24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters (2016)

A documentary exploring the birth, death, and resurrection of the illustrated movie poster.

Director:

Kevin Burke

Stars:

Paul Ainsworth, Dave Alexander, Andrea Alvin

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Paul Ainsworth	...	Himself
Dave Alexander	...	Himself
Andrea Alvin	...	Herself
David Byrd	...	Himself
Tracie Ching	...	Herself - Poster Artist
Matthew Chojnacki	...	Himself - Poster Artist
Leslie Combemale
Joe Dante	...	Himself
Laurent Durieux	...	Himself
Jason Edmiston	...	Himself
Justin Erickson	...	Himself
Brock Higgins	...	Himself
Thomas Hodge	...	Himself
Roger Kastel	...	Himself
Kayley Luftig	...	Herself - Poster Collector

Storyline

A documentary exploring the birth, death, and resurrection of the illustrated movie poster.

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Plot Keywords:

movie poster | illustration | film history | art | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography | History

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 July 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six

Company Credits

Production Co:

Snowfort Pictures, Post No Joes Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Night of the Hunter (1955)

User Reviews

Finally A Film About A Little-Known Area of Film

A documentary exploring the birth, death, and resurrection of the illustrated movie poster.

Early on, the film tells us a great truth: posters are often more iconic than any one scene of a movie. "Jaws" comes to mind, as do others, where it is the poster that has become the popular image. And yet, do any of these names sound familiar: John Alvin (1948-2008), Bob Peak (1927-1992), Reynold Brown (1917-1991), Richard Amsel (1947-1985), Drew Struzan (b. 1947). Probably not, though they were the giants of the poster art world.

The studios saw the posters as advertising, not art. And while that is true in the strictest sense, it left many great artists unappreciated. More often than not, no signatures were allowed on the posters, and the work from the earliest years in now anonymous. Who painted the great posters of Frankenstein's monster? We will never know.

As anyone who lived through the 1980s-1990s knows, in the late 80s, there was a shift to photography, with the idea that artistic posters might suggest an animated film. This claim that pops up again and again, and sounds absurd on its face, but one scene actually has a focus group looking at posters and making the exact same comment.

The "art" in poster art took a dive in the 1990s, leaving us with "floating heads" and the same layout was used over and over again. For horror fans, this was evident in the teen horror films ("Scream", "Last Summer") and has not really stopped. Even the more creative posters today seem to rehash the same poses and images over and over and over. Is poster art dead? No. Because "24x36" covers a longer history, a new trend. Not just the history of lithographs and the decline of posters, but its new resurgence thanks to the rise of Mondo, its eccentric leader Rob Jones, and the new art from specialty Blu-ray labels like Scream Factory and Arrow Video. And this generation of artists, such as Gary Pulling, are not anonymous.

"24x36" is a much-needed piece of film history. There are many biopics, and there have been focuses on the special effects. Those behind the scenes are finally getting their due. But what of the painters and sketch artists who really drove the images into our collective, pop culture imagination? Now their story can be told!