Thursday, April 27, 2017

Color Poster Triptych 03: backlit silhouettes in yellow and blue


There are quite a few visual similarities between these three posters to widely different movies: the old blue-yellow contrast in its simplest non-cliché form (blue sky, yellow writing), the diffused backlight, the silhouettes of characters wearing at least one yellow piece of clothing, the similar shapes of the two cars and the rooftop. The "landscape", however, is in a different color in each of them (gray, brown, green).

I like all three films quite a lot and recommend them.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Color Poster Triptych 02: Space Faces


The unifying elements here are the blue and red/purple as well as the head-on face illuminated by strong sidelights against a dark background. The colored light on the face and the "spots" connect posters 1 and 2, while in 2 and 3 a hand is involved and we see the circle-framed face through some object. All three suggest a character in a dreamlike outer or inner space/dimension.

The films: UNDER THE SKIN is a must-see for everyone interested in contemporary science-fiction, sound design or film music. THE NEON DEMON is a rather empty style exercise in Dario-Argento-colors and de-Palma-cinemascope about the empty superficiality of the L.A. model business. Or is it science fiction, too? Elle Fanning is intriguing as always. DOCTOR STRANGE is one of the few superhero flicks I enjoyed, mainly because of its mind-blowing kaleidoscopic special effects in 3D.



Thursday, April 13, 2017

Color Poster Triptych 01

In an attempt to keep this blog up to date on a more regular basis for the next few months, I will post a series of "color poster triptychs" between the longer, more substantial articles. 

There are only two rules: 1) The three officially released posters (including re-release but not fan-made artwork) within one triptych have to be from different films. The same poster can be part of several triptychs. 2) Their juxtaposition should highlight some aspect of their color design (and composition, if possible). Comment or discussion of these aspects is not necessary but sometimes provided. Sometimes they highlight characteristics of a specific era, genre or target group, sometimes they open up a dialogue between vastly different subjects and storytelling traditions.

So today, enjoy and compare these three rainbows. It would have been easy to put this more similar WIZARD OF OZ video release poster in the middle, but the one from NO with only one head gives the triptych a bit more tension.

Click on the image for larger version
Since the size of actual movie posters is quite important to their impact, it would be fun to do something like this in real life some day. But in the meantime, let's have a look how this develops in digital form.