How do you encapsulate a sprawling film in a single image?

AMERICAN FORK is about Tracy Orbison, a gentle giant; the supermarket clerk checking your groceries, the eyes peering out through the gaps in the milk cartons. One day he decides to make something more of his life, and he's swept up in a series of misadventures involving his dysfunctional family, a pompous actor and a gang of teenage hooligans.

Actually, "misadventures" makes it sound like Disney's The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, wherein a young man uses telepathy to solve crimes with his pet monkey and girlfriend Annette Funicello. It's not like that. It's more like A Confederacy of Dunces meets The Good Girl. With a dash of Paddy Chayefsky's Marty.

That should clear things up.

In the rush to print promotional stuff for Slamdance, we enlisted the talents of designer Scott Windes, who mocked up an array of choices. Here are the finalists (click to enlarge):

Only one of these images became The Poster. Which did we choose? E-mail your best guess to: chris@americanforkmovie.com. Those in Park City have an edge -- you may have seen them around. Regardless, the first correct response wins a poster.

(DISCLAIMER: I cannot guarantee that the poster will appreciate in value, tethered as it is to the film's overall fortunes. At the very least it's a portable monument to a small team of people who sacrificed a couple years and a decent livelihood in the service of a script they fell in love with. Plus, it looks sweet.)

Chris Bowman
Director, AMERICAN FORK