Foreword

FOREWORD BY CHRISTIAN PEARCE

I was gonna start this foreword by lamenting the fact that movie posters have become undervalued, ignored and underutilised. From once being a means of conveying atmosphere or presenting an artistic take on a movie’s themes, the modern film poster has degenerated into a vehicle for promoting whatever celebrities the production managed to secure.

I was going to ramble on about how they have become a lost art, but of course they haven’t. The great film posters are still as iconic as ever, still as striking and influential. Original prints are certainly far more valuable than they ever have been before.

All of which makes it even harder for me to understand why today’s posters are so whack!

The lack of originality and deliberately dull compositions boggle the mind when there is such a rich history of creativity to draw upon. The ‘giant floating head’ syndrome so common today and the obsession with conveying how the production’s budget was spent has become a little tedious.

Of course I’m making dangerously sweeping generalisations here, but the posters Joel has created display an understanding of the source material, a strong grasp of graphic awareness and a sense of fun sorely lacking in the modern film poster. Obviously he needs to incorporate much more massive pictures of Jennifer Aniston’s head but still, there’s a lot of great stuff here despite that shortcoming.

Christian Pearce

Senior Concept Designer

Weta Workshop