Overview

Thumbnail images are often the first point of contact audiences have with a film online, making them an important part of a project’s overall presentation and discoverability. This post provides standardized thumbnail templates to help maintain visual consistency across school-related promotional materials and online showcases.

The use of templates ensures that projects meet technical specifications while encouraging students to think strategically about visual communication and audience engagement. Effective thumbnails should clearly represent the tone and identity of the project while remaining legible and visually compelling across a range of screen sizes and platforms. Developing an understanding of these presentation standards is increasingly important in contemporary distribution environments.

Instructions

Use these templates to create your thumbnails. To ensure your film is properly represented across a range of platforms, you must create both a horizontal and a vertical thumbnail.

Each thumbnail should contain two elements:

1. A carefully selected image that fills the entire frame (i.e., no letterboxing or black bars). This image is typically derived from either the poster or one of the production stills.
2. The title of the film. Ideally, for consistency of branding, this should match the font design of the title on the poster. No other text should appear in the thumbnail.

Examples:

Delivery:

Deliver the finished files for each in two formats:

• A layered PSD file (include any custom fonts used)
• A flattened JPG file (max file size: 2MB)

Horizontal Thumbnail Specs

Dimensions	1920 x 1080 pixels
File naming conventions	01m2-HorizontalThumbnail.psd 01m2-HorizontalThumbnail.jpg
Content guidelines	No nudity or sexual imagery No hate speech No depictions of violence No harmful or dangerous content

Vertical Thumbnail

Dimensions	1200 x 1600 pixels
File naming conventions	01m2-VerticalThumbnail.psd 01m2-VerticalThumbnail.jpg
Content guidelines	No nudity or sexual imagery No hate speech No depictions of violence No harmful or dangerous content