MonKeyArtAwards

Ask Not For Whom The Poo Flings, It Flings For Thee

Greenlight Creative’s Darryl Shelly has posted a simply fascinating interview with our very own Edwina Trout on IMPAward's Peer 2 Peer Articles

Taking Credit Before Credit Is Due

Dear Edwina,

Is it just me, or is it really bad form for [name omitted] to be taking credit for the design and execution of finishes he is doing? I was browsing his Facebook page and noticed an alarming amount of finishes that have not yet been released by studios. 

Signed, [name omitted] 

It’s certainly a sure-fire way to piss off your clients.  And we all know how touchy studio execs are about the sanctity and security of motion picture marketing. They act like you’ve leaked the secret formula for New Coke.

While we completely understand your desire to see egomaniacal grandstanders taken to task (that’s why we started this blog in the first place) rather than disclosing names of individuals, we prefer to group all these impetuous reprobates into one clump and then cast dispersions on the whole lot of them. 

Knock! Knock! It's Opportunity! That Is, If You Call Being Invited To Create Free One-Sheets For The Weinsteins An Opportunity

Adding insult to injury, the buzz pimps at Metal Rabbit thought it would be a terrific idea to send this email directly out to entertainment advertising agencies:

From: metalrabbitmedia.com

Subject: Re-release poster design contest for THE ARTIST (The Weinstein Company)

The Weinstein Company is re-releasing The Artist in theaters on Friday May 11. To commemorate this event, we recently launched a contest to design the official re-release poster. We are seeking original submissions that capture the essence of the film. The winning submission will be featured the Facebook page of The Artist and The Weinstein Company with a link pointing back to the firm or to the individual artist, whichever you prefer. The winner will also receive a framed, professionally-printed theater size version of their winning design.

The Details:

• Designs can be submitted here: http://on.fb.me/LR5F5P or emailed to socialtwc@gmail.com

• Once approved, the designs will be added to the slider so other fans can see your work

• Submissions must be received by May 15

• The winning design will be announced May 16

----

Seriously? You send this out to people who pay the mortgage and put food on the table by creating movie marketing campaigns?! 

If we weren’t so mature, we would suggest our readers inundate them with posters so stinking bad that they explode from all the methane gas escaping out of them.

From Our Archives

64 Point Helvetica Bold

Kinda Sorta Wildish

Click on image to enlarge.

Eine Kleine Weltanschauung

If you’re like us, you’re so distracted by the art on IMPawards that you overlook the “Links & Info” list at the top of the site; which is where we found Peer 2 Peer Articles, a collection of interviews about movie marketing done by Darryl Shelly from Greenlight Creative.

The pieces make for interesting reading, and could well serve as reference next time your spouse or your mother asks you just what it is you do for a living.

Click on image to enlarge.

January Is National Eye Care Month

A public service announcement from MonKeyArtAwards.

Celebrating Achievement in Head Strip Arts and Sciences

Dear Edwina,

Perhaps your pixel pushing readers would be interested in this, though I'm sure the art of the head transplant is old hat to them:

Annenberg Space for Photography Digital Darkroom exhibition of the intersection of art and technology. The show’s curatorial advisor Russell Brown, a Senior Creative Director at Adobe Systems, was instrumental in the introduction of Adobe Photoshop.

Digital Darkroom runs through May 28, 2012.

Whatever

If you’re like us, you know that no one has actually ever read one of batshit crazy Ayn Rand’s unreadable novels.

Which is why it comes as no surprise to hear that 100,000 title sheets from the Atlas Shrugged Part 1 DVD are being replaced because the copywriter described the 1957 novel, as "Ayn Rand’s timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice...”

 

We Heart IMPAwards

Dear Edwina, Write something about agencies buying banners on Impawards!!

Signed, Poster Poster

First of all, we’d like to take a moment here to remind everyone that’s it is always one exclamation point or three. Never two.

Secondly, we’d like to congratulate Mojo, Neuron and The Refinery for supporting IMP Awards and we urge all print agencies to do likewise.

With the Key Art Awards now focused mainly on trailers*, deeming posters as worthy only of second and third place status, what better place for art directors to focus their attention than IMP Awards? It is simply the best site for theatrical and television key art. Period.

* Not that we have anything against trailers, other than that they give away the entire plot line of a movie.

Click on image to enlarge.

A Reader Asks: Where Did The Ethnicity Go?

Dear Edwina,

Driving around LA, bashing all of the fall-launch and theatrical key art out recently on 14x48's and bus benches this season, something really stood out to me... there are only white people featured. We all know that this is a common trend in American media, but typically there is a token Asian or Black for an ensemble cast. Tyler Perry often fills some advertising space with African American featured films. Right now, I think it's pretty shameful that it is so un-diverse out on the entertainment advertising playing field and I was hoping for some coverage on it.

Signed, Spot Color

We’re all for equality and diversity, but one should never allow social issues to cause one to lose sight of the fact that the transcendent goal in creating key art is to create the one that gets picked. If trending dictates that a troupe of young, privileged, white actors show up at the photo shoot, that’s what we're going to put on our bus sides and billboards.

Moreover, as lowly creative services apes, we have no control over what craptacular concept ends up going to finish, let alone the casting of these glorious entertainment vehicles.

Arbeit Macht Frei

Happy Labor Day to all of you who worked passionately, tirelessly and, above all, uncomplainingly over the holiday weekend.

And though it may not be clear to you, take comfort in knowing that the project that kept you apart from your friends and your family was of the utmost importance and the deadline you had was in no way an arbitrary one.

Something’s Gotta Give

There’s a movement afoot in the UK banning the airbrushing of photos which create "overly perfected and unrealistic images" of women in ads targeted at children. They are also calling for cigarette-style health warnings by advertisers which "tell the truth" about the use of digital retouching technology.

Read here about L'Oréal's Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington Ad Campaigns Banned

While we shudder at the thought of all those pixel pushers being put out to pasture, one has to admit there’s something insane about the demand to erase the natural effect of decades of life on this earth from a human being's image that leaves behind mere retouching and enters into the art of embalming.

A Cautionary Tale

P22 Type Foundry has filed a lawsuit against the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida for selling merchandise containing the Cezanne Regular font – a typeface for which P22 claims they own the copyright.

Is Your Agency On The Map?

Let us know at edwinatrout@gmail.com Unless, of course, your shop is located in some backwater town like New York, London or Torrance -- in which case we cannot possibly accommodate you.