Movie Poster Design for Vengeance Trail

I've recently learned that one of my top strengths or giftings is Craftsmanship. When it comes to metal or wood fabrication, or filmmaking, I have a commitment to excellence that can border on perfectionism. The trick is to know when to stop majoring on the minor details.

I once asked for a job at a Special Effects company. The shop foreman said they had a scene where a keyboard was to get shot and they were carving keyboards out of foam. He asked how I would do it. My initial thought was that keyboards are cheap so why not find some junk keyboards to squib, but I fumbled through an answer about materials and tooling. Later, I thought, my first questions should have been to ask how close would the camera get to it. 

My opinion on the difference between low budget and big budget movies is attention to detail. Attending to the details takes time, resources and manpower. You know the Fast, Good or Cheap Project Management Triangle. You have to pick your battles. 

But sometimes you find an artist who loves what they do, and they keep making suggestions - good suggestions. And that keeps presenting me with choices. James Burns is a movie poster artist who just loves Westerns, and he can't stop pitching ideas for Vengeance Trail unless I stop him. 

So, what do y'all think about all these options? BTW, James actually started with the better versions, but over time started presenting sketches for options to present ideas more quickly with less effort. Disclaimer: we don't have many high res photos to choose from, so some of the images had to be taken from the video tapes, uprezzed as much as possible using AI software.

The original poster and DVD art:

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly influence:

Options A vs. C:

Barbed wire border, light vs dark options:

Ultimately, story must dictate the design. Who's the hero, who's the villain? Who wants vengeance? Is it unified to have all the guns point one direction? Does the story demand unity? Is the fact that they're all holding guns enough? What's the best use of negative space and color or contrast? Watch the trailer, read the synopsis, and leave your comments below.

Thanks, Ian

Filmmaking Addiction

What does someone do when they spend every extra cent on self-funded short films, as I used to when I was single? Might as well tax-write-off the expenses. Eventually, I formed EyreFilms, LLC in 2014 as a tax haven. 

YouTube.com/EyreFilms channel grew as a fluke. I threw a few videos up, starting in 2009. One day, in 2019, I got a notification about a comment on “Be Brave, Daddy!” and went to look. Unbelievably, there were 3 million views. The video had been online for seven years getting a few hundred hits per year - then it became hockey stick.

Who knows why? Maybe someone blogged about it. I quickly monetized it and connected it to my other videos, and in the next two years, that spot grew to 24 million views and the channel to 33 million views overall. 

Then the Covid shutdown hit and I started putting up short mockumentaries starring my kids, to get them out of the house. But the quality wasn’t as good as my other shorts. That and being more focused on feature films which is taking years, so I didn’t have regular content to add. I lost my audience, and I lost a small amount of ads funding.

I’m starting this blog to share my journey as a storyteller. A feature length movie is way bigger than the sum of a bunch of short films. This blog will share behind-the-scenes of my short films and the exploits of my pursuit of feature films. As well as adventures that may only partly connect to my career, or true stories and influenced part of a movie.

I just migrated Eyre Films, LLC to my new hometown Memphis, TN, this time more specifically as a holding company for my IP and the Eyre Films Channel on YouTube. I am working on a slate of feature films that will one day require an umbrella production company, some of which are the Eyre Films Website.

To start, I want to share this awesome logo designed by my friend Audra Esch. I’ll tell some stories behind the elements in each quadrant, but the lower right symbol should be self-evident.

And I’ll explain if and how my filmmaking urge is an addiction or a calling.

Ian “Max” Eyre