TOP 10 of 2010: #8

I wanted to do something much more thematic with this one but ended up just playing around until something looked kinda pretty. The white specks can be snow or stars-- two images that stuck with me from the film. A little disappointed with this one but that's part of the nature of this kind of project.

TOP TEN OF 2010: #9

I guess I have a thing for big head posters-- my ideas for House, Modern Times, Shoah, Labyrinth, Vivre Sa Vie, Black Swan and now Winter's Bone all utilize a big mug front and center-- but with a face like Jennifer Lawrence's I couldn't help myself. The more you look at this photo of her the more it looks like she's smiling-- a strange contrast to the demeanor of her character through most of Debra Granik's excellent WINTER'S BONE. I love black and white images, so this was an excuse to play around with these patterns and stare at my Jenny #2* for a while. A few of these are on sale at the Belcourt right now as part of my little gallery show.

Tomorrow, another big head poster!

TOP 10 of 2010: #10

I used to write about movies. I even got a degree in writing about movies. As I've written less, my skills have atrophied while other hobbies, interests and things have stepped in, like making more visual art. Last year, instead of writing about my favorite movies of the year, I came up with an art project instead: the 2009 film stamp collection. This year, I wanted to come up with an even more ridiculously irrational and ambitious project: crafting a quick movie poster for ten of my favorites films from this year. I figured I'd spend just about the same amount of time on each as I would writing 250-500 words, but I would get a chance to play around visually with pens, paper and the computer in a medium I have so come to love: poster art.

This project is ridiculous, outrageous, and above all personal. My initial idea was to create off-the-cuff poster art for these films that defied any rules, boundaries or requirements one might have when making a "real" poster that would get released to the world. Inevitably, I've ended up wanting to spend more time with each one making them "better," but my goal has been to bang out ten poster ideas with no filters, no tinkering, no expectation for perfection. Each one of these, if they were being released to the world, I of course would want to perfect a little more. I like to think of them as demos; sketches, concepts, ideas for posters that could be. To make this project even more complicated and surreal, a couple of my favorite films of the year I've already made posters for, either for fun on my own (TRASH HUMPERS) or for an actual studio (CARLOS). Those movies will be absent from the project, as will the many 2010 films I haven't seen yet: WHITE MATERIAL, ANOTHER YEAR, THE KING'S SPEECH... full list to follow.

So hopefully other poster fans out there will enjoy this peek into my scattered brain, these imperfect tributes to the movies from this year that had some kind of strong effect on me. Yesterday's prelude to this project was a poster for UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES; today I give slot #10 to Darren Aronofsky's BLACK SWAN. I thought the mirror images in the film seemed like almost a red herring whereas more often we saw Natalie actually fractured and splitting apart, which is what's happening to her character. So I avoided any mirroring and split her into glitchy pieces, still suggesting that there are "two" of her... Add a light pink backdrop (the color of her room) and a nice script, upload and post.

Stay tuned for 9 more! As always, things will pile up over at my Flickr page. Leave a comment and tell me what your favorites were this year.

TOP 10 OF 2010: A Prelude

2010: the Year of the Ghost Monkey. I made this poster for UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Palme D'Or winning Thai film that has US distribution from Strand Releasing in 2011, because I thought that the existing international posters (surveyed nicely by Adrian Curry in this Movie Poster of the Week column), while all interesting in different ways, didn't really tap into the actual look and tone of the film. This image, used in the other posters too, is without a doubt one of the most already-iconic film images in recent memory, but I wanted to see what it would look like in a darker, less saturated treatment that still has a graphic element and embraces the complex details of the image. Strand Releasing, if you're listening, I think something like this would be aces for the US arthouse crowd, and Mondo if you're listening, this could also make for a killer glow-in-the-dark screenprint. :)

This post informally begins the rollout of my year-end project in which I have attempted to create ten off-the-cuff poster designs for my favorite films of the year. Most listmakers have been giving BOONMEE 2011 status, as it was only screened in the US at festivals this year, so my top ten project will begin officially with my next post... if I finish it! Stay tuned...

SATURDAY EVENING POSTER

US poster for Truffaut's Stolen Kisses, 1968, 27x40", designer unknown. One of my all-time favorites.

TIM & ERIC POSTER

I made these over at Boss Construction yesterday for the Tim & Eric show in Nashville last night. For some reason the promoter said they couldn't sell the posters, which I'd never heard of happening with a gig poster before, but anyways now you can grab one from me at my shop. 2-color 18x24" hand-pulled, signed & numbered edition of 50, no two are alike, lots of crazy colors and you'll get a random print from the batch. I love Tim & Eric and it was a trip seeing their live show complete with Pusswhip Banggang live in concert and Dr. Steve Brule himself. So grab some "Jambalaya," "Come Over" and pick up a print... just "Don't Call Me Uncle!"