For a Photoshop Phriday competitition at Something Awful, users were asked to take a trashy comedy or action film and make it look like an arthouse movie. There were lots of entries taking films such as The Phantom Menace and Norbit, making them look like high class, intelligent films. Here is my attempt at remixing the Blades of Glory poster.

In a similar competition, users were asked to play around with the conventions of movie posters by making half-decent films look like 1970s grindhouse flicks. Here is my attempt at remixing the poster for Nacho Libre.

If you need assistance mastering the basics of Adobe Photoshop, you can download this document .

Video tutorials

Here are some videos that will help you complete this task:

Grindhouse Photoshop Tutorial (Part 1)

Grindhouse Photoshop Tutorial (Part 2)

Grindhouse Photoshop Tutorial (Part 3)

Grindhouse Photoshop Tutorial (Part 4)

First, you’ll need some high resolution images to create your remixed poster. I suggest using Google image search to get your hands on these. When you’re searching for images, try to find Extra Large or Large pictures. Often, it’s useful to include the word ‘wallpaper’ or ‘stills’ into your search phrase because these return nice clean images. My advice: pick a popular movie.

Finding images

Getting started

Start a new Photoshop Document. I recommending using an A4 page. If you’re in the US, choose something that you’re going to print out on. For the purposes of this tutorial, you’re probably going to be using screen resolution images that you’ve taken from the internet. Because you’re working with relatively low source images, it’s a good idea to set the resolution of your project to 72 DPI. Why 72 DPI? Well, that’s standard screen resolution and it’ll ensure that if you have a picture from the film, it’s still going to take up most of the screen. The one thing you don’t want to do is have to enlarge images. Since you’ve sourced these images from the web, you’re probably dealing with JPEGs. JPEG is a form of lossy compression. If you try to enlarge the image, it’s going to become pixellate. Although Photoshop is quite sophisticated at reducing the amount of pixellation, the larger you make these images, the worse they’re going to look. You’re probably thinking, “Hey…aren’t we aiming for a weathered and worn effect anyway?” Sure…but the dithering and pixellation you get from enlarging a JPEG just looks awful so we’re going to avoid that.

Creating the Background

First, create a new layer by choosing Layer > New > Layer…

There are a number of ways you can fill an area in Photoshop.

• You can use the Paint Bucket Tool which is usually found hiding beneath the Gradient Tool in the tool palette.
• You can choose Edit > Fill…
• The quickest way to fill a selected area is using Option-Delete to fill with the foreground colour.
• Alternatively, you can create a Fill Layer. Choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid… Give your layer an appropriate name and choose a colour.

Smart objects

A Smart Object is like a document within a document. When we have the elements of our poster organised inside a Smart Object, it makes it much easier to weather them and give them a classic grindhouse look.

To transform one or more layers into smart objects, select them first. Right-clicking on the layers brings up a contextual menu. Choose ‘Convert to Smart Object’. You’ll notice that the layer icon in the Layers Palette has changed to indicate that this is a Smart Object, a document within a document. To open our Smart Object, double click on its icon in the Layers Palette.

You’ll be presented with a dialogue box which explains that, after editing the contents of the Smart Object, you’ll need to choose File > Save to keep any changes that you make. When you close the Smart Object, you’ll be returned to your original document. For first time Photoshop users, the concept of Smart Objects might seem a little bit abstract. Just remember that they’re like documents inside documents. Although it may seem complicated now, it’s going to save us a lot of work later on.

Now that you have your smart object open, it’s time to start adding some text and images to your Photoshop document. Remember, to add an image, simply choose File > Open. Select > All. Edit > Copy. Close the document and paste the image that you have copied into your Smart Object by choosing Edit > Paste. You can add text by clicking on the Text Tool (T) in the Layers Palette.

Smart Filters

Once you have created a smart object, you can apply Smart Filters to it. Simply click on the Smart Layer in the Layers Palette. Choose an appropriate filter from the Filters Menu. Once applied, the filter will appear beneath your Smart Layer. If you want to make your image look a bit grainier, you choose Filter > Noise >  Add Noise.

I strongly recommend applying a small amount of noise and then choosing Filter > Artistic > Film Grain. This is a great way to flatten your image and give it a really old skool look (I can’t believe I just wrote ‘skool’).

The cheap, grindhouse theatres of the 1970s never really had a lot of money to promote their films. Obviously, publicity posters would be low resolution, shoddy affairs. If you’re remixing a poster or creating your own from scratch, you’ll need to mess up those nice, high resolution photographs a bit. First, it’s a good idea to desaturate the image a little bit. If a poster has been out in the elements for a while, it would have faded a bit. To do this, you can add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation…

Simply drag the Saturation slider down slightly to make the poster look a little washed out. The advantage of adjustment layers is that they’re non-destructive which means that you can always adjust this setting later on by double clicking on it in the layers palette.

Adding a Layer Mask

You could simply take a brush and start painting to make this poster look a bit grungier. What if you’re unhappy with the results? What if you want to change it tomorrow? In this case, layer masks are great for achieving non-destructive changes. Click on the layer with the image you want to weather. Select Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. In the Layers Palette, you will notice that there is now a Layer Mask attached to the layer. When you set up the brush explained below, and start painting with your Foreground Color set to black. Any black areas will be removed from the picture.

Rips and tears with the Brush Tool

Once you’ve created cracks around the edge of your poster, you can use the same brush to create realistic folds. Using these dynamics, it’s very easy to create tiny creases in the paper, the sort that a poster gets from being folded up. Still painting on your layer mask, set the size of the brush to 15 px. Depending on the resolution of your photograph, you may need reduce the size of your brush further.

Select the Brush Tool (B). In the Options bar, click on the brush icon to select another brush. Open the drop down menu to choose from a selection of brush sets as shown below. Choose Faux Finish Brushes. You will be presented with a dialogue box asking whether you want to replace the current brush set or simply append the Faux Finish Brushes to the current list. Choose ‘Append’ so you still have access to the basic Photoshop brushes. You might need to choose ‘Small List’ from the drop down menu so you can see the names of the brushes.

I recommend tweaking the brush settings before you go about tearing and weathering your work. To achieve a more random effects, and largely because I’m lazy, I like to adjust the shape dynamics. If not, I find that the effect becomes too calculated and people will notice the same shape recurring again and again. To adjust the brush, select Window > Brushes. You will be presented with a number of options.

Looking at the above diagram, you’ll notice that I’ve increased the Size Jitter and Angle Jitter to their maximum settings.

Click on the layer you want to rip and tear around the edges. Choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Make sure your foreground colour is set to black as shown below.

Start painting around the edges of your Photograph.

Using Layer Styles

At the bottom of the the layers palette, there is a button labelled ‘FX’. This allows you to apply a variety of effects to layers, including: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Satin, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay, Pattern Overlay and Stroke. To work out what each of these effects does, try applying them to a layer and adjusting the settings.

Creases

Select the Gradient Tool. Choose a standard black to white gradient. In the Options bar, set the Mode to Difference.

Create a new layer by choosing Layer > New > Layer… or by clicking the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers Palette.

Select the Gradient Tool (G). Start drawing random gradients on the new blank layer. You should end up with something like this:

Select All (Command + A). Choose Filter > Sylize > Emboss.

You will end up with something like this…

Set the Blending Mode of your layer to Overlay in the Layers Palette.

Using Paper Textures

If you have photographed a paper texture or found a royalty free one on the internet, then you can use that to age and weather your images in Photoshop. Simply paste the appropriate texture into you document. Change the Blending Mode of the layer to ‘Overlay’. You may need to experiment with the Blending Mode of the layer until you find the one that works best for your texture and photograph.

Color Halftone

A great way to achieve the pixelated, halftone look of a grindhouse poster is to use Photoshop’s Color Halftone filter. First, you will need to duplicate the layer you are working on. Click on the layer. Select Layer > Duplicate Layer…. Apply the Color Halftone filter to the new layer by selecting Filter > Pixilate > Color Halftone. Use the following settings.

You may need to adjust the Max. Radius according to the resolution of your photograph. The minimum setting is 4 pixels.

Set the Blending Mode of the layer to Darken.

If the effect is too strong, feel free to reduce the opacity of the upper layer using the Layers Palette. Here is the halftone effect with the addition of some ripped edges.

Assessment Task

Select a low budget comedy or trashy action flick and reconstruct its poster to make it appear like an art house film. Use lots of white space and elegant type faces. You are also required to take a decent film and make its poster look like a trashy, 1970s grindhouse flick.

Criterion 1: Operate media technology and use materials, techniques, applications and processes to produce representations in two or more media forms.

Criterion 2: Understanding of the ways in which codes and conventions (such as visual, audio, technical and written) are used to convey ideas and meanings.