SUMMER CINEMA

This
was the inaugural presentation of Summer Cinema, an outdoor movie
series held in the lush surrounds of King Edward Park. I was
commissioned to create the posters advertising the month or so of
cinema. The posters were well received by most persons in my circle of
associates but more to my surprise it was also very well received
amongst the staff of the local council who seem to be somewhat tired by
the usual 'paint by numbers' design that is often employed on council
promotional material.

Summer Cinema 2000 was the second program of movies in Newcastle's
King Edward Park, presented by local ABC Radio Station 2NC and the
Newcastle City Council, who commissioned myself to design the posters
for the event.
All artwork was supplied by me. The Newcastle ocean baths feature
prominently simply because I spent a lot of time down there during that
summer and in the weeks leading up to the deadline of the poster
design. I came to view the baths as a symbol of summer in Newcastle as
they would often be crowded with locals and tourists alike all day
long. The persons in the photographs are Katherine Hayles and Alex
Knott, who I was swimming with on the afternoon I took the photos.
There was slight concern that I was using a bikini clad girl to sell
the Summer Cinema, which was an unusual concern as walking down
Newcastle's Mall on any given sunny summers day will produce many a
bikini clad girl in your path. No one had any concerns about the use of
a male figure with a shirt off. Obviously that is ok. I was not using
the girl as a sex object, rather as a person enjoying the summer and in
my opinion it is not a revealing shot at all.
The trees featured in shadow are of the pines in King Edward Park.

After a couple of years break, the Newcastle City Council
ressurected their Summer Cinema Programme and kindly asked me on board
once again to design the poster and promotional material. It was
actually a little daunting since they have always loved the work I
produced for them in the past and I have also been quite fond of the
project and given that the poster was going to be a different size i
felt it was going to be a challenge. As it happens everyone seemed to
love the poster and as luck would have it on the first night of
screenings the poster was projected onto the screen during set up and a
full moon did actually rise from between the clouds. Unfortunately
mulicoloured butterflies failed to appear on cue, though the friendly
park mosquitoes tried their best to take their place.