Producing for Profit

Chapter 15Marketing and Publicity

Studio Campaigns

We discussed key art earlier in relation to independent film sales. In layman’s terms, key art is the photographic (or, in the early days of cinema and drive-in movies, the non-photographic drawings, sketches, or paintings) that were depicted on the poster and/or flyer (also known as a sales sheet or one sheet). Over the years, new key art is often produced for highly successful films. For instance, Star Wars’ first piece of key art featured an artist’s rendering of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, with Darth Vader in the background, whereas subsequent designs included more of the cast members, such as Harrison Ford, as they became better known to audiences.

For an independent film without the ...