Pulp 2.0 Design for Return of the Originals

I am friends with Mike Bullock, the writer of the upcoming BLACK BAT series  for Moonstone Books. As Mike has been out and about  the internet stumping for his book  which you can read about here, those of us over at the Pulp Factory Yahoo Group have been discussing how to market pulp stories and concepts to today's audience -- specifically at the comic shop.

The conclusion is that you have to take every opportunity you can to get your work seen by the right eyes and that means thinking outside the box of just your usual suspects.

Well since I was getting ready to tackle some new design work - I thought it would be good to do some quick design "sketches" as a warmup to the really heavy lifting I'm going to be doing.  Mike had a flyer for Moonstone's RETURN OF THE ORIGINALS and I asked him if I could get an image from him to play around with... he graciously agreed. So  after a couple hours I  fan-ficced their flyer.

And here's the result:

You can add it to your desktop if you want. Maybe it will remind you to ask your local comic shop retailer you want to take a look at these comics.  [Take the hint and just order the books] 

I kept it simple and widescreen - because of course,  I like it like that - and made the color palette something that would play against the deep blue of the original art.  Red, yellow and blue is an excellent color combination. Just ask Superman. 

It sort of reminds me of one of those newspaper box inserts you see in the big cities (which might be a really cool way to sell newspaper sized comics that have tons of big ads in them!) or an old serial lobby card (which might be a cool way to sell more comics - a cool serial adventure!). 

In any case it was fun and a good warmup for the pulp to come. 

Widescreen Keyart Lives!

Courtesy of Focus features and The Los Angeles Times:

Not a lobbycard, but a newspaper box insert... still very cool though. 

What Widescreen Key Art Gets You...

Picking up on the conversation from this post, I want to talk about what widescreen key art gets you in today's digital age.

So we have two forms of key art these days that are being seen by audiences:

1. Traditional print key art  -  vertical in orientation. Generally in the 29 x 41 range.  Designed for the poster format but used for ads, sell sheets and other print materials.

You must stop and nod your head up and down to get the full impact of the artwork. It is not designed to fill people's field of view if said person is walking by. 









2) Then we have the variation on this which I like to call "widescreen key art" , but could just as easily be called "wallpaper"  (a nod to digital) or "Billboard" ( a nod to very effectively placed and formatted advertising).  Two examples are below:

and this:

Notice how they fill your view?

If you were to walk by this on the street or in the theater it would more likely catch your eye because of the duration of its occupation of your field of vision.

It's big.

And damn if (subconsciously at least) it doesn't mean "this is a big movie."


Even if you are going to watch that movie on a screen that's this small:

Filling the frame with interesting stuff for the audience to focus on:

Story, color, movement , texture, momentum...

and make sure that frame fills their field of view.

Hey! It works for billboards...

Edit to Add: I am just now recalling something my pulp web bastard Chris Sharpe said to me: "When people look at a 3-D rendering of a book they are more likely to buy off the website."  Consider widescreen key art to be the equivalent to 3D book art. Wider view that seems epic and real.  

Digital Neanderthals! The Evolution Has Already Happened!

Recently I posted a couple of rants regarding the lack of urgency on the part of several indie clients to reformat their key art for the 21st century's wired world. You can read them here and here.

In response, I received a couple of emails that can be summarized thusly:

'We're not going to be doing any reformatting in the near future as A) we really aren't required to in our delivery packages we provide our digital carriers, and B) we're still a few years off and have plenty of time to reformat everything.'

Guess what?

You're not a "few years off."

It's. Happening. Right. Now.

Widescreen images are being used on Hulu and elsewhere.

Now ask yourself:

If these were indie movies with few or no stars in them, would they sell the movie we've made?  (I included the STARSHIP TROOPERS image as it seems to exemplify the movie, and gives you a direction toward what I'm talking about)

If you didn't know who Tom Cruise is (was?), or that DR. STRANGELOVE is a classic, these would be - and I am using this term lightly - lackluster sales tools.

Add to this the idea that someone else who doesn't really give a damn either way (the web designer makes the same rate per hour) has an impact on how your movie is seen and it's not a rosy picture. People judge a book by its cover and a movie by its key art.

And in our wired world of tomorrow TODAY that affects your sales. Especially when its all done on a royalty basis.  Screenwriters and Directors and Actors who struck for a slice of that digital pie?

You are getting hosed because someone can't be bothered to protect their investment (and yours). It affects your bottom line because this sort of short-sightedness leads to added expenses later on (which of course, will be charged back to the film and affect your royalties / residuals) 

And just like when movies' key art was reformatted for DVD covers this will happen, excuse me, IS HAPPENING. Be the one to take control and present your movies to the audience with the most sales value.

Next time: What properly formatted key art gets you. 

Digital Neanderthals Revisited, Connected and Shared

In my post "Digital Neanderthals" I lamented the fact that many people in the motion picture / entertainment industry are not reformatting their key art for this new digital age.  Some of you asked, "Is this really necessary?"

Yes, it is... see?



Connected devices that share with friends... this is going to affect all sorts of things.  Delivery, ratings, marketing, finance, production, creation and development.

Please notice that the Comcast application doesn't use the key art for GANGS OF NEW YORK  (at 1:24 in the video) on its main page. It uses a 16:9 image from the movie.  Note also how small and insignificant the thumbnails look on the menu screen (0:43 ). It's the last thing you want - people thinking your movie looks insignificant.  It's a good thing this is the IPad application and not an IPhone application or the art would be even smaller.  Sadly, the only art I can read clearly is LEAP YEAR. 

The way we watch and connect with movies is changing. 
So should their key art design... and yeah, everything else.

Digital Neanderthals

I've just come up with a new term for my personal lexicon "Digital Neanderthals"  and like their analog antecedents they are being replaced by a new stronger, faster, smarter form of marketing person.  I'm coining the term because these neanderthals seem to be oblivious to the steps they need to take to keep their own entertainment content alive in today's market.

I just had a phone conversation with a potential client in one of those "getting to know you / what the hell can you do for me?" discussions that permeate the LA entertainment scene. In this case we were discussing this company's  design marketing strategy to keep their titles current and in the public's consciousness as fresh or at the very least still vibrant after all these years.

These kinds of discussions happen quite a bit as a small indie features a role by say, "Actor X" which is nothing special, but there.  Then Actor X goes and gets a television series and becomes the next hot thing known by millions worldwide.  Now this distribution company has a film property that has some juice to it... but the key art doesn't reflect that.  It's old, and doesn't even mention the hot "Actor X" that's now the selling point of the picture.

Getting back to the point, part of these discussions always leads toward a company's strategy to reformat for digital and mobile...

And that's where it gets interesting, because I'm finding that many a company is leaving dollars on the table by being short-sighted. Or to quote the humanoid on the other end of the line:

"We only distribute theatrical quality movies here."

Wow. Okay, I get it.  You only handle big, important movies (they don't). And I could tell this wasn't a dig at the quality of our work either.  It was a simple, "I don't see the need to even be discussing this issue let alone do something about it."

So in my own special bull-in-a-china shop-fashion I'm going to lay a few things out for you:

• There are more IPhone screens in the United States than theater screens. 

• IPhones are dropping in price as are the fees associated with operating one.

• However theater ticket prices are climbing as are the costs associated with attending the theater (drinks, popcorn, parking , babysitters, etc...)

Now we are talking about two different experiences here.  There is a wide gulf between the two. 


But...

Iphones are going to make a bigger impact  on overall movie sales. Why?  It's an interconnected device.  You can watch the movie on the bus or subway or wherever then instantly tweet about it. Or, you can send the link to the movie you watched directly to all of your friends so that they can download.

You can't do that as easily at the theater.  That means dollars are being lost or at least delayed.


The key art that looks good for all those super huge billboards and banners and so on?  it doesn't look as good when it's vertical and reduced in size.  Those multiple heads smoosh together.   And because it's vertical you have to turn the IPhone to watch the movie.  Why not just recreate the key art to a widescreen ratio?

No twisting or turning.  No squinting at the screen to figure out which movie to buy and watch for your phone.

Simplicity.  Sales. Then Social Networking leading to more sales, more brand recognition.

All because a little piece of key art looked better, different... okay, cooler. Just good design suited to the format you're watching in. Seems simple really...

But the 'Digital Neanderthals' don't see it.  Don't realize they are losing money every time they don't think toward the future that includes for more opportunities to experience "film" than just at the theater or television.

And sadly for them, the Digital Cro-Magnon man is coming.

And he's bringing fire.