In what may turn into an on-going series of celebrities critiquing the movie poster campaigns from their own projects (see director Frank Darabont on The Mist poster), we now have comedian Dane Cook. The comedian recently posted on his MySpace blog about his thoughts about the movie poster for his new film My Best Friend’s Girl. A few thoughts on this movie poster from Dane Cook:

1. Graphics:
Whoever photoshopped our poster must have done so at taser point with 3 minutes to fulfill their hostage takers deranged obligations. They should have called Donnie Hoyle and had him give a tutorial using “You Suck at Photoshop” templates. This is so glossy it makes Entertainment Weekly look wooden.

4. Lips:
It looks like I’m wearing Maybelline Water Shine Diamonds Liquid Lipstick. My characters name is now Winter Solstice and I’m a hooker with a heart of gold. Jason is my floral carrying pimp, while Kate is my first trick!

Interesting comments, and no need to re-hash the perils of the “constructed reality” based around unit photography and head strips. But you have to wonder if Dane Cook hates the My Best Friend’s Girl movie poster key art so much, why did he incorporate the Flash animated version of the same movie poster art on his own personal site?

Buy My Best Friend’s Girl movie posters at: eBay, MovieGoods.com

The Hollywood Reporter’s 37th Annual Key Art Awards were presented June 13th during a ceremony hosted by actor-comedian Jeff Garlin. Highlights of the 2008 Key Art Awards included a “Best in Show” award to The Simpsons Movie in the Print category and No Country for Old Men in the newly-created “Best Campaign” category. The “Best Campaign” winner was selected by a panel of experts that included filmmakers David Fincher and Kevin Smith.

The Visionary Award, given to a filmmaker who “inspires movie marketers”, was presented to comedy director Judd Apatow:

“I’d like to thank everyone here who has done such amazing work. I’ve enjoyed my interactions with everybody. It’s one of the most fun parts of the process. This award brings me full circle because I started out thinking you were all f***ing a**holes.”

Looking back at the Key Art Awards of recent years (including this most recent ceremony), it seems clear that The Hollywood Reporter is struggling on how to define the entire enterprise. Award categories are constantly being added, changed, merged, or removed each year, which seems to give the whole process an air of confusion. Awards (such as Judd Apatow’s Visonary Award) are doled out to above-the-line talent in recent years in an effort to make the Key Arts ceremony more appealing. It may be more entertaining to sit through an awards ceremony where Apatow calls them “fucking assholes”, but it does push film advertising personal further into the background during the only occasion they even have a chance to gain any recognition. There even seemed to be a half-hearted attempt this year to tweak the name of the award ceremony itself to The Hollywood Reporter Movie Marketing Key Art Awards (since no one outside of the industry knows what “key art” means), but even that effort was inconsistent. One wonders what categories will be offered next year.

2008 Key Art movie poster winners:

ACTION/ADVENTURE/HORROR POSTER

Grindhouse

COMEDY POSTER

Juno

DRAMA POSTER

Premonition

FAMILY POSTER

Ratatouille

To see the complete list of 2008 Key Art Award winners visit The Hollywood Reporter.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced the nominees for The 37th Annual Key Art Awards. The 2008 Key Art Awards will honor achievements in movie marketing in different categories including film posters, movie trailers, print ads, DVD packaging, new media and more. Film advertising agency BLT & Associates took the lead among agencies with 18 nominations. Director Judd Apatow will receive the Visionary Award, recognizing a filmmaker who inspires movie marketers. (The main Apatow inspiration seems to be the recent trend of the “Sears Portrait Studio” look in comedy film posters.)

“The goal is to honor the best work that is done in movie marketing, and the quality of the work that is done in this area gets better and better every year and moves into new areas every year,” said Bob Israel, chairman of the Key Art Awards Advisory Board and executive producer of the show.

Changes to the awards this year include Action/Adventure and Horror movie posters being combined into a single category, the elimination of the Teaser poster category, and the expansion of “New Media” categories.

Some of the 2008 Key Art Awards movie poster nominees:

ACTION/ADVENTURE/HORROR POSTERS
28 Weeks Later
The Number 23
Grindhouse
30 Days of Night
Vacancy

COMEDY POSTERS
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Superbad
Juno
Blades of Glory
The Darjeeling Limited

DRAMA POSTERS
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Black Snake Moan
I’m Not There
Zodiac
Premonition

FAMILY POSTERS
Shrek the Third
Ratatouille
Bee Movie
Surf’s Up
Alvin and the Chipmunks

The Hollywood Reporter’s Key Art Awards ceremony will be held on June 13 hosted by actor-comedian Jeff Garlin at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City, CA.

Share your favorite picks from the nominees in the comments section. To see the complete list of 2008 Key Art Award nominees visit The Hollywood Reporter.

Sam Sarowitz (owner of our favorite movie poster art gallery Posteritati) is releasing a new book called Translating Hollywood. The poster book takes a look at the different foreign movie posters for popular films. The book highlights examples of interesting (and somewhat surreal) foreign movie one-sheets from around the world, including samples from the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and of course the ubiquitous posters of Poland. What sets the book apart is the foreign posters are compared to the original domestic one-sheets to draw a contrast between cultures and marketing. Look no further than the comparison between the U.S. and the Polish poster for the Dustin Hoffman film Tootsie for an example of this. Our favorite poster from the book would have to be the Japanese Army of Darkness movie poster (which is yet another example of the King of the Mountain pose) which makes several changes to the original U.S. key art, including the addition of several Bruce Campbell soup cans.

Author Sam Sarowitz will be having a Translating Hollywood book signing at his Posteritati gallery in New York City on May 7th.

Buy Translating Hollywood at: Amazon.com

Director Frank Darabont’s horror movie The Mist (based on the Stephen King novella) was recently released on DVD. In the film, actor Thomas Jane plays a movie poster illustrator, which has to be a first as far as film character occupations go. The movie poster illustrator as a hero character is interesting when one considers director Darabont’s strong feelings about modern movie posters. In this Comic Con interview with Chris Hewitt of Empire Magazine, Frank Darabont does not mince words about his assessment of the state of film poster art. The Frank Darabont interview begins at 2:10 in the Comic-Con Video Diary #3 (Part 2) (Warning: NSFW language):

“Blow me with that poster art” musings aside, Darabont has long been a strong advocate for movie poster illustration, which is apparent in his film projects, like The Majestic movie poster or the DVD cover art for the anniversary releases of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The Mist Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD even includes a featurette called Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of An Artist about the famed illustrator, who illustrated The Mist teaser poster.

To honor the premiere of the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull teaser trailer, we wanted to direct everyone to a new online article about artist Richard Amsel, who illustrated two of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark movie posters. From the author of the new Richard Amsel article, Adam McDaniel:

The key to his success, beyond raw talent, was the unique quality of his work and illustrative style. Amsel could perfectly evoke period nostalgia (his posters for THE STING and westerns such as McCABE AND MRS. MILLER come to mind), while also producing something timeless and iconic, perfectly befitting both something old and something new. And however different his approach from one assignment to the other, all would bear his instantly recognizable stamp.

Although Amsel illustrated one of the most recognized movie posters of all time (in addition to many other one-sheets), perhaps his greatest exposure was a record breaking run illustrating TV Guide covers in the 1980s. This work for TV Guide marked the last era for illustrated covers for the television magazine, just as the era of traditional illustration would soon end for movie posters.

The McDaniel tribute makes for an interesting read — it was nice to see comparisons between Amsel and American artist J.C. Leyendecker. Although he worked in the same mediums as other illustrators of his time (watercolor, acrylic, airbrush, and color pencil), the “crisp” detailed and flat lighting style Amsel often employed is something that alluded many artists. To see a great example of this type of the detail, look no further than Harrison Ford’s face right down to the whiskers in the domestic Raiders of the Lost Ark one-sheet. Amsel’s Raiders work is an interesting contrast to the dynamic lighting style of Drew Struzan’s recent Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull poster.

Buy Raiders of the Lost Ark movie posters at: AllPosters.com, eBay, Movieposter.com

Famed movie poster illustrator John Alvin has passed away. Here is a statement from his family courtesy of IMPAwards:

We mourn the loss of JOHN ALVIN.

We love you John and will never forget you.

Really sad news. John Alvin was one of the most important movie poster illustrators in the modern age, and having met him personally, was happy to find him to be extremely thoughtful and a giving person. He will be missed.

We came very close to declaring there was no “best” Movie Poster of the Year for 2007. Our annual pick for the best one-sheet for the year was coming up blank — there seem to be few choices for great movie posters. Looking at key art led to the same conclusion as looking at the movies themselves from the past 12 months: 2007 was not a great year for movies.

This past year, many marveled at the blockbuster eve candy of those sweaty 300 Spartans. Michael Bay’s Transformers was labeled a success mostly because the film was not as bad as many expected it to be. Many people searched eBay for a Spider-Man 3 lenticular 3D poster, which was as hard to find as a good review for the movie itself. Animation continued to be a dominant box office staple — three of the top ten grossing films of the year were Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, and The Simpsons Movie.

Vintage advertising showed its influence with the dime-store pulp of the Black Snake Moan poster. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez wanted you to know how much they love the 1970s exploitation double-bills with the Grindhouse poster campaign. Were they trying to recreate the haphazard aspect of 70s B-movie advertising by creating a Planet Terror poster with Cherry Darling’s gun replacing the wrong leg?

Speaking of vintage, we liked the smokey distressed look of the 3:10 to Yuma movie poster, but is the sweeping (and blurry) duster jacket pose too Bob Fosse?

And speaking of blurry, some singled out the Michael Clayton movie poster as a good movie poster, but the blurred image of George Clooney with large typography seemed to fall into what some film ad creative directors call “book cover” design.

Artist Drew Struzan got to finish his own rejected poster design illustration from 25 years ago for the 2007 (limited theatrical, followed by DVD) release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut. The new Blade Runner DVD release features interviews with Blade Runner poster illustrators John Alvin along with Drew Struzan — a rare opportunity to see and hear film poster illustrators speak about their work. Alvin has some interesting comments about one-sheet design in the DVD’s Promoting Dystopia: Rendering the Poster Art documentary interview.

Topping many film critics best-of lists, Juno was labeled as “this year’s Little Miss Sunshine”. The Juno movie poster took that label literally by following the Little Miss Sunshine one-sheet example of “branding” itself via a strong color element (orange stripes in this case).

Was there a trend for 2007 movie posters? Our vote would be what we will call Big Sky Country, especially when looking at indie film posters. Lots and lots of big fields and big skies. All those vistas are not really a new trend, but there seemed to be fewer big heads floating in those skies lately.

Which brings us to our pick for the top movie poster of the year — The Savages movie poster illustrated by comic book artist Chris Ware. The movie tells the story of the dysfunctional relationship of a brother (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and sister (Laura Linney) dealing with their elderly father. What is interesting about the poster is all the things generally considered no-nos used in the one-sheet that don’t seem to take away from Ware’s illustration. Blue type against a blue background? Check. Overused Bank Gothic typeface set too small for copylines? Check. Rounded corners à la web design conventions influencing print design? Check. Reminiscent of another comic book artist illustrated movie poster featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman — the Happiness movie poster by artist Daniel Clowes? Check. Overbearing title treatment? Check. Inconsistent type justification (using centered, left, and right justified text)? Check. And failing to pass the gold standard test in film advertising ad critique smack-downs: Would your mother understand it? Check.

What we do like about the Chris Ware movie poster illustration for The Savages is that it is different than most key art campaigns (mainstream, indie, or otherwise) — it evokes a real feeling and direction about the characters. The trademark Chris Ware style of detached “coldness” is (literally) on display in The Savages one-sheet. Ware was an interesting choice to illustrate The Savages movie poster, since a common observation about his work is that his cartooning isn’t as strong as his writing, or at the very least, his artwork is overrated. It would be easy to criticize this top movie poster choice as yet another fan-boy sucking at the Chris Ware teet, but anything involving an alternative “comix” inspired illustration in a film advertising movie poster campaign deserves support.

Buy The Savages movie poster at: MovieGoods.com, eBay

Famed movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan returns to the warm embrace of his long-time client Lucasfilm with the release of the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull teaser poster. Struzan last illustrated the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith movie poster for Lucas, and this marks his return to illustrating many of the one-sheets in the Indiana Jones series. (Although the first and perhaps best Indiana Jones movie poster illustration credit goes to artist Richard Amsel.)

The poster feels like a visual sequel to the previous Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom teaser poster, with a similar theme of Dr. Jones casting an impressive figure in a backlit entrance promising more things to come. There seems to be some debate about whether this piece of key art depiction of Indiana Jones accurately reflects actor Harrison Ford’s age, but looking at Crystal Skull promo photos it is hard to say how much “wear and tear” the archeologist will be showing on the big screen.

One thing we did notice is that the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie poster is using a different Indiana Jones logo than the previously released official Crystal Skull logo. Rather than an exact recreation of the original “Indiana Jones” logotype, this new teaser poster version of the logo differs significantly — using different letterforms, sizing, and kerning overlaps. Does this revised logo represent more unnecessary George Lucas title tinkering? Have they not settled on the logo for the Indiana Jones brand?

Buy Indiana Jones movie posters at: AllPosters.com, eBay, Movieposter.com

Hitman is the new movie based on the video game franchise of the same name. Timothy Olyphant stars as Agent 47, a barcoded assassin who becomes involved in a Russian political controversy when a hit goes wrong.

The Hitman subway poster and outdoor billboards feature Olyphant flanked by co-star Olga Kurylenko. An eagle-eyed writer at Slate noticed the outdoor key art featured a bit more of the actress than expected.

If you read just one article about bulging female genitalia in a movie poster, make it this one.

As the Slate article points out, Kurylenko leaves little to the imagination (or maybe too much depending on your perspective) via her sheer red dress in the Hitman poster. Need a closer look to decide for yourself? Image blow-up weblog investigators are on the case.

This Hitman poster image is the latest, and probably not the last, of an ongoing series of thoughtful and deep analysis of the female figure as depicted in film posters.

On a more serious note, a group that did not approve of this particular Hitman poster was the city of Philadelphia, which asked the studio remove outdoor posters from around the city — but for an entirely different reason.

Buy Hitman movie posters at: eBay, Movieposter.com