P1

Synopsis

The story follows Jackson Grima, a free-lance detective with a penchant for violence. His job is simple: take out the bad guys by any means necessary. This time, his job is to take out the head of the Martino Mafia family (Max Martino), who have been terrorising citizens and fellow criminals alike. He arrives at the house where the Martino family stays. He goes through, floor by floor on his mission to reach the top where Max Martino is. When the day is over, the only thing left in that house will be blood.

Jackson is a bit of a psychopath, destroying anyone who gets in his way, as long as he can call it self defence. He only goes after criminals and mobsters, but he never lets them die easily. Think of him as a 1930s John Wick, except he really enjoys what he does. He is only average size, but his aptitude with guns and knives make him a threat despite that. His favourite weapon is his straight razor. It isn't an effective weapon on it's own, but it's useful for striking fear into his enemies hearts, when he takes down their friends with the rough edge of the razor. He's young, but he's already served as a soldier and a detective, leaving the first after the war got too large scale (he prefers to kill people up close and personal, rather than with a bomb), and leaving the second once he got bored of the procedures and the paperwork.

His target, Max Martino, is equally violent with his means, but his end goal is much less violent. Instead of making peace for the sake of violence (like Jackson) Martino using violence in the hopes of creating peace, making a peaceful world where everyone is too afraid to hurt anyone else. Martino himself is a big man, who prefers to use his fists. He used to be a champion boxer, but he left when everyone else was too scared to challenge him. He rejoined his family roots as mafia members, and established a gang that nobody wanted to cross.

Plot

Jackson is sitting bored in a cafe when he sees the Mafia take out innocent people in a shop. He asks a corrupt police detective for information on them, and decides to take them on himself. The detective offers him payment, but Jackson refuses.

At the house where The Martino Mafia hides out, Jackson goes through each floor, thoroughly 'cleaning' each floor of the people on it. He loses weapons as he goes up, leaving him only with his straight razor by the time he gets to the top floor. The fight between Jackson and Max Martino is brutal, Jackson often barely avoiding getting hit by Martino. He eventually bleeds Martino out with all of his cuts, and leaves.

The next day, in the hospital, the newspaper hails him a "Mysterious Hero" who took out a Mafia family all alone. The police say they won't chase after him because of the good things he did for them. After that, there is less crime in the city, so Jackson has no excuse to kill anyone anymore.

Genre: Mobster Action Thriller

The poster will be split into protagonist and antagonist, and the antagonist side will be red and bloody Also, the centre of the poster will feature a house with blood stains on it. Finally, silhouettes of weapons will be at the bottom.
It is set in the 1930s in the American Mafia era, so the clothes are appropriate.

Mind Map

Mood Map

Reconstructed Poster

Layout

The house is a central part of the plot, being the setting and influencing the structure of the story, so it goes at the centre to reflect it's important.

The antagonist is at the top to reflect that he is at the top of the house, and the protagonist is at the bottom to show how he needs to go from the bottom to the top. Usually, the protagonist is shown on the left side and the antagonist is on the right in posters, so that's why I arranged them that way this time.

The title at the sides matches to the protagonist (the lying hero) and the antagonist (the honest villain).

the background is half good and half evil (day and night/blood moon) to make it obvious who the protagonist and antagonist are).

The credit block and director and cast go at the top and the bottom because that leaves it to the side so it's not in the way of the rest of the poster at the sides, but also it's not too hidden and has enough space (same for the reviews except they are at the side so that they fit in easier).

Same as above except for the title and protagonist/antagonist. The title is at the bottom where the protagonist was and at the top where the antagonist was to reflect their roles (might make the title more confusing though). The protag and antag are on opposite sides to show their opposite natures.

Here are my two options for layouts. I prefer the first, but depending on the shape of the poster it might look better to use the second layout.

In terms of how the protagonist and antagonist are presented, I want to include their weapons and part of their character/past around them somehow. To do that, I could make halos out of their weapons like a John Wick poster. Since I don't want to steal ideas though, I'm also thinking of making the title underline out of their weapons of choice, since the title matches up with the character's role. Also, I want to keep the abstract theme going (from the silhouettes of the people and the house) and to do that, I'm planning on drawing the protagonist and antagonist in a way that looks similar to chalk. I could also have their weapons stacked above their heads next to the title, since combining weapons with a chalk like drawing would look weird (I might also make the weapons silhouettes, to continue that theme in the poster). However, since the protagonist and antagonist are outlined in chalk like pen, I might also decide to do the same for the house, or maybe the people inside it (that would let me add more detail to at least the main "boss" of each floor to make them stand out).

Fonts

These were the ten fonts I found:

1. Old Press - This font conveys the bloody nature of the story, and also seems similar to the headline fonts. Plus, unlike certain fonts, it includes both the comma and the apostrophe. 
2. Brush Pains - This font works well for showing the brutal, thriller side of the film through the rough brush stroke style of text
3. DCC Ash - The bold, well structured but also wobbly style of text creates the sense of strictness and odd morals which well represents the antagonist, whilst the rough, scratched away parts show the harsh nature of the protagonist
4. 1942 Report - Another thriller/horror style font that I thought fit the protagonist's actions and personality well
5. Skeletal Wish - This fonts looks like a less rough, more refined version of (2), which I thought would make the poster seem less like a horror and more like a thriller
6. Dirty Ego - This font highlights the rough nature seen in the other fonts, and creates a sense of a bloody mess, without going too overboard and making it feel like a horror
7. Headliner No.45 - I picked this one since it adds the newspaper element of the story in the poster, which doesn't really fit anywhere else in the poster itself, since public opinions and secret goals are a big theme in the story
8. Impacted 2.0 - The refined but bold nature of this font conveys the personalities and pasts of the protagonist and antagonist well, but also the blood stains on the text conveys the bloody nature of the story
9. Army Rust - I thought this could be appropriate considering the army theme which links in well to the protagonist's past, and also how it shows the fact that the story isn't just a mindless bloodbath, although that is a major element, as the psychological battle between the protagonist and the antagonist also adds to the story
10. Veteran Typewriter - This font adds to the 1930s setting of the story with the typewriter style text. It's also a bit rough and incomplete, which I feel represents the story quite well.

After a little bit of thinking I decided to use Old Press (I might change my mind later when I see it with the poster):

I feel like this font conveys the messy nature of the film, and the rough aesthetic of the world and setting, and it somewhat has a newspaper feel. The slightly wonky lettering conveys the odd psychology of the protagonist and antagonist, but also the fact that they aren't completely insane. It also portrays the tough nature of the characters in the story. Since half of the poster might have a red background anyway, I could just leave this font alone without a background for itself.

I was set on using a red background for the text (I might try making the font itself white for added contrast) so that it conveys the bloody nature of the story. I might end up cutting out the background, but it should still have the red stains on the text itself.

Credits

Colour Schemes (sample)

Colour Schemes (original)

The red and blue colours convey the characters loyalties, the protagonist is blue and the antagonist is red (those colours will be part of the sky background [blue sky/blood moon]). The blue and red also connote police (due to the police car lights), who are involved in the story as well. The red on the text also creates a rough, violent tone for the film. The black and white are part of both the text (black for the protagonist and white for the antagonist, representing their true intentions), but also the background and the simple clipart style house silhouette at the centre. The blood red colour comes from the outline of the people silhouettes inside the house. Action thrillers often use red and grey/black colour pallets, and some also include dark blue tints, so the genre is reflected in the colours as well