Dress the Part: the Fashion of Movies as Posters
October 14, 2010 12:47 PM Subscribe
Dress the Part: ten posters for ten movies prepared by Moxy Creative. First link: all the images on one page, resized and re-hosted. Second link: the original images, three per page and over 1mb per image.
Moxy Creative's main website is currently being revised, and their old works are largely commercial projects.
Alternative movie posters, previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and probably some others buried in the archives.
Moxy Creative's main website is currently being revised, and their old works are largely commercial projects.
Alternative movie posters, previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and probably some others buried in the archives.
What's fascinating about these is that they really only work because of how long the movies in question have been in circulation and the iconic status of the characters whose clothing is being depicted.
It would be basically impossible for any new movie to promote itself using this kind of poster. Unless you suddenly wanted the movie to be all about how the person is dressed or accessorized or something. Because that's the expectation that such a campaign would instill in the populace.
It'd be an interesting party game if you had a thousand or so of these pre-made with no identifying titles and then you had to identify the film based on the clothes.
posted by hippybear at 12:53 PM on October 14, 2010
It would be basically impossible for any new movie to promote itself using this kind of poster. Unless you suddenly wanted the movie to be all about how the person is dressed or accessorized or something. Because that's the expectation that such a campaign would instill in the populace.
It'd be an interesting party game if you had a thousand or so of these pre-made with no identifying titles and then you had to identify the film based on the clothes.
posted by hippybear at 12:53 PM on October 14, 2010
Superman is the best one.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:59 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 12:59 PM on October 14, 2010
hippybear nails it exactly. If one had no idea about any of these movies, these posters would leave you, still, in the dark. Frankly, this seems to be a common failing with all of these poster re-designs we've been inundated with lately. Stylish, to be sure. But style in service of itself.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:17 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 1:17 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, what exactly do most movie posters tell us about the movies they're advertising? These, at least, intrigue me-- at least, American Psycho does, as does Superman, Dumb and Dumber, The Shining, and The Usual Suspects. They make me wonder why these items are significant: What is emblematic of a pair of thick-framed glasses, lying upside-down? Or, Why is a rain coat paired with an ax? (The others are sort of prosaic, I think.)
posted by shakespeherian at 1:24 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 1:24 PM on October 14, 2010
It'd be an interesting party game if you had a thousand or so of these pre-made with no identifying titles and then you had to identify the film based on the clothes.
Is it The Invisible Man?
posted by cazoo at 1:25 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Is it The Invisible Man?
posted by cazoo at 1:25 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
For the love of god, stop being so darn minimalist and clever and inject some communication into the movie poster. I don't care if they're revamps of 30 year old movies, imprinting a particular style over a wide range of movies is a boring exercise in masturbation.
posted by nomadicink at 1:30 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by nomadicink at 1:30 PM on October 14, 2010
This is not what "clever" is about.
Clever allusion isnt just "remember this thing from the movie?" like it were some Seltzer/Friedberg Movie Movie flick.
Saul Bass' stuff didnt work just because of a muted color palate and reliance on vector-style shapes. It worked because it was smart, economical design that made you think of simple conceits thru a different lens.
Normally I wouldnt care, but I make posters and alot of us work really hard to try to carry that spirit of smart design forward into what we make.
Every week or so there's another blog post with one of these reinterpreted uncomissioned movie poster series and, while some have been really sharp, most of them "are all trend/no smarts. "
None of these are bad, really. But its a weak concept with fairly obvious results.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:40 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Clever allusion isnt just "remember this thing from the movie?" like it were some Seltzer/Friedberg Movie Movie flick.
Saul Bass' stuff didnt work just because of a muted color palate and reliance on vector-style shapes. It worked because it was smart, economical design that made you think of simple conceits thru a different lens.
Normally I wouldnt care, but I make posters and alot of us work really hard to try to carry that spirit of smart design forward into what we make.
Every week or so there's another blog post with one of these reinterpreted uncomissioned movie poster series and, while some have been really sharp, most of them "are all trend/no smarts. "
None of these are bad, really. But its a weak concept with fairly obvious results.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:40 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
It would be basically impossible for any new movie to promote itself using this kind of poster.
I see your point, and done right, I also think that you can creep up to the edge of this kind of style and be effective.
* Superman -- The discarded glasses are already an iconic image of the character that is already known.
* Reservoir Dogs -- Some poster images used the iconic suits to good effect long before it was an established Tarantino trope. But in this case, the message to the viewer is not "you remember this part." Instead, it's "who are these guys that are dressed all alike and where are they going?"
* The poster for Unforgiven is essentially just a duster, a hat and a Old West pistol. "A-ha. This is a dark, gritty, violent Western."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:46 PM on October 14, 2010
I see your point, and done right, I also think that you can creep up to the edge of this kind of style and be effective.
* Superman -- The discarded glasses are already an iconic image of the character that is already known.
* Reservoir Dogs -- Some poster images used the iconic suits to good effect long before it was an established Tarantino trope. But in this case, the message to the viewer is not "you remember this part." Instead, it's "who are these guys that are dressed all alike and where are they going?"
* The poster for Unforgiven is essentially just a duster, a hat and a Old West pistol. "A-ha. This is a dark, gritty, violent Western."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:46 PM on October 14, 2010
hippybear: "It would be basically impossible for any new movie to promote itself using this kind of poster. Unless you suddenly wanted the movie to be all about how the person is dressed or accessorized or something. Because that's the expectation that such a campaign would instill in the populace."
Did you ever see the Matrix Reloaded one-sheets?
posted by mkb at 1:49 PM on October 14, 2010
Did you ever see the Matrix Reloaded one-sheets?
posted by mkb at 1:49 PM on October 14, 2010
Did you ever see the Matrix Reloaded one-sheets?
Established property with a built-in nerdience.
Specious example.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:52 PM on October 14, 2010
Established property with a built-in nerdience.
Specious example.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:52 PM on October 14, 2010
Wonder how they'd handle Synecdoche, New York.
posted by basicchannel at 1:56 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by basicchannel at 1:56 PM on October 14, 2010
Besides. this is a way more effective Superman poster.
It's got just the right amount of intrigue.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:59 PM on October 14, 2010
It's got just the right amount of intrigue.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:59 PM on October 14, 2010
The only one that really works is The Usual Suspects, because of the lack of symmetry. There are a few others here that work, especially Titanic, Die Hard, and Reservoir Dogs.
posted by nushustu at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by nushustu at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2010
I'm glad the Shaun one got the important part right.
"You've got red on you."
(but I do feel they should have kept the name-tag.)
posted by quin at 2:28 PM on October 14, 2010
"You've got red on you."
(but I do feel they should have kept the name-tag.)
posted by quin at 2:28 PM on October 14, 2010
The Usual Suspects tells more through the position of the shoes than the shoes themselves. I don't remember what kind of shoes he was wearing, but the turned foot was part of who Kaiser Söze was. But without the title, it's pretty vague.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:31 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by filthy light thief at 3:31 PM on October 14, 2010
Senor Cardgage: "Established property with a built-in nerdience.
Specious example"
Built-in nerdiences don't care about the details of expensive suits! They care more about the tight dress on the hot actress playing an incredibly minor character.
posted by mkb at 4:08 PM on October 14, 2010
Specious example"
Built-in nerdiences don't care about the details of expensive suits! They care more about the tight dress on the hot actress playing an incredibly minor character.
posted by mkb at 4:08 PM on October 14, 2010
I recently did a post about this trend. Screenwriter John August calls them unsheets.
posted by clockworkjoe at 4:38 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by clockworkjoe at 4:38 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Before I clicked on the link, I thought "Let me guess, more largely flat, muted color line art, trying really hard to be clever". Unfortunately, I was not disappointed. Most of these look like the designer wanted to get through the poster with the minimum amount of work possible.
posted by doctor_negative at 4:52 PM on October 14, 2010
posted by doctor_negative at 4:52 PM on October 14, 2010
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They're apparently limited-palette GIFs which weren't converted to RGB before resizing. Holy pixelization.
posted by Plutor at 12:53 PM on October 14, 2010