COP - Theory Into Practice - Idea Presentations

What is a publication?

A piece of information that is available to people physically.

How is it made?

Generally digitally produced and printed in large amounts.

What format could it be?

Book, magazine, leaflet, flyer etc

How is the format relevant to the content?

Generally the formal informal the content is, the less formal the format is. For example, a TV schedule is informal with lots of pictures, so is appropriate for a magazine. Whereas an autobiography is more formal and probably has no images will be made into a book. Something with little information will be made into a flyer, and something that you want people to take with them will be made into a leaflet.

Idea 1 – How galleries control the valuation of art.

Links to my essay

My essay was about weather fine art should be “assigned” more value than other forms of communication. I looked at how art is priced and found out about the gallery system and how the art market is controlled by the bigger art galleries, and because of that prices are always inflated, and never are a true reflection on how much the buyer actually likes the piece.

Proposal

I propose to make some sort of publication which explains the process an individual piece of art goes through in order to go from the artist, to a gallery, to being sold. This will also explain how artists become more and more well well known and coveted by galleries.

Format

I think the most appropriate form me to use would be a concertina-fold book, as the horizontal nature of it lends itself well to being used as some sort of timeline, which would allow me to go through the valuation process step-by-step on one side, but then have some analysis of it on the other. This analysis could potentially be about the sustainability of the system, the consumerist culture of society, or modernism in the art and design.

No. 5 by Jackson Pollock was sold for $162.7 million by Sothebys gallery in New York in 2006. It’s the sort of painting that gives fine art the pretentious reputation it has.

Idea 2 – The impact of US WW2 propaganda on American society.

Links to my essay

As part of the research for my essay I looked at some propaganda used by America during WW2, specifically the ones that encouraged women to do the jobs that men used to do before they were sent off to the war. I was particularly interested in the effect this had after the war, as it made a lot of women realise they could choose what sort of life they wanted, in a society that was previously prejudiced against them.

Proposal

I propose to make a small book showing various pieces of propaganda in the order in which they were released. Each one would be accompanied by some statistical facts or some sort of historical context showing the influence that that particular poster had. I’d keep it quite small though, as I’d have to use posters that portrayed different messages to show different changes on society. If I did too many, they’d probably start repeating themselves.

Format

Probably a small saddle-stitch bound book either A5 or B6 in size (single page). A book would be most appropriate because I want it to be quite informative, and I’d use a small size to reduce the printing costs due to the amount of full colour spreads I’d be printing.

J.Howard Miller American propaganda poster, ‘We Can Do It’ and the ‘Rosie The Riveter’ Saturday Evening Post cover by Norman Rockwell are two of the most iconic bits of propaganda from WW2.

Michal Krasnopolski - Movie Posters

Using the simple grid shown above, Michal Krasnopolski created a series of minimilast film posters, saying that 'The basic concept was to create a very modernist, minimalist poster series for movie enthusiasts. The idea is based on a very simple grid: a circle and two diagonals inscribed in a square. It surprised me how many posters I could create based on this very simple approach. There's an enormous strength in simplicity; the fewer elements, the more we engage our imagination.' 

The above 3 posters are for the Star Wars films and the below 3 for the Lord of the Rings film. It shows how simplicity can be extended and yet still be simple and effective.

But the concept also works for individual films, as shown in the examples for Superman, Jaws and Singin' in the Rain. More can be found here. 

Heinz Schulz-Neudamm's Metropolis Movie Poster

In 1927 Heinz Schulz-Neudamm produced the above poster for Metropolis, the film which is generally considered to be the birthplace of modern sci-fi films. The robot shown in the poster shares a huge resemblance to C3-P0, the robot from Star Wars, showing just how influential films and film posters can be. This poster holds the world record for the sale of a movie poster, set at $690,000 in 2005 to an un-named bidder, rumoured to be Leonardo DiCaprio. I don't understand what's so great about this poster itself in all honesty, but what it does show is that movie posters are more than just design, they're art in themselves.

Reynold Brown and Drew Struzan Movie Posters

Reynold Brown

 What I noticed about most of Reynold Browns posters are that they're mainly for sci-fi films, and so the vast majority of his imagery is illustration based, which isn't something I'm a fan of, because I think they look a lot more like book covers than film posters. This is something I'm quite eager to avoid in my poster.

 Drew Stuzan

Drew Stuzan's posters tend not to use text at all, which might not sound like an excellent idea at first in terms of advertising, but when you consider what films he did posters for, you realise that text isn't really necessary to make people aware of what the film is because of how iconic the films are, as shown above with Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the Shawshank Redemption, all of which are done in a very distinct style. These sort of posters are my favourite film posters, it's unfortunate however that this sort of thing is going to be completely written off in my project though due to the 2 colour limitation. 

 His most iconic film poster though is for The Thing. The silhouetted man in a winter jacket with a bright light exploding out of his face became the defining image of the movie and is generally considered to be one of the best and most successful movie posters of all time. Because of its success, it's quite a popular choice when people create alternate movie posters, but the more modern style of posters that people make are nowhere near as successful as the original, which is ridiculous given the amount of time that was available to Struzan to produce the poster, more details of which can be found here.

Alternate posters for The Thing that have been produced. 

Bill Gold Movie Posters

When looking at Bill Gold's work I'm unsure what to think. I like the simplistic aspect of his posters, and I like his approach to text, using the film title, the actors name, and a quote/synopsis of the film, and this is something I hope to be able to apply to my poster. However, I don't really see the above to posters as posters, they look more like flyers to me, and this is something I hope not to imitate in my own poster.  I really like the typography and imagery on the Clockwork Orange poster, but I think the small text in the top left is too much than what is completely necessary and is what turns it more into a flyer than a poster. Maybe it's just a generational thing, and that's how design was in Bill Gold's era. I feel that the large gaps between the text in the Dirty Harry poster puts too much emphasis and obviousness on grid, which is something that I think should be quite discrete within film posters.

I the simplicity in this poster for Alien, despite the fact it wasn't even used for the advertising for the film. I've always liked the use of bright colours in branding and advertising, and the numerous strong contrasts between colours in this poster is something I find visually attractive. I'm not sure about the typography though, it seems quite specific, and so I would imagine it has some sort of relevance to the film, which would make it more appropriate, although I'm not sure that compensates for how ugly it is. Unfortunately this isn't the sort of thing I could take much from in terms of my poster because it doesn't lend itself very well to the restrictions of the brief.

Olly Moss & Saul Bass Movie Posters

Olly Moss

Olly Moss is a more recent designer than the other designers whose film posters I've looked at, and I think the lack of more recent film poster designers is probably down to the on-screen nature in which films are advertised today. I became aware of Olly Moss's work when I saw the above alternate posters for the original Star Wars trilogy. I think they're exceptional pieces of design due to their minimalistic use of typography, strong use of shape, and appropriate use of colour. These 3 posters are, to my mind at least, the opitomy of what an alternate film poster should be, modern and completely different from the original posters, but yet still relatable to the original audience of the film.

One thing I do notice about Olly Moss's film posters however, is that they're inconsistent in their success. Part of the reason the Star Wars ones are so successful is because they are done in the same way as a set. Most of the other poster designers I looked at also have a distinct style of designing their posters, and the style is appropriate to the films and the era of the films. What I find with Olly Moss's work however is that, while his style is consistent, it doesn't work in some of the posters because of the films he chose to do. Two examples are shown above. I've never seen the film Dirty Harry, but it doesn't sound like the sort of film that would use a clean cut screen printed poster for its promotion. Alice in Wonderland is known for being quite a psychedelic film with lots going on, and so again, I don't think Olly Moss's clean style of work is appropriate for a film poster. 

He does however have other posters that work well. I think the Harry Potter poster catches the somewhat dark and mysterious nature of the plot and the general feel of the series of films. My favourite individual poster of his however is the Dark Knight Rises poster. I think the shiny effect the text has adds a sense of mystery and power that wouldn't have been there had the text not been shiny. The slightly gradiented and grainy background on an off-white paper makes the poster look a bit more raw that most of his work, which I think is something that was necessary to make the cape stand out just the right amount from the background. 

Saul Bass

What I find particularly interesting about Saul Bass's work is how similar it is to Olly Moss's. Generally they both use a bright coloured background with either black or white text and images. I find that Saul Bass's work is a lot more unique to the film that Olly Moss's though, and I put this down to the variety of typography, which is something that Olly Moss does to some extent, but not really to any noticeable extent because he only uses small text, whereas Saul Bass uses a lot larger text, and I think this gives his posters a lot more character than Olly Moss's.

Richard Amsel Movie Posters

These Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark movie posters are probably Richard Amsel's most well-known work. Posters where a character look straight at you are always engaging because of the feeling of eye contact it creates. I think this is show particularly well in the left poster, where there is little else to draw your attention to the poster other than the typography, which only does so because it is so bright in comparison to the rest of the poster. In contrast, the right poster is a lot busier, and yet the main focus is undoubtedly Harrison Ford, as he's looking straight at you whereas all the other characters are looking at a slight angle. The busier nature of the poster makes the typography less overwhelming.

Above are some more examples of his posters. One thing I notice about his posters is that they're all very dark and tend to have quite a strong focus on typography that's specific to the film, which is something I want to take into my poster, as I feel it's something that's been lost in modern day film posters due to the focus on minimalism and the use of fonts like Helvetica and Futura.

My Bruce Willis Film - The Jackal

First Impressions

When talking about a film, whatever film it may be, the first thing I do is look at it up on IMDb, which I can only assume stands for Instant Movie Database. It's rating system is very reliable (usually) and gives a brief description of the film, as well as suggesting similar films. Its page for the Jackal is screen shotted below.

After looking at this I found myself confused. "An imprisoned IRA sniper is freed to help stop a brutal, seemingly "faceless" assassin from completing his next job" immediately sounds a lot more epic than its rather underwhelming rating of 6.3. The DVD cover presented me with another point of confusion; it shows and names two people, Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. Given that I was given this film as a Bruce Willis film, I was hoping that Bruce would be the main character, but the immediate impression the DVD cover gives you is that the two actors roles in the film are equally big. 

My Take On The Film

Fortunately for me, after watching the film just once, both these problems were cleared up. I enjoyed the film a lot more than a rating of 6.3 would justify, I'd personally give it a 7.5/8. I also found a lot more depth to Bruce Willis' character (the Jackal) than Richard Gere (Declan Mulqueen). The Jackal is immediately presented to you as a very classy  and cool guy, imagine Daniel Craig as James Bond but as the bad guy. As the film goes on however you notice he becomes more thuggish and, as IMDb suggest brutal. When parts of his plans are uncovered, the coolness turns to pure coldness as his true killer is shown to the viewer for the first time, and from here on all memory of the suave character you were initially presented with is erased. Declan Mulqueen however is a lot simpler, our first impressions of him is that he's just another jumpy Irish terrorist, which is odd given that as soon as he speaks to the FBI agents about stopping the Jackal, he turns into an incredibly suave and well spoken guy for the rest of the film, which is just as well really, given that pretty much all the rest of the shots of him in the film are of his admittedly good looking face smouldering or looking confused, yet in an intelligent way. When the film came to it's conclusion I found myself wanting the Jackal to succeed in his assassination, and I can only put this down to how the film gets you to want to know the Jackal, whereas it doesn't really give you anything on Declan Mulqueen.

Because of these points, instantly I knew that my poster should be based around Bruce Willis' character. Something which the makers of the film seem to agree with me on, given the name of the film.

Initial Ideas

Inspiration for ideas was very limited from my first viewing of the film was, "oh my god the gun was bloody huge", hence Jack Blacks bit-part characters excitement. 

It didn't disappoint either, despite my joy in it succeeding to blow my most hated actor of all times arm clean off, I thought it'd be a bit distasteful to produce a poster of Jack Black clinging to his blood-stained stump of a right arm. Also, idea of using the gun itself doesn't lend itself very well to the idea of  a portrait poster. I used this as an excuse to watch the film again to get more ideas, this time focusing more on quotes and characters.

Quotes

"I loved this man like a brother. He was a dear friend and partner to me. So I took no joy in that. But if I can do this to someone I love, imagine what I can do with someone I hate! The American FBI declares war on us. Then WAR IT IS!" 

The above quote was from Russian bad guy right at beginning of the film after splitting an associates head open with an axe. This I feel would make for a good poster as it would reflect the brutal nature of the film, but it could be quite distasteful.

"It's not easy taking a life, but you saved one too - mine."

After agent Koslova shoots the Russian bad guy's brother (also a bad guy) to save agent Preston from being killed she looks traumatised. Agent Preston condoles and thanks her with the above quote. I think using this quote as the basis for a poster that is a bit different from what I imagine other posters for the Jackal are like, due its more emotional nature.

"I wonder if we'll ever know who the hell he was."

At the end of the film, the only surviving FBI agent, Carter Preston, is talking to Declan about the Jackal. I think the above quote could make for a good poster when used in conjunction with images of the Jackals numerous false identities, especially given that we, the audience, never find out who he really is either.

"Half now, half on delivery"

Is a quote that is used throughout the film by the Jackal when discussing arrangements for deals. I think this is definitely the best quote to use for a more conceptual poster, as it could split the poster in half, with one half showing Declan and the other the Jackal. It could also show irony given that, in the end, Declan delivers whereas the Jackal does not.

Screen Shots

I watched the film online so I could take screen shots relevant to the quotes or anything iconic within the film, they're shown below. I did a lot of shots because they could come in useful for me to trace on illustrator. They're not necessarily in chronological order because of the way my laptop saves them and organises them on my desktop.