MOVIE POSTERS
Growing up, I had a number of jobs related to movie posters. First was a movie theatre in Massachusetts, Hoyts Cape Cod Mall Cinemas. Second would be that most influential movie memorabilia place in Boston, Pix Poster Cellar. Then a few video stores and a laser disc shop later...
Voila! An advanced theatrical one-sheet poster for my first feature-length movie, "Bank Roll" designed in 2012.
"Bank Roll" world premiered at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in December of 2012. The event was held in the New Beverly Cinema and the full bleed poster hung inside the theatre lobby.
Old School Cool
Two posters I designed for two of my companies, MagCo Entertainment and PenalTees. The MagCo Entertainment poster is a knockoff of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" while PenalTees was done in the style of XXX feature "The Whistle Blower."
Old school 27" x 41" dimensions.
I Photoshopped film sprocket holes over the hot air balloon from the original 1-sheet for "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and the bag of money got replaced with a super8 film camera. The text fonts and sizes were copied in the style of the original, along with National Screen Service fine print being added as another detail along the bottom of poster.
PenalTees (The T-shirt Company) poster took about the same amount of Photoshop skill as MagCo Entertainment. Hooker graphic was added to the original cartoon T-shirt, two whistles for the character to stand on and text fonts/sizes copied exactly from original's look. Faint fold lines in the poster for older, slightly used look.
Social Networking Movie Posters
After "Bank Roll" made me a bonafide Hollywood movie-maker, an idea I had for the second project. The second movie should be about MOVIE POSTERS. I love movie posters, so why not? And this idea would come to be known as "Poster Cellar" - the movie poster movie. Some social networking movie posters were needed to promote each site: IMDb, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, deviantART, ello, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, Flickr, MySpace and Tumblr.
A handful of movie poster mock-ups to get the word out...
Posters used for inspiration:
"Metropolis" (International), "Birdman of Alcatraz," "The Social Network," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Groove Tube," "Hellraiser: Bloodline," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Dazed & Confused" (advance), "Bringing Out the Dead," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (advance), "Star Wars" (advance) and "Naked Lunch."
Super8 movie needs a SUPER retro poster!
Pro8mm is a company that specializes in Super8mm film and motion picture film stock. I chose a US one-sheet from the film "8 1/2" by Frederico Fellini as my inspirational blueprint. Fellini's film poster felt appropriate, as Frederico Fellini is recognized to be one of the greatest movie directors in cinema history. Very appropriate for this film crew company located in Burbank, California.
I think it's GR8NESS...
Insert Movie Posters for Companies
An insert movie poster comes thinner than regular American 1-sheet movie theatre posters. Inserts measure 14" x 36" and in the movie poster world, their smaller size makes them popular with collectors.
Companies I made an insert poster for:
Spotlight Displays, Priscilla's Gourmet Coffee Tea & Gifts, impawards.com, MeanSheets.com, Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, Metropolis Comics, All Poster Forum, Vapor Craze, MoviePoster.com and Studio4 - Playhouse West.
In that same order, inspired from the films Apocalypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Mean Streets, Alien, Superman: The Movie, Scarface, Planet of the Apes, The Godfather and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Insert Movie Posters for People
People love movie posters.
Here are some recognizable knockoffs from film posters Serpico, Manhattan, Jaws, Frankenstein, Nosferatu and E.T.
Personalized insert size posters designed for:
Entertainer born in Louisiana
Artist living in Chicago
World's #1 "Jaws" fan
Memorabilia appraiser from The Nostalgia Factory & Antiques Roadshow
Hollywood film/television/commercial casting director
...and an insert movie poster for a film buff's online catalogued collection
Rock that Thing!
The original Drew Struzan artwork... so COOL. I used "The Thing" insert as inspiration for the coolest band on our planet - The Terpsichords!
Movie Posters for FUN!
Obviously inspired from "Reservoir Dogs" and "Goodfellas" - "Rebel War Dogs" and "Wolfellas" are 90s decade awesome knockoffs.
In 2015 I took a writing class for screenplays with Studio4 - Playhouse West. My assignments were to mash-up two films. I got "Star Wars" along with "Reservoir Dogs" for one mash-up and "Goodfellas" to be combined with "The Wolf of Wall Street" for another.
And of course, posters were made for class... and for fun.
"Keyboard Commands... MUST DIE!!!"
Movie poster marketing in the U.K. vs. the U.S.A.
Typical movie posters from the United Kingdom go horizontal, unlike the vertical US 1-sheets. The idea for a horizontal UK poster was simple enough: design should look like something from Super8 film, repeated frames, original and horizontal.
An 18 Rating (adults only) was added to lower right of movie poster.
The 30" x 40" UK-quad size poster for "Keyboard Commandos... MUST DIE!" is drastically different than the 27" x 40" US teaser 1sheet. This was typically the case back in the days of old, as the same movie would be marketed by different ad agencies and such from around the globe. Each country would have their own artwork - not so much these days.
These days, a poster's changes might be something as simple as a title change and only a title change. From English to a particular country's native language.
Not the case with "Keyboard Commandos... MUST DIE!!!" - no way.
Independent films can stick out from the pack with different poster designs. I love the idea of marketing indie features. I love the idea of doing this in all sizes, dimensions, languages, flair and spirit of the individual countries. If you love movies and movie posters, check out some of your favorite films and how that movie was marketed around the world. Look up poster art from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Spain, etc.
Great stuff! Endless inspiration!
And thank you for taking the time to check out some posters from my collection.
-Doug
