Charles Apple

Adventure has a name. And it’s Indiana Jones.

I’m jacked about seeing this movie. I have today off — I’m awfully tempted to run out to see it. But if I wait until Saturday, Sharon and Elizabeth can see it with me. So I’ll wait.

The other day, we showed you a few fun Indiana Jones-themed features pages and asked you to send us yours.

We didn’t get many. I had to borrow a few from NewsPageDesigner and the Newseum.

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Let’s begin with a look at a number of A1 promos or skyboxes.

Now, before you go off on a rant about how all American papers look the same, consider this: There simply aren’t that many choices for promo art. Everyone is working from the same, limited pool of publicity handout photos.

And this whip pose is a good photo. It crops well into a small space.

Having said that: Eek! American papers really do look the same.

Sigh…

So, with all that sameness out there, who can we count on to break up things for us? Why, the free city tabs, of course! They’re always doing something clever!

Let’s look at three:

Well, damn!

Let’s look at what else we’ve got for you…

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Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Cheyenne, Wyoming

The movie review is apparently A1 news in Cheyenne. At least they balanced things out with a positive and a negative review:

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Johnson City Press
Johnson City, Tenn.

These guys found an interesting peg for an A1 story: They talked with a local archaeologist to see if his life is as interesting as that of Dr. Jones.

Apparently, it’s not. A great idea; it’s a shame they were stuck with that same handout photo.

I wonder if this would have been stronger if they editors had led with an environmental shot of the professor and played down the Indy photo a bit. At the very least, shoot a portrait of the local guy wearing a fedora and holding one of the toy whips they’re selling at Target.

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ROBERT ZAVALA
Victoria Advocate, Victoria, Texas

I’m not sure this story merits being on A1, but I love Robert’s artwork:

Oh, yeah. That’s juicy. Not to mention slightly kinky.

Let’s take a closer look:

If you’re thinking that doesn’t look much like the Cate Blanchett character, you’re absolutely right. This is a column. The woman on the left is the columnist. See the sig below her left arm.

EDIT:

When I posted this Thursday, I didn’t know the artist’s name and I couldn’t quite make out his handwriting. Robert e-mailed Friday evening. Thanks, man superb job!

See Robert’s online portfolio here.

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DANIEL MARSULA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Speaking of wonderful art…

I love this illustration and the very careful, subtle use of color and texture.

But the headline, in particular, just cracks me up. You couldn’t get away with that here in the Bible belt. Folks would think your story is about someone else.

See more of Daniel’s work here.

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KRIS DALE
The Bakersfield Californian

Lots of interesting material, set up in the Californian’s typically active style. The “A to Z” down the right side looks like it would be a fun read:

Find more of Kris’ work here.

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MATT HAUGHT
Charleston Daily Mail, Charleston, W.Va.

Matt writes that he attended the midnight showing, wrote the review and then designed his own treatment. Now, that’s a dedicated visual journalist.

Find more of Matt’s work here.

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PABLO VILLA
El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas

Pablo had a local angle, he says.

Portions of Crystal Skull were filmed in Deming, N.M., about an hour’s drive west of El Paso.

Very interesting cropping of the handout photos and very nice use of color.

Find more of Pablo’s work here.

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JEREMY FOGT
The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.

Jeremy, here, is the one designer I’ve seen so far dig a little deeper into the studio publicity shots and use a different shot of Harrison Ford:

Find more of Jeremy’s work here.

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CHRISTINA COLLISTON
The Naperville Sun, Naperville, Ill.

The Sun went with a self-test on dialog from the three earlier Indiana Jones movies.

Here’s the front of the entertainment tab. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the poster art from the first movie:

Here’s the center spread. Click to enlarge:

Find more of Christina’s work here.

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And we’ll close with this extremely fun piece by…

PATRICK GARVIN and DENISE REAGAN
The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.

The page is nice enough — even if it is unusual to see a section front sideways.

Of particular interest, though, is the illustrated fever chart.

Patrick writes:

Denise and I watched the movies and feverishly took notes minute by minute. Then, I rated each minute on a scale of 0 to 3 in terms of how much danger he was in at that minute.

For the minutes when half of the minute he was in danger and then they cut to him at the university, I rated it based on the danger, and not on the university. For the university scenes, he was pretty much at 0, though I bumped it to 0.2 to 0.5 depending on how ominous the music was, or based on the potential danger of the plan being discussed. (For example, when the guys who visit him at the university say, “The Staff of Ra!”)

I plugged the minute-by-minute ratings into Illustrator and charted it that way.

For the new movie, Denise and I went with our critic and used the light of our cell phones to jot down minute-by-minute notes. I came back from the screening and then plugged in the data.

This is not the first time we’ve done a movie graphic. We did one in the fall of 2006 for The Guardian, the Ashton Kutcher/Kevin Costner movie about coast guard swimmers. We took some Navy swimmers with us and had them rate it in terms of accuracy to what it’s like to be a life-saving swimmer versus what was just a Hollywood add-on.

There’s a great lesson here: Infographics or page designs don’t always have to be objective. Especially when the subject is a summer movie. It’s OK to have some fun.And Denise and Patrick definitely know how to have fun.

Thanks for sharing, guys!

Find more of Patrick’s work here. See Denise’s portfolio here.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 am and is filed under Illustration, Innovative ideas, Amusing stuff, News design, VizEds Blog, Graphics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.