April 25, 2005
Move the Explosion Two Inches to the Right
Conversations with three
movie poster artists of the '70s and how the changing demands of the industry affected them (via the excellent
PosterWire.com). Personally, I dig John Berkey's painting for the
'76 King Kong, one foot on each World Trade Center tower. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
Posted by mhinrichs at April 25, 2005 04:06 PM
Thanks for posting that...it's indeed a sad indictment of the way the digital revolution's changed theings.
Just to defend the modern poster designers out there, it's not like we look fondly back at all of the forgottable posters from forgettable films from the Golden Age and so on. We only discuss/etc popular films with well-done posters.
Yes, Casablanca had some really crappy Big Heads Floating in the Sky poster looks too.
History has a way of remembering the exceptional (art, film, etc.) and forgetting the ordinary.
The reason there are so few good movie posters (then and now) is the same reason there are so few good movies (then and now). Movie poster design has a way of mirroring all of the same forces that work against films themselves.
