Zeppelin

Abstract

The poster I chose to create for the film, Zeppelin, is very minimalistic. It depicts the outline of a Zeppelin overhead, with a black sky and dark red clouds. The tag line is centered near the bottom, reading, "The Great War’s most explosive moment …" and the title is underneath in the same font as the original, but in all white. I created this out of vectors using Adobe Illustrator. The poster captures the viewer’s attention because of the abstract nature of the outline of the Zeppelin. The viewer is also caught off guard by the large white form as well as the black and maroon color of the sky. The viewer does not immediately recognize the figure in the sky: at first, the viewer might think that it is the outline of a bomb or a submarine. However, when he looks and sees the title of the movie at the bottom of the poster, it becomes more obvious that it is a picture of a Zeppelin with the background of a black and red sky. For the tagline, I chose to use an ellipsis, instead of an exclamation point. I also made the sky black and maroon. This creates a sense of suspense and apprehension, as well as a menacing sense of doom, rather than excitement and violence. The Zeppelin and words are in white. This contrasts emphasizes the Zeppelin, but also makes the Zeppelin look like the protagonist in the poster. I chose to create this poster to emphasize the epic struggle between the Allied and the Axis, and the looming monstrosities that were Zeppelins. The viewer of the poster is put into an insignificant position, and feels dominated by the Zeppelin, much as the main character in the movie feels, as his life is changed drastically by a mission involving a Zeppelin. The viewer feels like he is powerless against a force that is greater than he. In this poster, the Zeppelin represents not only the evil Axis forces, but also technology, and the abstraction that is inherent in modern warfare. Again, the viewer feels the same as the main character, as the modern war machines start to dominate his view, blotting out the sky, and, eventually, start to even look like a positive source of change. I chose to not promise an action-packed and over-the-top film that makes the viewer contemplate the relationship between love and war (and the destruction both can create), as the original poster suggested. Rather, I chose to focus on the monstrous figure of the Zeppelin, looming over the horizon, and what it means for the main character. The Zeppelin creates a separate struggle from the interhuman relationships: it creates a struggle between a man’s duties and human nature, as well as humanity and machinery.