Hello! My name is Ron and I am a key art designer based in Los Angeles. Key art is such an important part of the film process and i’d like to share a little bit about the process with you all. I designed this Joker Folie a Deux poster through my agency Legion Creative. Legion was brought on by Warner Pictures to ideate some cool key art for this film. The creative brief from the client was to celebrate the characters, their love, and their psychosis. Everyone on my team delivered the most amazing work. They were all beautiful and f’ed up ideas, super creative and unique. It took two years start to finish to get this poster to a place where it was approved by executives and actors. When key art is being created for a blockbuster film like Joker Folie a Deux, studios hire multiple creative agencies who have multiple designers working on concepts. As time goes on some posters are chosen and some get killed. Each poster that moves on to the next round typically has many edits/revisions from the heads of movie studios. Every designer has a different perspective, and its so great seeing what my fellow teammate designers come up with. I wish you could see, but I'd get sued. For this poster we competed with 4 or 5 other creative agencies. Im sure there was a lot of other great work in the mix, however we do not get to see what other agencies design. I am very proud of my team at Legion becuase two of our key art designs ended up getting selected for both the Payoff and Teasers posters. This is a great accomplishment in our industry. I would love to hear what you all think of the poster and if you have any questions about key art design with me. I am happy to share my wealth of knowledge with everyone in the filmmaking community.
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I think the poster looks incredible, Ronald Villegas! Joker and Harley Quinn's relationship is a chaotic mess, and the poster sums that up well. You're right. Every designer has a different perspective. Every artist does. One of the great things about working with others is when an artist is struggling with a project, the other artist(s) can help come up with solutions.
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That's awesome!
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This is terrific Ronald Villegas! I have so many questions, but I'll try to be short with them. How much influence does a film director have in the process? Do they provide the thematic ideas for the creative brief up front or provide feedback at any point? Also, how do you decide on the use of stills/footage from scenes vs. totally original ideas (not drawing from the film footage) vs. doing photo shoots for a poster? is there a ratio of ideas you shoot for when bringing a studio designs? like here's 2 from stills, 2 from original design ideas, 2 from photo shoots we could do?
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When different companies compete, is this spec work, or does everyone get paid?
Great poster. I like the off kilter low angle. Fives a feeling of unease, like their mental states. Interesting that she’s higher in the frame, giving her the dominant position. The film’s subtitle is barely readable from a distance, which is no doubt on purpose. American audiences probably don’t respond well to French titles.