22nd February 2008

Hi & welcome to my Movie junk; a new & hopefully exciting blog courtesy of those nice guys at FrightFest & FILM4. So let me introduce myself; my name is Nicola & last year was my first year at Frightfest, so they asked me to do a blog on my experiences of the festival and if you didn’t catch that then I hope this ongoing blog of a movie fans’ rambling compensates.

Well what is my movie junk?

No it’s not that… Although I do like all the crusty zombies in it, and the kick ass zombie girl. It’s this! And everything else that comes into my head movie-wise. The world of junk is where I inhabit, you know the stuff given out as promotional goodies, I am the keeper of all things that taste forgot, so I will be blogging about anything & everything from T-shirts to bags to music soundtracks, books, novelties, film posters & banners and even my own thoughts on films along the way all thrown into the mix in this blog, and the result could be as Far Out as Scott Weinberg’s short film.

And if you’re reading this Scott I stepped on your foot in the all-nighter quiz line-up oops sorry, bloody yank! No animals were harmed while doing this blog, and its 100% recyclable. So without further ado lets kick off 2008 junk style!

PSST ere got any Banners?

For a few years now I have been collecting film banners, yeah u know those massive hanging from the walls pieces of blown up movie promo art, that are seen in multiplexes across the country.

They always look dazzling when in a cinema, and to my astonishment from out of the blue a local cinema opened its doors to sell its junk and you know who was there, yep me! And that got me into collecting them, stacks of Posters, Banners, Stickers, Standees and all in my grasp, finally I could get some of the stuff I had walked past without really thinking, Aeon flux, Silent Hill, The Guardian, Cinderella man banners were stacked in my boot and off to a good home. Well I’m not into all of them, I can be choosy, nobody’s gonna want comedy film banners or a blown up Jack Black, or even worse a Steve Martin banner to show off in their place; if it’s you and you have a cheaper by the dozen 2 banner hanging well you’re just wrong, and you wonder why no-one visits you?

But if you have a huge glossy Spiderman, Sin City, Hellboy or 300 banners then you’re just as bad as me, & welcome to my world.

(early Spiderman banners were pulled for having the World Trade Centre in them, making them instantly collectable)

Getting them isn’t all that easy, it’s a case of being in the right place at the right time (apparently its down to the cinemas own discretion how they dispose of them), knowing which cinemas have the ones you want & luck trying to get them, unless you work for the cinema, then its an inside job of course or even better if you work at the printers or film company.

So imagine my luck when through an online auction site I tracked down a seller who had some, this involved a few emails a long drive and a few phone calls later. I made a contact to pick up some banners, this time I was lucky; I had an address, sometimes I haven’t even had that, just a phone number or a postcode.

A few minutes later a deal was struck, nothing too insignificant this time; The Kingdom, American Gangster still in the box, the Beowulf triple banner set, but I had my junk fix for the day.

It’s a funny thing though as collectors aren’t the most open about their sources of such things, but still I made a new contact.

It’s where it all leads though 2008 promises to be a great year for films; Rambo, Cloverfield, AVPR, Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Batman, Hellboy 2, The Hulk, Star Trek to name a few, so who wouldn’t want some of those gracing your walls. The better the artwork the more collectable they seem, even if the films aren’t great the artwork can be.

Meanwhile I am running out of room and needing space - that’s the down side to being a junkaholic.

Until the next time readers

Nicola