Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
Variety reported today that Steven Spielberg has stepped in to produce yet another 50s science fiction remake — When Worlds Collide. The original 1951 sci-fi film chronicles a group of scientists who discover a rogue planet set on a collision course with Earth.
We’ll use this bit of film production news as an excuse to post a big image of an original When Worlds Collide movie poster from 1951. Is there anything more entertaining the the ernest visual hysteria of 1950s sci-fi movie posters? If you enjoy those type of B-movie epics, you might also enjoy the books Science Fiction Poster Art by Tony Nourmand & Graham Marsh and Attack of the B Movie Posters by Bruce Hershenson.
If there is one thing that “Photoshop geeks” love to do, it is to rework images — “remixing” them — to create a new (and sometimes humorous) result. These often get submitted to sites soliciting “Photoshop contests” and other image posting mayhem. Popular sites like Fark.com, SomethingAwful.com, and b3ta.com all garner submissions of these type of image “smashups”. One of the most popular Photoshop sites with this type of user-submitted photo remixing: Worth1000.com.
As you might guess, the number one source for Photoshop remixing, both as a subject matter and visual source material, is movie posters. In Worth1000.com’s “Mate a Movie” Photoshop contest, users create movie poster image submissions that are of “two or more movies, combined to make one much funnier movie.” Looking through the most recent contest’s entries, there are some pretty funny posters, ranging from movies like Freaky Friday the 13th to Poohlander. (via JoBlo.com)
Several months ago we mentioned that the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has approval over advertising used to market films, including theatrical key art. Just like the film rating process, movie promotional materials such as movie trailers and one-sheets are reviewed by the MPAA. To illustrate this point about MPAA approval over key art, we cited the original Saw 2 teaser poster.
Today The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Saw 2 teaser poster and other promotional materials have not been approved, and the MPAA has ordered the studio to have them withdrawn from distribution. “It is essential that film distributors comply with the rules of the Advertising Administration so that parents retain the confidence they have in the ratings certified by CARA and that advertising and publicity material associated with rated films is appropriate for all audiences.”
Since the MPAA ratings board will withhold giving the film a rating until the studio is in compliance, it’s no surprise that a new (and less gory) Saw 2 teaser poster was quickly released today by Lion’s Gate. Perhaps a simple “snip” of the picture via a tighter crop will make this new Saw II one-sheet more acceptable to the MPAA’s Advertising Administration. With all this attention, I doubt Lion’s Gate or Art Machine, the design studio that created the one-sheet, are sweating this bit of free publicity. Movie poster collectors are also happy, as the MPAA just made the original teaser poster a collector’s item. We’re willing to bet actor Cary Elwes isn’t a fan of the Saw 2 campaign, however.
The Shaolin Chamber has a great collection of Hong Kong movie posters from the legendary Shaw Bros. movie studio. The Asian film studio was like the Warner Bros. of the East, right down to the similar name and company logo. (You might remember the appearance of the “Shaw Scope” logo at the beginning of Kill Bill: Volume 1.) The company has an impressive back catalog of kung fu films, which continue to influence filmmakers today.
The Shaw Bros. film slate wasn’t limited to action or martial arts films — they produced films in a wide range of film genres, ranging from exploitation to the bizarre. What’s interesting about these Shaw movie posters (and most Asian film posters in general) is that the typography of the posters becomes another interesting visual element, since domestic viewers cannot understand the language of the titles. You don’t “read” the title, names, and copy, so they become even more integrated into the poster’s visual layout. (This is one reason graphic designers check their composition by squinting and/or turning their designs upside-down — to keep from “reading” the type as opposed to seeing it as shapes working as part of the layout.)
If “eyes are the window into the soul” then two recent and similar one-sheets are out there doing some soul searching. Or at least striving for a visually interesting image of the film’s star… with a close crop of a face making eye contact… and tinting of the eye color. (Now I am just rambling… Must be lost in their eyes.)
“Eye” cliches aside, this type of close-up key art often centers around female actors, in this case Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld: Evolution movie poster and Ziyi Zhang in the Memoirs of a Geisha movie poster. In both cases their eye color is altered to make them pop. (Since Beckinsale plays a vampire in Underworld: Evolution, the look may reflect the way she appears in the film. But I don’t think Ziyi Zhang was wearing glowing tinted contacts as a 1930s era Japanese prostitute in Memoirs of a Geisha.) While it’s common for a bit of eye tinting for effect in one-sheets, it does risk looking distracting, even a bit unnatural, like color contact lenses.
Since eyes are literally the focus of many poster images, they are also a favorite visual device for horror films, such as the movie poster for the recent film The Skeleton Key or even a B-movie like Roger Corman’s Frankenstein.
As we mentioned previously, posters for the just released comedy Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo embrace the time-honored tradition of the phallic symbol as a means of advertising. The city of Los Angeles being an industry town, drivers in Southern California are treated to some interesting film advertising billboards in this vein. This includes an “animated” outdoor billboard for Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo:
For anyone still in danger of missing the point, one version of the sign on Sunset Boulevard has the crooked tower swinging up and down in the wind, presumably from flaccid to erect.
Nothing subtle about that. But the focus of the above mentioned New York Times article is the lead time required by outdoor advertising means billboards go up before a film gets it’s final rating. This is seen as a loophole by some to allow film marketing to target underage viewers without giving their parents ratings information. “The sweet spot for an R-rated comedy is the 15-to-17-year-old range.” Considering no parent gets their ratings information about films by driving down Sunset Boulevard and looking at billboards, this seems like a pointless complaint. The only goal for any outdoor film advertising is to pass what is known in the industry as the “40 Mile Per Hour Rule”: Are you able to identify the movie in the ad and read the film’s title while driving by it at 40 miles per hour? (In the article, Adam Fogelson, president of marketing for Universal, slows the rule down to “35 miles per hour”, but he’s obviously driving too slow.)
If there’s anything that can make vintage 70s adult movie posters better, it’s seeing them in Spanish. This Flickr image gallery of Spanish Adult Movie Posters of the 1970s (NSFW) makes for an impressive array of vintage porn artwork. As we’ve mentioned in the past, vintage exploitation and adult film posters often demonstrate an interesting style and visual sense. After all, there’s nothing expensive about having good design in bad taste.
Originally a stylized cartoon on MTV’s 1991 ground-breaking animated show Liquid Television, Aeon Flux was a series of animated shorts following a sexy female assassin. It’s surreal plots and gritty futuristic style made it a fan favorite.
After many years and false starts, the property is finally coming to the big screen. The live-action adaptation of Aeon Flux stars Charlize Theron as the futuristic secret agent sent to assassinate a government leader on behalf of an underground movement. The filmmakers and star Theron spoke about the project at this year’s Comic-Con convention. To advertise the film at their appearance, Paramount Pictures previewed two special Aeon Flux one-sheets created just for the convention. (Whether these two posters will be used in later versions of the film’s key art remains to be seen.) Using the blue wall from the Aeon Flux teaser poster, the two Aeon Flux Comic-Con one-sheets suggest a graphic novel/comic look with a high contrast image treatment. Better still, the posters manage to make the star’s controversial outfit look interesting.
The actress forced filmmakers to change her Aeon Flux costume from it’s skimpy animated origins to be less revealing. (What happened to the: “In the future, there will be no pants.” theory?) Theron: “No matter how sexual this character is and how comfortable she is with her sexuality, obviously we knew we couldn’t go as far with the outfits that Peter [Chung] had designed for her. Certain things must be hidden.” As to be expected, fans have been skeptical of the results of the film’s costume changes. Filmmakers have always had to strike a difficult balance between practical on-screen costuming versus comic book couture when adapting to live-action. What works in animation or comics may not work on screen. Aeon Flux creator Peter Chung on animated Aeon’s sexy costume:
I’m interested in exploiting the entire human body for expressive purposes, instead of what you usually see in cartoons: just the hands and facial expressions. When I first designed Aeon Flux, I wondered whether I should make her less sexy looking – give here a costume that was less revealing. But it seems silly to be working in the animation medium and not be a little unrealistic. The fact that she’s scantily clad helps to emphasize the expressive qualities of the human body. I would have drawn her nude if I could get away with it.
Speaking of comic conventions and costumes, some fans feel they are up to the challenge of recreating the look of their favorite characters. The popularity of amateur versions of character costumes has skyrocketed in the past few years, especially in connection to the growth of anime and video games. The practice even has it’s own term — cosplay (“costume” and “play”). Aeon Flux is no stranger to the world of cosplay, with several fan costumes trying to replicate the animated character’s distinctive look.
