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Much of our key art design is referral based, but in this case, the producers of My First Summer had recently seen our key art for Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt) and loved our treatment and got in touch. After initial conversations with the producer Jonathan auf der Heide and director Katie Found, and having seen and fallen in love with the film – we set about developing ideas and treatments that captured the beauty, warmth and tenderness of this coming-of-age story.
The film was shot on a modest budget with no available unit photography so our concept development relied on 4k frames extracted directly from the film which were interpolated and carefully retouched to reduce artefacting and noise for hi-res print requirements of key art.
A particularly challenging aspect of the source images was their landscape format, which required a doubling in height to become a portrait aspect for the poster. In the chosen design, the curtains and window have been completely replaced, with the original source image being a fairly tight crop of the women sitting on the floor.
Carnival hand-drew titles and cast credits, in much the way love letters are written. Early title treatments were also handwritten, but we leant on a bolder retro typeface which further established the sense of nostalgia.
The creative process, from briefing through to client review and revisions was exceptionally smooth and is a testament to the easy and collaborative nature of the filmmakers.
Art Direction / Design: Demi HopkinsHand Lettering: Cassandra ChapmanRetouching: Mike James
“Carnival Studio was a dream to work with. Their professionalism and passion for the project meant the world to me as an emerging filmmaker. They took the time to connect with the film and as a result were able to truly capture its essence in the key art. It was such a fulfilling creative process – I felt involved and heard every step of the way. I cannot wait to work with them again!” – Katie Found, Director