Movie Poster Design: What Would Neil Patrick Harris Do?
This poster for Harold and Kumar 2 is excellent. It marks a fairly rare occurrence of a poster that works at a conceptual level. Neil Patrick Harris’s cameo in the first movie was one of the more celebrated parts of the film, but I’d argue that this poster isn’t about advertising his inclusion in the sequel, nor does it necessarily imply that “NPH†will be seen on a unicorn in the film. Meanwhile, neither Harold nor Kumar is on the poster, nor any reference to the show’s plot (wherein the two are arrested on an airplane when an old woman thinks Kumar is a terrorist). Rather, the simple point is itself comically rich, suggesting that the sensibility behind the making of this film is the same that might find the notion of NPH on a unicorn amusing, or that might find the act of substituting NPH for Jesus by asking “What Would NPH Do?†entertaining. And they’ve really committed to the concept, too, with the blinding light, and NPH’s priceless look and seemingly unbuttoned shirt and jacket.
Of course, it has the luxury of being a sequel, so the mere words “Harold and Kumar†already tell viewers what to expect, but all the same, the promotional strategy here is arresting and deeply amusing. I saw the poster while going to see two films (two? See here for explanation) and I burst out laughing. Trailers for comedies should make one laugh, just as trailers for action films should excite one, but posters more often are left teasing the viewer, promising gratification later on. The poster for Harold and Kumar 2, though, delivers the goods upfront.
Compare, for instance, to the posters to the films I saw: Dan in Real Life (a lovely film) and We Own the Night (an okay film, though nothing special, save for a brilliant car chase in the pouring rain). More after the fold
Dan’s shows us the film’s star, very much announcing that this is a Steve Carell vehicle. We know Carell as a funny guy, and the head in the pancakes assures us the movie will still be funny. But he looks forlorn, is unshaven, and is oblivious to the syrup that is no doubt oozing into his ears (Homer moment: mmmmmm…syrup oozing into ears), so we also know that he is sad in this film. Moreover, since it’s just him in the frame, with a white background, the poster isolates him from others (underscoring this isolation with text that claims his family is “happening†to him, when we don’t actually see this family). And to see him properly, we need to cock our heads to the right, sharing his vantage point. So it quite clearly communicates the set-up for the film in straightforward representational style.
We Own the Night has a rather boring generic poster … but then again, it’s at-times boring, and certainly a generic film. We see the film’s stars, and their characters – Duvall and Wahlberg both wear their badges, yet it is Phoenix who holds the gun, without a badge, so we can infer from this (and from his highlighted red shirt) that he’s working solo here, either a renegade or a bad guy. And Eva Mendes’s face, breasts, and legs seem to claim a lot of available light, selling her as the film’s sex object/interest. And in case the two badges, the darkness, and the grave looks didn’t spell it out, the police lights in the back left tell us this is a cop flick. A gritty cop flick at that, insists the dark lighting. We also know it’s in Brooklyn, since the bridge and the Manhattan skyline dominate the background. And we know it’s older New York, since the WTC buildings are still there. Those buildings’ placement is interesting, moreover, since they’re centered in the poster, and they divide Wahlberg and Phoenix’s heads, each tower connected to a different head. Thus, they suggest (as does the relative placement and mirroring of the actors’ poses) a special connection between the two stars. Are they brothers united or the two poles of the city, working in opposition? A battle and/or union of wills is clearly set up. The presence of the towers even alludes to danger on the horizon: just as the buildings will fall, one might infer, so too might these two characters.
We Own the Night’s poster and Dan in Real Life’s are the actual marquee posters, whereas Harold and Kumar 2’s is a teaser (“Coming Soonâ€). So, to be fair, H&K2’s doesn’t need to establish as much information as do the other two. But if one thinks of teaser posters for sequels, they usually rely even more on icons: Shrek’s horns, the Bat(man) signal, Vader’s mask, the Superman insignia, etc. So I’m impressed by H&K2’s willingness to change things up by teasing the type of humor, not the actual contents per se. (And this stands even if the film does end up placing NPH on a unicorn, since the poster offers no promise of this). I haven’t seen Harold and Kumar, so I have no proclivity to be either excited or dismayed at the sign of a sequel itself, but the poster deserves kudos, and it makes me wish more movie posters were conceptual rather than literal. There’s nothing wrong with Dan in Real Life’s poster or We Own the Night’s, but they just ain’t Doogie Howser on a unicorn.
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