Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Production Posters

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TotoToo Theatre
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Joined: 8/31/07
Location: Canada
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Topic: Production Posters
Posted: 8/31/07 at 2:09pm

Our new theatre group has been using photography for our promotional posters - incorporating the actors into the poster. This has been very successful for our past two productions but we ran into an issue while producing Theatrelife when one of the six actors on the poster was offered a role in New York four weeks before our production was to run. This would have been a minor problem (but problem nonetheless) for our marketing effort - never mind the re-casting. Turns out there wasn't a conflict and he was able to stick around for our production.

I am wondering how other community theatres approach their posters and whether there is a rhyme or reason for opting to use photography over graphics (or visa versa). Maybe this can evolve into a "best strategies" discussion for effective posters for marketing? Here is the poster that "almost" got us into trouble:

Mark Webster
TotoToo
Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre

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Kathy S
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Posted: 9/01/07 at 12:19am

Your poster is great! Was the problem that patrons would recognise the lead actor in the photo?

We have used photos of our cast on some of our posters and we really like them when it is conducive to getting the idea of the show across. We also like INEXPENSIVE and so have also usually used the old black photocopier on colored paper to give us a bit of a colorful look (not much, tho, obviously).

You can see one of my favorites at our website in the past productions at www.iowariverplayers.org for Dearly Departed.

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TotoToo Theatre
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Posted: 9/01/07 at 12:46am

Hi Kathy,

Yes, the problem was that the character (in the middle of the poster) would have changed and because we're in a relatively small community it would have been unfortunate at worst. Not a disaster. But I am deciding which route will be better in the future (photos or graphics). Less risk with smaller casts.

I checked out the poster for Dearly Departed. Huge cast and a very effective poster indeed. Definitely works in b&w.

Mark Webster
TotoToo
Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre

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bbpchick
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Posted: 9/08/07 at 7:51pm

Your poster is fantastic! We have used photography rarely, but that was before we switched to color posters. The last one we did a picture for was our Improv show, you can check out our posters here... http://www.murphysblackbartplayers.com/photo_album.html

I personally prefer graphics because I can just make the posters at home and then e-mail them off to our printer, but I guess that means I'm lazy (hehe).

But how did you put your poster together? Did you use photoshop or another program. I think if I could put pictures together like that I would use photos more.

Big thing for me is easy!

Kendra

P.S. Kathy I love your Dearly Departed poster. I think it works really well in black and white, great idea.

Kendra
www.murphysblackbartplayers.com
You are NEVER too old to dress up!

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Kathy S
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Posted: 9/08/07 at 9:30pm

I love our DD poster, too. We had a lot of extra help with it -- a cast member's son is a photographer and he staged the picture -- then had to "stitch" it together with a computer program to make it look right. The sky was digitally inserted, too. We built the casket lining out of styrofoam and covered it with white fabric, then posed the cast around it.

Using photos in the poster can really be a plus, especially if you have some of the more high profile people in the community playing some of the parts. People like to see faces they know on the poster.

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TotoToo Theatre
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Posted: 9/08/07 at 10:02pm

We have a production coming up called Jigsaw Confession and will be using photos as well. I checked out your DD poster and it gave me an idea for incorporating elements of your approach to your DD poster into ours. Always inspiring to see what others are doing. Thanks Kathy.

Kendra, yes, the poster for Theatrelife was HEAVILY PhotoShop-ed. The "theatre" was built from scratch and in order to make the characters "appear" to float I photographed each of their individual limbs in action - then pieced each arm, leg, torso back together. Took about 5 shot per actor telling them "lift this leg, now raise that arm, now lift the other foot". PhotoShop is fantastic!

The main character (behind the stage) was also pieced together in photoshop. I first photographed his legs, then his left arm, then his right and then we finally worked on a facial expression. Lots of work - but worth it. The photos from this play are posted in the archive of our website if anyone wants to visit. www.tototoo.ca. Cheers all. If there's a poster your group is particularly proud of please post a link. It sure helps those of us who are into the marketing end of community theatre!

Mark Webster
TotoToo
Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre

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AngelSong76
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Posted: 9/13/07 at 4:36pm

Here's the poster from our performance of Fuddy Meers. I'm the one in the middle, lol. I thought it was a great poster for the show. We don't always use photos for our posters. In fact, this was the only one we did this way all season. I want to see our group use photos more, because I think it makes the poster more interesting.

http://anitahavelsblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/crazy-poster.html

Oh, and I may have to steal the Dearly Departed idea... we are doing that show next season!

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/14/07 at 12:54am

This is the poster for our first production 'Stepping Out'.
I used a shot of the casts legs.Then got the printer to superimpose on shot of the house curtain to cover thier bodies.
The one on the web site is not a true representation of what went out,
My name & that of choreographer were not on the poster, as i don't believe in it. However for the web page, they duffed up to suit.
The rest are rather ordinary & I had nothing to do with, but that is the way it goes!;-

http://www.phoenixtheatre.websyte.com.au/site.cfm?/phoenixtheatre/1/

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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Kathy S
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Posted: 9/14/07 at 1:52am

AngelSong and Joe, those posters are both quite fetching! We usually try to keep costs way down by making something that can be printed on the old photocopier with black on white or colored stock. It is surprising how well they can actually turn out sometimes. Yeah, I'm nuts about the DD poster -- it was my idea, but since I didn't know how to execute it I handed it over to a couple of young guys who knew the technical ins and outs. I thought it had a sort of Six Feet Under look to it!

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/14/07 at 2:23pm

We used the same cover for the programmes as the poster, which were just a pull during the printing process.
It is cheap these days with plastic paper off set printing plates.
{which is annoying as I used the old alluminium plates to make GOBO's which were great & cheap. Ah well - price of progress?} Unhappy

Depending on the quanity of the print run, it can be just as cheap, if not cheaper than photocopies.

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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Running Your Theater
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Theater Administration :Running Your Theater

Author	Message
TotoToo Theatre Player Joined: 8/31/07 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Topic: Production Posters Posted: 8/31/07 at 2:09pm
	Our new theatre group has been using photography for our promotional posters - incorporating the actors into the poster. This has been very successful for our past two productions but we ran into an issue while producing Theatrelife when one of the six actors on the poster was offered a role in New York four weeks before our production was to run. This would have been a minor problem (but problem nonetheless) for our marketing effort - never mind the re-casting. Turns out there wasn't a conflict and he was able to stick around for our production. I am wondering how other community theatres approach their posters and whether there is a rhyme or reason for opting to use photography over graphics (or visa versa). Maybe this can evolve into a "best strategies" discussion for effective posters for marketing? Here is the poster that "almost" got us into trouble:
	Mark Webster TotoToo Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre

	IP Logged

Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 9/01/07 at 12:19am
	Your poster is great! Was the problem that patrons would recognise the lead actor in the photo? We have used photos of our cast on some of our posters and we really like them when it is conducive to getting the idea of the show across. We also like INEXPENSIVE and so have also usually used the old black photocopier on colored paper to give us a bit of a colorful look (not much, tho, obviously). You can see one of my favorites at our website in the past productions at www.iowariverplayers.org for Dearly Departed.
	IP Logged

TotoToo Theatre Player Joined: 8/31/07 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 9/01/07 at 12:46am
	Hi Kathy, Yes, the problem was that the character (in the middle of the poster) would have changed and because we're in a relatively small community it would have been unfortunate at worst. Not a disaster. But I am deciding which route will be better in the future (photos or graphics). Less risk with smaller casts. I checked out the poster for Dearly Departed. Huge cast and a very effective poster indeed. Definitely works in b&w.
	Mark Webster TotoToo Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre
	IP Logged

bbpchick Star Joined: 7/17/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 86	Posted: 9/08/07 at 7:51pm
	Your poster is fantastic! We have used photography rarely, but that was before we switched to color posters. The last one we did a picture for was our Improv show, you can check out our posters here... http://www.murphysblackbartplayers.com/photo_album.html I personally prefer graphics because I can just make the posters at home and then e-mail them off to our printer, but I guess that means I'm lazy (hehe). But how did you put your poster together? Did you use photoshop or another program. I think if I could put pictures together like that I would use photos more. Big thing for me is easy! Kendra P.S. Kathy I love your Dearly Departed poster. I think it works really well in black and white, great idea.
	Kendra www.murphysblackbartplayers.com You are NEVER too old to dress up!
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Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 9/08/07 at 9:30pm
	I love our DD poster, too. We had a lot of extra help with it -- a cast member's son is a photographer and he staged the picture -- then had to "stitch" it together with a computer program to make it look right. The sky was digitally inserted, too. We built the casket lining out of styrofoam and covered it with white fabric, then posed the cast around it. Using photos in the poster can really be a plus, especially if you have some of the more high profile people in the community playing some of the parts. People like to see faces they know on the poster.
	IP Logged

TotoToo Theatre Player Joined: 8/31/07 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 9/08/07 at 10:02pm
	We have a production coming up called Jigsaw Confession and will be using photos as well. I checked out your DD poster and it gave me an idea for incorporating elements of your approach to your DD poster into ours. Always inspiring to see what others are doing. Thanks Kathy. Kendra, yes, the poster for Theatrelife was HEAVILY PhotoShop-ed. The "theatre" was built from scratch and in order to make the characters "appear" to float I photographed each of their individual limbs in action - then pieced each arm, leg, torso back together. Took about 5 shot per actor telling them "lift this leg, now raise that arm, now lift the other foot". PhotoShop is fantastic! The main character (behind the stage) was also pieced together in photoshop. I first photographed his legs, then his left arm, then his right and then we finally worked on a facial expression. Lots of work - but worth it. The photos from this play are posted in the archive of our website if anyone wants to visit. www.tototoo.ca. Cheers all. If there's a poster your group is particularly proud of please post a link. It sure helps those of us who are into the marketing end of community theatre!
	Mark Webster TotoToo Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre
	IP Logged

AngelSong76 Walk-On Joined: 5/08/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 9/13/07 at 4:36pm
	Here's the poster from our performance of Fuddy Meers. I'm the one in the middle, lol. I thought it was a great poster for the show. We don't always use photos for our posters. In fact, this was the only one we did this way all season. I want to see our group use photos more, because I think it makes the poster more interesting. http://anitahavelsblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/crazy-poster.html Oh, and I may have to steal the Dearly Departed idea... we are doing that show next season!
	IP Logged

Gaafa Celebrity Joined: 3/21/04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 1181	Posted: 9/14/07 at 12:54am
	This is the poster for our first production 'Stepping Out'. I used a shot of the casts legs.Then got the printer to superimpose on shot of the house curtain to cover thier bodies. The one on the web site is not a true representation of what went out, My name & that of choreographer were not on the poster, as i don't believe in it. However for the web page, they duffed up to suit. The rest are rather ordinary & I had nothing to do with, but that is the way it goes!;- http://www.phoenixtheatre.websyte.com.au/site.cfm?/phoenixtheatre/1/
	Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house}
	IP Logged

Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 9/14/07 at 1:52am
	AngelSong and Joe, those posters are both quite fetching! We usually try to keep costs way down by making something that can be printed on the old photocopier with black on white or colored stock. It is surprising how well they can actually turn out sometimes. Yeah, I'm nuts about the DD poster -- it was my idea, but since I didn't know how to execute it I handed it over to a couple of young guys who knew the technical ins and outs. I thought it had a sort of Six Feet Under look to it!
	IP Logged

Gaafa Celebrity Joined: 3/21/04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 1181	Posted: 9/14/07 at 2:23pm
	We used the same cover for the programmes as the poster, which were just a pull during the printing process. It is cheap these days with plastic paper off set printing plates. {which is annoying as I used the old alluminium plates to make GOBO's which were great & cheap. Ah well - price of progress?} Depending on the quanity of the print run, it can be just as cheap, if not cheaper than photocopies.
	Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house}
	IP Logged

Topic: Production Posters( Topic Closed)