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.
The STARZ television network is running highlights from The Hollywood Reporter 2006 Key Art Awards ceremony this month. Hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon, the 2006 Key Art Awards honor the best in film marketing, most notably film posters and movie trailers. This is a rare opportunity to see portions of the annual film marketing awards ceremony, as this is the first year the Key Art Awards have appeared on television. The special features highlights and interviews with the creators of this year’s award winning movie posters and film trailers. Check the STARZ movie channel schedule to tune into the film advertising awards special.
Just wanted to remind everyone that for a limited time MovieGoods.com is having a sale of authentic theater movie poster one-sheets for only $4.99. That’s an incredible price for original double-sided movie posters (not the cheaper single-sided consumer reprints). So if you would like to own the popular Batman Begins one-sheet or the infamous banned Saw 2 teaser poster for only $4.99 each, here is your chance.
With all the recent events in Lebanon, we came across this post on The Sulla Institute weblog:
I saw the flag used by Hezbollah and it occurred to me that it looked as if it was inspired by the movie poster for the Otto Preminger film EXODUS. Very odd… that was a movie that portrayed the Jews creating the state of Israel in a very heroic light.
Yes, that is odd… and a bit of a reach… just like all those arms reaching for a rifle (or an AK-47 assault rifle in the case of the Hezbollah flag) in both designs.
The Exodus movie poster was designed for the 1960 film by legendary graphic designer Saul Bass (Bass also designed the film’s title credits). The Exodus poster remains one of the more interesting Saul Bass movie poster designs — particularly for his ability to blend an illustrated graphic (the silhouetted arms extended with the gun overhead) with a photographic element (the fire burning away the image of the poster).
The yellow Hezbollah flag design features:
Across the top is a quotation from the Koran, from which Hezbollah took its name — “Verily the party of God shall be victorious” — and at the center is an AK-47 in silhouette, in the hand of the Shiite martyr Husayn, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. In the background is a depiction of the globe, suggesting Hezbollah’s role in the worldwide umma, or community of Muslims. Along the bottom of the Hezbollah flag is written “The Islamic Revolution in Lebanon”.
We will leave it to others in the “blogosphere” to determine the value in saying the Hezbollah flag is “ripping off the Jews” by comparing it with a movie poster designed by a Jewish graphic designer for a movie about the creation of the state of Israel. (The imagery of a gun raised overhead isn’t exactly a singular idea or uncommon image.) It does give something for political pundits to link to on their weblogs. It is interesting how movie posters can sometimes be associated with current events, controversies and politics.
The official site for Troublemaker Studios — the production company of director Robert Rodriguez — has released a set of what they are calling “limited-edition” Grindhouse teaser posters. Gindhouse is the double-bill feature ode to exploitation films from directors Robert Rodreqiuz and Quetin Tarantino, with each creating their own movie as part of the double feature. Rodriguez is directing Planet Terror and Tarintino helms Death Proof.
Released as exclusive posters at this year’s Comic Con, we are guessing “limited-edition” means “not approved by the MPAA and will not be displayed in theatres“. Since there is no MPAA rating on the posters, perhaps the studio isn’t submitting these as theatrical one-sheets to the MPAA’s Advertising Administration. (We have no idea if any of these are destined for your local theater lobby — would the MPAA have a problem with a poster of actress Rose McGowan’s amputated leg replaced with an assault rifle?)
In the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, director Rodriguez “dissects” the three Grind House teaser posters:
THE VEHICLE “It’s a slasher movie with a car instead of a knife,” says Rodriguez of Tarantino’s Death Proof, which stars Kurt Russell as a psychotic stuntman. “We did that poster as a silk screen. We wanted to imply an alternate film universe.”
THE GUN In Rodriguez’s zombie-esque feature Planet Terror, Rose McGowan’s go-go dancer-turned-amputee sports a unique fake limb. The poster’s aged look, Rodriguez says, was achieved by the high-tech means of “dragging it around a parking lot.”
THE NEEDLE The director is tight-lipped about why actress Marley Shelton is holding a hypodermic needle in another Terror poster. But he’s more verbose on the subject of Grindhouse sequels: “Yeah, there may be a couple. One might be kung fu. One sexploitation. They’re a blast to make!”
The term grindhouse refers to the exploitation genre of films and movie theaters that showed those types of films in the 1970s. The Weird World of Seventies Cinema defines grindhouse as “inner-city theaters in disrepair since their glory days as movie palaces in the ’30s and ’40s. Known for ‘grinding out’ non stop, triple-bill programs of B-movies. By the late ’60s and into the ’70s they specialized in movies with sex, violence and other taboo subject matter.” This grindhouse cinema has long been an influence for director Tarantino.
The Grindhouse teaser posters and their artwork have embraced all the trappings and style of vintage 70s exploitation posters, including the previously mentioned screenprinted look, distressed edges, poster folds (which seem to be popular recently), and the colorful sensationalism of exploitation movie poster art. We especially love the screenprinted Death Proof movie poster, which replicates the cheaply produced screenprinted posters that were used by some theatres and drive-ins, complete with a blank space at the top of the poster that allowed the local movie theater owner to print their own local theater name, address, showtimes, etc.
Sony Pictures has released a three dimensional teaser movie poster for Spider-Man 3. The Spider-Man 3 lenticular movie poster features the chest torso of Peter Parker’s red Spider-man suit that morphs into the black and white “symbiote” costume (which will presumably end up as the basis for the villian Venom). The Spiderman lenticular poster 3D effect happens when the viewer changes angles when looking at the poster.
A 3D lenticular movie poster image is created by a convex prism lens over the surface of the printed poster, which shows different parts of an image depending on the perspective of the viewer. The process has been around since the 1900s, but has become more popular in recent years as a collectible item. Past movie poster lenticulars include Species 2, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
While lenticular movie posters tend to be popular with collectors and fans, film studios do not create lenticulars very often. This is due to several reasons: they are more expensive to produce, they require (for best results) being backlit in a movie theater lightbox frame, and most importantly, smaller poster details (such as text) are difficult to read.
