Craft: key art
Movie posters and key art, made with the film
Key art is the single still image that stands in for a whole film: the poster, the launch image, the thumbnail people tap. At Filmito it comes from a finished frame or a new still built with the film's locked cast, and every title is set by hand in the edit. Our homepage 'Now showing' wall holds campaign posters for six client films, including Be The Kaptaan, Nella and RescueIQ. We have also made six Filmito Originals world posters starring Rudra.
A paused frame is whatever the film happened to be doing that second. A poster is a decision. It chooses one face, one mood and one promise. It has to read at the size of a stamp on a phone and at the size of a wall. Good film poster design for brands does the job of a trailer in a single frame, without sound.
The homepage 'Now showing' wall holds ours: campaign posters for Kaptaan, Nella, Freshe Schnauze, AccuQuote, ACIK SafePass and RescueIQ. We have also made six Originals world posters starring Rudra, from Good Men, Bad Habits to First Light. Each one is built from its own locked cast and world, and every letter on it is set by hand.
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2 films we made
Tap any film to play it with sound. Every one was written, directed, edited and graded by Filmito.
The grammar of a one-sheet
One image, one promise
A poster cannot tell the plot. It picks the single moment that carries the feeling and trusts the viewer to want the rest: one figure, one gesture, one light. Three competing ideas on one sheet read as none.
The one-sheet hierarchy
The standard US theatrical one-sheet is 27 by 40 inches, portrait. The eye travels face, then title, then credit block. Keep the face in the upper third, leave clean air for the title, and let the billing sit low and quiet.
Type set by hand
Image engines still garble letters: a title comes back with a missing stroke or an invented glyph. Every title on our key art is added by hand in the edit, never generated, in a typeface chosen to match the film's era and weight.
Light that reads small
A poster lives at thumbnail size far more often than at wall size. Hard contrast between subject and background, one dominant colour, and a silhouette you would know from its shape alone all survive being shrunk to a fingernail.
Crops for every placement
Key art design is planned as a family: a portrait one-sheet, a 16:9 landscape for YouTube and site headers, a square for feeds, a 9:16 for stories. The master leaves room so each crop keeps both the face and the title.
Posters we designed
How we make a film's key art
Start from the film
Key art comes after the cast is locked, so the face on the poster is the same face in every shot. We look through the finished takes and the character sheets before staging anything new.
Stage the hero still
When no frame says it all, we direct a still the way we direct a shot. A written prompt sets pose, lens, light and a negative list, and we reject most results until one holds the whole film.
Set the title
Title, tagline and credit block are laid in over the hero still, in a face picked for the film's era. We shrink the whole sheet to phone-thumbnail size first, and only sign it off once the title still reads there.
Grade and crop
The film's own colour grade goes onto the still, so poster and film feel like one object. Any crops the brief asks for, such as portrait, landscape, square or vertical, are then cut from that one master.
What key art costs with a film
The campaign posters on our 'Now showing' wall, including Kaptaan, Nella and RescueIQ, were designed alongside the client films they sell. Ask for a one-sheet and its crops in your brief, and we will confirm what they add before work starts. The films are $595 for a 15-second ad, $895 for 30, $1,495 for 60, $2,000 for a two-minute AI Film, and $350 for a 30-second Filmito Original.
Where generated key art goes wrong
Engines are poor at lettering, at hands holding small objects, and at keeping a face exact in a still that was never part of a shot. So no title is ever generated, and every face is held to the film's locked cast. A still with a soft hand or a drifting jawline goes back to be staged again.
Questions
What people ask about movie posters and key art
What does a movie poster do that a thumbnail cannot?
A thumbnail is judged at a glance, in a row of others, so it can only signal. A poster can carry a title, a tagline, a credit block and a mood that holds up at wall size. Good movie poster design gives you both from one image: the poster first, then crops that still read small.
How do you choose the typeface for a poster title?
From the film's era and weight, never from a default. A title for an 80s hero entrance wants heavy, confident letterforms; a warm family film wants something softer. The spacing is then judged by eye, because a title is read as one shape before it is read as a word, and a loose gap breaks that shape.
Can the poster use a frame straight from the film?
Sometimes, and it is the most honest choice when a frame already holds the idea. Often a video frame is soft from motion, or framed for a moving shot rather than a still. Then we stage a hero still with the same locked cast, light and grade, so it clearly belongs to the film.
How is film poster design for brands different from a studio one-sheet?
The grammar is the same: one face, one promise, a title set with care. The difference is that a brand's product and colours have to live inside the world without turning the poster into a flyer. The face still leads, the product earns its place in the frame, and the logo sits low with the billing.
Can I get a custom movie poster starring my family?
A custom movie poster comes out of a film, not instead of one. A Filmito Original is a 30-second film starring you or your family and friends, cast from 3 to 6 photos per face. It is $350, ready within 24 hours of the brief. That price is for the film. If you want a poster too, say so in the brief and we will tell you what it adds.
When in a production should the key art be made?
After the cast is locked and the grade is set, before launch day. Earlier, the face on the poster can drift from the face in the film. Later, the launch goes out with a paused frame instead of a poster. When a poster is part of the brief, it is made from the finished cast and grade, so the poster and the film belong together.
Filmito
Plan the poster with the film
Tell us about the film, and ask for key art in the brief. We will tell you plainly what a one-sheet and its crops involve.
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