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Studios in contest for ugliest biblical cover (1 Viewer)

Joe Caps

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all of a sudden, the studios are releasing a bunch of biblical spectaculars on blu ray in the next few months - each invarious degrees of ugly covers.

So Far


Ten Commandments - not good


King of Kings - ugly beyond belief


and now, the just announced The Bible (fox) with a general bible cover and nothing of the actual artists in the films.


Warners seems to hav e a nice cover for the blu of BenHur but, so far, has failed to announce the release of the film.
 

Charles Smith

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Oh my god that King of Kings is hideous!


Obviously done in a "popular" contemporary style that has nothing whatever to do with anything except for blending in with a whole bunch of other BLAND crap covers on the shelf.
 

Charles Smith

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Seriously, that's a fucking insult to the tradition of this film, excuse my fucking French.
 

ahollis

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Are they doing any marketing research on this? Three different companies with three very generic "modern" covers of classic biblical epics. I am glad I do not buy a DVD or Blu-ray based on the cover art. Maybe I will just down load a one-sheet, print it off, and slip in the front over this so called title art.
 

RCinOttawa

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I must say I wish they would stick with the ORIGINAL ART WORK...


I have to agree it's like some sort of ugliness contest when it comes to classics on bluray.


I cringe when I look as some of these. It just doesn't do justice at all to the time and effort that went into making them look and sound great for bluray...
 

johnSM

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This is a HUGE pet hate of mine - the decline of cover artwork! If you have an original film, why not have the original poster artwork with it too?! So many covers these days are just badly photoshop'd disasters with absolutely ZERO imagination behind them or respect for the film in question...


What have the studios got against using original artwork? Financial/copyright reasons perhaps? Are they scared of something looking 'dated' even though the film itself is obviously a product of its era?! To me the artwork is part of the whole package and I'd like what was used originally. The art of decent film posters seems to be dying out alas - I love the hand painted ones like the original Raiders of the Lost Ark or Star Wars for example, and it really annoys me how often they choose to go with some cheap looking photoshop cut and paste job these days. Doesn't exactly inspire pride of ownership!


Come on studios - you often go the extra mile in releasing gorgeous looking HD prints of classic movies, please go the extra few feet to bring us the original artwork too!!! Perhaps even double-sided covers giving the customer CHOICE between the original poster, or the newer monstrosities...


- John
 

ahollis

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You hit it head on. They are afraid it will look dated and loose potential sales to a younger generation. They know people like us that know and have a love for the film will get no matter what the cover looks like. Although, I think the covers are so non-descriptive that they will get lost among any other titles


Originally Posted by johnSM


What have the studios got against using original artwork? Financial/copyright reasons perhaps? Are they scared of something looking 'dated' even though the film itself is obviously a product of its era?!
 

ahollis

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After thinking about this discussion, I also see the same sterile one sheet posters for today's films. There is just no imagination anymore or sparkle in marketing of films. The best movie poster I have seen in a couple of years was for Inception.
 

OliverK

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Well, for those who really care there are ways to a nicer cover.

Too bad the studios do not seem to be able to do the proper artwork themselves at least with regard to KoK and TTC...


Here is a site with lots of classic movie posters some of which imo would make for very nice covers:


http://www.moviepostershop.com/king-of-kings-movie-poster/GJ5974

http://www.moviepostershop.com/the-ten-commandments-movie-posters-1956


Is it only me or does it seem a bit strange that most large format biblical epics are released in just one year?


With Ben Hur also being a potential release candidate befor christmas we are only missing The Big Fisherman and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
 

Rick Thompson

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I've taken to simply taking the paper cutter to the DVD artwork, taking little off the sides and more off the top/bottom, and throwing out ugly Blu-ray art.


If that can't be done, I scan the original DVD art and create my own cover. Since "King of Kings" was in one of those cardboard WB specials, I'll have to go that path for this film.


Why the manufacturers don't use their DVD art for these is beyond me, especially since they do so for most of their films. It's not like they don't own the artwork. It's actually more expensive to commission new (crappy) art.
 

ahollis

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With Fox releasing THE BIBLE this spring, I was surprised that they did not get with MGM and give us THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD also, Then I remembered the MGM/Fox DVD deal is almost up and it will be interesting to see what the new MGM is going to do. Also two pictures about the life of Jesus battling it out on the Internet and store shelves would be pretty non-partisan. While I like both films, each at on different level, if I had to pick between them, it would be KING OF KINGS.
 

ahollis

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Originally Posted by Rick Thompson

Why the manufacturers don't use their DVD art for these is beyond me, especially since they do so for most of their films. It's not like they don't own the artwork. It's actually more expensive to commission new (crappy) art.

I think the thing about it that so many of them do not think it is "crappy" art. Marketing of films has fallen to new lows these past few years. I kind of blame it on the loss of Newspaper ads. They were offering different type of ads when a film was released and revising the artwork in 'ye olden days". The only ones that seem to care about the artwork today is Dreamworks Animation, where they are constantly changing posters and newspaper art work.
 

johnSM

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Originally Posted by RCinOttawa

DVD cover:




Bluray Cover:




...Even the font used for the title looks blah.

Awful - Epic (!) fail as the kids today would say!!! That original poster is soooooo much classier. I really have got a chip on my shoulder with many of todays 'designers' - they're nothing of the sort. A few badly cropped actors and some totally mundane font and - voila - you have a cover! That only took me 10 minutes to do I can charge a packet and take the rest of the day off!!! Of course I'm being cantankerous I'm sure most of it comes down to what the studios want, rather than bad designers per-se.


Studios seem to take on board complaints about bad transfers on here judging by the recalls and/or replacements that usually ocur a few times each year. Perhaps they'd be receptive to constructive criticism about their bluray covers too if enough people chimed in? Heck they could even use it as a marketing gimmick - flipper covers - original or modern! I'd buy that for a dollar!


- John
 

OliverK

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Originally Posted by Edwin-S





@johnSM:


flipper covers would be great - the studios could make one cover as hideous, garish and "modern" as they please and also include the classic artful covers for those who actually appreciate their classics.


All the cover bashing aside I have to admit that I will be happy if the Blu-Ray itself looks great on my screen and I am not really that concerned about the artwork. let's not forget that the picture and to a certain degree sound quality is what really matters.


Still it is funny to see how the studios seem to think they need "modern" covers to pull in a new audience for these movies (or is it just to show their bad taste?).
 

Joe Caps

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there is great art that the studios had.


Ten Commandments had a great poster for the 1960 local release. My favorite art for this film. the only art that doesn't emphasise the red sea.


The poster says uncut, intact.

this poster was designed for Ten Commanadments back in 1956 for the non roadshow run. However, the film was in roadshow for so long, that dating on the fim actually says 56/60


King of Kings has some good foreign art as does the bible.
 

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