Well, fear not, for all of the Hollywood is Dead posters and limited prints are one size that you can frame easily… and at a reasonable cost.  You don’t need to spend hundreds having a framing shop do a custom job- you can do it yourself- quick and easy!  Here’s how…

All HID posters are 13″ x 19″, or 19″ x 13″ depending on orientation.  Standard movie posters are a bit larger, but often too large fit aesthetically into most living spaces.  13″ x 19″ seems to be the hot new size that everyone digs.  It’s still a poster, but snug enough to fit in a nook.

To frame one of these bad boys, you only need to make a simple decision at first.  Do you want the frame matted, or not?  Matted is where you have an additional matte board surrounding the art inside the frame.  The image here has a matted frame, although you can choose mattes in almost any color or texture to fit your decor.

If you don’t want your poster matted, then framing will be easier and cheaper.  All you need is a nice 13″ x 19″ frame.  I’ve seen them at arts and crafts stores, but the best selection and prices you’ll find is online.  You can google “13 x 19 frames” or check out some of these we recommend.

You can nab 13 x 19 frame made of gorgeous walnut wood for less than 14 bucks HERE!

This 13 x 19 black Nuveau wooden frame looks killer and only $14.40 HERE!

Imperial frames makes a stylish 13 x 19 frame with flat black moulding 1.5″ wide for only 17 bucks HERE!

You can also find a ton of great 13″ x 19″ frames on Amazon.com and even Ebay!  All of these frames are easy to work with, and can be hung in either orientation: Landscape or Portrait.

Okay, so let’s say you do want to have a matte inside the frame, which can have more of an ominous grande feel.  The best way to do that is get an 18″ x 24″ frame.  Those are easy to find, their everywhere, as it’s a common poster size.  Even stores like Target and Walmart have them.

Selecting a matte board that you like what might take you a while, but it can be fun to find just the right one to match both the art and your decor.  The size of matte board you need to start with is 18″ x 24″, to fit snug in your frame.

Now you need to just cut out the window in the matt board.  Again, the size of your poster is 13″ x 19″, which would leave 2 and a half inches of matte board all around each side.  However, you’ll want the matte board to overlap the print about a quarter inch on each side, so the best is to cut the window size of the matte board in 2 and 3/4″ (2.75″) from each side.  Or- center a window 12.5″ x 18.5″ inside the matte board.

You’ll then want to attached the print to the back side of the matte board, adjusting it to make sure it’s centered.  You can use regular adhesive tape to do this.  Most professional framers will only tape the top edge of the poster to the matte board, letting gravity keep the rest flat.  If you tape down all the edges, you can get buckling over time.

If your Hollywood is Dead poster has been rolled for a long time, you may want to flatten it first before framing.  Some heavy books overnight can do the trick.

That’s it.  Cheap.  Easy.  Effective.  And it it brings a touch of class to showing these off, because you know the posters themselves are void of it.

-MB

But for those of us who admit to the guilty pleasure of appreciating art depicting the undead, would you actually consider hanging such atrocities in your home, or is it something you scoot under the rug?

Is zombie art (or any horror-related art, for that matter) something you collect, and are proud to display and show it off?  Or would you be embarrassed?  Really, you wouldn’t be “caught dead” showing off something that makes you smile, at the risk of some art snob thinking it’s beneath them?

This is a strange topic that I’ve observed for 15 years as a professional illustrator who dabbles in multiple genres of pop culture.

As an example, many people know me for the work I’ve done with the Star Wars universe.  I exhibit at comic book conventions and sci-fi shows all the time where I get to meet friendly people who appreciate my art.  And of the people that do, the prospect of them owning a limited edition print or even an original painting comes up.  From there, they usually break down into 3 possible categories:

1.) They would love and cherish owning and displaying the work, but they cannot afford to purchase it.

2.) They would love and cherish owning and displaying the work, they can afford it, and so they buy it.  (Happy customer, grateful artist.)

Or 3.) They can afford it, but upon thinking about it, realize they have no place where a painting of Darth Vader would fit into their existing decor.

Which brings me back to zombies- the same scenario, though probably moreso.  I’ve seen rabid fans stop in their tracks on a purchase when they realize that their Mom would have a shitfit if she saw that in the apartment.

Which is sad to me.  I say this not as an artist trying to make a sale, I say this as a self-proclaimed fanboy.  My home is loaded with art, statues, and prop replicas from such Hollywood properties as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator, Johnny Sakko and the Giant Robot, E.T., The Mummy, and the list goes on.  It’s enough to make an upscale interior decorator faint.

But I don’t design the look of my domicile for the approval of a pretentious interior decorator.  I design it for me.  And I love it.  I see art and knick-knacks that make me smile.  I surround myself with my world.  Wouldn’t you want to do the same?

Some might say, “Well yeah, but my significant other…  He/She won’t let me hang something like that.”  Again.  Sad.  You’re admitting to defeat?  What ever happened to happy compromise?  You display some of what you love, they display some of what they love?  And if that doesn’t work, perhaps you need to take another look at your relationship where the other is wearing the pants and not meeting you half-way.

My point is only this: whether it’s zombies, Star Wars, or SpongeBob, if you love it- revel in it.  You only live once.  Surround yourself with good people, good times, good music, and good art.  Be yourself.  If it doesn’t infringe on someone else’s life, you shouldn’t have to make a compromise.

Oh.  Ahem…

If you’re looking for some nice zombie original art, a great place to start is the ArtInsights Animation & Film Art Gallery right HERE.

Matt out.

But which method works best?  Which one is creepiest?  Which one is most convincing that the living dead are walking among us?

The cinema zombies you see most often are people in makeup.  It’s the easiest to do.  The pro is that you have actual people portraying actual people, so to a degree, there is a sense of realism.  The con is that you’re limited to trick makeup, which can give the illusion of boney cheekbones and sunken eye sockets, but you can’t exactly make it look like someone’s jaw fell off.  Not convincingly, anyway.

You see more CGI these days. While the sky is the limit in terms of the director’s imagination, current digital animation has its ups and downs, too.  On the positive, you can decay your zombies to the point where they are borderline skeletal.  Limbs can come and go, no problem.  On the negative, CGI often looks too perfect.  As a result, people can tell it’s fake, and what good is that?

What you don’t see as often is the use of puppetry. While this has limitations, it’s often a nice middle-ground between live action and CGI.  Puppetry is not living and breathing, but what you see on screen is real form with the same light and shadow as everything else.  Sam Raimi uses it effectively at times.  One of the coolest undead puppets I recall in recent years was in the movie HELLBOY, where the lead carried around half of a reanimated corpse on his back.

Which one is most convincing?

To each his own, but my vote goes to puppetry.  You haven’t seen as much of it, but I’d love to see more hands-on craftsmanship that goes into creating the living dead in films.  Traditional slight-of-hand still holds up better than CGI, in my humble opinion, though isn’t as cheap.

And it takes more time.

But don’t you want filmmakers to put more time and care into creating movies you’re spending your hard-earned dollars on?

There was a time when movie poster art was it’s own separate thing to cherish and admire.  Sure, it was meant to sell the movie, but it was also a work of art that stood on its own.  Something that was larger than life, told a story, and yet was able to capture the mood all in a single image.

Now, 99% of what you see is amateur Photoshop disaster.  It’s a quick fix, for the so-called artist, the so-called art director, the suits, and sadly, it’s also an acceptable fix for the audience.  No one really cares.

That’s not to say a photo-based poster or something created in Photoshop can’t be great- it certainly can.  But the art, the design, the aesthetics these days are all but lost.

One of my favorite contemporary illustrators is Tommy Lee Edwards, who, by the way, produces art both traditionally AND digitally.  He has worked on a plethora of Hollywood licensed properties, and produced a lot of movie poster comps.  His experience with Hollywood ad agencies is similar to my own.  You get paid to design a ton of great comps, but in the end, the suits STILL go with two large heads, compiled in Photoshop with no grace whatsoever.

Speaking of Tommy Lee Edwards, he put together an incredible blog a few years back, detailing some specific examples of great classic movie posters, yet when they were released on current formats, like DVD, the new package art is atrocious.

Click here: TLE BLOG

Seriously, nothing can prepare you for these examples.  You have to see them.

One of the scariest movies I ever saw as a kid was The Evil Dead.  (I know some zombie enthusiasts don’t consider the Evil Dead movies in the same category, but they certainly deal with the undead.)  I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was a weekday right after school at Colleen Clann’s house.  It was in broad daylight, in the family room, and on a duped VHS cassette.

And I was scared shitless.

Fast forward to today, it seems that zombies have become an unintended parody. We mock them as mindless drones begging for “Braaaains!”

That’s not to say that the mockery can’t be quality entertainment. Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland were great popcorn movies.  Both of those movie found a way to take something clichéd and make them fresh… and fun.

But here’s what I’m asking. Has pop culture mocked the undead to a point where they’re not even scary any more?

There’s a POLL on the main page of this BLOG asking that very question.  Throw me a bone.  What do you think?

That being said, let’s open a can of worms and ask anyway.  Is Hollywood dead?

I’m not sure I have a solid opinion on the matter, but having lived in Hollywood for the better half of a decade, I did make some observations.  As for the city itself, when I first moved there I was completely baffled at what I saw.  I guess I was expecting streets of gold or something, not homeless people sleeping in their own vomit.

During my early years living in the Los Angeles area, I attended several art college schools, including the Art Center College of Design, where I produced the attached painted image for one of my classes.  The assignment was to do a painting of showing the reality of Hollywood.  What I came up with was tongue-in-cheek then, and probably clichéd now.

Fast forward years later. I was finding that working in the entertainment business wasn’t limiting me to live in Los Angeles any more.  Technology could let me live wherever I wanted.  So I decided to plant my headquarters back in Michigan, north of Detroit, where friends and family are close, people are down-to-earth, I can enjoy four different seasons, and for better or worse, cost of living is extremely low.

But an interesting thing happened since I’ve been back (which is totally irrelevant to my move), Hollywood came to Detroit.  At first, (ten years ago) I didn’t believe it.  I would still visit L.A. several times a year on business, and often if it came up in conversation, Hollywood producers would say things like, “Oh, you’re in Detroit now?  Good move.” When I would inquire what they meant, they’d say things like, “Haven’t you heard?  Detroit is the new Hollywood.”

Last I heard, more major motion pictures are filming this year here in Detroit than in Los Angeles, do to the Michigan Film Tax Incentives.

While these are all interesting observations, do I think Hollywood is dead?  Um, no.  Not at all.  Hollywood has changed it’s game the same way every business has.  Like the automotive industry, Hollywood is expanding its productions and going where the labor is cheaper.  Hollywood is evolving.  Maybe in some good ways, maybe in some bad ways, but change is inevitable.

But every time I go into a movie theater, it’s packed.  And there’s all the proof you need.  Hollywood is far from dead.