Filmsane

We’ve all seen them, and we all think that they’re great. But why are the fan-made movie posters often so much better and more creative than the Hollywood-produced ones? Let me explain why I mean by that. You’ve probably seen the teaser poster and the teaser trailer for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino’s 9th movie arrives in theaters this summer and we’ve already got a big glimpse of the period piece starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.

Although the teaser trailer seemed fine, the poster was critiqued mercilessly for having little originality, imagination, and playfulness. In other words, the poster was pretty bland, dull and sub-standard. Which was surprising because this it’s for a Quentin Tarantino movie. One of the most famous and talented directors in the world. The posters had Leo and Brad standing one next to each other with LA in the background. Nothing special right? Sadly yes.

In comes the fan-made poster for Once Upon A Time In America, and there’s a clear difference in the style and originality. First of all its drawn, and secondly it features plenty more actors on the poster. While the original had only Brad and Leo, the fan-made had Margot Robbie on top and even some unknown supporting actresses on the far right.

But why are the fan-made movie posters so much better? Well, it’s simple. They were made by the fans of the directors, movies or the actors involved in the movie in question. More often than not, they’re made by struggling artists that are looking for more exposure and this is a good way of getting it.

In most of the cases, they’re not based in Hollywood and having that outsider perspective really amps up the creativity. They don’t have any restrictions, deadlines or editors breathing in their neck. But most importantly, they treat posters like fine art, and not like sales tools.

Film studios, distributors, the marketing team behind the movie all treat the posters as marketing sales tools, which explains the decision to slap Brad and Leo’s images in front of a yellow taxi and call it a day. They have to sell the movie, and Brad and Leo will sell the movie for sure. The fans that made the artistic fan-made posters, on the other hand, treat the posters like a blank canvas. They’re not limited by studio executives and they’re not selling anything but their art. So they treat posters like fine art.

And the next time you see one such fan-made movie poster, take time to admire it. Share it on social media. Give it the praise it deserves, because you won’t be seeing it when you go to the movie’s IMDB page. No, you’ll be seeing that idiotic poster that won’t do shit for you and may even make you want to stay clear of ever seeing the movie.

No? So it’s just me then.