Hi, John Hess from Filmmaker IQ.com - today we’re going to take a look at the history
of Hollywood film posters and explore some of key artists who have shaped this commercial
artform.
The movie poster date back as far as the motion picture itself and why shouldn’t they?
Signs for events have been needed since antiquity but the paper poster first came into prominence
only in the early 1800s.
And it started with an actor or rather an failed actor: Johann Alois Senefelder.
Senefelder was getting ready to study law when his father, a prominent actor in Prague,
suddenly died.
In an attempt to support his mother and eight siblings, Senefelder tried to step into his
father's shoes as an actor.
He couldn’t replicate his father’s success but draw of theater was strong.
Senefelder was also a playwright and he turned to publishing.
He found better luck there seeing some success in his first published play: Connoisseur of
Girls.
But getting something published in 1790s was expensive and Senefelder’s next publication
took him into debt.
So Senefelder put his mind to figuring out a new inexpensive way of printing.
One day in 1795, Senefelder’s mother called to him asking him to write down a list of
items she was sending out to laundry.
Having no paper, Senefelder took a grease pencil and wrote the list on a flat limestone
slab that printers use to mix ink on.
Then on a hunch, Senefelder decided to etch the stone with acid - and sure enough the
list written in grease remained on the stone.
Senefelder was onto something - and after a year of perfecting the process, he joined
up with some music publishers and began producing musical scores with this much cheaper process
he called “stone printing”.
But the process would be better known by its French name: Lithography
It wasn’t just musicians that took to lithography: because the stone plate is prepared by directly
drawing on the stone using familiar artist tools like pencils and crayons, artists took
to lithography as early as 1803.
Senefelder kept perfecting process.
After his death, others like Godefroy Engelmann of Mulhouse in France added color with chromolithography.
So by the time we get to protofilm in the 1890s with magic lantern projection shows,
lithography and poster making was a fully mature industry and artistic medium.
Here a beautiful litograph by French artist, color lithography pioneer, and some say father
of the poster, Jules Cheret for the magic lantern show “Projections Artistiques”
in 1890.
He would later go on to make another highly regarded poster for Theatre Optique’s program
called Pantomines Lumineuses.
And now we get to the poster I use over and over again in these courses to represent the
Lumiere Brothers groundbreaking first ever commercial public film screening on December
26, 1895 in the basement of the Grand Cafe in Paris.
This poster illustrated by Marcellin Auzolle depicts a scene from the film L'Arroseur arrosé
- the Sprinkled Sprinkler marking the first time a poster was used not only to advertise
a film but to advertise a specific film and even the first time a movie scene was depicted
in a poster.
Across the pond in the United States, as Thomas Edison consolidated his control and standardized
the newborn film industry in the late 1800s and the turn of the century, he standardized
the movie poster as well.
The One Sheet - 27 inches wide by 41 inches tall became the standard dimension for Hollywood
movie posters shown inside and out of the movie theater.
Variations came with the one sheet from the 3 sheet poster, 6 sheet poster even up to
the 24 sheet billboard style poster which measures about 9 feet by 20 feet.
Now keep in mind, this is era of single screen venue - from nickelodeons even moving into
the movie palaces of the 1910s, these theaters only had one screen which they would show
only one preset program of films.
So when a theater played a certain movie - the entire advertising for that theater was dedicated
to just that one film.
To complement the movie poster which was posted on the outside of the building, a variety
of smaller advertising sizes popped up from the Window Card which measures 14 x 22 to
the lobby card which featured scenes from the film and printed at 11 x 14 card stock
and usually displayed as a set of eight.
Other sizes like banners, door panels, and Subway Sheets have also evolved as promoters
saw their need.
During this first half of the studio era where Studios owned both the means of production
and the theaters that distributed their own products, the production of advertising materials
were handled in house.
It’s important to note that just as theaters were operated differently in those days, movie
distribution also worked differently.
Today, a movie opens wide pretty much everywhere at once, back then a film opened in only a
few major cities before rolling out to smaller cities and rural areas.
This rolling out process was facilitated using a network of studio owned central offices
or film exchange that carried the actual print of the movie as well as a press kit consisting
of posters and advertising paraphernalia.
Each theater would come into the film exchange and check out a copy of the film and posters
for their run and return them when the run was finished.
In this case movie posters and lobby cards would be used over and over again as the movie
made its way from town to town.
Well this shipping and handling was starting to become a logistical nightmare especially
with something as fragile as movie posters - this was a business that studios would happily
to outsource.
The National Screen Service, originally created in 1920 to create movie trailers for the studios,
saw an opportunity in the movie poster business as well.
By mid 1940s, most of the major studios had deals with the N.S.S to manage their movie
poster distribution.
The studio would send the N.S.S the artwork, the N.S.S would print and distribute the “movie
paper” as it was called, directly to the local film offices and theaters and print
new ones as pieces became damaged.
To manage all of that - the N.S.S developed a numbering system which happens to be really
useful for modern poster collectors.
From 1943 to 1977, the N.S.S marked posters with two digits followed by a slash and then
up four digits.
The first two digits were the last two digits of the year of release and the last digits
indicate what number film it was.
So if you saw 58/223 - that meant the film was released in 1958 and it was the 223rd
movie to be released that year - in this case: Attack of the 50ft Woman.
If the poster was a re-issue, you would see an R at the beginning of the number.
Sometime in 1977 they removed the slash.
Through arrangements with all the major studios, The N.S.S basically held a natural monopoly
on poster production - nearly 90% of all Hollywood posters found their way to the public through
N.S.S.
offices.
But their control of the industry began to fade in the 70s and 80s with the rise of the
modern multiplex and a new strategy of wide release.
Now a lobby couldn’t be dedicated to just one film - so sizes like half-sheets, three-sheets
and lobby cards started to disappear.
Secondly with the wide release strategy which took advantages of economies of scale with
national advertising, you didn’t need to keep track of replacement movie paper.
With a simpler movie poster ecosystem, studios took back the responsibility for creating
their own posters.
By the end of the 1990s the N.S.S had only 3 offices remaining.
In September of 2000, Technicolor purchased what was left of the N.S.S and shut down the
remain offices.
Although lobby cards have all but disappeared a new type of movie paper has begun to grace
the lobbies of multiplexes - the movie standee.
These are often cleverly designed cardboard creations that entice fans to interact and
grab a picture for a bit of word of mouth advertising via social media.
Unfortunately their sheer size makes the market for collectible standees a bit difficult.
We breezed through the business history of posters but let’s jump back and look at
some of the art created by key poster and illustrators and designers through the years.
And honestly this is where you can really get lost in some amazing work.
Although the rise of the poster as an artistic medium grew from the roots established in
Paris by the likes of aforementioned Jules Chéret, poster design exploded all through
Europe being influenced by Art Nouveau, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and the Bauhaus and Swiss
school of designs.
There’s even fascinating developments in Poland which has its own history of avante
garde movie poster design that grew from Communist control and censorship of all but poster production.
But that’s a story for a different time.
For the sake of time I’m going to focus mainly on the Hollywood movie poster.
In the United States early movie poster design took a different evolution than our European
counterparts.
Borne of the brightly colored posters advertising traveling circuses; the illustration stylings
of the influential, Edward Penfield who many consider the father of the American Poster;
and William H. Bradley, once the highest paid illustrator in the early 20th century: the
earliest Hollywood movie posters showed a unique version of American Art Nouveau.
Very little information can be found about the specific artists in this early silent
era as so much of the work was done anonymously.
As beautiful as some of these seem to us now, they weren’t considered high art in their
time, most of these probably ended up in the garbage heap after being used by theater after
theater.
The beginnings of what we might recognize as the modern poster really began in the early
1940s.
And although it’s really hard to pinpoint a single individual - one artist does really
stand out in this era: Bill Gold.
Trained as an illustrator, a graphic designer and a photographer, Gold started his career
at Warner Bros. working on this poster of Yankee Doodle Dandy.
But if there is one Studio Era film that defines Gold’s contribution to the modern poster,
it would be the one for Casablanca.
He may not have been the first to employ the collage style posters - but the subtlety of
size, placement and pose of each of the leading and supporting characters presents the story
of the film brilliantly without using any words.
In 1962, Gold opened up his own firm - Bill Gold Advertising and the list of movie posters
he has been involved with as a designer is absolutely stunning.
From My Fair Lady, to Hair, Clockwork Orange, Alien, Deliverance, James Bond and For Your
Eyes Only, Bullit, Dirty Harry - not to mention every single Clint Eastwood movie until Gold’s
retirement in 2004.
Not only did Gold design many of these posters but as we shall see, many fantastic artists
would find their start with his agency.
Backing upt the 1950s, of course we have the name that dominates so much of movie design:
Saul Bass.
Though he may be known more for his title sequences, Bass was influential in the spread
of minimalism and kinetic typography in movie poster design.
As we glance at a few of his pieces we see much more emphasis on simple but powerful
shapes - Bass would probably be more of a bridge between American illustrative posters
and the more abstract posters that came out of Europe.
Working with Bill Gold and Saul Bass was an illustrator from Kansas by the name of Bob
Peak.
Peak was first hired to illustrate the poster for West Side Story - but not the iconic fire
escape minimalist poster that Bass was responsible for- but this one.
From there Peak made his way to Bill Gold’s agency where he illustrated My Fair Lady,
In Like Flint and Excalibur…
Peak most iconic work came later in the posters for Superman, Star Trek, Apocalypse Now and
the film that would turn Bruce Lee into a legend: Enter the Dragon.
Working around the same time and also for Gold was an illustrator by the name of Richard
Amsel.
While at Art School in Philadelphia, Amsel won a 20th Century Fox talent seach with a
poster for Barbara Streisand’s Hello Dolly!
(which was used as the official poster) Amsel worked on several movie posters before gaining
acclaim for his illustrative covers for TV Guide.
Perhaps his most notable work was for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with Raiders of
the Lost Ark.
He did two separate posters, one for the film’s initial 1981 release and another for its re-release
a year later which is now inseparable from the film itself.
Unfortunately Amsel’s career was cut short as he died from complications of AIDS just
shy of his 38th birthday.
Another illustrator had to take up the pencil at Lucas Film - Drew Struzan.
Struzan’s first encounter the Lucas universe came when he was asked to create the figure
drawings for the 1978 rerelease of Star Wars.
Dubbed the Circus Poster - it cleverly simulated a torn poster bill as a way to fit in the
credit block beneath the artwork.
Struzan worked on iconic 80s films: Blade Runner, The Thing, The Cannonball Run, the
Police Academy series, Back to the Future, E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial, The Muppet Movie, Coming to America, First Blood, Risky Business, An
American Tail, and The Goonies just to name a few.
But he will probably be forever known by his association with Star Wars - for which he
created the posters for the 90s re-release and the prequels, as well as for picking up
after Amsel’s death with Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade and Kingom of the Crystal
Skull before he retired.
In the same league as Struzan is John Alvin.
Alvin was working as an animator when got invited by a friend to work on the poster
for Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.
Brooks loved Alvin’s work so much he brought him back for Young Frankenstein History of
the World Part I, Silent Movie and Spaceballs.
After that Alvin really didn’t need to look for work as he constantly fielding poster
requests.
His work includes, this iconic poster for Blade Runner, Cocoon, 10, Alladin, Beauty
and the Beast, The Lion King, Empire of the Sun, Rainman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever.
As you might be able to conclude, as we get into the 80s and 90s, illustrated posters
began to fall out of fashion in favor of digital photography.
That’s not to say that photography and digital can’t create the visual flights of fancy
that illustration can.
Although it’s really easy to be cynical and bemoan the dearth of creativity in modern
film poster with it’s over reliance on tropes and cliches, the same could be said of the
actual movies themselves.
It might be considered low art by some, but the movie poster and paper advertising have
the power to promise adventure, laughs, thrills, desire, and titillation while at the same
time being a catalyst for the strong emotional memories that we create when we go to the
movies.
It’s just advertising yes, but it is also iconography - a strange intersection between
art and commerce where you really can find some great inspiration.
We’ve listed six artists but there are countless more both past and present.
Do some research, get inspired, and go out and make something that demands an awesome
poster: make something great!
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and consider becoming a patron on Patreon.
I’m John Hess and I’ll see you at Filmmaker IQ.com