Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

So how come studios continue to pay graphic designers to come up with AWFUL AWFUL DVD artwork when the films already had cool posters?

Examples.

The Rum Diary. Posters with Depp as Thompson in a messy hotel room, which is exactly what the film is.



DVD cover. WHAT. THE. F*CK.


OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.

The Prestige poster. Bale and Jackman against a swirling background that echoes the mind bending nature of the film.



DVD. ATTACK OF THE FLOATING HEADS.



One of the year's best films, Drive. Gosling looking patient, cold and thoughtful with the cool pink text with the film title.



DVD/BD cover has fake photoshopped blood, the already iconic scorpion on Gosling's jacket is no longer a huge piece on the back of his coat, but a tiny logo on the front, and the whole thing looks like a rejected Fast and Furious cover.



Take Shelter. An emotionally wrenching film about a family torn apart by a tornado. A moody and dramatic poster.



A sci-fi channel DVD cover:



And the cover that prompted me to make this topic, the new single disc release of Battle Royale on Blu-Ray.



What kind of crackhead designed this? Why are their weapons just floating there? Why is nobody even HOLDING the shotgun? UGH.

What would have been wrong with this poster:

So what the hell makes studios do this? Movie posters are designed to grab people's attention already. Why not just use the posters. Where are all these photoshop nightmares coming from and why do people get paid to make them?

My friend and the co-host of my podcast wrote a very good blog entry wondering the same thing for anyone else who is confused and wants further reading...

http://nightofthelivingtrev.wordpress.c ... -dvd-cover

Simply put, posters are where artists get to actually be artists. Covers are meant to grab zombie consumer's attention and get them to grab the box.

Or that's how it seems, anyway. Also, I do fully acknowledge that some things that work in a poster don't work as well when translated down to the smaller medium of DVD covers. But still, you think they could do it without making utter pieces of crap. I swear Photoshop is both a blessing and a curse. I work with it every day. It's offered stupendous leaps of productivity for artists.

...And enabled Joe Schmoe to hammer together a piece of crap in twenty minutes and have it mass-produced. :puke:

Case in point: Silent Hill.



Now the poster, I believe, was produced via a website contest, where people submitted their entries and the best was picked. Nevermind that awful decision (it pretty much screws over professional artists and lets the company get the poster on the cheap), the final product wasn't bad.

Then they made this:


And it's a Photoshop collage pretty much on par with Sony's other crap covers (the Godzilla ones, that is).

Btw, some of your images don't work...

How about pretty much every STAR WARS release since around 2004 or so? I mean, how do you approve garbage like this:





When you have things like this to work with?!?!

The cover image used for National Lampoon's Vacation for so many years, vs. the one used for the most recent DVD and new BD release:



National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation had the same problem:

(The second image is from the collector's tin, but the actual cover is essentially the same).

These two just seem a lot more underwhelming than the originals.

Ryan, those are atrocious, especially the Vacation one.

Here's something else I don't get. When a movie has a long shelf life on DVD with the original cover, then for no reason, the exact same disc is issued with a sh*ttier, photoshoppier cover. Example. Commando:

The original iconic cover that anyone who has ever set foot in a video store will instantly recognize vs. the new cover for the reissue of the exact same bare bones edition DVD:

Here's a whole blog showing how awful cover art can truly be.

http://badassdigest.com/2012/01/31/hide ... ed-movies/

The worst was the Repulsion cover. Here's the original poster for the classic Polanski psychosexual horror film, next to the BAFFLING DVD cover used for the old DVD (before Criterion came in and saved the day):

Seriously who OKs this stuff?



And These Spider-Man reissues are AWFUL







There is no excuse for this madness!

Someone in the industry told me that one of the big reasons that new art is created for the home video releases is because bootlegs almost always use the poster art. Odd logic, but that's what he told me.

Keeping on the theme of terrible covers for Critters:





instead of:

God... those Spider-man covers.

compared to this



or this

So I just got The Apartment and Some Like it Hot. Two classic Hollywood flicks directed by the genius Billy Wilder. These are classy flicks, so I'm sure the covers will reflect the prestige of these pict-





OH GOD, WHY ARE THEY ALL PLASTIC!? MAKE IT STOP!

I love that last Alligator poster. Love the original Critters posters too.