Movie Poster Artwork

As time progresses, things can change. While much of popular culture has not seen many drastic changes, there have been subtle, slight changes here and there. In the world of movie posters, many think the change shouldn’t have come at all.

With movie posters today an image from the film is taken and a photographic reproduction is made and this then becomes the movie poster. In the grand old days of the cinema, from the silent era into the early 1980s, a movie poster was commonly created by the utilization of poster art that was drawn in a manner that depicted a scene or imagery from the film.

Where Did All the Poster Art Go?

In a magazine that will remain nameless, a letter to the editor posed the question “Why was there a decision to replace original movie poster art with photographic reproductions?” The erudite response from the editor was, “They got rid of them because they were dumb.” Sigh.

While there have been some fantastic photographic reproductions of movie posters, however the decision to all but drop original poster art work for movie posters was not a good one. Look at the classic artwork from JAWS of the shark coming up from underneath the girl swimming on the ocean surface.

Yes, a series of photographs as a composite image could have been made, but would that have been as visually effective?  There are a ton of subtle nuances in the famous JAWS movie poster that could never be duplicated photographically, such as the amazing detail of the shark’s image itself.

So why was a conscious effort made to cease the use of original movie poster artwork? Perhaps it was a misjudged attempt at modernization. Early on, artwork was the only viable means to make a movie poster, as photo composites would have been very difficult to produce. Still photos would be used significantly, however, as mini lobby cards that would be prominently displayed throughout a theater.

It is unfortunate that with the advancement of digital and computers, the movie poster reproductions began and movie poster artwork became all but extinct.

Yes, there is the occasional use of artwork on movie posters these days, but it is in a significantly lesser amount than photographs. If you still wish to enjoy the movie poster artwork then you can purchase a reproduction or originals (if you can get them) of the classic movie posters. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea.