Design Context: OUGD505- Studio Brief 3 Research

Ironweed 1987

Trailer for Ironweed (1987)

Director: Hector Babenco

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora

Movie Plot

Francis Phelan (Jack Nicholson) is a washed-up baseball player who deserted his family back in the 1910s when he accidentally and drunkenly dropped his son and killed him. Since then, Phelan has been a bum, punishing himself. Wandering into Albany, New York, Phelan seeks out his lover and drinking companion, Helen Archer (Meryl Streep). The two meet up in a mission managed by Reverend Chester (James Gammon), and later in Oscar Reo's (Fred Gwynne) gin mill. Over the next few days, Phelan takes a few minor jobs to support his habit, haunted by visions of his past. Francis comes back to his old family house and tries a reconciliation with his wife Annie Phelan (Carroll Baker), his son Billy (Michael O'Keefe) and Peg (Diane Venora). Meanwhile, a group of local vigilantes take it upon themselves to drive the homeless out of Albany. During the course of the day, a series of events change Francis' life forever.

Albany, New York, Halloween, 1938. Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are bums, back in their birth city. She was a singer on the radio, he a major league pitcher. Death surrounds them: she's sick, a pal has cancer, he digs graves at the cemetery and visits the grave of his infant son whom he dropped; visions of his past haunt him, including ghosts of two men he killed. That night, out drinking, Helen tries to sing at a bar. Next day, Fran visits his wife and children and meets a grandson. He could stay, but decides it's not for him. Helen gets their things out of storage and finds a hotel. Amidst their mistakes and dereliction, the film explores their code of fairness and loyalty.

Film Poster Variations

All the posters use serif fonts so I think a serif font will be more appropriate that a sans-serif font to better represent the time the film came out.

Film Screen Shots

This scene in the film stood out to me because of the type on the building, I think it sums up the message of the film by referencing his journey of redemption and struggles from his past to become a better person.

Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep are to two main characters in the film so I think the poster should be based around them.

In this scene Jack Nicholson gives Meryl Streep a white rose before she performs a song about their friendships. This scene is iconic so I am thinking of using the white rose some how to represent the troubles of his past and how their friendship is something good to come from it.

This may also inform the colour scheme I will use, I am thinking of white for the stock, black for the background and maybe red for the type?

Alternative movie posters

These posters use the colours I am thinking of using, Im still not to sure about the red at the minuet.

I want my poster to look similar to these by using textures to create a worn effect to reflect the time the film is set.

I initial thought a serif font would be best but I saw this poster above I really liked the elegance of the font and think it could work for what I'm trying to achieve.

This is how I imagined the white rose to look on the black background, if I do it right it could be quite visually striking.

I have been looking at different compositions of roses to see how i could represent it. Using vectors is one possibility with geometric shapes. I could also achieve this using photoshop for a more realistic image. I will have to experiment with this when I come to develop the design.

Inspiration

Golden Ratio

I have been looking at roses to use in my poster and I remembered the golden ratio makes up the structure of the rose. This gave me the idea to use this as part of my concept to create balance in the layout to represent his feelings for Helen.

Fonts