Ok, now that I finally have the poster back in my hands I can relate my whole sorry experience at the hands of Posterfix without fear of retribution. I realise I’m not going to get much sympathy for this given the amount of negative feedback there is out there already about this guy but in my defence I did have a few reasons for thinking it might be worth chancing.
The short version is – it went about how you’d expect. If you’ve read any online accounts of people’s experience with Posterfix, in particular Mel’s Goldfinger/ Dr. No debacle, then you’ll know what that means. I really only recount the details here in case anyone else is labouring under the delusion that that was a one off.
Ok, first my reasons for chancing my arm with Posterfix;
1. I did try Dario first only to find out he couldn’t take on French One-Panel posters,
2. I was traveling to the US for 2 weeks, starting and ending my trip in New York so I figured I’d be in a position to drop off and then pick up the linen-backed poster before I left. The poster was in very fine condition so I naturally assumed the process wouldn’t take more than a few days, a week at most.
3. Although the poster was in good condition, it’s not worth much. The linen-backing was just for aesthetics as I intend to get it framed and hang it. Besides, I had a second copy which was in great condition also. If all went south I wasn’t really going to be kicking myself for risking a valuable poster.
4. I had been exploring the possibility of following in the pioneering footsteps of Charlie to try to teach myself linen-backing and thought it’d be a good opportunity to get a look inside a linen-backing set up (albeit an infamously bad one) and see what it involved.
The poster in question was the French One-Panel "Grande" for Island of the Fish People aka Screamers. I just love the art on this one.
I journeyed out to the Brooklyn Navy Yards on October 5th of last year and met Chris Cloutier. Seems like a perfectly affable individual in person. Nothing to start alarm bells ringing, although he did make a crack about being sued which he was quick to retract when he realised what he’d said.
I was struck that he was working in a pretty small space which was encouraging given my interest re point 4. We chatted a bit and I presented my poster. He remarked that it was in good condition and also mentioned that it had been a slow week so he was glad of the business. However, it quickly became apparent that I shouldn’t expect to get it within two weeks so I resigned myself to having it shipped back to Australia.
He sent me a Paypal invoice which I paid while in his shop, $300 to back and $100 to ship via Fedex to Australia.
Having missed the opportunity to pick it up while in New York, I waited a month and on November 6th sent the following email;
“Hi Chris, How're things? I'm just touching base to see how things are going with the Island of the Fish People backing. Can't wait to see it.”
He wrote back saying, “Hi leslie, I have it ready to back mnext- i was delayed for 3 weeks because we lost the use of water here. but its fixed now. i may be able to ship this posters in about a week, chris”
Waited two weeks and wrote on 24th November, “Hi Chris, Just wanted to see if you've managed to get this one done yet.”
No reply.
Another week and a half, 5th December, “Hi Chris, I haven't had a response to my last email. If you could let me know how things are progressing it'd be appreciated.”
No reply. Left a couple of voicemails and after the busyness of the Christmas period, sent another email on Jan 3rd, “Hi Chris, I haven't had any response to any of my emails and voicemails. Can you please let me know what is going on with this job?”
No reply. Figuring I wasn’t going to get a reply or my poster at this point I enlisted the help of my cousin’s wife who works in a law firm in Manhattan. She called in a favour with one of her colleagues who sent a letter to Chris. I’m not too sure what the contents of the letter were but it was sufficient to be able to get him on the phone with the attorney within a few days. According to the attorney he said he was sorry, that he was having medical problems, that the poster was 80% done and would ship express on Monday 20th January. He also promised he would get in touch with me.
On the 18th January he wrote, “Hello Leslie, work progresses on the posters. should ship early next week.chris cloutier.” Not sure what he meant by the plural here but whatever, I’m sure he copies and pastes it to every client.
20th January comes and goes. On the 1st February I write “Hi Chris, Has this shipped yet?”
He replies “Hi Leslie,the poster ISLAND OF THE FISH PEOPL is ready to ship and will go out Monday via USPS. Can you confirm your shipping address and phone please? Thanks”
Despite having given him all this info when I dropped the poster off in October, I sent it through again. Then silence again.
11th February, “Hi Chris, Do you have a tracking number for this?”
No reply.
21st February, “Seriously Chris, are you sending this or planning to try and steal it and my money? I'll give you 72 hours to send me a tracking number for this package or I'll assume the latter is the case and proceed accordingly. I have been more than reasonable in regard to this matter.”
The next day “Dear Leslie, FED EX INTL ECONOMY Tracking number is 79799453**** being picked up by fed ex today thanks for your patience. Chris”
The tracking number turned out to be valid although I didn’t really believe it until I opened the packing tube today, 4th March. 5 months from drop off to delivery.
So how was it? Well, if didn't happen to own a few linen backed posters already I might assume this is as good as linen backing gets and resign myself to the flaws. From a few feet back it displays ok but what really bugs me is are the foldlines which are still pretty prominent. They are raised up which I assume is due to lack of burnishing or, y'know, giving a shit. It's pretty frustrating as this is one of the primary reasons for linen backing in the first place. My Blow Out 2F for example is completely smooth to the touch and you can only see the folds when scrutinizing it up close.
Some extra creases have even been introduced along the bottom.
Along the upper left hand side, something small was left between canvas and poster. Not sure what exactly but it feels like half a paperclip. Almost tempted to cut it open to find out.
In addition there are three thins cuts in the poster now.
These shots show the poster backlit so the cuts are more visible than normal.
In addition, some pen marks near the border are still visible. This may be my fault for not requesting they be removed but since they hadn't bled through I just assumed it would be standard practice to sand them off prior to backing. Again, they're more visible when backlit as the comparison here shows.
Finally, and this may just be a limitation of backing large posters, there's a slight indentation which runs the width of the poster. It marks where two sheets of masa paper have been overlaid by about an inch to cover the surface area. But as I say, for all I know rolls of masa don't come large enough to cover a french one sheet. I have an Italian 4F which has the same issue and the description on emovieposter didn't mention it so it may not be considered a flaw at all.
In the end the backing job will be adequate for my purposes. I'll get it framed and if I find the foldlines are still annoying me down the line I'll replace it with my other copy. But it's indoubtedly an amateur job.
In conclusion, believe every negative thing you read about Posterfix. It’s probably all true. How the guy stays in business without changing his or the business name is anyone’s guess. And if you do take a gamble make sure you happen to have a lawyer acquaintance downtown. I have no illusions about how far I’d have gotten without that connection in my back pocket. Anyway, I know we’ve all been warned, but here’s another one to add to the pile.
Random sidebar: Why is it if you type 'F r e n c h G r a n d e' here it automatically self corrects to read 'Thierry hates "F r e n c h G r a n d e"'? (spaces added to stop it doing it this time)
