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March 28, 2024, 01:52:58 PM

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Inept film posters

Started by Nuclear Optimism, April 09, 2013, 03:33:42 PM

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St_Eddie

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on March 27, 2019, 10:10:56 PM
However, I do like the fact they at least managed to get Brody to make three distinct expressions, while giving the designer just the single Willis scowl to work with.

I imagine that Bruce Willis refused to have more than one photo taken during the poster shoot.  That's exactly the sort of thing that he'd do, given the 'I don't give a shit.  Fuck you' attitude that he's been sporting for near enough two decades now.  It's only his ego that won't allow him to do the decent thing and retire.

BlodwynPig

That film screams "money laundering front"

Glebe

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 27, 2019, 10:21:14 PMI imagine that Bruce Willis refused to have more than one photo taken during the poster shoot.  That's exactly the sort of thing that he'd do, given the 'I don't give a shit.  Fuck you' attitude that he's been sporting for near enough two decades now.  It's only his ego that won't allow him to do the decent thing and retire.

And I bet some fans were waiting outside the shoot and he forced a smile for them and muttered something about having to pretend to be nice nowadays.

McChesney Duntz

I can't but wonder what the fuck happened to Willis - time was, he was forever barely holding back a wise-assy smirk no matter what he was doing; now, he has a permanent dead-eyed glumness about him, a real I'd-rather-be-anywhere-else-right-now demeanor that's swallowed up even the sorts of parts he'd have bebopped through 15, 20 years ago. I mean, was working with Kevin Smith so unbearable that it ruined screen acting for him for good?

Mr Banlon

Quote from: buzby on March 27, 2019, 09:10:43 AM
Everything about that poster is wrong. It's presumably based on the Bombing of Chongqing by the Japanese, which started in 1938 (the film is apparently set in 1940, but the opening of the film shows the first raid happening in 1937). The planes on the poster are Vought F4U Corsairs, which were only released to squadron service in 1942 (in the film the American Volunteer Group pilots in the CAF are shown flying the Curtiss P40 Warhawk, which is correct for the period).

Willis' character is loosely based on General Claire Lee Chennault, the commander of the AVG. He never had a beard, and it was against the USAAF regulations to grow one.

It changed title to Air Strike for the US market, but the posteer isn't much better:

Willis should also be wearing Command Pilot wings, not Senior Pilot wings.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on March 27, 2019, 10:10:56 PM
However, I do like the fact they at least managed to get Brody to make three distinct expressions, while giving the designer just the single Willis scowl to work with.

"you get your shot?"
"yes, but...."
"you got your shot. you said you got your shot."
"yes, but... you're not supposed to have a beard."
"airbrush, junior. I'm going back to my trailer."

St_Eddie

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on March 30, 2019, 03:22:51 AM
I can't but wonder what the fuck happened to Willis - time was, he was forever barely holding back a wise-assy smirk no matter what he was doing; now, he has a permanent dead-eyed glumness about him, a real I'd-rather-be-anywhere-else-right-now demeanor that's swallowed up even the sorts of parts he'd have bebopped through 15, 20 years ago. I mean, was working with Kevin Smith so unbearable that it ruined screen acting for him for good?

All the money in the world + ego beyond belief + complacency + aged bastard = Bruce Willis.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Enrico Palazzo on March 27, 2019, 09:17:57 AM
And another. Something tells me the pilots on the right and left aren't in the film.



This one genuinely made me howl with laughter. Fuck, Hollywood film posters are absolutely abysmal.

St_Eddie

Quote from: alan nagsworth on March 30, 2019, 11:31:36 AM
This one genuinely made me howl with laughter. Fuck, Hollywood film posters are absolutely abysmal.

It's a great shame.  Posters in the 80's were generally fantastic.  At what point did the publicity people decide 'yeah, let's stop making good things'?

Blumf

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 30, 2019, 11:50:27 AM
At what point did the publicity people decide 'yeah, let's stop making good things'?

Photoshop, init. Why pay somebody with skill, when you can knock up a basic image in half an hour?

Avril Lavigne

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 30, 2019, 11:50:27 AM
It's a great shame.  Posters in the 80's were generally fantastic.  At what point did the publicity people decide 'yeah, let's stop making good things'?

I can't answer for Hollywood but I will say that I've lost various commissions for bands' album covers & posters to graphic designers doing quick Photoshop collage jobs because nobody wants to pay for all the hours it takes an artist to design & draw/paint a publishable-quality piece by hand.  I've had excited & enthusiastic potential clients just dropping all communication with me as soon as I give them a minimum quote for what they're asking. By a week later I'll see they've got a new single out with cover art that could have been done by a first-year A-Level graphic design student - and probably was, in exchange for "exposure".

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Avril Lavigne on March 30, 2019, 12:36:57 PM
I can't answer for Hollywood but I will say that I've lost various commissions for bands' album covers & posters to graphic designers doing quick Photoshop collage jobs because nobody wants to pay for all the hours it takes an artist to design & draw/paint a publishable-quality piece by hand.  I've had excited & enthusiastic potential clients just dropping all communication with me as soon as I give them a minimum quote for what they're asking. By a week later I'll see they've got a new single out with cover art that could have been done by a first-year A-Level graphic design student - and probably was, in exchange for "exposure".

I have a feeling you may enjoy this subreddit.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Avril Lavigne on March 30, 2019, 12:36:57 PM
I can't answer for Hollywood but I will say that I've lost various commissions for bands' album covers & posters to graphic designers doing quick Photoshop collage jobs because nobody wants to pay for all the hours it takes an artist to design & draw/paint a publishable-quality piece by hand.  I've had excited & enthusiastic potential clients just dropping all communication with me as soon as I give them a minimum quote for what they're asking. By a week later I'll see they've got a new single out with cover art that could have been done by a first-year A-Level graphic design student - and probably was, in exchange for "exposure".

The difference being that Hollywood movies have a promotion budget in the millions.  Still, I suppose that it could scale.  "Let's pay a million and save a million".  That doesn't really explain why posters were artful in the the past, mind.

Thinking about it, perhaps it was simply a ripple effect born from the invention of Photoshop.  A new generation of poster creators, raised on Photoshop.  A lost art.

mothman

Part of it is, I think, that a film's branding does't remain constant. There is a certain amount - most commonly the film's logo, how the title is written, that sort of thing. But there can be several posters, and the elements which do or don't transfer across poster formats etc., who decides that? I could easily see the studios being happy to let the exhibitors have the responsibility (and the cost) of doing so, especially how much of the gross they get.

Plus there's the variation across territories. Where posters either aren't available, or are amended to better suit the local market (or pander to local prejudices), or are ignored completely. Meaning you get examples like the Twelve Years A Slave poster from Italy which is just a big picture of Brad Pitt, or all those homemade posters from Ghana or Poland or Turkey or India (etc.).

Faced with all that, it doesn't really surprise me that inept Photoshops and collages have become the norm. Sure there are lots of talented artists out there, but they often want to put their own spin on things. Here's one (historic) example:



It's terrific - but does it really match the look or content of the film?

Then there are some artists who're doing fan art but are now getting proper work from studios, like Matt Ferguson (https://twitter.com/Cakes_Comics)...

I think they tried to cram too much in here. And I don't remember him skiing in a tuxedo. Tonally, the movie is quite different from the fun smirkfest suggested in the below. But I can understand them throwing everything at the wall to get punters in the door.


St_Eddie

Quote from: thecuriousorange on April 01, 2019, 06:56:02 PM


"James Bond does explosive shart on lady's legs.  More at seven."

mothman

The Tuxedo is a required element of Bond posters. You Only Live Twice would have you believe he flew Little Nellie wearing one; Moonraker, that he had one on under a space suit (that he didn't wear in the film either).

St_Eddie

Quote from: mothman on April 01, 2019, 11:02:07 PM
The Tuxedo is a required element of Bond posters. You Only Live Twice would have you believe he flew Little Nellie wearing one; Moonraker, that he had one on under a space suit (that he didn't wear in the film either).

The problem is that it stretches the suspension of one's disbelief beyond breaking point.  I can accept a lot of nonsense in action film posters but the laws of physics and aerodynamics dictate that it's literally impossible for a man to ski whilst wearing a tuxedo.

Avril Lavigne

That poster tells me everything I need to know - Bond is a daft load of shit for nerks.

mothman

Quote from: St_Eddie on April 01, 2019, 11:22:41 PM
The problem is that it stretches the suspension of one's disbelief beyond breaking point.  I can accept a lot of nonsense in action film posters but the laws of physics and aerodynamics dictate that it's literally impossible for a man to ski whilst wearing a tuxedo.

Anything is possible.

St_Eddie

Quote from: mothman on April 02, 2019, 10:46:22 PM
Anything is possible.

Well, of course one can ski naked.  One can also ski in any form of clothing, up to and including a full suit of medieval knight's armour.  One however, simply cannot ski in a tuxedo.  It simply cannot be done.

mothman

Steady on there, Captain Subjective. Objectively, you are wrong.

https://youtu.be/ujgZ5qAcPBQ

St_Eddie

Quote from: mothman on April 03, 2019, 02:00:01 PM
Steady on there, Captain Subjective. Objectively, you are wrong.

https://youtu.be/ujgZ5qAcPBQ

Those are ski suits with tuxedos painted on them.  That's not the same thing at all.  It is impossible to ski whilst wearing an actual tuxedo.  Objective fact.

marquis_de_sad

Please stop saying tuxedo.

Sin Agog

Quote from: St_Eddie on April 03, 2019, 03:16:15 PM
Those are ski suits with tuxedos painted on them.  That's not the same thing at all.  It is impossible to ski whilst wearing an actual tuxedo.  Objective fact.

I once went skiing wearing a suit jacket.  Just didn't fancy following the rule that you have to look like a Minsk factory worker from the '80s just 'cause you're up a mountain.  So long as there isn't too much wind, it can actually be relatively warm up there in the sun.

St_Eddie


Glebe

That poster is captivating me, mate.

mothman

It's an odd film. Be a good future CaB Film Club contender.

Glebe



Please get that as far away from me as possible.

St_Eddie

Can't wait to see the new Spider-Man movie titled IMAX.