This is the film poster for The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and it also the cover for the DVD box set, I have chosen this image because it is one of my favorit films, and I have all ways liked western style of films or films set back around that time like Zulu witch isn't set quite back that far but is still around time frame.
This image is a good poster for the film because it's got the three main roles on it with the good at the front then the bad and the ugly at the back, this lay out works well for the poster because you want the mane person at the front and the secondary caricatures at the back, if they had changed the lay out it could have made the poster confessing and not as obvious to who evers is looking at as to who was the main role and the good guy which is what film posters are designed to do.
technically wise this image works well because of the composition of the image with the main role at the very front of the fram and filling it but a little to the right then you have the other two main roles just to the back left behind the main focus of the image, this lay out also works well for the lay out of the text on the image with it being on his chest, if he was lower then the text would't have fitted in with out covering his face a bit witch would have ruined the image.
I also think that the white back ground works best for this because if they had used perhaps a western style back drop say in the desert or in a town it would have distracted you from the main focus of the image and would have made it have less impacte on the viewer, and the white back drop keeps it clear and doesn't clutter the back ground up with visual distractions.
The lighting of the image works well because these no strong shadows on the face and it's pretty evenly lit but then more dynamic lighting comes in further down the image and on the other two people in the image, also the contraste between the peson at the front and the two at the back adds to the hole The Good The Bad and The Ugly feel of the image because the lighting and out fit for the person at the front makes him look brighter where as the two at the bak are dressed in darker clothes and theres less lighting making them look more menacing. The angel of the image also works well being face one to the main subject, if it had been to one side i feel it would have made the image have less impact on the viewer.
To do this image they used a studio for the white back drop, because of how old the fim is it was done on ether a 35mm film camera and maybe even a medium format camer for the quality for the posters, the camer would would have been placed in front of him on a tripod most probably, lens wise I'm not sure maybe a 50mm lens I'm not sure what lenses you can get for medium format cameras, lighting there was probably a soft box just to the right of him then they used the over spilling light to light the back two people, then to make sure the the front guy is evenly lit a reflector would have been used, he dose also have a well tanned and slightly gold look about him that could be natural or they used a gold cover for the reflector to give him a tanned look.
If I were do do this image I mite consider using film to get and old look or and DSLR, I would use a film with a higher ISO or put it up on my digital camera to add a bit of grain in there, I woud use a white back drop because it works really well but I probably would experiment with different back drops, I would use a 50mm lens so I could get all the people in then if've I needed I could just crop it down, then I would try the lighting that I suggested they used for the original just to see how close I was then I would also try out some different lighting angels for different styles, I would also try some different angels with the camera to just to see if anything else works or if what they used is the best angels to use.
