The Snip - Key Art
Producing the key art for my new short The Snip was a really fulfilling creative challenge. And the results are really eye catching, yet fairly straightforward so I thought I should post how I was able to put these together and play around with the results.
Attention grabbing key art is also lacking from so many shorts these days, that I really hope people start to recognise just how helpful this can be in catching your audience’s attention.
STEP 1
Cycle through several different ideas in the concept stage.
STEP 2
Realise that Aaron Jeffrey’s behaviour in the film with his gloves is iconic.
STEP 3
Try to find the appropriate blue gloves which fit your hands. Tear through several until a local burger joint has the right size.
STEP 4
Create an impromptu photo studio in your living room, and experiment with lighting before eventually deciding that a large overhead soft source gives you the best overall quality of light. Use a white card behind to assist with the later selection and bounce more light into fill the shadows.
STEP 5
Take a bunch of photos and experience that it’s kinda difficult to align your hand and activate the shutter at the same time, but eventually come to a realisation that you have a far more flexible forearm than you knew!
STEP 6
Cut out the hand from the background.
Step 7
Make a radial gradient, then add the hand on top. Increase the contrast, then add a shadow underneath to give a sense of depth.
Add the text and then you’re done.
Finally, get carried away with the whole concept, start making motion gifs and knock out a bunch more variations on the theme.
It’s really great once you get a system in place, that you can really start knocking out a whole batch.
This was an incredibly fun and exciting project to put together, and I think there’s are huge opportunities to bring this aesthetic style and approach to commercial work. It’s just one of the many reasons the Bank Visual team invest into our creative projects.