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.
What better way to end our Halloween themed week of horror movie posters than with the one-sheet from John Carpentar’s classic film Halloween? The king of “slasher movies” was shot in just 21 days in 1978. Made on a budget of $300,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.
The knife wielding pumpkin Halloween movie poster was created by artist Bob Gleason. The Gleason illustration features a subtle shift from the skin of the orange pumpkin to that of the killer’s hand — each band of the pumpkin’s face is also shaped like a knife. The repeating knife pattern is an effective counter to the image of a decorated jack-o-lantern. This pumpkin head stand-in for killer Michael Meyers is also another example of the “unseen killer” design problem we mentioned previously. Gleason went on to design the “skull pumpkin” image for the Halloween II one-sheet, and the “screaming mask” for the Halloween III: Season of the Witch poster.
If the horror movie Halloween provided the scares, Friday the 13th the gore, then A Nightmare on Elm Street would bring a touch of dark humor. The Elm Street film series featuring the “dream killer” Freddy Krueger would also handily put a film studio on the map. That’s why New Line Cinema is known as “The House that Freddy Built”. While not as apparent in the first film by Wes Craven, killer Freddy Krueger would rely on his “dark wit” in later sequels.
The Nightmare on Elm Street movie poster features Freddy’s bladed glove fingers hovering over the bed of star Heather Langenkamp. The crisp and striking style of the illustration is reminiscent of legendary movie poster artist Bob Peak. This should come as no surprise since the Elm Street one-sheet was illustrated by his son, Matthew Joesph Peak. While the stylized skull face illustration bears little resemblance to Freddy Krueger himself, it is nonetheless creepy. Artist Matthew Peak went on to illustrate other posters in the Elm Street film series.
If the movie Halloween ushered in the modern slasher horror film, the original Friday the 13th helped solidify the “horror boom” of the late 1970s and early 80s. (And also set the standard for a bit more gore than John Carpenter’s Halloween offered.)
To celebrate the long running horror series and it’s 25th anniversary, a new book about the Friday the 13th film series has been released: Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th. “Fully illustrated with over 500 never-before-seen photos, rare archival documents and production materials, this is the ultimate oral and visual memoir of the most successful horror franchise in the history of motion pictures.”
The original Friday the 13th movie poster depicts the unknown “mystery killer” by placing an illustration of a scene in the woods within the silhouette of the slasher. (This also illustrates a basic design challenge for many horror film posters: How do you depict an unseen or somewhat abstracted image of a movie monster/killer/villian/etc. that you cannot reveal the identity of?) The one-sheet’s camp scene is surprisingly busy for a “scene within the poster” depiction — the trees and leaves take on a “television static” quality — a blue tint and other-worldly glow around the killer’s body gives it almost a science fiction feel. The disparity of these traits should make the poster less effective, but the image still works; perhaps it helps that they emphasized the killer’s knife in hand by dripping blood onto the film title logo.
Forget about the horror team-up of Freddy vs Jason. The idea of exploiting a staple of famous characters by doing cross-over appearances has been around for a long time (yes, even before they started doing it in comic books).
The 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein actually features three legendary movie monsters from the Universal Pictures roster — Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and The Wolf Man. Universal had recycled their horror characters in countless movies, this being the final film to feature all three together.
This Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein poster is actually what is known as a movie poster insert. An insert is a 14″ and 36″ poster printed on card stock that was popular in the early days of film exhibition. (The insert size/format was discontinued in the mid 1980s — it remains as one of the most popular categories in movie poster collecting.) For our money, the painted faces of “Bud and Lou” look far more scary on this insert poster than the three monsters. (And some people think retouching is a modern invention.)
In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, it seems appropriate to post a few horror film posters this week. Our first horror one-sheet is what we like to consider The Scariest Movie Poster Ever.
The 1974 film Abby is the story of a female marriage counselor who marries and becomes possessed by an evil spirit — the Demon of Sexuality. The film, by exploitation producer Samuel Z. Arkoff and director Willam Gridler, was reportedly to be titled The Blackorcist. (Not surprisingly, the film was the subject of a lawsuit by the film studio Warner Bros. as being a rip-off of The Exorcist.)
As for the Abby movie poster itself, when you mix such a strange and scary image of actress Carol Speed with a few great low budget genres (Blaxplotation and Horror), it’s hard not to take notice. (This movie poster is also yet another example of the “Big Heads Floating in the Sky” movie poster layout cliche. Or in this case, a “Big Head Possessed by a Demon Floating in the Sky on Fire” film poster layout.)
The Russian site Kino-Express has an interesting gallery of Thai Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire foreign teaser posters. (via JoBlo.) These latest character teasers continue the darker tone of the later Potter films and accompanying key art — although the ethereal blur effects and teenage characters almost give it a WB network teen angst feel.
The promotional push for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire includes countless international movie posters from different foreign markets. The artwork for some foreign release posters for U.S. films are also created stateside — not by personnel in the foreign countries they are destined for. Most U.S. film studios have international marketing departments that work independently of the studio’s domestic marketing, creating artwork exclusively for overseas film posters. International marketing’s work can range from creating foreign versions of film title logos to generating completely new artwork geared for overseas audiences. Their work usually results in a single “International” poster design, which is then reformatted and tailored to each foreign market. (Such as being reworked into a Britsh Quad format for the United Kingdom market.)
Two marketing departments (domestic and foreign) working independently of each other within the same film studio, on the same film projects, often at the same time, can result in inter-company rivalries. While domestic marketing is generally a higher priority within the studio itself, it should be noted that the majority of a U.S. film’s grosses will come from overseas markets, and international posters will be seen by a much larger audience. (We haven’t even gotten into the place of home video marketing in this motion picture studio hierarchy yet.)
IMP asked their readers to track down all of the movie posters that used an image of a character flashing two fingers to helpfully denote the fact that the film is a sequel. Not surprisingly, a popular choice features Cameron Diaz in latex (or at least her body double) flashing the “duex” sign from behind.
We sometimes get email with questions about one-sheets. We’re happy to answer any movie poster related questions that we’re fortunate enough to actually know the answer to. (Or at least think we know the answer to.)
Marvin J. writes:
Why, in an ensemble shot, are the actors’ names not under their proper photos? Is this some Hollywood superstition? Or is it because it’s too much like a news caption and therefore too “linear”?
As with most things involving actors/talent in motion pictures, the names and likeness of actors are controlled by their almighty contract. The actor’s contract includes what can and can’t be done with their name/likeness on a movie poster one-sheet (and all other film advertising). These advertising provisions in contracts (sometimes called “contractual” or “contractuals”) that relate to one-sheets dictate things such as whether an actor’s name must appear above the film’s title (“above title credit”), the location and order of their credit (such as “first billing” or “top billing”), and even the size of their own likeness on the poster in relation to their co-stars image (“equal likeness“).
The order of actors names may be set in stone via contractuals, but the design/layout (at least in some regard) of the movie poster is not. This is the recipe for the not-so-uncommon phenomenon of actor credits not lining up with their image on a one-sheet. For example, Keanu Reeves may be getting top billing over his costars in The Matrix — his name appears first on the left side of the poster for the above title credits — but that doesn’t mean his face/image will be first on the left side of the layout. This disparity between names and faces often appears in the ever-popular “Flying V” movie poster layout (also known as the “Scream Layout” or the “Miramax Layout”). This group line-up would put the top billed star front and center on the poster, flanked by their costars, but the actor credits (from left to right) wouldn’t necessarily fall in that same order. You’ll also see the credit order versus actor groupings battle in movie posters for ensemble dramas. There are many other variations and solutions to this type of credit billing problem — for example, a star’s name could appear in the middle and above the costar’s credits and be considered top billing. (Although it doesn’t always solve the problem).
Since film advertising art directors are already limited in what they can do with regards to actor placements (both in name and likeness) in one-sheet layouts, it’s understandable that most film account executives overlook this minor credit lineup “glitch”. This is just one of the many hoops that film key art has to jump through (like the film’s themselves) before it reaches your local theater lobby.
20th Century Fox has released three character teaser posters for the film Walk the Line. The bio-pic features Joaquin Phoenix as legendary musician Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. The three Walk the Line teaser posters make for an interesting (and somewhat different in tone) follow-up to the “woodcut” style illustration by Shepard Fairey for the first Walk the Line teaser poster. While these three new posters may invoke a “captured moment” effect via the grainy black and white treatment, they are definitely more conventional than the previous illustrated teaser.
On a somewhat unrelated note, these three Walk the Line teaser posters remind us of one of our favorite film studio executive client quotes about movie poster design:
“You can’t design a [movie] poster that’s black and white — people will think the movie is also in black and white.” – Film Advertising Executive
Yes, that makes perfect sense. [cough] (For the record, there are several black and white and otherwise monochromatic one-sheets released from time to time, despite that particular executive’s color blindness.)
