In the Fall issue of Indie Slate (#55), Pixascope founder and creative director, Aaron Lea, tackles the familiar trend in using “floating heads” for a film’s poster art.

Seen on everything from Casablanca to Iron Man, this style of key art is recognized by the disembodied portrait shots floating in an abyss of design. However, unlike big studio pictures, smaller indies don’t always have the luxury of having Humphrey Bogart or Robert Downey Jr.

“Know that this aesthetic principle seen in mainstream key art is not an artistic choice, but merely a method to sell a film based on celebrity. They’re not selling story here, or even concept, they’re selling familiar faces. If you don’t have a Bruce Willis, or even a Bruce Campbell, then you should re-examine how you plan on marketing your movie.”

Be sure to pick up a copy of Indie Slate issue #55, available at most Barnes & Noble, Borders and Books-A-Million,

We make no secret for our love of Halloween and Vincent Price at Pixascope, so in the spirit (yeah, bad pun) of the holiday, we present you what we feel may be one of his finest, yet overlooked, performances EVER.

In 1972, AIP released the hour long television special An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe with Mr. Price chewing the scenery while giving us an unforgetable one man performance of selected works by Poe. From the many pieces he performed, the one that stood out the most was The Tell Tale Heart.

Happy Halloween everybody!

The Tell Tale Heart with Vincent Price (Part 1)

The Tell Tale Heart with Vincent Price (Part 2)

When producers and filmmakers begin readying their marketing materials for festivals runs, we get asked for recommendations on which online printing companies are best.

It’s a control issue, but we usually send our larger jobs to local print shops that we’ve developed working relationships with.  This means better quality control, but not always the lowest price.  We consider it a “sound of mind” service charge (plus, the printers we use do awesome work).

However, there does exist those “budget-sensitive” jobs from time to time, and there are plenty of printers online that are able to offer quality print runs that are more economical.  This lower cost is usually attributed to gang run printing.  Gang run printing is a process where multiple print projects are piggybacked and fed through on the same sheet.  You can read more about it here.

We researched several of the reputable online printing companies including 48hourprint.com, PrintRunner.com, UPrinting.com, PrintPlace.com, 4ColorPrint.com and IndiePrinting.com - companies we’ve  used/or have seen their work first hand.  Our goal was to find who is the most “indie film friendly” budget wise when it came to the typical filmmaker print demands: one sheets, mini posters and postcards.

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When Pixascope was asked to redesign the Phantasm website, one question popped up - What is the definitive title treatment for Phantasm? After four movies, books, comics and multiple DVD releases, there has been a slew of variations and new takes on the logo.

Director Don Coscarelli was interested in a return to the film’s roots, which is the classic serifed title used in the 70s, and who could argue?  However, it was the sequel that established the now iconic chiseled chrome look .  Not wanting to ignore these two elements, we married the two together, while drawing influence from actual mausoleums to add  a new level of engraved gothic detail, resulting in the title treatment you see above.

Below are the original logos used in 1979 and 1988.

This summer, Call Box rolled out their latest training DVD for Apple’s DVD Studio Pro.  This latest packaging design continues the aesthetic cues as the previous Sony release.

This was recently brought to our attention.

MovieMaker Magazine selected Call Box as one of the 50 Best Websites for Moviemakers in their June/July issue.

Call Box offers instructional DVDs that executive producer and host Noah Kadner describes as “training for the most popular and trickiest to use HD and 24p cameras.”

Pixascope was initially approached in 2006 to design and develop their site and branding.  Since then, Pixascope has designed all of the packaging for Call Box’s 6 DVD releases, including their recent release DVD Studio Pro: Special Edition.

Congrats goes out to Noah and the rest of the Call Box crew.

Pixascope, a Texas-based creative agency, will now exclusively focus on independent film marketing to fill a void in the industry. Agency Creative Director, Aaron Lea, is combining his decade of general marketing experience with his love of film to change the direction of the company.  “I’m using my experience to target the entertainment industry, and emphasize streamlined marketing solutions for the independent vision”, Lea explains.

Pixascope will cater to filmmakers, distributors and studios. With distinctive creative and strategic direction, the agency will generate buzz and target audiences primarily through viral marketing.

In addition to viral efforts, other services include anything from à la carte projects to full media campaigns encompassing web design, key art, one sheets, DVD art, merchandising and more.

For more information, visit them online at www.pixascope.com or call 512-782-4532.