Friday, October 23, 2009

Cirque du Freaky Head

It Had To Begin Somewhere..
Getting a copy of the Los Angeles Times is a weekly treat for me. My subscription is for Thursday through Sunday only, which means on two weekday mornings, I open the door and see the paper teetering on the stairs of my second floor apartment. I love being up-to-date on what's happening around my city and the world, but that's not the best part of the LA Times for me. No, the best part about seeing that paper at my feet is that it means that the weekend is VERY near.

On the two week days that I get the paper, I like to take it with me to work and flip through the pages of the Calendar section while I check my emails. Like clockwork, you can bet that on one of those days, I will find a new full page ad (usually for a movie) that shows someone's face rendered weird by Photoshop. I run around the office, paper in hand, pointing it out to my coworkers. Those I show usually all agree (maybe just to humor me) that something, has most definitely gone wrong during the editing process. Since these outbursts are probably growing tiresome to those who work closest to me, I thought I'd share it with a new audience.

The First Offense
As per usual, this morning I brought my paper with me to work. I sat down at my desk with a cup of wild sweet orange Tazo tea (one of my newest obsessions) and began flipping through the Calendar section when I happened upon this-


A full page ad for the film The Vampire's Assistant (which you can see up close here). Right away it's obvious that something has gone wrong with this "victim's" head. His eyes are really oddly shaped and oversized. It looks like someone made the top of his head way larger than the bottom half. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I found a still from the movie to compare. The difference here is obvious.

The victim with the big funky alien-like head is named Chris Massoglia. You might argue that they altered Chris's head for effect and you know, you may be right. However, I don't see the appeal of making one character's head on a poster look like a bratz doll while leaving all the other people on the poster's body parts normal. John C. Reilly's head is normal, Salma Hayek's boobs look big as usual and even the boy (who looks like he's part of a domestic abuse case- what's up with that?) who is standing in the background looks symmetrical and human like.

Who knows what went wrong here. It's just....bizarre.
It's definitely not one of the worst Photoshop massacres I've seen and will only receive a one star offense rating.
______________________________
Rating System
* Photoshop Purgatory- ever heard of an adjustment layer?
** The Gates of Photoshop Hell- it's almost too late for you
*** Photoshop as a form of torture-we're all suffering from your art
**** There are no words that can describe the atrocity you've just commited. Do us all a favor and slit your wrists with those Photoshop installation discs.

1 comment:

  1. If they made John C. Reily's head any bigger it wouldn't fit on the billboard! He's got a huge mellon. I see what you mean by the gratuitous use of photoshop on ads, I'll have to look closer next time I'm flippin through LA Weekly.

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