What Killed The Movie Poster?

Star Wars Indiana Jones Harry Potter

back to the future the thing Goonies

Blade Runner Big Trouble in Little China

all these Timeless posters were designed

by one man Drew streusen Drew strews

into your poster is almost worth making

movies just for that for close to four

decades struzen's illustrations and

artwork represented the movie going

experience his posters served as a

beckoning Call to Arms for movie fans

across the globe and yet today movie

posters aren't created to tell a story

or create an indelible image that

represents the film they're just walls

of floating heads which begs the

question why has this once vital piece

of the filmmaking industry vanished the

artistic unit of the movie poster is an

integral piece of the filmmaking

industry it serves as a cheap and

effective way of informing the public

about a movie's existence when it's

produced well it can Propel a film to

success when it's boring well it doesn't

do anyone any favors the first movie

poster was created in 1895 for the

French short film La Jose A Rose by

iconic director Louis Lumiere as you can

see the poster served two purposes to

inform people what it was like to see a

film and of course to advertise the film

this dual nature of movie posters is

something that they've been attempting

to balance ever since even today the

push and pull between artistic Pursuit

and Commercial Success is in constant

tension in this case the lumiere's

poster functioned as much as an

advertisement for the idea of going to

the movies as much as it is for the film

itself as more complex printing

processes were developed the medium of

movie posters blossomed Divergent styles

were implemented in order to attempt to

catch the eye of the movie going public

simple posters complex paintings

narrative posters and ones that

primarily feature topography were all

employed and as you'd expect these

posters reflected the eras they were

made in throughout the 20s and 30s the

role that movie posters served in

communicating to the public shifted and

evolved actors names and and roles began

to be more prominently featured in the

marketing of the film additionally as

the printing processes matured movie

posters were able to move away from

simplified designs and into more painted

and complex visual tapestries in the 40s

patriotism was on display in the 50s

people were looking for escapism so

fantasy and science fiction were the

taste Azure this is often thought of as

the Golden Age of movie poster design as

arguably the greatest to ever do it

began gaining cultural ubiquity a peak

he created the posters for James Bond

Apocalypse Now The Godfather My Fair

Lady The Dark Crystal and literally

scores of others his Works were

omnipresent throughout nearly three

decades running counter-to-peak's

brilliant narrative instincts and

god-tier draftsmanship was Saul bass a

poster and credits designer you probably

know him from his work in films like

vertigo and the shining his highly

graphic reductionist approach to shape

language color and topography changed

the way film posters intro credits and

the medium of graphic design approached

idea implementation Drew streusen was

the man who took the mantle from bass

and Peak as the next and maybe final

mainstreamed named poster artist

inarguably since the 1980s streusen

worked as the most important movie

poster artist in the industry and maybe

ever when Drew came along and started to

do the the uh the work it really made a

made a big difference his photo

reference style Keen Eye for composition

and instantly recognizable Voice have

served as the definitive Capstone on the

art of movie poster making the way

struzen uses color airbrushed acrylic

and colored pencils to simulate a

stylized and warped reality is truly a

magical feat there's a mesmerizing

quality to seeing an entire two-hour

story encapsulated into one single image

streusen's work does this effortlessly

he pushed the medium of poster art to

Heights it had never before seen his

work struck a chord with the public you

know feeling of texture that he brings

into his art

the feeling that you can almost Reach

Out And Touch it and just the fact that

so tactile his art and that's because he

paints he doesn't he doesn't keyboard

the process by which druzen created his

work is not that dissimilar from how

posters are created today he was

supplied with photos from the studio he

would use them to create a rough

composition they would approve it and

then he would create a highly detailed

Trace drawing from the photos which he

would then airbrush paint and cross

hatch on top of however this process can

take weeks and even months to fully

complete and as such the Legacy that

streusen worked so hard to build is not

being carried on in the mainstream film

industry today struzen is retired his

last work being a Star Wars the Force

awakens Advanced poster that wasn't even

put out for wide release in the current

cinematic landscape movie posters are

dull lifeless sales tools cranked out by

Design firms and plastered all over the

Internet the speed and efficiency of

production is what's most important not

the end product to add insult to injury

there isn't just one movie poster for a

film there's as many as nine or ten

often most wide releases will have a

main theatrical poster with all the

characters on it usually depicted in

what's called Head salad this is

regularly just a photoshopped mountain

of faces of the actors appearing in the

film floating heads in the sky over a

small scene from the movie floating

heads in sepia tone floating heads in

space lots of floating heads in space

it's a trend that's just everywhere then

there will usually be 5 to 10 breakout

character Spotlight posters it's

commercial it's

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trend of character Spotlight posters

also ruins any chance of having an

iconic singular image to represent your

film when you hear Indiana Jones the

thing or Goonies you instantly have an

image in mind when you hear Spider-Man

far from home it's either head salad or

just random photos of the actors

standing there vaguely looking like they

need a restroom additionally in

Generations Past movie posters would

attempt to tell a story that was germane

to the film give you a bite-sized chunk

of narrative to make you intrigued and

want to see the film look at Roger

Castle's poster for Jaws massive shark

woman swimming you instantly get what

the movie is about it doesn't have Roy

Scheider or Richard dreyfus's face

plastered all over the poster it's

focused on the idea that a shark is

Gonna Get You

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today there are very specific visual

tropes that these design firms go back

to over and over again is it a romantic

comedy it's probably a man and a woman

back to back with the man smirking is it

an action-adventure Thriller then the

color palette is probably orange and

blue complementary colors and we're

gonna see someone running or looking

pensive is it a thriller or a superhero

movie get ready to see a billion posters

of someone with their back to camera

looking back at us these tropes are so

pervasive because it's not an individual

making them it's a design firm who's

just trying to please a studio client

even when they are executed well they

feel soulless and it's not going away

anytime soon the thing illustrators like

struzen and Peak brought to the table is

that even when they were working off

photo reference they're bringing their

perspective as an artist they're

tweaking things they're adding small

highlights details and stylizations a

very Uber realistic Style

but as a result it's rather stunning to

to look at look have movie posters

basically been showing people's faces to

you in the hopes that you'll pay to see

the move since the beginning of the film

industry yes but the version of it that

exists today is just so much worse and

that's all we have for this episode what

do you think is there a movie poster

that's been put out over the last decade

or so that you think Rivals Drew

strewson's output let us know down in

the comments below and as always please

be sure to like And subscribe to the

channel for more videos just like this

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