The For Your Consideration Corner

Hi folks, Glenn (sometimes aka Kamikaze Camel - long story, don't ask) from Stale Popcorn here. Nathaniel kindly asked me to talk to you about "For Your Consideration" ads - the backbone of a well-run Oscar campaign - and that's what I'm going to do. My passion for poster art is well documented on my side of the blogosphere, and, unlike the movies themselves, you don't need to live in New York or Los Angeles to appreciate and discuss these. I should know, here in Australia the Oscar movies aren't coming as thick and fast as they are in the US of A. So come on over to the FYC Corner and look at what's making Variety and The Hollywood Reporter a lot of money, shall we?

All images are courtesy of AwardsDaily unless otherwise noted.

As the undisputed zeitgeist movie of the year, The Dark Knight is gearing up for a big Best Picture campaign and I figured it was a logical place to start. The film has already amassed a large FYC catalogue of eight (and that's just in the trades) compared to other highly-touted titles: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with three, Doubt with four and so on. Even I, not a die hard fan of the movie, must admit that the ads are by far the best looking. At least as of right now, anyway. Australia's campaign is sure to be beautiful if Fox gets off their arse and creates one, but who am I to demand such a thing? Whoever is designing these ads for Warner Bros sure does know what images to use and how.

Taking the "serious" route with the campaign, the ads for The Dark Knight are all dark and brooding. Filled with eye-catching blues, saturated blacks and searing whites. That Best Cinematography nomination for Wally Pfister is looking more and more like a possibility as more gorgeous ads get released (which, in an aside, doesn't actually mean anything in terms of whether the cinematography is worthy of a nomination, does it?) particularly when they are as eye-popping as the one of the left here.


[click to enlarge]
So pretty! If only all ads worked that well!

FYC Ad of the Week: Tropic Thunder
Yes, yes, by now it's circulated the 'net and been praised to infinity (and beyond?), but it still bares repeating.

I found this particular ad at Film School Rejects amongst other places and it's a hoot! At least somebody's having fun with their campaign!