As promised last week, here’s the alternative set of Character Poster images from “Avengers Assemble”. The “A” logo has been overlaid over the images, the only difference aside from that is the use of a second Iron Man image, more suited to sitting within the logo.

I prefer the previous set as I think the addition of the logo is a little clumsy and unecessary. What do you think?

Along with The Cure, Depeche Mode and David Sylvian The Psychedelic Furs are one of the few bands that I have listened to constantly ever since I first heard them in the late 80′s. This is my favourite album of theirs, despite it not being their “coolest” work (“Talk, Talk, Talk” takes that accolade, in my opinion) but it’s so darn listenable, great pop hooks and glistening rock all topped off with Richard Butler’s gravelly, sneering voice. I just love it.

There is a lot of saxophone on this album, which means that I shouldn’t like it at all, considering my pathological hatred of that infernal instrument, but somehow I’ve never minded it. In fact, the sax-noise was one of the highlights when I finally got to see them live when they reformed in 2005/06. Hopefully it will still be as great when I see them in July, in Bristol.

Saw this the other night (3D version) and… WOW!!! Brilliant – best superhero movie I’ve seen, I think.

So many great things about this movie – amazing FX and CGI, really effective (and non-intrusive) use of 3D, great interplay between the superhero characters, VERY funny one-liners and some great visual jokes make this a very easy film to recommend.

These character posters have been around for quite a few months and since we had already been introduced to all the characters in previous the individual-hero movies, there are no real surprises. It took me a few seconds to realise that the guy with the glasses is Bruce Banner, pre-Hulk – also didn’t recognise that it was Mark Ruffalo, it’s not a particularly flattering angle.

Lighting setup is pretty simple with the sidelights as key and some front light as fill. I think the thing that makes these is the angles and crops used, with the characters on the right hand side of the poster, in most cases leaning out of the shot – reflecting the “A” shape, maybe? There’s another set, (which I’ll publish next week) with the characters positioned inside the “A” logo, where this becomes more obvious, but I prefer these simpler versions.

Anyway, a nice set for great film. GO SEE IT!

Difficult to believe this is 25 years old! Faith No More’s awesome debut album hints at the superstar status that they would later achieve, albeit without Chuck Mosely who handles vocals here but who was subsequently replaced by the equally unhinged Mike Patton. Tracks such as “Anne’s Song”, “Chinese Arithmetic” and of course, the classic “We Care A Lot” contain the blueprints for an entire generation of metal that was to follow. I love catching up with this album every once in a while.

Hot off the press, these new character posters from this summer’s “The Expendables 2″.

Not really much to say about these – the execution is really simple, basically dress all characters in black tactical gear, give them a gun / prop and then comp low-saturation versions of the resulting pictures into various explosion scenes. Interesting (to me at least) that Terry Crews is the only character shown firing his gun, where all the others are “at ease” – who knows whether there’s any symbolism at play there..?

I guess what’s most exciting about them is that they officially announce the lineup of major action stars who are going to be in this second Expendables outing. For any fan of 80s / 90s action movies, this line up is pretty much a dream team, probably one that most people never thought would happen. At the height of their fame Schwarzenegger and Stallone were hyped up to be box-office enemies, often going head to head with cinema or VHS releases and the prospect of them teaming up was often discussed but rapidly discounted as an impossibility.

Schwarzenegger and Willis appeared in the first Expendables but only in cameo roles. This time out, both are full characters apparently, Schwarzenegger in his first major film since his term as Governor of California ended last year. Can’t wait for that!

On top of that, in a line-up they’re calling “The New Dirty Dozen”, we also have Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris too!! Plus a couple of other new additions – Liam Hemsworth (from The Hunger Games, looking a little out of place here) and Chinese (female!!!) actress Nan Yu.

I enjoyed the first movie, which was definitely a throwback to movies like “Rambo First Blood Part II” and “Commando” – brainless fun, I guess you’d call it – but there was something missing. Maybe it was the new (and not-so-new) faces we’ll see this time out. Whatever, I’ll be there, chuckling through the mayhem.

And this is their best track (in my opinion), from the “Wolf Flow” album:

Might have to reconsider my aversion to pink motorbikes.. What was the ad for again..?

(NB – To hear the album you’ll need Spotify installed. Get it here.)

Another film that I haven’t seen yet, but also one that I’m looking forward to, having seen the trailer (below).

These posters focus on the two main characters, played by Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried and it’s fairly obvious from the various visual elements that this is going to be a sci-fi action movie – guns, digital implants, metropolis skyline etc.

The four posters employ three distinctly different looks. The first poster, above, uses the contemporary harsh side lights / front fill setup and although I like the pose, I think the lighting on the faces is a little confused, with odd shadows and triangles of light below the eyes.

The second is more moody and simply lit, with a large source on camera right creating an emphasis on the guns and allowing the digital implants in Timberlake’s arm to really stand out.

The third and fourth images are really nice – tightly cropped headshots, with very cold, blue tone. Subtly different lighting used on these, judging by the catchlights in the eyes – beauty dish on Seyfried’s shot, softbox for Timberlake, I think. The lighting on her face is slightly harsher / brighter than on his but it’s really not that noticeable. These designs employ one of the Movie Poster Cliches – namely “No. 2 – Big Text On Faces” – but I don’t hate it, here – it kinda works.

Interesting – and a bit confusing – that they’ve used a different tagline in each image though.

Joy Ride from Sandro on Vimeo.

I’m not a Nikon shooter, and I doubt I ever will be, but this promo video shot on the new Nikon D800 camera, using Nikkor lenses, is very impressive.

Honestly though, watch the credits at the end – they last for over a minute and a half, the crew on this is massive. With that many people – and I daresay, a couple of tons of high-end film-making equipment, other than the Nikons – involved, you’d be hard pressed to make a bad film with an iphone.

So, great looking video, but not too keen on attempts top make the biker look edgy – moody gangster bikers, hookers, street people etc. Would’ve preferred to just watch the beautiful bike zipping through NYC at night.

Anyway – here’s the making of – definitely a major production!