Little Teaser #2

The official hype campaign for The Dark Knight Rises escalates with a teaser poster. This is the second image released for this film, following the publicity shot of Tom Hardy as Bane released a few months back.

As is par for any good teaser key art, we are being treated to a highly conceptual representation of the film that tells us much by not showing a lot at all.

It looks as though Gotham is to be put through some serious trials in this film; visually it appears to be orders of magnitude even worse than either the chemical attack or domestic terrorism that befell Gotham respectively in the last 2 Nolan films. The initial impression from the artwork is of some sort of catastrophe set upon the city, however after some reflection, I can't help but notice a distinct lack of fire and/or explosion, like the DVD key art for The Dark Knight. So what we could be seeing isn't so much the catastrophic destruction of Gotham but rather its decay, perhaps in Batman's absence (which the newly minted teaser trailer seems to imply).

I would also deduce that the decay of Gotham (violent or otherwise) portrayed in this key art represents the internalised drama of the film in which Bruce Wayne's resolve to serve justice is crumbling. We are being shown a rather bleak aesthetic with a heavily subdued (virtually a greyscale) colour pallet

and the artwork's edges receding to an infinite blackness. We are no doubt being sold that this film will be Bruce Wayne's darkest hour; it is a common, yet essential dramatic convention, signifying and justifying the conclusion to an ordeal - as Harvey Dent said in The Dark Knight, "The night is darkest just before the dawn." In the darkness and destruction apparent in the artwork, the only light is cast from the sky - ostensibly the Batman symbol - ultimately Batman is the only hope for the city. I would even go so far as to say also that the persona of Batman could be the only thing to save Bruce Wayne from his own personal turmoil.


Likening this poster to the graffitied wall teaser for The Dark Knight - which represented so well that film's idas of anarchy - I'm sure that there are deeper thematic delineations in this key art, ones that I doubt I could put my finger on without knowing more about the film.

I am greatly looking forward to future key arts for this film, to see where we are going to be taken thematically and artistically by Nolan's final story for Batman, and on a personal note to see how accurately I may be over analysing what may have just been a really cool way to show us the Batman logo.

Little Teaser

I've found this blog has drifted away from Design topics somewhat and begun to mutate into a compendium of libertarian sympathy. Although I do have a mild passion for the fight against government tyranny, my primary passion is Design and artwork for film and that is the course where I would like to steer this ship back towards. 

So I thought to turn over this new leaf, I'd have a look the recent teaser poster for Pixar's new film Brave. 

Generally I love teaser artwork, its typically the most engaging and creative collateral made for a film; the artwork is required to arrest the audience with some intrigue or a strong visual concept based on a wider abstraction of the film. Its almost always more interesting than the head-collage of top-billed cast that usually follows in the subsequent theatrical campaign.

At first glance, I would not have picked this artwork to be for a Pixar film, it is distinctly more atmospheric and mature than any previous Pixar key art perhaps with the exception of Wall-E, which I think is a good sign for this film. I love the lighting used in this artwork; using mist to enhance the sense of distance and amply the glow of the low-lying light source (sun). The bold silhouette of the title treatment and the sole redhead figure gives a distinct tenor of adventure and scale. Furthermore, the artwork constructs a sensation of space and direction, fashioned from the trajectory of the stream running from the character's vantage point and positioning us in the artwork at the base of the poster. The floating magical blue lights trailing behind the character signifies a direction to her movement, a journey. This impression is further underlined by the hazy forms behind the title treatment, lending to a sense of the unknown lying beyond. 

The darker ambience to the artwork along with the style of the title treatment gives the artwork a distinct Burtonesque (referring to Tim Burton) feel, not unlike the key art for Big Fish. The fiery red curls too particularly evoke impressions of Burton's take on the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

What this teaser artwork is telling me about the film Brave both excites and concerns me; Pixar seem to be attempting a few fundamentally new things with this movie. This will be the first Pixar film with a female lead character, which of itself is novel and will open up the potential for a new field of character exploration which has yet to be fully realised in a Pixar film. It does however have the potential to in essence change the particular dynamic that has made Pixar's movies so universally appreciated; that is - in reference to Movie Bob's Up review - "...the most primal of mannish heartaches, the father/son dynamic". The setting also appears to be more fantastical than previous films which have always kept some semblance of modernity to them.

These implications of setting and character - bolstered by a key art with a distinct quality of ambience and fatefulness - are pointing towards Pixar's artistic intentions of carrying a more mature tone with this film. Though with Pixar's track record, I have no doubt there will be plenty of fun to be had on the way.

Star Wars Blu-ray Key Art (continued) The Prequel Trilogy

   

This, I think, will be the last of my commentary on the Star Wars BD artwork for a while; there are plenty of other 'musings' to be done and after 3 fairly lengthy posts about essentially the same topic, I'm getting awfully close to 'beating the dead horse' territory. Naturally, this third post will be the shortest, mainly for the reason that a lot of what I have to say can be gleaned from the previous posts.

Like with the Original Trilogy artwork, I think the artistic style hits the right notes in paying homage to the now-classic hand-painted posters of Star Wars. The style and composition of the artwork follows that of the Original Trilogy, visually pairing the 2 trilogies as an intricate and artistically dynamic collection. The composition is quite literally a reflection of the Original Trilogy artwork, availing one of the few conceptual links with the Saga boxset; the congruence of the two Star Wars storylines.


I mentioned in my comments on the Original Trilogy, that either Vader or Luke were the appropriate options for the featured character in the artwork, well for the Prequel Trilogy Anakin was really the only sensible choice, but instead we have Yoda. As recognisable as Yoda is, his position as the dominating figure for any Star Wars film, let alone a trilogy of them, is an incorrect choice. Yoda is and always has been a supporting character, a means to express the deeper philosophies of the story (at least in "Empire"). To have him as the dominant character in favour of Anakin, conceptually undermines what the rest of the BD artwork has been telling us about the Star Wars saga. Furthermore as a consequence of having Yoda feature on the artwork, the key art has an obligatory tone of green; frankly, red would have been a better choice. Given the near-mythic relationship between red and blue in the Star Wars saga, it was really a missed opportunity to permeate this with the 2 trilogies.


As much the Original Trilogy's composition was its weakest point, the Prequel artwork is much stronger in this regard. The collage of supporting characters (and Anakin) occupy a more structured space; rather than filling in space on Yoda's face the collage quite gracefully frames it, giving the key art a greater sense of coalescence and making it overall the stronger artwork of the 2 trilogies.

Star Wars Blu-ray Key Art (continued) The Original Trilogy

The first thing that can be said for the key arts for the separate trilogies is that they are certainly more dynamic then the artwork for the Saga collection, which I've already talked about in my previous post. Overall, I quite like the art that has been created although it's not without its problems, both separately and as a whole. I am again glad that some level of artistry was implemented over the style (or lack thereof) of the DVD key arts.

I'm going to begin with the Original Trilogy, mostly because I am strongly of the opinion that this is where the experience of Star Wars MUST begin. Without the original films, the Prequels would have even less resonance. The Star Wars Prequels were written, designed, filmed and marketed with the original films very much in front of mind; the full intended effect of those films is inextricable from the iconography of the Original Trilogy. After all, the main hook of a prequel story is that each progression in the story foreshadows what we already know is to come. But back to the artwork...


Like with the Saga boxset, this artwork utilises a style that pays homage to the 1977 posters for Star Wars, but unlike the Saga box the artwork is dynamic, detailed and employs a colour pallet that identifies Star Wars more successfully. In fact, the dynamism of this artwork is so far removed from the Saga box that the 2 seem visually divorced from one another, I count this as a mark against the Saga Collection key art. What I like most about this style of artwork is that it embraces it's hand-painted artistry, it doesn't try to disguise the painting but instead uses bold strokes and spatters, although I think it does over-do this effect to a degree.


Featuring Vader in this artwork is almost an inevitability, and it's actually surprising that an image like this wasn't used for the Saga Collection artwork; Vader is after all the most recognisable and iconic character from the films. The only problem with this choice I find is that the concept introduced by the Saga box is at odds with what the separate trilogies are telling us about the films. The Box key art tells us that the Star Wars films are about the mirrored journeys of Anakin and Luke. It would then seem to make more conceptual sense that the Original Trilogy featured Luke as its focal character, in fact Luke is given hardly any prominence in the collage of characters and I think that is a big misstep.


While I'm on the topic of the missteps of this artwork, the biggest problem with this key art - the one that stops me from finding it as a poster and framing it on my wall - is the artwork's general lack of structure. I like the concept of 'hiding' characters within the image of Vader as it were, but it has been done without a real sense of layout and we really just have various key characters filling in the empty spaces that happen to occur in the Vader image. If the collage of characters had a layout that better fit the available space, then this artwork would be almost faultless.


Before I move on, I'm going to make a prediction (see below) that if this artwork sees the light of day here in Australia, Lando, Leia, Han, Chewy and a third of C3PO will be skillfully and with the greatest of finesse omitted from the front in favour the crucial consumer rating that defines the superior packaging design available to Australian Consumers.*
(*please read sarcasm)

Star Wars Blu-ray Key Art

      

After a long... long wait the official packshots for the Star Wars Blu-rays have been released to what can be described, at best, as a mixed reaction from fans around the world.

Although it will become apparent very quickly, I want to preface my comments with the admission that I am a huge Star Wars fan. For me, Star Wars, commands the largest portion of my fandom over other sci-fi contenders in which my interest is much more transitory. Having said that, I think I need to outline a very specific distinction that I apply to my fandom; 3 of the Star Wars films are far and away my favourite all-time movies, but I by no means consider them to be the 3 best movies I have ever seen. What I mean by this, is that my love for Star Wars exists in full account of the fact that there are other movies that surpass it in many regards. 

Since the BD announcement, I had hoped that Lucasfilm would produce some kind of original artwork, ideally done by the great Drew Struzan in a style reminiscent of his posters for the Special Editions and Prequels. I am very happy that this, more or less, is the direction they have chosen.

Nothing would have been more cringe-inducing than the artistically sterile Photoshopped key arts we had for the DVDs. We have thankfully been spared a collage of clumsily stitched-together promo shots and instead have something that evokes the charm of the illustrated movie posters of the past.

But despite this positive direction, the execution has not been pulled quite off as well as I would have hoped, given the magnitude of this release, but it is far from disastrous.

The Saga boxset has a unique and interesting key art; featuring a melding of Anakin and Luke Skywalker at the Lars Homestead under the twin suns of Tatooine. Conceptually, I love this artwork as it allows so much to be read into the Star Wars story without the art becoming cluttered with a phalanx of support characters and vehicles (more on that in the following post). There are two salient metaphors that I read into this art, both which make me further appreciate the artwork the more I reflect on it. 

We have both Skywalker characters as we see them at the beginning of their journeys. Anakin, with the twin suns behind him, is ostensibly walking away from the light (of the Force), while Luke is walking directly towards it. This effectively frames the direction of the two characters in their respective trilogies, showing their journeys to be separate but also inextricably linked and reflections of one another. 

There is further symbolism as the two Skywalkers part ways in the artwork; a metaphor of the chronology of the Saga itself. The illustrated scene quite strongly references Episode IV, the same point that the Star Wars timeline treats as Year 0. Its from this point where we will make the most crucial decision in owning this Blu-ray collection... do we follow Anakin backwards to begin at the Prequel Trilogy, or do we move forward with Luke and begin at the Original Trilogy?

Like I said, I think this is a brilliant concept and this key art may eventually become an iconic Star Wars image. However it seems to be the style of the paining that has put people at odds; a comment I've read several times goes along the lines of "It looks like a child painted it". I can't say I agree with that particular sentiment. This painting style perhaps seems dated, even primitive, when compared to most modern key arts, which are created digitally, but in context it lends itself quite well to the style and charm of the posters created for the original Star Wars. 

While I can appreciate this artistic homage, I feel it was somewhat a misstep by Lucasfilm to utilise this style for the Saga Collection. This Blu-ray release isn't an indulgence of nostalgia for the 1977 Star Wars (as nice as that would be also) it is a celebration of the entire saga and as such needs to have an artistic style that more appropriately represents the film series over its 30 years in the popular consciousness. Struzan's style of painting would have been a more appropriate homage, his posters spanned all 6 films, carrying us from the Original Trilogy into the Prequel Trilogy. This artistic misstep doesn't necessarily harm the overall impact of the artwork however, as its concept is redeemingly strong. Where I think the key art really lets us down is in the colour palette that the artwork consists of. There is a rather limited range of peach tones, that look rather flat and really don't convey Star Wars. This is crucial, as a piece of artwork and as the packaging for a flagship Blu-ray product, the key art needs to identify with customers instantly and, more importantly, needs to convey the idea of Star Wars in a broad and recognisable way. Light pastel peaches just aren't the colour pallet for this broad statement about Star Wars.

Even with the most rudimentary colour enhancement above, this artwork is already more dynamic than the original and would probably be enough to convince some of the nay-sayers that this key art is worthy of containing the most definitive representation of the entire Star Wars Saga. Of course some people will never accept this image because it reminds them from the outset that Anakin began his journey as a 9 year old.

In my next post I'll have a look at the artwork for the individual trilogies...