Thursday, September 11, 2008

Now THAT's cover art!

Why can't I stop looking at this DVD cover? Why did it take me this long to actually see this amazing illustration? Why don't one-sheets feature actual illustrations any more? Why are amazing one-sheets like this ever NOT used for the DVD cover, as opposed to some Photoshop hack job? Damn that looks good.

11 comments:

Neil Sarver said...

That is one of those mysteries that no one is likely to ever understand.

I read a book that included a theory that someone in the industry "realized" that they were selling moving photographs, so their advertisements should reflect the photographs contained within. Of course, it misses the essential point that what their selling is actually drama, which is very often better evoked by painting than photography... and is never evoked by giant Photoshopped heads.

I think the art department guys feel the need to justify their jobs, that's why they always come up with something new. Mind you, I'd think they best justified their jobs by coming out with the most striking and eyecatching DVD packages they could, but then I don't run a big studio DVD department, so what do I know?

Hey, maybe this is a good sign, though. Big studio. Classic artwork. Nice job.

TALKING MOVIEzzz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Adam Ross said...

Good points Neil, and stranger still since with VHS the cover almost always featured the one-sheet, or some close variation. It might also be the misunderstanding that the actual movie doesn't sell DVDs, it's the actors (see: Black Hawk Down re-release with giant Josh Hartnett head).

Moviezzz -- Exactly! That's part of the reason I like this cover art so much, the movie is a let-down compared to this Marvel Comics-ish art.

Sir Jorge Orduna said...

i don't see anything.

Neil Sarver said...

Yes, the movie is not that good, all told, but the poster is terrific. I'll note here, as I neglected to before, that it's by Frank Frazetta, which explains its awesomeness.

Oddly, I think that's one of the things that studios are missing out on in not using painted movie art... that deception, the impression of excitement and passion and drama and whatnot... without being dishonest, just all in the presentation. I guess it's weird for me to want them to fool me into seeing disappointing movies, but, well, I'd kind of like them to start to try again.

Amnizzle said...

Holy Crap that's cool. I hate the blue from the plastic covers. Shouldn't we be evolving with our DVD covers? I kind of feel like we took a step back with that bad blue.

PIPER said...

Um, yeah. I just commented under the i.d. of the woman who sits my kids. Seems she checked out her blog on my computer. That genius comment above was actually made by me.

Adam Ross said...

It's OK Piper, I can accept you as a female babysitter. The blue works with some covers, not all, that's why I prefer the dark red of HD-DVD, in my completely biased opinion.

Paul Arrand Rodgers said...

Black is still the best. DVDs for life.

Marty McKee said...

Frazetta is The Man. It in no way lives up to the poster, but THE GAUNTLET is very entertaining if you look at it as Eastwood's spoofery of the Dirty Harry pictures. Like MAD magazine, it exaggerates the excesses of Clint's other movies with more gunfire, more wild chases, more profanity. The damn thing moves, that's for sure.

elgringo said...

Amazing artwork for my favorite Eastwood movie.