Author Topic: Illustrated OS Article  (Read 8585 times)

Offline erik1925

  • Post-aholic
  • **********
  • Posts: 20330
Illustrated OS Article
« on: June 02, 2018, 12:38:07 PM »
Not terribly detailed or long but still kind of an interesting read.

http://lwlies.com/articles/history-of-the-illustrated-one-sheet/


-Jeff

Offline okiehawker

  • Hoarder
  • ****
  • Posts: 2151
Re: Illustrated OS Article
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2018, 01:05:30 PM »
Yep, good article, Jeff. Thank goodness for the artists and us! Okie

Offline erik1925

  • Post-aholic
  • **********
  • Posts: 20330
Re: Illustrated OS Article
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2018, 08:08:03 PM »
Yep, good article, Jeff. Thank goodness for the artists and us! Okie

I thought so too, okie. Along with some good, added pix, it makes for a good, concise read.


-Jeff

Offline cabmangray

  • Hobbyist
  • **
  • Posts: 262
Re: Illustrated OS Article
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2018, 02:08:11 PM »
I agree with everything in the article. Posters with "floating-head syndrome" are becoming boring and repetitive. I've been saying for a long time that posters needed to get back to the real paint, applied with a real brush, on a real piece of canvas phase. Take the early Bond films and compare them to the posters for Skyfall and Spectre. Skyfall looks like Bond sliding into first base while shooting the outfielder. The advance 1-sheet for Spectre is even worse. It looks like an ad for a action figure. Dreadful! There are artists out there just bleeding to do a Bond, or another high profile movie poster.

Photo posters can look attractive if they're done right. Check out the posters from the late 30's and 40's Warner Bros. movies. Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, White Heat, The Verdict, The Corn Is Green and so many more are just cut out photos, but they look nice because they were done right. I think original art is always going to be the best first choice, but if ya gotta have floating heads, for God's sake make it interesting and attractive. And not "stick his head over here, her's over there, the logo right in the middle, and do it in 3 shades of mauve".

Offline erik1925

  • Post-aholic
  • **********
  • Posts: 20330
Re: Illustrated OS Article
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2018, 06:02:36 PM »
I agree with everything in the article. Posters with "floating-head syndrome" are becoming boring and repetitive. I've been saying for a long time that posters needed to get back to the real paint, applied with a real brush, on a real piece of canvas phase. Take the early Bond films and compare them to the posters for Skyfall and Spectre. Skyfall looks like Bond sliding into first base while shooting the outfielder. The advance 1-sheet for Spectre is even worse. It looks like an ad for a action figure. Dreadful! There are artists out there just bleeding to do a Bond, or another high profile movie poster.

Photo posters can look attractive if they're done right. Check out the posters from the late 30's and 40's Warner Bros. movies. Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, White Heat, The Verdict, The Corn Is Green and so many more are just cut out photos, but they look nice because they were done right. I think original art is always going to be the best first choice, but if ya gotta have floating heads, for God's sake make it interesting and attractive. And not "stick his head over here, her's over there, the logo right in the middle, and do it in 3 shades of mauve".

I think this is maybe a reason that Mondo prints do so well, whether the art is spectacular or not. The prints are created artworks that show various levels of talent, uniqueness and creativity.

It's easy to take digital photos and lay them out on a digital canvas. Anyone could do that. And from the look of many posters today, "floating head" or portrait-wise, there often seems to be little thought put into them, instead quickly cobbling and overlaying images together. More thought and question might go into the style of font used for the credits and title, from the look of some that we see today.

And Im sure there are many artists that would LOVE the opportunity to create original, theatrical poster art. Maybe there will be a shift back? Thing is, digital photos (or other software-created imagery) used to create a poster is also less expensive, so there is that to consider, too.



-Jeff

Offline cabmangray

  • Hobbyist
  • **
  • Posts: 262
Re: Illustrated OS Article
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2018, 11:44:35 AM »
The problem is talent costs money. The question is how much money are the studios willing to part with to get something different? Some directors and producers insist on using original art for their posters; Steven Spielberg is one.

I think you are right about the Mondo posters and others as well. Some of them are excellent, some not so much, but at least they aren't photoshopped to death. You can see they were all created with passion.

I would love to think a new era of art driven posters is right around the corner with today's equal of Drew, Chorney, McCarthy, Brown, McGinnis, Lettick, etc.

Offline Simes

  • Hoarder
  • ****
  • Posts: 2870
Re: Illustrated OS Article
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2018, 02:01:44 PM »
But while we lament, we all Do know the reasoning behind this...  Right?  While there may indeed be many artists looking to do something amazing, in this day and age, what with the poster now being a very small part of the campaign, there really isn't any point.  I would say the poster is almost redundant.  And then the contractual artists' need to take up x% of the whole poster, be taller, be bigger than the co-star.

It is exactly the same with book covers.  Lovely bits of art in the 1950's.  Pan Book covers, for eg.  A bloody big title / author name in the 2010's.

I actually don't think one has to resort to painting.  But I do think some very skilful and artistic photography could be amazing.  But, there is just no point I feel...