One of our readers recently sent us this key art along with his plaintive plea: "Dear Edwina, can you please say something about this please?"
Clearly the poster is part of the MPAA’s Early Warning System alerting audiences to avoid this star studded crapfest.
We came across this reader's request posted in response to Let Ye Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Flying Rock:
I do believe this is the image used for the flying debris. Please add to every comp you ever make.
Signed, Eat It
Click on image to purchase file.
We were alarmed to read in HuffPo (Ignition Print Balances Commerce, Creativity In Cutthroat Movie Poster Graphic Design World) about a 200 comp presentation to Warner Bros. for Dark Shadows.
Two hundred comps! Is this the new normal? If it is, we’re going to start charging by the pound instead of by the hour.
After viewing the poster for Judd Apatow’s new movie, Collider's Matt Currie had this to say about what he saw:
(This Is 40) explores the comically embattled couple’s aging relationship, and their attempts to escape the domestic hell illustrated on this poster. It features Mann looking on in exhausted disgust as an oblivious Rudd sits on the toilet not ten feet away, snuffing out any shred of mystique that was left in their relationship. A well-constructed visual gag that cannily expresses the film’s relatable premise.
Click on image to enlarge.
Doubtless there are many of you who still believe the only way you can lay claim to key art is if you came up with the concept, built the comp, revised that comp, re-revised that revised comp, revised that re-re-revised comp and then oversaw the finish.
Virtuous, yes, but that sort of unimaginative thinking limits your œuvre to work you’ve actually done.
If you’re like us, you know you can assert de facto ownership of any key art simply by downloading it from IMPAwards. It’s so easy and you know the best part? Nobody gives a shit. Well, nobody important.
In other businesses misrepresenting your credentials like that might be considered an ethical lapse or even deliberate larceny, but in our world it’s deservedly called “creating enhanced perceptions.” (Insert appropriate emoticon here.)
If timidity prevents you from doing this outright, we suggest placing a tiny disclaimer at the bottom stating: "These are posters for movies I have seen."
Y&R’s São Paulo, Brazil branch launched a campaign for LG’s 3D sound system that shows three movie posters from different angles. You can see all three posters here
It’s just like being at the actual photo shoot when the talent screams at you to get out of their eyeline.
Dear Edwina,
If you are like me then you enjoy wasting time at work and looking for ways to undermine the competition. I noticed that a certain agency has a favorite flying rock file that turns up in many of their print campaigns. Here are two can you find more?
Signed, On The Clock
You think its easy cranking out these delicious sausages year in and year out? We all have our go-to files, our repertoire of blue skies, exploding fireballs and lonely highways. We knew of one A.D. who was incapable of producing a comp without throwing in a lens flare somewhere. Anywhere. Everything he touched had that same, practiced razzle-dazzle, and yet there were those who would denigrate his signature look as mere shtick.
As Siegfried Sassoon - who knew firsthand the horror of the trenches in World War I, which is the only experience even remotely comparable to the intolerable pressure art directors are under to produce something other than crap – once sort of said:
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who sneer at billboards passing by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where sensitive creatives go.
Click on image to enlarge.
Film poster forger Kerry Haggard has been sentenced to more than six years in prison.
Haggard used a New York printing company to make high-quality copies of classic 1930’s horror film posters from prints and digital scans.
"The fakes were very clever and difficult to detect," said Grey Smith, director of movie posters at Heritage Auctions. "The obvious marks of a fake? Paper stocks, i.e., quality of paper, was an obvious sign that tipped us off... clarity of the reproduced image was also a factor in denoting the fakes."
If you’re like us, you’re trying to forget them.
Moviefone counts down the absolute most ridiculous sex comedy posters. Ever.
Click on image to enlarge.
An alert reader sent us this item from HuffPoo:
NEW YORK — A mock movie poster warns al-Qaida wants to return to New York City, but authorities say there's no evidence of an actual threat.
Investigators say an overseas, Arab-language Internet site posted the amateur graphic on its "artwork and design" page. The NYPD has been monitoring the site.
If you’re like us, the most shocking thing about this is news item that anyone would describe this crapfest as a mock movie poster. A mock movie subway 2-sheet… maybe. And excuse us, where is the billing block? Oh, it’s a teaser, you say? Well, then we still need to see a tag line and the release date featured prominently at the bottom.
A Reseda man was arraigned Thursday for allegedly stealing nearly $500,000 worth of movie posters. if convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of five years behind bars.
Prosecutors allege he stole the 3,000 posters from bus shelters in the San Fernando Valley, then selling them on online for more than $450,000.
Acting on a tip from CBS security, LAPD detectives went online to purchase one of the posters. After searching the man’s home, investigators found posters for virtually every movie that's been out for the last two years.
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And now, here are some of the comments posted on Yahoo News in response to this item:
“They're just advertising now, anyway. The art of the movie poster in this country vanished years ago.” - Telstar 62
“What the heck are movie posters doing at a bus station? ” - Owpatheic
"Yet another example of how utterly corrupt the movie industry is." - Annette
"Hey, without those posters no one would have known about the Hunger Games." - Joe
“He was framed!! get it?” - david
"More valuable than the total gross of John Carter!" - Gary
Fox is pulling the Neighborhood Watch poster and trailer from theaters in wake of Florida shooting.
One of our readers recently sent us in this absurdly long image along with the comment: “This is what I get when I Google “Movie Poster - Images.”
We are inclined to give the same response Henny Youngman got when he told his doctor: “It hurts when I do this.” The doctor said, “Then don't do that.”
Pascal Witaszek’s poster for a nonexistent Walt Disney biopic starring Ryan Gosling has got some folks wishing it was real.
