Scarecrow At Midnight (2011) one sheet from Mutantville Productions.
Welcome to a special edition of Streeborama as we are going to discuss the lost art of horror movie one sheets! I expect this to be an ongoing series here at Streeborama. I want to discuss the good poster art of the past, what made it work and what makes modern poster art so terrible.
Whether you’re a filmmaker or just a fan – we are all extremely familiar with one sheets – or posters as they are referred to in the common vernacular. I remember being twelve years old with a green apple lollipop in my hand wandering the aisles of the local mom and pops video store and being enthralled by the sights and horrors peering at me from the cover of the VHS boxes lining the shelves. I was never allowed to watch the movies but they intrigued me nonetheless. They often featured a mix of blood, skulls and beautiful women but it was always in a way that implied that something sinsiter was at work behind it all.
This was a time when poster art was REAL art. They were conceived by artists with an actual goal of creating something eye catching to draw a potential viewer in. Poster art was exciting, mysterious, inspirational and most all of – intriguing.
(Read the rest after the leap! Posters!!!) Continue Reading…
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:54 pm. Add a comment
According to the rumor mill – the new downloadable content from Call of Duty Black Ops will feature zombie in the legendary Area 51! Over the years, Area 51 has long been a favorite of conspiracy theorists who fantasize about UFOs, aliens and Nazis drilling their way to the Hollow Earth below – when in reality it’s probably just the spot where the military burns nuclear waste like a redneck burning plastic trash in his back yard. Well you’re about to find out what is going on when the new Black Ops content goes live!
Continue Reading…
Posted 10 months, 4 weeks ago at 2:39 pm. Add a comment
Hello Mutantville! I want to discuss something that helped us out immensely when embarking on our first feature film “C for Chaos.” A few of us had gone to art school to develop our eyes, since of composition, etc… But we hadn’t gone to “Official” film school. We were lucky that Streebo had been studying storytelling since he was young and I had been behind a camera since I was young. Brento had been making and editing movies since he was young. So now that we’ve established that at one point we were all young, we’re ready to move on.
When preparing for “C for Chaos,” we all studied feverishly. We read all the books we could find but another thing was watching movies. I know this sounds like a “Duh” type thing but…we watched them from as if we were making them. Streebo and I would get together and point out camera movement, lighting, pacing, screen directions, composition, coverage, etc… If you really watch and dissect films in this way you can see how different directors can cover similar situations. Some may use more wide angles, some may go in for close ups, etc… Commentary tracks are another great resource. Of course not all commentary tracks are created equal. If you’re a low budget filmmaker then I recommend lower budget movies. Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks. Some of his you need a note book and the pause button to keep up. Be sure you keep an open mind when listening to the commentary. You may only get one or two gems, But if it saves you a night of shooting or makes something easier, I’d say that was worth 2 hours of your time. For example, on the commentary for Ronin, he talks about the scene when they’re buying the weapons. They purposefully wet the entire area since they were filming outside, that way if it rained, it wouldn’t mess up their shooting schedule. Either write this stuff down in a journal or file it away in your brain somewhere.
Streebo is a big believer in only watching what you’re filming. So when we shot “C for Chaos” for about 3 years, that’s pretty much all Streebo watched. Thanks to places like Netflix he showed me horror films from all over the world. This can give you a lot of insight into the genre.
So before, while and after making your film, study as many films as possible. Notice I said study and Not watch. Watch is passive. Study is active.
Below Please leave comments about films with good commentaries for other filmmakers to go and study! Thanks!
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 9:08 am. 4 comments
