You may not remember me, but I was the guy who bumped into you in the crowd during Fred, again's performance in Chicago. You are an inspiration Karsten, I am honored to see you in my comment section.
My father saw the original Alien back in 1979, there wasn’t a single picture of the xenomorph, the trailer wasn’t revealing and the poster is just an egg in the space; after he saw it he was amazed forever.
Sam here, thanks for the love! I think the tired tropes of modern blockbuster posters are pretty complex to unravel, as to how things got this way and who’s at fault. These are products after all and, if any interesting or more artistic designs get pushed through it’s always something to celebrate. A lot of great stuff being made these days actually. My colleague Brandon Schaefer and I did a whole podcast series on this very topic- The Poster Boys- check it out if you or anyone is interested.
It's an honor to see your comment here Sam. I truly am a huge fan of your work and own many Criterions with your fantastic artwork on them. Keep up the amazing work, and I'll definitely be checking out your podcast as well!
The first poster for The Batman that came out was miles better than the “floating heads” one they released later. It’s just Batman standing in the pouring rain in a red background, with almost his entire figure in shadow. Very noir, very intense, makes Batman feel more like a force of nature than a human.
I really like Moonlight's poster. Revealing pretty much everything about it, without saying anything at all. It fits Chiron's character, and the color palette of the entire film. Great video, subscribed, hope I see more of you and your little furry friend!
I literally think about the Dune and The Northman alternate posters ALL the time and how they’re so much better, so simple and just so so good. I am so glad you covered these. I honestly hate seeing what poster will come out for new films as I know it’ll be the same boring floating heads bollocks every single time. Bring back creativity!!
I grew up on the Polish School of Posters, so ngl the modern photoshopped to hell floating heads make my soul die a little. So boring, so unimaginative.
I'm from Poland and some of our posters are bad as hell. I feel like some of them were designed while on drugs and the people behind it didn't even watch the movie
Great video bud. As a poster designer and Blu-ray artist it’s a topic close to my heart. Best place you’ll see posters is at horror film festivals where the director brings their personally commissioned poster as freebies to get signed. They are designed to be striking, provocative and stand out amongst the other posters and as it’s an Indy film it doesn’t have a central actor to centre the film around. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful posters at horror festivals. However once the film is selected from a distributor it suddenly loses its artwork to a more generic cover to match the genre. Thankfully the boutique physical media market has started a renaissance for film art that keeps people like me comfortably busy. But big budget Hollywood films have too much stacked against them. There are contractual obligations in getting actors on the poster… of which there are a limited number of versatile and neutral publicity photos taken for each character… which is how we are left with very boring and inactive ‘floating head’ posters.
The problem is floating head posters are a necessity because Hollywood agents literally negotiate if their client is in the poster so now everyone wants to be in the posters in big budget movies so the main posters will be floating heads
Think I found a new channel to binge. Love this. Im yet to begin my “buy every sick film poster” arc, but The Thing 1982 poster will be the first thing I get along with the og nightmare on elm street. I haven’t thought about just how important posters are to a movie’s legacy, thank you for the video.
I absolutely HATE the movie posters that Netflix has been using for their thumbnails! They’re atrocious! Not even using the official posters anymore, but taking some random ass shot from the show or movie! They don’t tell or show you anything!
Personally, I think that polish and czech posters are among the best ones that the cinema history has provided us. I definitely recommend everyone to check them out. Great video altogether.
I've heard before that studios often have clauses in contracts with actors that they'll include them on the poster. They put the top billed cast in floating head form sized proportional to the size of their roll. This is so actor's agents are happy, and so the studio can use their large cast of famous actors to promote the film. I think this is probably the case even if it's not contractual, and you're right, it's killed movie posters and looks so stupid.
I think the original Star Wars movies actually used the “floating heads” poster design to great effect. But the problem was that they were so successful that everyone decided to copy them into oblivion and now that’s just what all movie posters look like. But they really were a unique idea back when Star Wars first did them.
another reason ive noticed for the decline of posters in the modern day is that posters are made to be portrait but most streaming platforms display their collection using landscape images. i mean they could just adapt posters to become landscape but most of the time the result is a close up still from the film used, often featuring a side character.
I remember when I saw that Korean movie, The Parasite, poster in a cinema website and immediately thought, wow this looks like nice movie. The poster shows a backyard of a house in daylight with a stone-faced man staring at you like he had enough with any shit going on in his life. The more you look at the poster, the more detail you caught and the swelling urge to watch that movie keeps getting bigger and bigger. I prefer to stare at that poster for an hour than to go see the trailer over and over. Such a really good poster, with a very interesting movie to boot.
Apparently the floating head posters in a legal thing for these movies. I heard that part of the actor’s contracts is that they have to be in the poster so they do the floating heads so they can do that for every actor that wants it
I really like The Batman poster with just Batman's face, because it looks like someone tried to take a photo of Batman and just managed to capture this frame. Also not many people know this, but there's is a question mark in his eye subtly referencing the villain of the movie
I actually love Ragnarok’s poster-the actors featured are part of an actual composition that’s striking and well balanced. Marvel has committed many floating head atrocities but I fw the Ragnarok poster
Awesome video, really love your video style and the choice to project the posters instead of just displaying an image is super unique and works really really well
The RUclips algorithm is really doing me a favor by recommending me very small channels with only a few thousand subscribers that are producing great videos. This was a very cool video, I'm subbed !
I think a big part of the lackluster poster problem is that most movie posters don't convey a sense of mystery anymore. Like you said, the first point of contact for a movie is usually the poster or trailer and many of the movies nowadays dont inspire much intrigue from their promotional material alone. Theres a film called Monos whose poster genuinely captivated me and i watched it just off of that. Truth be told it was okay-ish but the art for the poster was powerful enough to generate intrigue to see it. I cant think of any recent examples except the edited poster for Zone of Interest.
I think it's also important to note that posters are also often what you will see to represent a movie on a streaming service or on the front of a blu-ray case, so it serves an important purpose even after the movie's run in theaters is over.
My favorite poster is The Exorcist. Spooky vibes and it encapsulates the film’s entire theme of hope in darkness all with a minimal presentation. Wonderful.
Expected a special mention of the Criterion Collection going out of their way to get better posters that look like actual work has been put into them. They kick ass. Maybe mention them in a future vid?
A lot of this is very true, like whenever I see a movie poster that has the floating heads I always get disinterested since it always looks generic. I also feel like books have fallen into the same trend, with just having words and maybe a image. Makes it hard to even tell the genre.
i am very very much looking forward to this channels come up, my personal favourite poster is for the warriors (1979), it shows you who’s in the movie in a different way, displaying the armies of gang members in new york in a way that demonstrates scale, with the stylish and eye catching graffiti title that keeps with the themes and contextualizes the time period the film takes place in. really great if you’ve never gotten around to seeing it, also good choice on the clown core song, it actually fits well for outro music lol
new viewer here, just wanted to comment on how enrapturing your cinematography and animated title cards were! the projector in particular adds a really cool level of engagement and depth as a viewer (as opposed to what most editors do and just put the pictures in post). just subscribed as well, looking forward to the stuff you got in store :)
I think the modern poster trend is also a result of the huge supply of entertainment options people have today . Studios want to make a compelling case for the audience to pick their option over anything else Time is a finite resource and so is money for a lot of people in a sense . And especially as a casual movie goer who would you choose to be a safe bet - a poster that tells you what to expect or a poster that is ambiguous The thing about the old school posters is that while the often minimalist design is appealing it’s also ambiguous
Honestly one of my fave movie Poster of "recent" history is Shin Godzilla I remember seing a gigantic poster of it when i went to see the movie back then. The simple red background and Godzillas head is just. Oof it just hits right
I usually prefer alternative or even fan posters most of the time. Those are usually when the designers are allowed to get creative and play with the structure and imagery you see. Whether it be super minimalist or hysterically maximalist it can genuinely be art. And I mean art. There's a goldmine that companies really aren't taking advantage of that I wish I saw it out in the open more.
Collab posters or whatever they are (the ones that aren’t really used for promo) are always great because they usually get someone who understands the story or does a style that represents the film. Like, the MCU films have some gorgeous posters that aren’t ever used for promo, but at most, limited merch by the designer. But obviously, what lots of these special posters lack are the recognizable faces on it being easy to see, which is what the marketing team wants whether it looks good or not, because it sells.
I want to imagine posters in the vein of cases, box art, album covers, and book jackets. Even aside from what it tells me about the movie, I want to see it on a small case, from a distance, on a shelf, surrounded by others, and be able to recognize it with just a quick glance over. You KNOW Dark Side of the Moon You KNOW Abbey Road You KNOW Led Zepplin You KNOW The Great Gatsby You KNOW To Kill a Mocking Bird You KNOW Twilight (quality debatable, you still recognize the cover) You KNOW Jaws You KNOW Clockwork Orange You KNOW Back to the Future Now describe the poster for Endgame. The defining movie for one of the largest film franchises, "Most ambitious crossover," 2nd highest grossing film ever, and I cant say anything other than "it has faces on it"
I think its important just not to fall into nostalgia or survivorship bias. There are many old boring posters and good new ones. I think even the StarWars one just gets a pass because it uses hand painting, but if it used photography it might not look too different from a modern marvel poster.
Lolita 1962, the virgin suicides, Marie Antoinette, silence of the lambs, girl interrupted, breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rosemarys baby, pearl, the shining, are best films
I think people are forgetting about one of the main uses of posters today most companies use posters in streaming platforms where people chose movies by their posters and thats why its surprising me that poster art is getting out of fashion (second thing few years back people watched movies just because some superstar actors played in them but today its not that much of thing people are starting to like movies with ideas and don’t care about actors thats why i don’t understand the triangle actor posters today)
Always go back to the Dune Pt 1 poster. It has a lot of unnecessary heads for no reason. I saw an edit of the poster that removed the heads and it looked really good.
If you haven't already watched it, Accent Cinema's "Posters of East Asia" is a good watch. Until today, posters films from this region (usually) mantain visual interest. Unfortunately , sometimes the posters have an alternative poster for international releases (like the floating heads). You included more recent films (Parasite, EEAAO) so its at least good to know that the art of movie posters aren't completely dead.
The tree of life poster might be my favorite, it’s just stills from the film all compiled into a large “slice of life” canvas. It’s beautiful to me and I can look at it for a longgg time
I actually think, Floating Heads posters are not completely shit, if they are made in a unique way. I mean, the original star wars posters are technically also floating heads. And I think it's funny that, out of all the bad Marvel floating heads posters, you chose to show the most unique, cool looking and colorful.
@stvltiloqvent it's not a revolutionary thing to put the heads of the Stars of the movie onto the poster, just Star Wars and a few other movies of the time had a unique art style. I wouldn't consider floating heads posters after that just a copy, only because someone did it well before them
speaking of really great poster designs... love love love the zone of interest posters that kellerhouse did (they've also done some for Fincher's killer which is fantastic as well) the best movie posters for me communicate the tone of the film with simple but effective visual cues, Criterion does this extremely well, their tree of life poster is so simple conceptually but you take one look at it and go "thats fucking genius"
using Thor Ragnarok's poster as an example of a bad poster is SO WILD to me im sorry 😂😂 of all the examples, that is literallly one of the best mcu posters
Movie posters may lack substantial originality these days. I remember having seen many movie posters before that has incorporated the usage of bright neon colors for horror films and sometimes minimalistic form of style for more on the indie genre kind of films. It must always capture the essence and the storytelling aspect of these films.
Internet and social media and being able to search up a movie on your phone by title means that studios really don’t see any profit in confusing abstract posters that don’t deliver split-second info of what celebrities are in it that you like. I don’t see this changing any time soon, especially considering most marketing nowadays is no longer billboards or posters but focused on social media ads and internet popups. Good artistic posters are a novelty only appealing to movie fans, i dont think most general audiences give a shit
Studios do what works, which is headshots to capitalize on the star power. That’s why they make 2 versions - the marketing version and the artistic version. A lot of commercial art and design has been streamlined to be simplistic and most quickly understood by a distracted audience. They do it that way because it works.
Good video! I see the same problem with book covers. Vintage paperbacks have great art, specialy genre fiction. Artists like Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo would make you want to grab a book from the shelves. They were a primary factor in book sales. Today all book covers look alike. Very minimalistic, because a graphic designer is cheaper than a painter. It's actually hard to get an idea of what you are buying. Horror book covers today look the same than any other type of book. They all have covers that look like they were designed by an AI that makes poor imitations of Saul Bass. (Maybe they are!). I understand why this is a problem for self published books, as a good cover painting is very expensive, but it should not be a problem for big publishers, and certainly not for a mayor movie studio, considering how expensive movie productions are, they should be able to afford a decent poster. It's also a problem with contemporary advertisement art, it's just stock photos.
I completely agree with everything you're saying, but I actually really like the Thor Ragnarok poster compared to most other "floating head" posters. I find how symmetrical and colorful it is makes it really pleasing to look at.
what ive noticed is a lot of these old iconic + creative movie posters revolve around specific colours and shapes instead of just simply people. its almost like the movie's own personal logo, essentially. and that makes sense because obv movie posters help with promotion. it reminds me of when you're thinking of a fast food chain's logo. you think of the colours, the font, and immediately you associate a general vibe with that logo. these recent movie posters use the "floating head effect" to promote the ACTORS within the film instead of the FILM itself. (imo)...there's no longer room for excitment or curiosity. instead you can immediately guess all the plot points & themes without a second glance :( bring back fun & imagination, damn it!!!
this is a great video
You may not remember me, but I was the guy who bumped into you in the crowd during Fred, again's performance in Chicago. You are an inspiration Karsten, I am honored to see you in my comment section.
take my kids karsten
@@JakobRosswholesome stuff🥹😢
@@tankzzy1392 less wholesome stuff
Hey I know who you are
My father saw the original Alien back in 1979, there wasn’t a single picture of the xenomorph, the trailer wasn’t revealing and the poster is just an egg in the space; after he saw it he was amazed forever.
Thank you, Godwin Baxter. That's actually so cool.
Alien is coming back to theatres on the 26th for its 45th anniversary.
Sam here, thanks for the love! I think the tired tropes of modern blockbuster posters are pretty complex to unravel, as to how things got this way and who’s at fault. These are products after all and, if any interesting or more artistic designs get pushed through it’s always something to celebrate. A lot of great stuff being made these days actually. My colleague Brandon Schaefer and I did a whole podcast series on this very topic- The Poster Boys- check it out if you or anyone is interested.
It's an honor to see your comment here Sam. I truly am a huge fan of your work and own many Criterions with your fantastic artwork on them. Keep up the amazing work, and I'll definitely be checking out your podcast as well!
House's poster is one of my favorites of all time! I'll definitely check out the podcast.
Massive respect for the Hausu profile pic
Modern movie posters be like:
😐😐
😐 😐😐 😐
😐 🥸
😡 😐 😐
A poster analysis with a Jack and Jill poster lurking in the background is crazy
Jack and Jill poster shows Jack and Jill jacking and jilling. Peak poster.
I was thinking the same thing! 😭
The icing in the cake.
Wowwwww
The alternate poster for The Batman goes really hard. Him standing as a dark silhouette in the rain with his bat symbol illuminated, it goes hard
Weird thing is, here in germany I have only ever seen the alternate posters
For The Batman, I hate the fact that the floating head poster is the main one. Almost every other poster produced from that movie is absolute heat.
Totally yes the Batman was an amazing movie with amazing posters besides that
Even the teaser poster looks better than the main poster for the film
The first poster for The Batman that came out was miles better than the “floating heads” one they released later. It’s just Batman standing in the pouring rain in a red background, with almost his entire figure in shadow. Very noir, very intense, makes Batman feel more like a force of nature than a human.
I'll never forget watching Jaws for the first time because I confused Roy Scheider for Rob Schneider
My dad saw elf because he confused it for an Alf movie
I really like Moonlight's poster. Revealing pretty much everything about it, without saying anything at all. It fits Chiron's character, and the color palette of the entire film. Great video, subscribed, hope I see more of you and your little furry friend!
I literally think about the Dune and The Northman alternate posters ALL the time and how they’re so much better, so simple and just so so good. I am so glad you covered these. I honestly hate seeing what poster will come out for new films as I know it’ll be the same boring floating heads bollocks every single time. Bring back creativity!!
The Jack And Jill poster in the background of this whole video is hilarious
I really like the aesthetics of both vintage Bollywood movie posters and 50's scifi movie posters
I grew up on the Polish School of Posters, so ngl the modern photoshopped to hell floating heads make my soul die a little. So boring, so unimaginative.
I'm from Poland and some of our posters are bad as hell. I feel like some of them were designed while on drugs and the people behind it didn't even watch the movie
I love the aspect ratio changes, and the cat just hanging out in a few shots
Great video bud. As a poster designer and Blu-ray artist it’s a topic close to my heart.
Best place you’ll see posters is at horror film festivals where the director brings their personally commissioned poster as freebies to get signed. They are designed to be striking, provocative and stand out amongst the other posters and as it’s an Indy film it doesn’t have a central actor to centre the film around. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful posters at horror festivals. However once the film is selected from a distributor it suddenly loses its artwork to a more generic cover to match the genre.
Thankfully the boutique physical media market has started a renaissance for film art that keeps people like me comfortably busy.
But big budget Hollywood films have too much stacked against them. There are contractual obligations in getting actors on the poster… of which there are a limited number of versatile and neutral publicity photos taken for each character… which is how we are left with very boring and inactive ‘floating head’ posters.
The problem is floating head posters are a necessity because Hollywood agents literally negotiate if their client is in the poster so now everyone wants to be in the posters in big budget movies so the main posters will be floating heads
Everyone wants to be the same.
Not to mention they are always ORANGE AND BLUE! If you’re gonna have floating heads at least make them have a unique color palette.
Think I found a new channel to binge. Love this. Im yet to begin my “buy every sick film poster” arc, but The Thing 1982 poster will be the first thing I get along with the og nightmare on elm street. I haven’t thought about just how important posters are to a movie’s legacy, thank you for the video.
I have The Thing poster! Looks fantastic in a frame. Thanks for the support!
I'm so glad to see some appreciation for the House poster. It's so awesome and classic pared with an amazing movie!
I absolutely HATE the movie posters that Netflix has been using for their thumbnails! They’re atrocious! Not even using the official posters anymore, but taking some random ass shot from the show or movie! They don’t tell or show you anything!
Personally, I think that polish and czech posters are among the best ones that the cinema history has provided us. I definitely recommend everyone to check them out. Great video altogether.
I've heard before that studios often have clauses in contracts with actors that they'll include them on the poster. They put the top billed cast in floating head form sized proportional to the size of their roll. This is so actor's agents are happy, and so the studio can use their large cast of famous actors to promote the film.
I think this is probably the case even if it's not contractual, and you're right, it's killed movie posters and looks so stupid.
I think the original Star Wars movies actually used the “floating heads” poster design to great effect. But the problem was that they were so successful that everyone decided to copy them into oblivion and now that’s just what all movie posters look like. But they really were a unique idea back when Star Wars first did them.
another reason ive noticed for the decline of posters in the modern day is that posters are made to be portrait but most streaming platforms display their collection using landscape images. i mean they could just adapt posters to become landscape but most of the time the result is a close up still from the film used, often featuring a side character.
I remember when I saw that Korean movie, The Parasite, poster in a cinema website and immediately thought, wow this looks like nice movie. The poster shows a backyard of a house in daylight with a stone-faced man staring at you like he had enough with any shit going on in his life. The more you look at the poster, the more detail you caught and the swelling urge to watch that movie keeps getting bigger and bigger. I prefer to stare at that poster for an hour than to go see the trailer over and over. Such a really good poster, with a very interesting movie to boot.
Apparently the floating head posters in a legal thing for these movies. I heard that part of the actor’s contracts is that they have to be in the poster so they do the floating heads so they can do that for every actor that wants it
I really like The Batman poster with just Batman's face, because it looks like someone tried to take a photo of Batman and just managed to capture this frame. Also not many people know this, but there's is a question mark in his eye subtly referencing the villain of the movie
I actually love Ragnarok’s poster-the actors featured are part of an actual composition that’s striking and well balanced. Marvel has committed many floating head atrocities but I fw the Ragnarok poster
Great essay, loved your use of the projector and the overall mood is just peak throughout. Very solid!
Awesome video, really love your video style and the choice to project the posters instead of just displaying an image is super unique and works really really well
The RUclips algorithm is really doing me a favor by recommending me very small channels with only a few thousand subscribers that are producing great videos. This was a very cool video, I'm subbed !
Didn't realize until just now that in the Dune poster, the negative space forms a planet.
I love the hand-painted/hand-drawn posters the best as well, got a little collection of them.
I think a big part of the lackluster poster problem is that most movie posters don't convey a sense of mystery anymore. Like you said, the first point of contact for a movie is usually the poster or trailer and many of the movies nowadays dont inspire much intrigue from their promotional material alone.
Theres a film called Monos whose poster genuinely captivated me and i watched it just off of that. Truth be told it was okay-ish but the art for the poster was powerful enough to generate intrigue to see it. I cant think of any recent examples except the edited poster for Zone of Interest.
This was so eye opening and gave me a nostalgic renewed interest in movie posters and a new way of expressing the creativity here. Loved it!
I think it's also important to note that posters are also often what you will see to represent a movie on a streaming service or on the front of a blu-ray case, so it serves an important purpose even after the movie's run in theaters is over.
My favorite poster is The Exorcist. Spooky vibes and it encapsulates the film’s entire theme of hope in darkness all with a minimal presentation. Wonderful.
Expected a special mention of the Criterion Collection going out of their way to get better posters that look like actual work has been put into them. They kick ass. Maybe mention them in a future vid?
except punch drunk love
A lot of this is very true, like whenever I see a movie poster that has the floating heads I always get disinterested since it always looks generic. I also feel like books have fallen into the same trend, with just having words and maybe a image. Makes it hard to even tell the genre.
i am very very much looking forward to this channels come up, my personal favourite poster is for the warriors (1979), it shows you who’s in the movie in a different way, displaying the armies of gang members in new york in a way that demonstrates scale, with the stylish and eye catching graffiti title that keeps with the themes and contextualizes the time period the film takes place in. really great if you’ve never gotten around to seeing it, also good choice on the clown core song, it actually fits well for outro music lol
new viewer here, just wanted to comment on how enrapturing your cinematography and animated title cards were! the projector in particular adds a really cool level of engagement and depth as a viewer (as opposed to what most editors do and just put the pictures in post). just subscribed as well, looking forward to the stuff you got in store :)
There's more to come! Thank you for the support!
I think the modern poster trend is also a result of the huge supply of entertainment options people have today . Studios want to make a compelling case for the audience to pick their option over anything else
Time is a finite resource and so is money for a lot of people in a sense . And especially as a casual movie goer who would you choose to be a safe bet - a poster that tells you what to expect or a poster that is ambiguous
The thing about the old school posters is that while the often minimalist design is appealing it’s also ambiguous
Underrated video. Its so interesting and well edited, I was expecting it to have millions of likes.
Honestly one of my fave movie Poster of "recent" history is Shin Godzilla
I remember seing a gigantic poster of it when i went to see the movie back then.
The simple red background and Godzillas head is just.
Oof it just hits right
There's something unsettling about someone having a poster of Jack & Jill printed and framed to display in any sort of way
I usually prefer alternative or even fan posters most of the time. Those are usually when the designers are allowed to get creative and play with the structure and imagery you see. Whether it be super minimalist or hysterically maximalist it can genuinely be art. And I mean art. There's a goldmine that companies really aren't taking advantage of that I wish I saw it out in the open more.
The ratio of the different scenes is something you don’t have to do, but you do. It’s awesome
My uncle has a collection of rare movie posters from the 80s, some of those movies are irrelevant but the posters are gorgeous.
One of my favourite movie posters is The Thing from 1982 its just so simple yet mesmerizing
Also thanks now the theme from House is gonna be stuck in my head for a week again.
I was literally just ranting about floating head posters to somebody the other day. The Batman has a cool alternate poster of Batman in the rain
holy man this guy loves great films and has amazing music taste. Fred Again and Clown Core, what a crossover
The video editing is incredible, I loved the video
Collab posters or whatever they are (the ones that aren’t really used for promo) are always great because they usually get someone who understands the story or does a style that represents the film.
Like, the MCU films have some gorgeous posters that aren’t ever used for promo, but at most, limited merch by the designer.
But obviously, what lots of these special posters lack are the recognizable faces on it being easy to see, which is what the marketing team wants whether it looks good or not, because it sells.
The Wild Robot has a pretty good poster. You sort of get this sense of discovery and closeness to nature.
2:22 "there's a guy with a knife, and.. he came!........ home...."
I want to imagine posters in the vein of cases, box art, album covers, and book jackets.
Even aside from what it tells me about the movie, I want to see it on a small case, from a distance, on a shelf, surrounded by others, and be able to recognize it with just a quick glance over.
You KNOW Dark Side of the Moon
You KNOW Abbey Road
You KNOW Led Zepplin
You KNOW The Great Gatsby
You KNOW To Kill a Mocking Bird
You KNOW Twilight (quality debatable, you still recognize the cover)
You KNOW Jaws
You KNOW Clockwork Orange
You KNOW Back to the Future
Now describe the poster for Endgame.
The defining movie for one of the largest film franchises, "Most ambitious crossover," 2nd highest grossing film ever, and I cant say anything other than "it has faces on it"
I think its important just not to fall into nostalgia or survivorship bias. There are many old boring posters and good new ones. I think even the StarWars one just gets a pass because it uses hand painting, but if it used photography it might not look too different from a modern marvel poster.
Lolita 1962, the virgin suicides, Marie Antoinette, silence of the lambs, girl interrupted, breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rosemarys baby, pearl, the shining, are best films
I think people are forgetting about one of the main uses of posters today most companies use posters in streaming platforms where people chose movies by their posters and thats why its surprising me that poster art is getting out of fashion (second thing few years back people watched movies just because some superstar actors played in them but today its not that much of thing people are starting to like movies with ideas and don’t care about actors thats why i don’t understand the triangle actor posters today)
THE LEVEL OF EDITHING!!! amazing work
Always go back to the Dune Pt 1 poster. It has a lot of unnecessary heads for no reason. I saw an edit of the poster that removed the heads and it looked really good.
Idk I love Dial of Destiny’s movie poster. It’s so cool to me. 🥺
the production of this video is so addicting and comforting to watch i love it
If you haven't already watched it, Accent Cinema's "Posters of East Asia" is a good watch. Until today, posters films from this region (usually) mantain visual interest. Unfortunately , sometimes the posters have an alternative poster for international releases (like the floating heads). You included more recent films (Parasite, EEAAO) so its at least good to know that the art of movie posters aren't completely dead.
i screamed when you showed the house poster, I NEED it in my life
Btw the flaoting head posters is bc famous actors get butts in seats also a lot of actors have a condition in their contracts to be on the poster
Same happened with video games
Now ya have main characters infront page
Yeah, hate when that happens
Man, the editing on this is just phenomenal, keep it up!
My man went: "fu** it, I'm going to make better videos than most analyst RUclipsrs." Great video dude, keep it up!
The tree of life poster might be my favorite, it’s just stills from the film all compiled into a large “slice of life” canvas. It’s beautiful to me and I can look at it for a longgg time
ughh i absolutely love house and the movie poster is absolutely gorgeous
I actually think, Floating Heads posters are not completely shit, if they are made in a unique way. I mean, the original star wars posters are technically also floating heads. And I think it's funny that, out of all the bad Marvel floating heads posters, you chose to show the most unique, cool looking and colorful.
Yes and that's why to me every single subsequent floating head poster will also read as a Star Wars pastiche to me
@stvltiloqvent it's not a revolutionary thing to put the heads of the Stars of the movie onto the poster, just Star Wars and a few other movies of the time had a unique art style. I wouldn't consider floating heads posters after that just a copy, only because someone did it well before them
speaking of really great poster designs... love love love the zone of interest posters that kellerhouse did (they've also done some for Fincher's killer which is fantastic as well)
the best movie posters for me communicate the tone of the film with simple but effective visual cues, Criterion does this extremely well, their tree of life poster is so simple conceptually but you take one look at it and go "thats fucking genius"
I hear that Pilot Red Sun in the background. And you thought no one would notice.
using Thor Ragnarok's poster as an example of a bad poster is SO WILD to me im sorry 😂😂 of all the examples, that is literallly one of the best mcu posters
I liked the part where the cat was playing with the microphone
Movie posters may lack substantial originality these days. I remember having seen many movie posters before that has incorporated the usage of bright neon colors for horror films and sometimes minimalistic form of style for more on the indie genre kind of films. It must always capture the essence and the storytelling aspect of these films.
One of my favorite posters is the poster for The amazing spiderman, where's Andrew is upside down and the shadow is the spider logo.
Pulp fiction poster goes hard. 🗣️
uoh when the video couldn't get any better for the content and the editing Clown Core popped up, chef kiss
This video is so nicely shot and the music is so good it's awesome
Internet and social media and being able to search up a movie on your phone by title means that studios really don’t see any profit in confusing abstract posters that don’t deliver split-second info of what celebrities are in it that you like. I don’t see this changing any time soon, especially considering most marketing nowadays is no longer billboards or posters but focused on social media ads and internet popups. Good artistic posters are a novelty only appealing to movie fans, i dont think most general audiences give a shit
Studios do what works, which is headshots to capitalize on the star power. That’s why they make 2 versions - the marketing version and the artistic version. A lot of commercial art and design has been streamlined to be simplistic and most quickly understood by a distracted audience. They do it that way because it works.
The horror movie posters lately have been so incredible & so creative lately like The Watchers!
Jack And Jill... Right-right
The feet were throwing me off so hard LMAO this was a very comprehensive video though
house mentioned 🩷
Good video! I see the same problem with book covers. Vintage paperbacks have great art, specialy genre fiction. Artists like Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo would make you want to grab a book from the shelves. They were a primary factor in book sales. Today all book covers look alike. Very minimalistic, because a graphic designer is cheaper than a painter. It's actually hard to get an idea of what you are buying. Horror book covers today look the same than any other type of book. They all have covers that look like they were designed by an AI that makes poor imitations of Saul Bass. (Maybe they are!).
I understand why this is a problem for self published books, as a good cover painting is very expensive, but it should not be a problem for big publishers, and certainly not for a mayor movie studio, considering how expensive movie productions are, they should be able to afford a decent poster. It's also a problem with contemporary advertisement art, it's just stock photos.
My feed decided to bless me today and I can't be happier
High quality video man 🔥 very well edited and composed
I swear if this guy doesnt mention that one cars poster im gonna be pissed
THIS IS A GREAT PIECE, THANK YOUUUU, been on my mind lately
I completely agree with everything you're saying, but I actually really like the Thor Ragnarok poster compared to most other "floating head" posters. I find how symmetrical and colorful it is makes it really pleasing to look at.
Eyo this video fucks. Its better that most big channels videos. Great hustle
I have the hunger games poster on my wall. I am no longer that much into the movie but the poster is so beautiful and thrilling.
I think netflix has a good understanding of movie posters, i really like the random alternating still shots of random ass characters
love your style!
what ive noticed is a lot of these old iconic + creative movie posters revolve around specific colours and shapes instead of just simply people. its almost like the movie's own personal logo, essentially. and that makes sense because obv movie posters help with promotion. it reminds me of when you're thinking of a fast food chain's logo. you think of the colours, the font, and immediately you associate a general vibe with that logo. these recent movie posters use the "floating head effect" to promote the ACTORS within the film instead of the FILM itself. (imo)...there's no longer room for excitment or curiosity. instead you can immediately guess all the plot points & themes without a second glance :( bring back fun & imagination, damn it!!!