This is a movie poster concept I created for a fictitious movie entitled “The City of Fire and Ash” as part of a collaboration with Brose Brothers Productions.

I like to joke that my composites are “always falling apart until they fall together”. No project epitomizes this more than this poster. Sometimes you have an idea but it takes longer for it to be realized than you hoped. Sometimes you run into a creative wall and there is no getting around it in that moment.

Such is the case with this project for Brose Brothers. The other poster ideas I had created for them (see those here) went pretty quickly but when I got to this one I just stalled. I tried several ideas and concepts and nothing felt right. In frustration, I finally shelved the project and decided to give it some time to breath.

Still it bothered me that it was left undone and hanging out there. Time went by and I still didn’t have any breakthrough ideas for it. It was almost like I gotten scared to look at it again because I guess I was worried I wouldn’t find a way to pull it all together. It was so strange because I felt that all of the elements were there but I almost felt intimidated in a way.

Finally, one night, I said, “this is ridiculous. I’m going to sit down and hammer on this thing until I have a concept I can build on and I’m not getting up until I have it.” I spent a couple of hours trying different things and then suddenly, it just all fell into place and I could clearly see how it needed to come together. In hindsight, I’m not sure why it seemed so hard but the lesson I learned is that sometimes inspiration strikes but when it doesn’t you can’t just wait – you have to try to make something happen anyway.

I’m sure there are several life lessons in here for this but for I’m just glad I had the chance to share it with the Brose Brothers crew in person. Their reactions made all of the work totally worth it.

Models, Costumes, & Props
by @Brose Brother’s Productions with Shelby BroseBen BroseCasey Brose and Justin Klauss
MUAH: Kristopher Osuna of Perfection Artistry
Photo Assist: Daniel Ford
Assisting: @Riley Gallman and @Abby Jardel