Purpose
Students create and present an original movie poster that uses image, color, composition, and typography to persuade a specific audience and communicate a clear film concept. Through brainstorming, thumbnail design, Photoshop production, critique, revision, and reflection, they strengthen media arts skills while showing growth in communication, problem solving, collaboration, and self-direction. The work culminates in a digital-and-print showcase where students share their poster, artist statement, self-evaluation, and revised final design with classmates, families, and a media arts partner.
Learning goals
Students will analyze how professional posters use image, color, composition, and typography to persuade a specific audience, then apply those techniques to an original concept. They will use Photoshop to blend at least three original or approved-source images, create polished text treatments, and design a unified layout that clearly communicates genre, mood, and story. Students will strengthen communication, critique, and revision skills by participating in tagline brainstorming, thumbnail feedback, checkpoint conferences, and final self-evaluation. They will present a revised digital-and-print poster, artist statement, and reflection that show intentional design choices, growth in Photoshop skills, and awareness of audience impact.
Products
Students will create a movie poster proposal with a short synopsis, target audience, title, tagline, and three colored thumbnail sketches before moving into Photoshop production. They will then produce an original 11x17 digital poster that blends at least three approved images, includes required film-poster text elements, and shows polished composition, color, and typography choices. Throughout the project, students will also create a production company logo, participate in critique notes and revision checkpoints, and complete a self-evaluation plus a short artist statement explaining how their design choices persuade an audience. The final products will be a revised print-ready poster and a digital-and-print showcase presentation for Neon Premiere Night.
Launch
Open with a “Tagline Trailer Toss” in small groups: students study 3–4 striking movie posters, quickly identify what makes each exciting, memorable, and convincing for a specific audience, and then sort them by genre. Next, groups invent a movie concept, write three short tagline options, and act out a one-minute teaser using only pose, voice, and mood to communicate the story. After each teaser, classmates guess the genre and target audience, then give one piece of feedback about which tagline and visual idea would attract viewers most. Close by introducing the project challenge: create an original poster that uses imagery, color, composition, and typography to persuade an audience to see the film.
Exhibition
Host a Neon Premiere Night in the hallway, library, or art room where students display printed 11x17 posters gallery-style alongside a short artist statement and self-evaluation highlights. Invite classmates, families, and a school media arts teacher or yearbook adviser to tour the exhibit and leave sticky-note praise and questions about composition, color, typography, and how convincingly each poster targets its audience. Give each student a brief presentation moment to explain one revision they made and one Photoshop skill they strengthened. Extend the showcase with a digital slideshow of revised final versions so the work can be shared in multiple formats beyond the physical display.
