Who is the creative guru behind VAFF 19?
By VAFF Marketing
At the beginning of 2013, Festival Director, Grace Chin and the marketing and creative teams were brainstorming potential multi-year themes for the Festival. It was an interesting process as we discussed potential thematic concepts that could span a three year period to and including the 20th year of the Festival. Ideas emerged organically and we went from considering the impact of multi-year trilogies produced by the entertainment industry to the possibility of pursuing a “Triad” theme, but with a positive spin. That is how we began our journey. For our 18th year of the Festival, we asked “What’s your perspective?” – a question that called upon our collective past and present, and challenged us to consider how we interact with one another in society and reflect on the lenses through which we see the world.
For the theme of the Festival’s 19th year, we talked about our community and this could represent something to which you belong, a group that you support, a hobby that you share, your profession that you could engage, a cause that you believe in, etc. So, what is the importance of community? Are you part of a micro-community or the community-at-large? What’s your role?
The VAFF community is 19 years in the making. Our Creative Director, Justin Ray and Photo Director, Alisha Weng have created an ……..
THEME. The theme of VAFF 19 is loosely based on community: we selected five models who are part of the Asian film community, including two VAFF volunteers. We show diverse nationalities, ages and faces with which the Asian community can relate. Each of the five posters will use a different tagline related to community, matched up to a different model. These models will be identified on the posters with their name and role in the film community. Filmgoers can see themselves as part of a community.
VISUALS. The posters’ visuals combine traditional, retro, and futuristic aesthetics with dreamy colour and lighting to represent the cinema. The placement and cropping of the models is also suggestive of a movie screen in a dark theater, or a window to another world. We used Chinese ink and brushes to create hundreds of brushstrokes on paper, which we used as image masks for the models. The bright portrait contrasts the darker background to to get your attention, and the beam of light (a nod to theater projectors) provides a diagonal (another attention-grabbing device).
VARIETY. The five posters will each have a different model photo, brushstroke, palette, tagline and Vancouver cityscape to represent a community – but will be closely tied together by the layout and style. The variety will help maintain interest. And Voila! Here is the final design for the 19th Annual Vancouver Asian Film Festival!
Theme, Visual and Variety, quoted by Creative Director, Justin Ray.
With support from the City of Vancouver, we received the Transit Shelter Poster campaign. Five of our images are distributed around different areas of the city.
To celebrate, we are launching the “VAFF 2015 Treasure Hunt” contest. If you hunt down all five versions of the poster, take pictures in front of the poster and share it on your Facebook or Instagram with the tag #VAFF2015, you could be the lucky winner of a gift pack including a pair of tickets to the closing night screening + party and a gift certificate to Anna’s Cake House.
Credits:
Cityscape images provided by Gastown BIA
Models, Olivia Cheng, Vienna Kerfoot, Winson Won, Charles Raahul Singh, Kae Lin Whiton
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