Originally published at: Archiving the history of Hollywood's printed props | Boing Boing
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I never get tired of seeing Adam completely geek out over props, whether they are originals or replicas. In this case, many original and priceless objects. Great stuff, can’t wait to see more of these videos as he explores this collection with its curator.
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I just wish that printed props were better. How often have you freeze framed a piece of writing only to discover that it is barely literate, that the newspaper headline doesn’t match the text, or that it is literal lorem ipsum? Compared to all the other steps that go into prop making, composing a text that fits the script would be one of the quickest part, but so often they don’t care.
But maybe that is just me speaking from a position where I have to write stuff all the time, so it seems easy to me? Maybe it isn’t as painless for a propmaker? But then they should keep an in-house writer on staff.
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How long until Adam moves into printing and bookmaking? With this video and his visit to the bookbinding museum, it’s clear this is his latest obsession, so I’m just waiting until the urge to physically make something in this space takes over. I would love to see him letterpress print something.
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I wouldn’t blame him, it’s a topic I’m very interested in as well. There’s a local university near me that has a certification course in Book Art that I’m considering taking.
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does the video mention why every fake magazine had a V for Valient brand cigarette ad on the back?
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Wow. If they rented cots at $500 a night and allowed you to wander around this treasure trove of movie history they’d never have a vacancy. I hope this archival project leads to a profitable sideline for the company in books, documentaries, and sales of replicas to geeks like me.
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For most of movie making history, freeze-framing wasn’t even a thing. Why invest time and money for something no one was going to conceivably read?
In fact, I’m delighted when I see the equivalent of lorem ipsum because it’s a secret I wasn’t supposed to see.
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By the way, the Earl Hay Press is the home of Morley cigarettes, as preferred by the Cigarette-Smoking Man in The X-Files.
https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/archive-of-fictional-brands/247042/25?u=gaghalfrunt
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More on type (misused) in movies
https://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/typecasting
https://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/category/son-of-typecasting
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The Earl Hays beercans were an icon of genre film and TV for many years.
The “Nacy L. Courey’s” cans were all over shows like Rockford Files, All In The Family, Eight Is Enough and scores of others.
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Yeah a lot of people don’t realize how much effort goes into building a visual brand identity. Why go through all the trouble and expense to make up all the visual assets that would normally be associated with (say) a fake airline that may only be in your movie for a few shots when you could just re-use “Oceanic Airways?”
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If you squint at the type directly under the picture, you can make out that it says “Oldster Abraham Simpson”.
On the “Indiana Jones” ride in Disneyworld, the imagineers had come up with a typeface that was supposed to represent (I guess) the hieroglyphics used by the builders of the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. After staring at it wherever it was used while I was stuck in the ride line, I found I could read it with some difficulty; it turned out in some cases to be warnings about things you might encounter in the temple. It made me snicker several times, while earning me blank looks from fellow line-standers.
eta: got the ride name wrong.
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Yeah it’s a basic substitution cypher, they do the same thing all over the “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” part of the park with Aurebesh text.
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Makes sense; I haven’t been back to the House of Mouse since 2017, so I’m out of touch with current park offerings.
eta: I got my park visits muddled.
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Yes, this video is EXTREMELY cool - however…
Don’t be naive: Whenever there is a single company that completely monopolizes an entire area of business, EVEN between multiple, competing companies in a closed and geographically-close industry (a la all these competing studios in the movie industry in Los Angeles), some shady shit was in operation.
Or perhaps it was difficult, specialised work and there was only enough demand to keep one company in business.
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I watched one of the Bourne films the other day, The Guardian was featured in it and a close up of the story involved was part of the story – I was vaguely annoyed that they didn’t use the correct typeface.
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Was The Headline Written The American Way, With Initial Capitals On Every Word?
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