"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

"Hahaha! Weird Science is funny!"

"Welcome to Pacific Tech's "Smart People on Ice"

"I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't want you guys to think I was stuffy. You know, no fun. All brain, no penis."

[Jeff Kleist]

It's a geek comedy. Geeks adore it

That's why Grant from Mythbusters said, when they busted the ending "Know it? I based my life on it!"

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I have a pretty strong hatred of current movie poster designs -often little more than a collage of Photoshopped actors heads or just a photo of one or two of the leading actors. BORING.

These simple, yet boring concepts are malleable enough to work in a large 27" X 40" one sheet movie poster or shrank down to a 5 3/8" X 7 1/2" DVD case. Ultimately the studio is gearing everything for tiny home video packaging. The product must be recognizable on a retail store shelf from a considerable distance. A more simple, stark design is legible at a farther distance. A beautifully designed movie poster in the classic and complex sense will not be as legible when shrank down to DVD case size. This explains why that last version of Real Genius on DVD had such laughably bad artwork. The crappy head shot of Val Kilmer is more legible at a distance than the full body shot of him on the original movie poster.

Services like Netflix, iTunes, etc. are worsening this problem. A DVD case may have a small design foot print. But a web banner or thumbnail image on a download service screen is even more limiting.

The music industry experienced this same problem back in the 1980s. The 12" vinyl LP was a great canvas for interesting album cover art. When cassette tapes and compact discs took over the market the quality of album cover art also took a dramatic nose dive. Back in the 1970's a 12" vinyl LP would sometimes contain big fold out posters. My copy of the Queen album "Jazz" had a big poster of the starting line of a nude women's bicycle race -more than 100 attractive naked ladies on bicycles. The linear notes of my CD version of "Jazz" has a pathetic thumbnail size image of the same poster photo. The booklets in some music CDs are creative, but they lack the visual impact of a big poster. With downloaded music you're getting little more than a MP3 or AAC file featuring a low resolution image thumbnail. Pure suckage.

Those trends in movie and music packaging killed off a big part of the professional illustration market. Today's average poster design is more likely to wind up at the Photoshop Disasters web site than featured in a Society of Illustrators annual. We hardly hear anything anymore about movie poster illustrators like Bob Peak or Drew Struzan -much less have a new generation or two worth of illustrators follow in the footsteps of those legends.

Even from the standpoint of graphic design most movie posters and pieces of DVD case artwork stink. One example: Traffic. I hate the cover design with all the actors heads popped in there. It's a bunch of clutter to satisfy the contracts and egos of a few actors. Criterion's version, featuring only the black silhouette of a man staggered by a gun shot, is a more powerful image. It's not diluted by the clutter of actors heads, critics comments and other crap.

One thing the movie studios could do: put the stupid, boring yet effective for retail artwork on a disposable (and recyclable) slipcase. Put far more tasteful artwork on the actual product case.

Drew Struzan retired basically because he couldn't get work anymore. If the Star Wars prequels and the Indy sequel hadn't come along, he probably would've quit even earlier.

[Jeff Kleist]

Did he paint the national lampoon posters they just repla Ed with photoshopped horribleness?

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

Drew Struzan retired basically because he couldn't get work anymore. If the Star Wars prequels and the Indy sequel hadn't come along, he probably would've quit even earlier.

Yeah, Drew Struzan was fantastic.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Real Genius is apparently more of a classic than I thought.

Many people I talk to havent heard of the film, but on this board it seems to be quite popular.

Hopefully Penton is taking notes :-)

I haven’t as I’ve been busy troll hunting...
https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-te...ml#post3205620

What exactly does thee desire of me now?

[Jeff Kleist]

Real Genius 2 of course

But we'll settle for Real Genius on Blu with a nice special edition with Val Kilmer and company commentary and cover art that doesn't make small children blind

You'd like it Penton, it's a raunchy 80s comedy full of student beauticians, and the cause of very large breasts

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Did he paint the national lampoon posters they just repla Ed with photoshopped horribleness?

I checked, and I don't think he did those. I do think Struzan has to come out of retirement to do the posters for Indiana Jones 5, if that ever happens. I also think it's sad that too many of the posters are the basic 'floating heads photoshopped together'. Yes, Struzan's work also contained the 'floating heads', but there was a quality to it that most of these recent things lacked. Apparently it cost too much to have a painter make a poster, otherwise I don't see a reason why nobody wanted him anymore. It's a damn shame.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

Yes, Struzan's work also contained the 'floating heads', but there was a quality to it that most of these recent things lacked. Apparently it cost too much to have a painter make a poster, otherwise I don't see a reason why nobody wanted him anymore. It's a damn shame.

Unfortunately (for me) it seemed that a lot of Struzan's work were painted versions of studio publicity photos. The Star Wars SE trilogy re-release posters are a great example of that.

[aygie]

Just wanted to say all Sci-fi fans go out and get Moon on BD. My favourite film of the year. (Plus its a Sony release so Penton won't mind me "biggin it up")

[cjamescook]

Penton-

Why doesn't Sony partner with the US Postal Service?

For instance, according to USPS.gov, they just released a "Cowboys of the Silver Screen" set of stamps. Other previous stamp releases have featured other movies and movie personalities.

The USPS often offers books tied in with the stamps. Why not sell movies with a USPS-specific cover through a JMA?

Cheers!
-Jim
demonstrating he listens to Penton's solicitations for additional commercial haircutting opportunities

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by aygie

Just wanted to say all Sci-fi fans go out and get Moon on BD. My favourite film of the year. (Plus its a Sony release so Penton won't mind me "biggin it up")

I second that. Great movie and a great disc, too - a very pleasant surprise.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I haven’t as I’ve been busy troll hunting...
https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-te...ml#post3205620

Very interesting - please expand on the topic of different gamma curves - inquiring minds with different gamma presets want to know

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Did he paint the national lampoon posters they just repla Ed with photoshopped horribleness?

Boris Vallejo painted the movie poster of National Lampoon's Vacation. Many know Boris simply by his first name signed on so many sword and sorcery style paintings. Frank Frazetta did much to pioneer that genre of illustration, but Boris seemed to step it up to another level in terms of observational precision. Boris' son, Dorian, was one of my classmates in art school. Dorian did the figure reference pose used to double for Anthony Michael Hall's character on the Vacation poster. Boris just changed the head. Heh heh.

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by aygie

Just wanted to say all Sci-fi fans go out and get Moon on BD. My favourite film of the year. (Plus its a Sony release so Penton won't mind me "biggin it up")

MOON is a very good film, definitely worth seeing and perhaps even owning. I don't know if I'd consider it to be a great film, though, since many of its central ideas are 'inspired by' (a.k.a. borrowed from) other Sci-Fi movies, but it's definitely very good, and it does contain a GREAT lead performance by the always wonderful (and underappreciated) Sam Rockwell. Why he wasn't nominated for an Oscar (or even a friggin' Indie Spirit Award) baffles me, he's simply brilliant. Seriously, this is as big a snub as- if not bigger than (IMO)- the snubbing of Jeremy Irons for his amazing performance (ironically also playing two "identical" characters) in David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS. I remember when Irons won his award for REVERSAL OF FORTUNE the next year, he actually made it a point to thank Cronenberg at the end of his Oscar speech. I wonder if when Rockwell gets his inevitable Oscar in the future he'll thank Duncan Jones.

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

hy he wasn't nominated for an Oscar (or even a friggin' Indie Spirit Award) baffles me,

Sci-Fi movie. They're allergic

It was fantastic though

[Vincent Pereira]

The film actually had a lot of critical support behind it when it was first released (I recall it playing the arthouses around the same time as the initial release of HURT LOCKER and getting almost as much critical praise). I think what it really came down to was an almost complete lack of support from the studio when Awards season rolled around. Now, I can understand pushing the similarly "small and indie" HURT LOCKER for the major Awards over MOON, but to completely ignore Rockwell just blew my mind. I mean, just take out one friggin' ad in the industry trades and send out some DVD screeners, he's f***king incredible in that film. Sam Rockwell being completely ignored for his incredible acting in MOON is one of the biggest snubs of the decade IMO

Vincent

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

The film actually had a lot of critical support behind it when it was first released (I recall it playing the arthouses around the same time as the initial release of HURT LOCKER and getting almost as much critical praise). I think what it really came down to was an almost complete lack of support from the studio when Awards season rolled around. Now, I can understand pushing the similarly "small and indie" HURT LOCKER for the major Awards over MOON, but to completely ignore Rockwell just blew my mind. I mean, just take out one friggin' ad in the industry trades and send out some DVD screeners, he's f***king incredible in that film. Sam Rockwell being completely ignored for his incredible acting in MOON is one of the biggest snubs of the decade IMO

Vincent

Completely agree, phenomenal performance.

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Unfortunately (for me) it seemed that a lot of Struzan's work were painted versions of studio publicity photos. The Star Wars SE trilogy re-release posters are a great example of that.

I don't know about that. I do know he uses models to pose for him sometimes, just like most painters do. It's understandable that he needs something to paint in front of him. Also, the Star Wars SE posters were done under time pressure, so maybe he didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, I think those posters look incredible, especially next to each other as one big piece.

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

MOON is a very good film, definitely worth seeing and perhaps even owning. I don't know if I'd consider it to be a great film, though, since many of its central ideas are 'inspired by' (a.k.a. borrowed from) other Sci-Fi movies, but it's definitely very good, and it does contain a GREAT lead performance by the always wonderful (and underappreciated) Sam Rockwell. Why he wasn't nominated for an Oscar (or even a friggin' Indie Spirit Award) baffles me, he's simply brilliant. Seriously, this is as big a snub as- if not bigger than (IMO)- the snubbing of Jeremy Irons for his amazing performance (ironically also playing two "identical" characters) in David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS. I remember when Irons won his award for REVERSAL OF FORTUNE the next year, he actually made it a point to thank Cronenberg at the end of his Oscar speech. I wonder if when Rockwell gets his inevitable Oscar in the future he'll thank Duncan Jones.

Vincent

I saw Moon last weekend, and I have to agree with you. Halfway through the picture I completely forgot that I wasn't watching two people, but the same actor talking basically to himself. It might not be completely original, but it was still fresh enough to be enjoyable. Also it was nice to see that

[Show spoiler]the robot wasn't completely evil this time around

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by Peter THX

Unfortunately (for me) it seemed that a lot of Struzan's work were painted versions of studio publicity photos. The Star Wars SE trilogy re-release posters are a great example of that.

When it comes to creating illustrations of celebrity actors every professional illustrator has typically been stuck working with a collection of photos or just one photo for completing the portrait work. It isn't just Drew Struzan doing that sort of thing.

Very few, if any, actors are going to be willing to pose for a few hours or more for the illustrator to get the likeness established. Additionally, many drawings or paintings of actors on movie posters have been sourced from photographs of them in costume on the movie set. No one is going to re-create all of that production design, set decoration, costume design and lighting within the confines of an illustrator's studio for a more "legit" life drawing or painting. Likewise, no movie production will ever halt things on the set so an illustrator can come in for a few hours to draw or paint something in the same manner.

Another thing to consider: it's actually easier to draw or paint a portrait of someone with the person posing in front of you than it is to work from a flat photograph. You can see so much more about a person's features, their volume in three dimensional space, than you can from a photograph. You can shift a little to see a subtle shape's definition more easily. You can get up and walk around the subject to study it better.

The only legitimate criticism against an illustrator working from photographs is if the illustrator cheated and traced the photos.