Designing Australian Film Posters.
I obtained a little information last night on the process of designing and printing of movie posters in the 1940s and 1950s. Before I share this limited information with members I was wondering if this topic has been discussed on the forum previously that I may not be aware of and is there anywhere on the web I can seek out that has any information on this subject.
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I was about to start this very thread a week ago but got side tracked.
From what I've been told is that many designs that are not a direct copy of the US OS or insert are obtained from images in material sent by the distributors such as lobby cards, stills and photos.
For example Calcutta daybill looks nothing like the insert or US OS
Same with the Pale Face nothing like the insert or OS
The bottom image with the Indian I can't find but chances are it was from another 11 x 14 pic
US 11x14
The stalking indian appears inspired from the image off the British 10 x 8 front of house card.
Agree with what you have had to say earlier. Richardson / Paramount & RKO Radio seem to have been trying to create their own designs different from the U.S.main paper sources being one sheet. 3 sheet and insert..
More to comment on later.
I originally located information off Trove newspaper advertisements regarding Aub.Mosely the unknown to most people Australian movie litho poster artist of the 1940s and 1950s I then conducted a search and managed to track him down. I rang and spoke to him at length on a few occasions and ended up asking him if he would like to have some information on himself and his poster work and his life recorded and shown on a film website so his identity and his poster work could be acknowledged. He agreed to this so I approached John who agreed and then John contacted Aub. on numerous occasions by telephone gathering information that needs to be recorded while we have access to it. Aub told me he was most likely the last remaining poster artists from his days at W.E.Smith and Robert Burton still with us.
With the 3 sheet thread I was getting a little frustrated in not being able to locate a W.E.Smith 3 sheet. I was thinking did they print them or not? It then dawned on me when I originally spoke to Aub. I didn't ask enough questions on the designing and printing of the posters so I decided to get in touch again with him. I called him a couple of days ago with the sole purpose of delving more into this area.I fonld out the following -
1 ) Yes W.E.Smith printed 3 sheets on a limited basis.While I think of it when I got off the phone with him I managed to find a W.E.Smith Columbia 3 sheet. Aub. thinks maybe he created a 3 sheet of a Guy Madison title but he doesn't remember the title of the film. He described the artwork and with me doing some detective work I am the thinking possibly the Columbia Guy Madison title was The Hard Man but this would have been at Robert Burton'a during his time there.
2 ) W.E.Smith during his time there printed daybills, one sheets & 3 sheets but nothing larger.
3 ) There were times when there was pressure to complete posters by a certain time.
4 ) Aub. believes poster artists that got to sign their work in the 1930s and 1940s may nave been commercial artists which allowed them to sign there work.
5 ) I asked about how he worked on posters it usually was three daybills being worked on at the same time. Aub. would start on one poster at a time starting with the colour yellow. When finishing this colour each of the three posters would have magenta / red applied followed by blue and maybe another colour sometimes.
6 ) I asked the question on average how many posters would he complete in a week and I knew this question would hard to answer as I am sure some posters needed more work on then than others. Aub. was a little reluctant to answer but he finally came up with often three daybills and a one sheet. I know this would vary but just multiply 4 x 52 weeks is a total of 208.Less annual leave & sick leave if any still leaves a lot of posters for an artist to work on in a year.
Material used to copy has been covered earlier by Matt, Chris & John.
Aub. mentioned how pleased his family and friends.were at looking at a copy at John's story and the recognition his work has received .