Behind the Push

THE MAKING OF THE SUPERFAN MOVIE POSTER

The story of how the movie poster came to existence. So in 2016 we are heading to India and I get it in my head to start filming Nav’s documentary.
Around the same time I start thinking about what the movie poster should look like. How do you capture the Superfan without making it look like a basketball trading card. How do you make it reflective of his journey.

It was the visit to his childhood home where it all came together. When I watched him walk down the alley way to his front door. There it was the poster staring right back at me. This is the shot I took then. That’s his yellow home to the right.

The image of Nav walking down the aisle with the Superfan jersey proudly bringing this moment full circle was seared into my brain the entire trip.

Fast forward to 2018 and during a photoshoot at the office the image of the poster pops into my head and I realize I need that shot of the jersey. So I stop the shoot, reset all the lighting and ask for one very specific image lol. The iconic back of the jersey shot.

This jersey is the original one then GM Isiah Thomas presented to Nav in 1998 at the Skydome and declared him the Raptor’s Superfan.

There was one shot missing. How do you showcase Navs face and capture the journey while not making it seem like a cheesy 1980’s movie poster. I floated ideas of a montage, which you can see in the secondary posters that never made the cut. Ultimately this one superhero pose I had captured from Nav 3 yrs ago has always been one of my favorites, so we reshot the pose in higher resolution. A few masks and effects later and we have the final poster.

original pose

new version

The caption, He crossed the ocean looking for safety - what he found was a new home court, came about from a brainstorming session with co-producer Vinay Virmani. He pretty much had the concept on the first try.


And there it is... the story behind the Superfan Movie Poster