A YouTube documentary film about one of
Britain’s foremost movie poster artists Tom Chantrell (1916-2001) has just been
released. The 51-minute film, "Tom Chantrell- The Man Behind the 'Star Wars' Poster (!977)", details Chantrell’s life and career spanning seven
decades. There are interviews with family, friends and poster experts and
Chantrell’s poster imagery is displayed throughout.
Director Simon Henry came to the project
after unexpectedly discovering a photograph of Tom Chantrell holding up the
unfinished “Star Wars†(1977) poster. “The image simply blew me away, seeing
the amazing poster in its uncompleted form being held up by its creator... I
couldn't get the image out of my head and the more I read about Tom's work and
its significance within British film history the more I realised that someone
had to put this under a spotlight. I decided to contact Tom's family. We've
tried to tell Tom's story through the people who knew him best and hope we've
done justice for Britain's most important poster artist, Tom Chantrell.†(Editors note: Chantrell was primarily known for his designs of British quad posters which were generally different from the posters used for the North American market.)
Chantrell was a prolific artist with a liking
for colorful, dynamic almost photo-realist type painted poster illustrations.
However, he was a versatile artist and able to switch styles to caricature,
impressionistic, photographic and mixed-media compositions too. He is described
as the “consummate†commercial artist in his field, being able both to design
and illustrate posters (these functions were often separate in many advertising
agencies). Chantrell could also take care of lettering and would frequently proffer
his own witty tag-lines too.
In the 1930s Chantrell was employed providing
technical drawings and artwork for various commercial publications. WWII then
interrupted Chantrell’s career. As a conscientious objector Chantrell refused
to bear arms but instead found himself in one of the most dangerous occupations
in the entire military service: bomb disposal. Eventually the army recognized
Chantrell’s artistic skills and he was re-deployed. After the war Chantrell
resumed his career as a commercial artist and it was at this point that he
began to specialize in the creation of movie poster artwork.
It is thought that Chantrell produced
approximately 700 pieces of finished poster artwork during his career. Working
for the Allardyce advertising agency, Chantrell concentrated on films for
Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. Among his standout compositions were Quad
poster designs for “Bus Stop†(1956), (“Cleopatra†(1963), “Bonnie and Clydeâ€
(1967), “Bullitt†(1968) etc. Chantrell also created posters for the popular
British “Carry On†franchise (1963-66) and dominated poster production for
Hammer (1965-74), relishing the “sex and gore†orientation of the studios.
As the advertising industry became more
“corporate†so the strong-minded Chantrell grew increasingly frustrated with
what he saw as “interference†in the poster design process and in 1972 he
turned freelance. With a young family and worried about where work would come
from Chantrell created a handy-sized portfolio of his artwork by cutting up
lots of his original paintings. This was a loss to posterity but has increased
the value of what has survived.
(Above: Chantrell (2nd from left) with fellow members of the bomb squad.)
However, almost instantaneously Chantrell
found work providing art to independent distributors. Although there were a few
high-brow films to work on much of Chantrell’s output in the 1970s and early 80s
was for thesex-comedy movies that were
fashionable at the time. Chantrell took a pragmatic approach. If the job paid,
he’d do it. Whatever the commission, Chantrell’s instinctive understanding of
commercial reality came to the fore and even the most dire of movies would be
blessed with a superlative poster design.
With an enormous body of work to his name, probably
Chantrell’s most famous poster was his design for the UK Quad for “Star Warsâ€
(1977). Gary Kurtz, the producer, wanted more “personality†in the poster
campaign for the UK and various poster artists submitted concept art. Though by
now working as a freelancer, Chantrell was very familiar to 20th Century Fox
and was invited to a preview screening to help inform his submission. The rest
is as they say history as Chantrell’s all-action design was accepted and became
one of the most iconic film poster designs of the 20th century.
The Chantrell documentary has not been
blessed with an enormous budget but has been made by those that loved and
admire Chantrell. The Chantrell family have been intimately involved with the
making of the film and they hope that alongside the official Tom Chantrell
website www.chantrellposter.com the documentary will
contribute to establishing Chantrell’s rightful place in the pantheon of great
movie poster artists.