Les belles affiches > Round-up artwork > The Pyramid

The Pyramid

Greg, Alex and Franck are buddies. Alexandre « Arcady » Aja, Franck Khalfoun, and Grégory Levasseur. The three of them are also fans of gore and belong to the species rarely found in France of those venturing into that filmographic territory, first with their 2003 Haute Tension. Since then, the three friends have left for the States and pursue their adventures together there; 2ème sous-sol. Piranha 3D, Maniac, Mirrors... Taking turns, they direct, write, or produce each other’s films. For Pyramid, Alex puts up the dough and Greg operates the camera. Franck sinks his teeth somewhere between Kheops and Gizeh. This claustro-oriental-survival story has great potential but that said, you can make do with it if you are a fan of the genre, or just mummify if not. OK, but what about the artwork ? Well, that certainly deservea a closer look for its textbook execution of really well done photomontage. Technique Everything is centered on the transition between skull and sand with black as the buffer zone. That buffer is also amply used to duplicate zones and textures to create a visual connection, as we’ll show in the examples below. Unwanted parts of the skull were erased. To appear realistic and create the perfect illusion of a skull resting on a pyramid, Photoshop needs to be used with a light touch. Lots of work also in the contrasts, +/- opacity, and overlay of gravelly texture, dust…. Texture doesn’t get the kudos it deserves but it is the glue that holds everything together while providing depth and realism. Artwork A skull lugubriously dissolving in the ground with a pyramid on top. Some posters play with the concept, like that great pharaonic mask with a skeletal face or the close-up of an eye covered in hieroglyphs. The idea is of course to coax the onlooker into associating it with the big stinking rat trap in grandma’s basement. The mummy owns the pyramid and will devour everything. Only fly in the ointment, or rather shadow in the sarcophagus : the graphic designer slapped « Publisher » on every poster... what’s that all about, lack of time ? In any case, the way the title is pretty shabbily executed with its ultra-classic sans serif font which makes it look like the Garmin interface. You would expect something a tad untidier, maybe that the sand has nibbled at it, and a neo-oriental style instead of something that looks like the letterhead of an temp agency.