.

Another great shoot with amazing cast & crew, lots of laughs on the day and killer posing by the very talented Freddie Hogan, Jessica Dowden, Mark Benfield & Paul Goldsmith. Fantastic make up by Mandy Jean Jordan & behind the scenes goodness by Sam Hoggarth.

The campaign had to be very dramatic, gritty and emotional to reflect the troubled & conflicted road of the protagonist Luis who fights to keep his world from falling apart. It was integral to show the importance of the other characters throughout, predominantly the love interest who seems to slip further and further away from Luis’s grasp.  

Here’s some behind the scenes:

Here’s the final campaign:

This Quad is my favourite from the campaign - I had this great idea of a very dramatically lit line up, falling backwards through the cast, each character with their profile backlit. I added in gold tones and a gritty textured overlay to bring in some atmosphere & drama to match the intense, emotional expressions of the cast. With subtle, simple titles to fall second to the main imagery & a glimpse into the great boxing ring where a large part of the film is set. The rest of the campaign followed the same style & feel, bringing in the two quads to create a full one sheet design below:

Thanks for reading!

Claire

[clairecurtis]

Available Poster campaign

Recently I got commissioned by US based production company Vegabond Entertainment to create the quad & one sheet for their new thriller "Available" - Here's the final one sheet below:

Most of the poster campaigns I've designed in the past have been created with photographs I've shot, all with premeditated concepts in mind - So it's always a challenge when you're handed a very small selection of low quality stills & screen grabs to work with, but with the same high quality finish expectations from a client. 

So, I thought I'd share the two original images that I used as the main elements in the poster to give anyone thinking of getting into film posters an idea of the stills provided & how you can develop them into something much more exciting!

They've been cut out & composited to form the final design which involved a lot of adjustment layers (I love adjustment layers), overlaying of textures and images as well as colour & tonal work. I also added in a great scene of a misty morning in Prague (where the film is set) from a fantastic commercial stock site, as well as the really nice blowing of the girl's hair that I composited in from my own image archive to add a bit of drama.

Here's the original shots:

You can see the final poster in action on IMDB here & I'll be posting the available website when it comes online next month! 

Thanks for reading!

CC

[clairecurtis]

Cannibal's and Carpet Fitters Film poster shoot

Hello! I thought I'd finally share some behind the scenes for an amazingly fun poster campaign I finished recently; Cannibal's and Carpet Fitters! A wickedly dark and hilarious little film with a fantastic, talented cast and crew. What could be better?

Here's the final campaign (One Sheet above):

Quad:

Character One Sheets:

The Postman

Dean

Mrs Hanning

Colin

This campaign had a lot more creative freedom to be something a lot bolder and quirky than my other posters, as well as being the first comedy horror I've designed before! It was quite interesting trying to get a good balance between 'Crikey, that's a bit scary' and it being instantly obvious to the audience that they were looking at a really quirky, black comedy. To enhance the funky, red back lit imagery, I matched it with a contemporary, retro B movie styled title design that really brought that line between the two genres together. 

You can check out all the final designs and all upcoming news on the official C&CF website 

Here's some screen grabs from the actual film that helped define all the key elements we needed to integrate into the poster; our determined yet cowardly hero's set in a dark, dramatic scene with bold red highlights

Here's a behind the scenes out take from the outstanding cave scenes:

To match the films fantastically dark and blood red tone, here's my take on the theme with one of the raw shots from the shoot of the menacing little old lady Mrs Hanning. It's not often I get to go crazy with colour gels, so I was actually in love building these dramatic red back lit highlights

I realised I never seem to get round to showing any of the out takes, so I thought I'd share a selection of the final shots of the lovely Shameer Seepersand as the defenceless Postman with the final choice in red

Here's a few of my initial rough sketches after reading through the script and building a few ideas compared to final designs. It always amuses me how close the final product actually looks to my dodgy doodles!

And finally here's a few behind the scenes from the shoot (I must learnt to take more, these are literally all I shot and stole from other crew) 

Darren Maffucci 

[clairecurtis]

System Block French documentary campaign

Last year I was commissioned by French filmmakers V.O Graphics to create the UK & French poster campaigns for their upcoming documentary exploring what lead to and the reasons behind the UK & Paris riots that took place in 2005 and 2011. 

It was integral that the campaign opened up the opinions of the public,  revealing bold statements from the rioters, onlookers, police and even the politicians. All with contrasting opinions & statements, the posters needed to give an instant look into the tension between a divided generation.

Here’s the final campaign (French version)

OneSheet designs

OneSheet montage design

Custom Panoramic design

Behind the scenes:

I did several photo shoots of models we casted for the final campaign, with a few being replaced over the last year to get the authentic looks we were going for. The shoots were a lot of fun, with the final campaign shoot including all the guys from V.O Graphics heading down to the studio in Birmingham and taking part themselves! As well as enduring a few poor French phrases from me, I also had the standard box of my Grandad’s biscuits that I forced them to eat from time to time (Worst. Biscuits. Ever. )

Anyway, back to topic – Here’s a few raw files from the first shoot with the lovely Zaff Malik & Robert Walker! I'm all about the dramatic highlights and it was no different with this project...

And here’s some funny out takes from the final shoot with V.O Graphics team! Thanks for an outstanding shoot!

  Thanks for reading

Claire

[clairecurtis]

DIY Making of the 'Filth' Poster

Last week I went a little 'art attack' whilst creating the film poster for Lionsgate's film competition 'Filth', the controversial upcoming film based on the amazingly dark & comic novel by irvine Welsh. Here's my final design below which would mean mountains to me if you could vote! 

http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/ad8a9810ef3b367f0e95b7f5b3e30423/4192

So, I thought I'd share my simple (but hopefully effective) DIY approach to how I created the main element of the poster; the FILTH title pushing through the cocaine ridden forearm of Detective Bruce Robertson (aka my brother Dan).

Guidelines for the competition stated I had to use the original typeface from the novel and the main theatrical poster, the lovely Gotham. To make things more interesting, I worked in the concept of the title revealing what Bruce really was beneath his own skin. But I had to use the same typeface...

So...let the art attack episode begin!

After cutting out the Gotham letters individually, I had to back them with card to thicken them up so they would appear 3D through the latex (Yes, I used latex, it's that kind of art attack show...or maybe not) Here's the final lettering:

Here's a test shot, using the same lighting as on the actual forearm shot (Which I'll show a little later) so the highlights and shadows would match up to the design and also be dramatic enough for you to see the letter shape through the latex sheet.

And with a trusty latex glove pulled taut...

And voila, art attack prevails - Gotham under skin! (Well, in the first stage!)

Here's the original forearm shot I went with, modelled by my James Mcavoy stand-in:

The poster also involved a lot of cocaine, reflecting Bruce's addiction. I don't have access to cocaine...So instead I went with a pack of chalk and a trusty hammer to make the mess of cocaine over his hand, badge, as well as the lines that frame the poster

Here's my coke line attempts which was interesting/awkward explaining to people who popped by whilst I was putting these together. I even had a friend taste this to check I wasn't having a mid 20 crisis.

And the rest is history (aka me working until the nights end on photoshop) 

Thanks for reading, and if you do get chance - Please do head over to the talenthouse website and vote for my design using either Twitter or Facebook! Here's the link again:

http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/ad8a9810ef3b367f0e95b7f5b3e30423/4192

Claire

www.clairecurtis.co.uk

[clairecurtis]

UB40 'Getting Over The Storm' Press photoshoot

Last month I was proud to shoot reggae kings UB40 for they're exciting new album ‘Getting over the storm’, released today across the UK! Later I’ll be grabbing a copy myself, so I’ll leave the final shots to post hand in hand with the album artwork - But in the meantime heres some behind the scenes from the shoot at the studio here in my hometown as well as theirs; Birmingham. A legendary band that were all lovely, down to earth and as talented as ever.

[clairecurtis]

'Bluff' Film poster campaign

Here’s a new film poster campaign I shot and designed for the fantastic short film ‘Bluff’ by Tim Watchorn. I worked with Tim on my first ever film poster shoot back in 2009 and instantly I was hooked on film poster photography & design. I’m a big fan of Tim’s work as well as the fantastic cast that pop up film by film, so it was great seeing lots of familiar faces and catching up on the shoot day. Here's more from the final campaign:

‘Bluff’s story, written by the talented Garry Charles, follows a desperate father who has to risk it all in a game that may cost him his life, to save his dying daughter. The story’s set in a luxurious stately home, so it was important to get that classy, rich look to the posters which is enhanced with a glossy, golden tone and elegant titles.

It’s not often that I get to set up shop somewhere presentable, but the set location of Quex House (Below) was by far the plushest film location I’ve had over the years. Previously I’ve been squeezed into a shower room on set ‘Screwed’, in a child’s bedroom on set ‘RH11’, in a kitchen, a bar, a hotel room, and a classroom. Always an adventure. So it was lovely to have a fantastic space to set up the studio.

On the day it was a lot fun getting all the contrasting emotions from the different characters, especially seeing the actor’s faces knowing they were holding a real magnum at their head that we managed to steal for the shoot from Apex Park’s museum. It was also interesting and hilarious attempting to direct one of the actors, Benoit Rabille, entirely in the poorest French he’s probably ever heard. 

Something i've learnt over the years that might come in handy if your in the same field, is to have 3 different pre-shoot preparations which really help keep a shoot perfectly prepped, on schedule and to the book on the shots you need. In the rush of a film shoot, it’s pretty easy to miss a key shot you need or forget a characters trait if your faced with a large cast - Especially if you’re on a tight shoot time frame of 5 minutes per actor. So over the years I’ve learnt to embrace my inner nerd and prepare extensively. Here’s a rough list of everything I usually bring to each shoot.

1) An extensive mood board including all concept ideas for the campaign (including the worst hand drawings you may have ever seen), colour, layout, style and title inspiration. This is purely for the director/art director/actors to give them a clear visual of what the shoot will entail.

2) Cast/Shoot breakdown sheet in shoot time order including a picture of each cast member, character name, traits, outfit, make up call time, photoshoot call time and character importance.

3) Lighting and camera set up settings per poster with a shot list for each cast member

I also go through each of the set ups prior to shooting as well, usually dragging some unsuspecting victim to be my stand in. Then everything is set and the shoot can have that fantastic calm, relaxed atmosphere instead of the sweaty palmed mess you could be on the day.

‘Bluff’ is filming the final scenes soon! Can’t wait to see the final film which I’ll post the trailer for as soon as it’s released!

Thanks for reading

Claire

[clairecurtis]

'I'm Still Here' Film Poster Shoot

Recently I shot & designed the film poster campaign for ‘I’m Still Here’, a romantic drama about the heartfelt journey a young man is faced with after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Working with the lovely Kris Smith, the director, I was excited to be producing a 3 part campaign for the feature including 3 very contrasting concept designs.

The shoot included epic inception soundtracks on the go, my grandad’s awful biscuits actually being eaten and using the director as a minion to hold a hair dryer whilst stood in his socks. All in all, a fantastic shoot with a lovely cast and crew.

Here’s the final designs.

One Sheet 1 (Top of post) This design is the romantic, heart felt themed design consisting of our main protagonist and the love interest he makes a connection with in his final days. Given the heavy storyline it was integral to portray the lighter side to the story to attract a different audience as well as highlighting that the plot does not revolve entirely around the melancholy storyline.

The image was put together with the 3 separate images intertwining with each other with warm, golden tones to enhance the romantic feel. The design was shared with subtle, modest titles and the great tag ‘Make every second count’.

One Sheet 2 Here we have the darker, thriller design. Again we have our main protagonist with the overly concerned love interest in a dramatic hospital corridor. Beside them is the rush of medical staff surging past them to enhance the tagline of Time Is Running Out.

This was again shot separately and composited together with me happily working away in CS6 until the early morn! I went with a moody, deep blue tone to both reiterate the cold, clinical feel of the hospital as well as drawing on the typical colour scheme of the thriller genre. Clean, simple titles again to match.

Quad Finally here’s the quad design featuring a split close up look into the characters, set apart by a lingering hospital drip. Unlike the others, this design draws immediate attention to the main storyline and gives us a look at the tired, sickly looking protagonist and a bright eyed love interest, both faced with an inevitable end to their story.

The design has followed suit from the thriller one sheet with the dark, moody blue tones & again added in the simple titles.

Here’s some behind the scenes from the day II

Thanks for reading

Claire

[clairecurtis]

Intro

Hello!

I've finally decided to start a little blog following some of the projects I'm working on throughout the year as well as a few random reviews of all things awesome & general behind the scenes nonsense! I work mainly within the film & music industry, producing advertising poster campaigns and publicity shots - So I'll be sharing a few experiences in this field as well as a few thoughts, tips & tricks along the way!

I've been lucky enough to work with some talented (and lovely) directors, producers, art directors, stylists & MUA's  - So I'll be trying my best not to be camera shy and cram in as much behind the scenes shenanigans as possible, so you can get a feel of what a working shoot atmosphere is really like as well as the great people working beside you. 

Let the ramblage begin...

www.clairecurtis.co.uk