First, take a not great but still visually interesting poster.
Then just apply two easy steps:
1. Make it brown.
2. Have the giant heads of two lovers floating over the whole thing
Tada! Your poster now looks just like thousands of others crowding the multiplex.
(Via IMPAwards)
Every once in a while I come across a poster which is by itself nice, but that doesn’t seem to completely fit the movie. This is one of those cases.
Which is to say that I like the poster. It’s not brilliant, but it does contain some creativity, style and smart use of colors. Much, much better than a poster with a giant Tom Cruise head. Even if the giant head was trying to eat Hitler.
But isn’t Valkyrie supposed to be a very serious, somewhat somber historic drama about an obviously failed plot? Considering that the poster seems considerably hip and light, something that might go better with a more lightweight caper like the Ocean’s film, or with a more action oriented movie like X-Men.
Then again maybe I’m just showing my prejudices. Maybe Valkyrie is more exciting and dynamic than I’m expecting. And as Glenn points out in comments, the posters for some of the awards season movies have been really, really bad, so I probably shouldn’t be complaining about a poster that I actually enjoy looking at.
(Via IMPAwards)
I almost didn’t make a post about this, which surprises me a lot since I’m very excited about Quantum of Solace and I quite liked this previous poster.
But this new (and supposedly main one) is just so dull. Two people trying to look cool (to the point where they don’t seem to even notice the other person that is standing there by their side) against a drab desert background. Blah.
Now, you could argue that the main poster for Casino wasn’t all that. But I think the more lively and more fortunately colored background and the clear focus on Bond make for a huge improvement.
I hope the actual film doesn’t disappoint.
(Via ComingSoon)
Oh my good, that giant lady is going to eat the child! Someone DO SOMETHING!
I think I know what happened here. There was once a poor poster designer who would make poster after poster for films with big stars. He would do the floating heads thing, because that’s what he was asked to do, but he would always try to make the poster work, using well proportioned heads that left space for some other interesting stuff. But in poster after poster he would always get the same feedback: make the head bigger.
So one day a new request comes in: doing the poster for an Angelina Jolie movie. By now tired of the same routine our designer just says “what the hell, I’ll just make her head huge”. And so he sends the atrocious design off and goes out to drink the memories of it away. He comes back the next day to find a note scribbled on a piece of paper in front of his computer: make the head bigger.
The designer kills himself. They hire a freelancer to implement the recommendations. And now we can all stand in awe of the finished product.
(Via Cinematical)
SAW V, from France. The french are apparently traditionalists and thought the other poster was just too different.
And since we are talking about different (and about SAW) here is a poster for REPO! The Gentic Opera. Much more interesting, with a clear style that you can also see in other materials for the movie. Although the poster is perhaps too dark for its own good.
This is a bizarre mishmash of a film, a sci-fi/horror/musical directed by that guy from SAW II and with the all important participation of Paris Hilton. Considering all that I was actually hoping for something even more out there, but I guess the preferred to err on the side of caution and tried to make it look at least a bit serious and scary.
SAW V, from France. The french are apparently traditionalists and thought the other poster was just too different.
And since we are talking about different (and about SAW) here is a poster for REPO! The Gentic Opera. Much more interesting, with a clear style that you can also see in other materials for the movie. Although the poster is perhaps too dark for its own good.
This is a bizarre mishmash of a film, a sci-fi/horror/musical directed by that guy from SAW II and with the all important participation of Paris Hilton. Considering all that I was actually hoping for something even more out there, but I guess the preferred to err on the side of caution and tried to make it look at least a bit serious and scary.
Today we have two sets of character posters.
First, it’s the motley crew from Burn After Reading, appearing in some stylish posters with a light touch. Frances and George sure can open their eyes wide.
All of the BAR posters use the same frame, which strikes em as being at the same time interesting a and a bit of a waste. I wish we at least got a different tagline for each.
Then we have the Italian character posters for Twilight, which are much, much more serious and somber. I guess that makes sense, after all, hardly anyone is ever quite as serious and somber as a serious and somber teenager.
Nothing earth shattering in these posters, but they seem to know who the audience for the respective films are and should add to the campaigns’ effectiveness nicely.
(Via BadTaste, Kinopoisk and IMPAwards)
And now, via UGO, we get to the big boys in these two posters, that, as you’ll probably quickly notice, show the same scene from the perspective of our villain and then from the perspective of our hero. Nice concept, impressive images.
I like that a few visuals elements and ideas from previous posters made into this latest ones. The letters, for example, are similar to the letters for this other poster (which I still think is the best of the bunch). The idea of associating a tag line with each character that seem like the something character is saying is something that we have also seen before.
Honestly, these are not my favorite The Spirit posters. But I do like them and have to congratulate the people behind the posters for keeping the quality high throughout the campaign.
(Thanks to MyCityScreams for the heads up)
Over at IMPAwards the IMP mentions that this poster just shows us that the film stars the same people that starred in Titanic, which he muses might just be enough. And indeed I think the the new encounter of this two will be central to the marketing.
The funny thing is, Leonardo and Kate really aren’t looking quite like themselves in the poster, are they? No big effort to use a photo that facilitated their recognition either. Not sure I would have known who they were if their names didn’t show up in the poster.
As for the design, well, it’s nothing terribly original, but I have a soft spot for posters with lots of white and a single and serene strip with an image from the movie. For example, I also liked this poster.
First, the set up:
A poster that was not approved by the MPAA and so won’t be shown in the US.
Then, the punchline:
A poster that shows nothing of the movie itself.
The second poster strikes me as very effective. The image isn’t exactly beautiful, but they were careful not to make it ugly either, and it’s so different you almost have to look closely and read what it says. The mix of showing so little and hinting at so much, and, more specifically, so much sex, should be enough to get a sizable audience interested.
The somewhat shocking title helps, of course.
I have to say tough, that sometimes I am bothered by the way that certain advertisers use the MPAA restrictions to get attention to their films. Not that the MPAA is a saint, much on the contrary, they make plenty of questionable decisions. But the cries of censorship are sometimes quite cynical and calculated.
Not that Zack and Miri is an specially big offender. In fact, horror movies tend to be the biggest and most methodical users of the “look at what the MPAA doesn’t want you to see” shtick. But it reminded me of this pet peeve of mine.
MoviePosterAddict 