The History of the Hollywood Movie Poster

[@bredmond812]

I remember as a child looking at all of the vhs movie boxes at the video rental stores, and video rental areas in supermarkets. I think it was those things that really sucked me into movies. I eventually got a job at a video rental store and I often went to look at all of the movie box covers when we weren't busy. There was some fantastic stuff there.

[@krisinsaigon]

always nice to see a new post from you, thanks for the time and effort you put in 6th

[@romanmateo2566]

@Darwin Idris Flixportal :P

[@krisinsaigon]

@@darwinidris4001 couchtuner

[@NostalgiNorden]

That polish Rocky poster is awesome!

[@StepbyStepPhotographyandVideo]

Had to Google it, you can buy one on Amazon for like $19.99

[@rclark777]

Rocky is also an awesome film.

[@stevenmuncy491]

Your videos are always interesting and well done. Thanks.

[@soumyadipdey426]

"That's not to say that photography and digital can't create the visual flights of fancy that illustration can. Although its really easy to be cynical and bemoan the dearth of creativity in modern film posters with it's over reliance on tropes and cliches, well the fact that the same could be said of the actual movies themselves" Damn! this hit hard!

[@zoommikerobinson3315]

Awesome post... These people and others are the forgotten Icons of Filmmaking, with unique contributions.

[@lemmor6791civ]

Those Polish Poster are insane!!!

[@rezabalali6902]

Hey bro, did you know that your Videos are playing on National Television of Islamic Republic of Iran?!!! they have translated and dubbed your videos and are broadcasting from "IRIB NAMAYESH" Channel.

[@rclark777]

That is both kinda crappy on their part and strangely cool that this has been deemed fit to air on literal TV at the same time.

[@ScottPinkhamMT]

Damn, you always manage to take a subject I initially have no interest in and make it fascinating. I always learn something new from you. Thank you!

[@Marokajer]

One of the best KZbin channels that I really enjoy, and learn something. Keep posting , I love watching content about filmmaking

[@filmsbydiek7316]

Great vid, I've learned a lot! I'm actually on the tail end of designing two posters for my short film, and without consciously realizing the history of the art they fall neatly into two of the style categories you've highlighted. Excellent! Thanks for all the effort and enriching our community.

[@johnhmaw]

What a fascinating video. So well researched as usual. The posters that you show from 1913 to 1928 look very similar to book jackets of the same period.

[@DeathBlackWish]

You're telling me that dude was going to be a lawyer but became an actor to support his family? What the fuck kind of flip flopped time were they living in? These days you get made fun of for following your creative and artistic dreams.

[@casmiry]

A shout out for the back-lit material. Looks nice, especially if you have a great design. Justice League, despite its flaws, has a pretty cool poster.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

+Casmirovici Robert love that stuff... That's what we use on it set for the background outside the windows

[@Land-Shark]

Frank Frazetta made some amazing movie posters, too. Great episode! :)

[@puppeli]

he did some ugly ones too (im thinking his posters for comedy movies). His poster for Fire And Ice movie was gorgeous

[@jamesabell9494]

Thanks this is a really interesting video. I always wondered why lobby cards were called that. I was a kid in the 80s, I remember film tie ins all the time were with panini stickers and sticker books and trading cards as well as all the posters :)

[@the4thstooge80]

Very well done John !

[@TonyLoudWoodz]

Love the struzen voice dubs. Always great videos. Appreciate the knowledge!!

[@LloydieP]

Doesn't matter what the subject is, IQ is always fascinating!

[@JOSEGOMEZ-fn9qn]

Thank you very much for uploading this great video about the history of movie posters. I did learn quit a lot.

[@LaurenWeinstein]

Good ol' Cannon (Golan-Globus) used to create the posters for most of their films even before there was a film -- or even a script. They'd pre-sell the movie (or not, in many cases -- so there would be many "orphaned" posters that never generated actual films) based on the posters. So in Cannon's case, the posters were often integral -- without them the films themselves, including a wondrous array of B->F movies, would not even exist.

[@ClashBerry]

Great as usual John, keep it up!

[@katelynsmith7467]

Thank you so much for this wonderful resource! My film poster research essay and I thank you very very much!!

[@Clay3613]

What's odd is there was pretty much no NSS equivalent for concert venues and touring attractions. They had to rely on in-house artists and local sign shops to make hand painted or silkscreened window cards.

[@TomGoymour]

Discovered this quite randomly, but what an informative and interesting video. I got a lot from this. thank you.

[@MVbyN]

Amazing and interesting lesson!

[@avrianpradiptya7061]

Notification squad reporting for duty!

[@bigredjanie]

Little note: The Star Wars prequel trilogy posters at 15:57 aren’t 100% the Struzan originals. You can see in the background someone else has added various Prequel locations behind the characters via Photoshop, which would be a BIG no-no for a traditionalist like Drew.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

Good catch!

[@petitio_principii]

Never once before "the kingdom of crystal skull" an unofficial fan-parody/homage managed to have so much of the cast and crew of the original series, even the poster illustrator. The only that came close to it was the hilarious "Terminator 3 - terminating a franchise".

[@qnetx]

Fascinating! Thank you!

[@Dante9476]

dude your work is amazing thank youuuuu

[@henriquebeira]

Poster is an art cover, great! :-D

[@filmitnowllc5833]

Always great content!!!

[@RightNowMan]

Terrific work.

[@orsonwelles4254]

Al Hirschfeld did some good movie posters, but I guess he's more famous on Broadway

[@FilmmakerIQ]

I must have a ton of Hirschfeld drawings in my old album collection - his caricatures are iconic!

[@RCAvhstape]

This is one my favorite FIQ vids now, I love poster and cover art. Great job. Question: do you know who did the iconic poster for the original Star Wars? Not the ones you showed here, the original one with Luke holding the lightsaber vertically, Leia near his feet, X-wings streaming out, and Vader looming in the back. I had a copy of that on my bedroom wall growing up until a fight with my brother resulted in its destruction.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

The artist was Tom Jung - One of those people that I started looking at _after_ I completed the rough draft of the video. He's a great artist in his own right: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Jung

[@RCAvhstape]

Thanks! I think that's my favorite movie poster of all time. Carrie Fisher is made immortal by it.

[@c2ashman]

Awesome work.

[@sclogse1]

How many of you were thinking of the King Kong poster when this started? Anselmo Ballester and Capitani are the kings of posters for me. In fact, walk through the public corridor at Lucas Arts in the Presidio of San Francisco, and you'll go by nothing but their work, all in huge 3 sheet and larger posters. Head spinning art.

[@brentdrafts2290]

Like your videos as usual. I have been wanting to get one of my favorite posters from the 1976 film, King Kong. Just have not pulled th e trigger as trying to sort out what is a real period movie poster.

[@brentdrafts2290]

One of the things I remember enjoying was going to the local Showcase Cinema to see the movie. What I remember of out local Showcase, aside from the Big screens was that there was a walkway from the ground floor to an open upper floor level, where you were able to look at and enjoy art pictures of varying subjects, not related to movie, like a museum or art show.

[@marvelousdecay]

Great post. One small thing. The word lithography has Greek origins and not French. It’s a compound word lithos+grafi. Which means stone and writing.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

Actually... the word itself was created by the French... using Greek (which makes it sound more scientific)... although some sources put the word itself as German in origin (Lithographie) around 1813.

[@9and7]

That's some serious IQ...

[@EscapeMCP]

OK, Mr. Hess, good response. For your next test, let's see if you can explain your NSS 90% pie chart (insert emoji eating popcorn here) :) P. Dantiq

[@Nooely]

You make the most boring themes so interesting, that i showed this video my friend 😂

[@laithmanleo]

I think you should do a video about slapstick comedy in the early 20 century.

[@XprPrentice]

John, your comment about the dearth of tropes and memes kinda makes me wish you'd make a quick vid about this slice of movie poster history. How did they come up with the formulas that seem so pervasive? In the collage, for example: Which star or character is on the left or right, which villain or friend is over the shoulder? - perhaps you could work in a bit about billing? (Although, perhaps you've already covered billing and I just haven't found it yet.)

[@Waxalousgalaxy]

I would be very interested in a follow up that documented European and Asian poster design

[@blueseanomad7435]

Thank you as always for the great editing and content of these videos.

[@NEMIHEMERA]

MONDO Posters! Love them!

[@lohphat]

Charles Nelson Reilly's father did hand painted poster work for Paramount. There's a very poignant telling of the tragic story of missed opportunity CNR told onstage in his one-man show just before he passed away. It's an important side story of the movie poster. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmbYnaKVmMytfdk (part 1) kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6WkgnSVaaZ5mqM (part 2) I would highly recommend watching the entire show -- it's available on DVD. CNR wasn't just a funnyman, he was an accomplished stage director and acting coach.

[@pentizel]

I am afraid that you got your description of how lithography works wrong. Lithography is based on the fact that while the marks made by a crayon or grease pencil will attract ink, the stone (wetted by water) repels ink. An artist will draw on the stone with a greasy or oily medium. The stone is then wetted. When ink is applied, the ink adheres to the drawing but is repelled by the wet stone. This means that the drawing can now be transferred to paper. It also means that the stone can be reused almost indefinitely, since all that is necessary is for the original drawing to be erased.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

If you watch it again (1:59), I never really explain how lithography works - only that Senefelder etched the stone with acid and the grease pencil markings remained intact. How he developed that into a process and the process itself, I leave to other videos on the topic of lithography

[@davesworld7961]

I have most of these posters in my collection. Some on my walls.

[@WolfishGlitch]

Can you make a video about indie films?

[@andredubois5154]

I have been a fan of your videos for years...they a great to watch, study and re-watch .. I m a big fan of movies collecting....I m particular fond on lobby cards....If i dont find images of some lobby cards I make my own......Especially new films since Lobby cards are not produced anymore...I have ONE question for you if you can. Because i have the upmost respect for your knowledge and expertise on the subject....WHAT IS THE TITLE of the first film ever to have a lobby card set produced ??? My research gave me SOUL TO SOUL 1913...what do you think ?? Thank you very much for your great work.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

Thank you for your kind words. I have no idea what was first but I would counter that being first isn't something that's knowable or even momentous. They didn't treat this stuff as valuable, they treated it like you treat your weekly grocery store flyer...

[@andredubois5154]

@@FilmmakerIQ thank you very much...its not that important but its just to put a title in a list...i ll kepp my SOUL TO SOUL...for the moment.

[@jacobm223]

Bravo

[@KendrickHarrisKenfinity]

Definitely attention grabbing! It's awesome to find out how our unforgettable and just easily noticeable movie posters got started. Keep it up and stay safe!

[@derekroberts6654]

Im just curious why you didn’t mention Roger Kastel? He’s just as important as poster artist as they are.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

I didn't mention a lot of people... those six I mentioned just happened to be six often cited in my sources.

[@andlabs]

What's that artwork at 13:57 to the right of the Excalibur one?

[@FilmmakerIQ]

It was an alternative artwork for Excalibur that was so good I had to show it

[@andlabs]

Oooh, neat! It definitely is so good, and it does remind me of both Apocalypse Now and Empire of the Sun somehow too, but is quite the aesthetic =P

[@fabius_costa]

The next one should be the history of the tripod.

[@dabs.youtube]

you forgot to mention that struzan also designs th e first harry potter movie poster, the philosopher's stone

[@daleanderson1727]

Great piece. As always. Thank you.

[@seanramsdell4172]

What is your favorite movie poster of all time?

[@FilmmakerIQ]

I don't know - so many good ones but I think I might be partial to Amsel's Raiders of the Lost Ark rerelease poster. Only after doing this course did I find out that Back to the Future was not a photograph but a drawing... so that might be on the top of the list. What's your favorite?

[@HackMyControlSystem]

Filmmaker IQ. Cat Balou; although, Seven Samurai was a close second.

[@derekescalante1355]

Apocalypse Now

[@mankriter]

Great history lesson John. Too bad the art of actual painting and dressing the cinema on the outside has also died. One of the last painters works in Athens, Greece and his name is Vasilis Dimitriou.

[@RCAvhstape]

That Shining poster at 10:26 though...

[@FilmmakerIQ]

Honestly not one of Bass's greatest moments IMHO... If you google Shining posters you can see a bunch of other drafts Kubrick had Bass make and frankly I think some of them are much better. But... that weird alien drawing of Scatman Crothers was the one Kubrick picked... so... yeah... that's that.

[@arfansthename]

If it wasn't for laundry, printing wouldn't have existed.

[@XprPrentice]

Um, all these are great - except one sticks out like crazy: Why is the "Rain Man" poster a "design"? It just looks like a still from the movie. I'm all for simplicity, but this resembles my own poster designs - and I'm not a designer in any sense. (My theater posters were generally just shots of the actors, and I worked with typefaces for the title and made sure everybody got the right size billing...)

[@jordel2010]

Great video as usual, I knew of Drew Struzan and Saul Bass but didn't really know a lot about those other guys. Definitely is a shame that this level of artistry seems now like something of a bygone era, but I guess is yet another sign of the decline of the film industry (specifically Hollywood).

[@makasii]

love ze french prrrononciation 😂

[@1000khani]

What is font, you use?

[@FilmmakerIQ]

Blackboard available at Envato as an animated font

[@1000khani]

@@FilmmakerIQ 🙏

[@FabeehaKLodhi]

Could you please do an Episode. With all the inventions of Thomas Edison in the film industry.

[@TheWischmop]

Very informative. Would've liked some positive examples of contemporary posters tho.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

16:55 - a bit harder to figure out who's who in modern movie posters. There's also a large community of artists doing retro movie poster designs (while at the same time doing new movies) that make everything really confusing when trying to tell a cohesive story

[@creech54]

No Renold Brown? For shame! Universal's Karoly Grosz, too.

[@typograf62]

I've actually made a movie poster once. My father asked for something to use in the movie club of the high school. I doubt if he ever used it (I was 5 or 6 at that time). But as the movie was something about a train and some western stuff I just had a railroad running into the distance. I never even saw the movie. Perhaps I should have made it a career? Danish movie posters were even worse, FAR worse.

[@juliusyapp2796]

I followed Cathay organisation in 1960s. I remember they realised MGM. 20th Century Fox. Columbia Pictures. Walt Disney.Rank Films. And never Warner Brothers.United Artists and Univetsal pictures. Am I right?

[@NostalgiNorden]

WTH is that The Shining-poster suppose to represent?

[@KillConLeche]

Damn you drew struzan

[@leonardomapache]

Don't we all work for Gold?

[@sswpp8908]

Movie posters are an aspect of film making and TV that in my opinion has become extremely lackluster. Just like movie trailers, if I was to judge them on how excited it gets me for the product, then most of them fail. There are collages you can find online with dozens of posters copying the same visual motifs and TV promos are usually just photos of the cast standing around in various poses. None of this is either visually interesting or draw me towards seeing the product advertised.

[@moviesmagicandmore12]

Nice video, but your French accent could definitely be improved ;)

[@FilmmakerIQ]

is this where the phrase "pardon my French" would be appropriate?

[@ookiemand]

Merci! :)

[@foxb5974]

It's sorta sad to see how posters are today

[@L0RDK3Y]

this was ytp super

[@clydecessna737]

You hinted your disaproval of recent movies. I think I know why they are less good but still commercially successful. They lack irony and so does our modern youth culture. Irony requires a common culture and our culture is simply too diverse. Today you have to explain the joke even before you make it. In the days when 40 million Americans all watched one show, say Sunny and Cher, we were all on the same page, so irony worked.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

I don't disapprove of modern movies just pointing out that the posters can be repetitive

[@naedolor]

This is really great stuff, but your french, man.... Sacre bleu. And I'm not even french.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

"The French don't really care what they do... as long as they pronounce it correctly" - Henry Higgins

[@naedolor]

fair enough :)

[@morbid1.]

Polish posters from commie era are crazy and fantastic :D today they are really bad and most are poor photoshop white background and characters on top - awful.

[@nunouno001]

Meanwhile today most movie posters come courtesy from photo shop.

[@FilmmakerIQ]

What's wrong with Photoshop? Wait 50 years, there's going to be a run on 2010 posters... you'll see ;)

[@skye3352]

second

[@niallshetty3918]

Firste