rip-off cover art (1 Viewer)

[Marc Deslauriers]

How about these?

 

[Marc Deslauriers]

...or this one...

 

[MichaelPe]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but here's another one:
Link Removed Link Removed

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The Being There cover is a tip of the hat to the surrealist painter Magritte. The other two are just similar low-angle shots of the main character with the horizon in the background - common graphic composition, and it is unlikely that one was based on the other. I suppose it is possible that the designers had Magritte in the back of their minds, but rather doubt it. Still less do I think they had Being There in mind. (In fact, I remember a similar surrealist poster that didn't resemble the example shown.)

The Scream and similar layouts are simply a convenient way to show a bunch of actors who contractually have a right to appear (with approximately equal billing) on the poster/cover. There are only so many ways to fit "x" number of faces in a picture along with the title and other information that has to be there and still have everything be visible. Remember, the purpose of a poster and/or cover is to sell the film. It has to be an image that can be taken in at a glance, easily identified, and interest a browser in checking the film out. (The small size of DVD boxes is a prime reason that something other than the original poster art is often used. What looks good on a billboard or a 27" x 46" poster is often unreadably small on a DVD box.)

Given similar constraints it is no surprise that artists come up with similar solutions to the design problem - even if they've never seen the "original" cover that their work resembles. (Some of the examples above are blantant rip-offs obviously intended to confuse the consumer into picking up one film thinking it is another of which he or she may have only a vague recollection. Others, like The Last Picture Show, seem to be accidents of design, since the "rip-off" cover doesn't even especially resemble the original, and the composition is completely different.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[John_Berger]

Something I did for another forum..

Oh, that is just WAY too funny!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

vs.

 

[Ricardo C]

Wait! wasn't Will Patton IN Gone in Sixty Seconds? He was! Wow...what's he doing in the rip-off too? Actually, what are any of those actors doing in the rip-off?

The artwork for the DVD is the only ripoff. Turturro's movie actually came out a couple years BEFORE G60S. The two films are completely different, story-wise.

 

[Sean Moon]

Look at ANYTHING Miramax form the past few years. It is all headshots and crap like that. You can tell what studio it is just by the way the cover is done.

Whoops! I had a post from months ago a little bit up!

 

[Ricardo C]

God bless Link Removed

 

[Matt Pelham]

These two Shannon Tweed covers actually use the exact same picture, only flipped!
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Also check out
http://www.davisdvd.com/Miscellaneou.../crappyart.htm
for a list of crappy/rip off DVD cover art.

 

[Robyn Young]

How about these:

v.

Strikingly similar, if you ask me...
robyn

 

[JavierS]

The Being There cover is a tip of the hat to the surrealist painter Magritte. The other two are just similar low-angle shots of the main character with the horizon in the background - common graphic composition, and it is unlikely that one was based on the other. I suppose it is possible that the designers had Magritte in the back of their minds, but rather doubt it. Still less do I think they had Being There in mind.

Well I read in an interview with Brett Ratner (director of Family Man) where he said that "Being There" was one of his favorite films, so the similarities between the cover art is no surprise to me

 

[David Lambert]

Digging up an old topic here, but every time I see this cover art:

...I'm reminded of this one!

Hmmm...now that I see them side-by-side, as it were, maybe it's just an "in the ballpark" thing. It's certainly not dead-spot-on. Still, one reminded me of the other.

 

[Guy_K]

I thought this was a pretty big rip-off.

 

[MarcinL]

HOw about these

ROCK and CON AIR

Virtually the same

 

[Ray H]

 

[David Lambert]

Radha Mitchell is MUCH easier on the eyes than Joe Pesci!

 

[James Reader]

Of course, some like say the Bride Of Chucky/Scream 2 and Problem Child/Parenthood examples are not 'rip-offs' but parodies. I would be more interested in seeing more parody covers on this thread.