Jeremy Saunders

Jeremy Saunders arrived in Sydney from the UK in 2000, and has been working as a Key Art Designer on many of the big Australian films since. Designing posters for Candy, Little Fish, Suburban Mayhem, Macbeth and most recently for Samson & Delilah.

Hey Jeremy, tell us a little about your background – what did you study and what path led you to what you’re doing now?
I am utterly uneducated and without a qualification to my name. Should this all be whisked away by a cruel turn of fate, you’ll find me under a railway cutting with a longneck and a long beard.

I taught myself to use Photoshop and the other Adobe programmes over three months of long evenings hunched over the bedroom pc with a copy of Computer Arts magazine on my lap. And thanks to that venerable font of knowledge, I had become a better designer than the people I was getting design jobs for (by day I was masquerading unsuccessfully as a New Media recruitment person so I could easily assess the competition). So I left the UK and travelled the world correcting my pronunciation of ‘leading’ until I could tell people I was a designer without their cruel laughter whisking me from the premises. Upon arriving in Australia I fell in with the wrong crowd and a career on the outskirts of the film industry was born: blue, slightly bloody and smelling — weirdly — of bacon.

What have you been working on lately?
Tons. This time of year is always rather strenuous thanks to the upcoming release schedule and the Cannes Film Festival. Stuff in cinemas soon include Samson and Delilah (which is also in competition at Cannes), Prime Mover, Lucky Country, Balibo (all of which will be released in the next few months) and a whole bunch of other stuff. Mostly Australian films although I do get to do the occasional international arthouse film.

Have you always been interested in Movie Poster / Key art Design? are you a Collector?
I’m not a collector at all although I do have an original poster for the Antonioni film Blow-Up somewhere (it still needs framing).

As a kid I lived way out in the country and I never really got to go to the movies, but I’d see key art reproduced in the comics I was reading and I used to pore over the details of the artwork for, say, Live and let Die, and make the plot up from the elements on the poster. So I guess I’ve always felt their allure, the drive to entice and intrigue the viewer. Cinema to me can be the most magical of media, and even through my tastes in films has evolved there’s a real satisfaction in hopefully inspiring the same wonder and anticipation that I felt poring over those pages.

Do you have to see the film before you design a poster?
Yeah, definitely. Often I’ll be asked to do key art for films that haven’t been made, but at the very least you have to read the script. It’s as much about assessing the mood and the pace and the tone of the film as it is representing the visuals, and it’s really hard to do that without experiencing the film first. It’s a real privilege actually, to get to see films at very early moments and see how the editing process and the sound design etc can totally change and enhance the film at the different stages. It’s always fascinating, the millions of tiny decisions that can have such an impact on the whole.

Do you have creative control or do you have to go through a long approval process? Does the Director have much input?
Ha. No, I never have creative control. I usually design a bunch of posters and then we’ll hone down the choices and do more drafts and keep honing until we get to the end. Generally the directors want a lot of input but equally they’re often a bit too close to the project to step back and see it from a marketing perspective. Plus the producers, who basically own the project and have often worked on the film for 5, 10 years, they’ll have different ideas too, and the distributors will have their own slant again. So a large part of the job is managing these different expectations and requests and trying to find a solution that is a happy one for everyone, and yet hopefully doesn’t reek of compromise. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Fortunately with 120 posters under my belt people listen to my opinions a bit more often these days. And occasionally I get it right first time which is hugely satisfying.

Are there any movies or posters that you have objected to?
I object to all sorts of films! That sort of dreary coming-of-age ‘write what you know’ stuff that we’ve been subjected to in Australian cinema for a few years is a total grind. These days if I don’t connect with the project I’m a lot more confident in turning it down beforehand rather than chasing every single job that gets offered. And I’ve done my share of shocking posters too, but generally these are the ones that are compromises without any sort of personal vision. Ones that try to tell the story of the film never work well.

What is your favourite Movie Poster / Key Art Design that you’ve created?
That changes every day. Usually the posters for Tarnation, Good Night and Good Luck and Mister Lonely (which the director and the producer HATED) are up there. At the moment I’m really proud of the Samson and Delilah one even though it’s objectively just a simple ‘big head’ poster, but it feels really good to see it up and about. Those kids’ faces are amazing. And it’s such an astonishing film, I’m really proud to have been involved with it even in a small way.

What have been the highlights in your art related career to-date?
Being able to do something that often doesn’t really feel like work, and earn enough money to pay the rent from it, is such a privilege, it really is. And working with lovely people who are often really creative and really talented in their fields, it’s a gift, every day. Specifically, getting my Motorcycle Diaries poster used in Poland – well, no-one does movie posters like the Poles (google Polish movie posters and blow your mind) so personally that was a big feather in my cap.

If there is one movie poster you could design for, which movie would it be?
Any movie by Michael Haneke or David Lynch. I’d love to have done Inland Empire.

Which designers, artists or creative people are you inspired by?
Well obviously the filmmakers I work with are inspiring on a job to job basis. Artists who I love… Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle is one of the greatest artworks of the last 20 years; Miwa Yanagi does wonderful stuff with photography, her elevator girls series blew my mind when it was out here for the Biennale a few years back; as for designers, Saul Bass and Vaughan Oliver are always my touchstones for perfection.

What advice would you give to an aspiring Designer trying to get into Key Art design?
Basically any design skills are secondary to your ability to analyse and dissect a film, and interpret the film in a creative way. Which takes a lot of watching and discussing films — the design bit is just a simple spewing out of ideas you’ve already worked through in your head. Stay away from blockbusters and immerse yourself in stuff with ideas. Analyse and interpret, and work out what you want to say about what the film wants to say. Think about who would enjoy the film and what they would enjoy about it.
I’d suggest trying to do book jackets or cd covers as well, given they are solely metaphorical and ideas-based, rather than measuring actors’ heads to avoid getting shouted at by their agents, which is dull. Short film-makers always want posters and dvd slicks for their films whether they need them or not, so that’s a good place to start. Hassle the local film school or theatre companies for work. You may be doing stuff for free or cheap but it’s all about getting contacts and a portfolio up together. Don’t think of it as selling your soul. That comes the first time you have to disregard everything I’ve just said and stick three actors’ heads floating in the sky.

Links:
www.jeremysaunders.com