Print shop to the Stars. (Adam Savage again)

John J. Blair

These folks create all manner of printed material for on-screen use. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TS6x8dK2u0

Mark Simonson

Wow, thanks for sharing this, @John J. Blair.

One of the things mentioned supports a theory I have about typographic props in the nineties and 2000s. As some of you may know, I wrote an article on my website over twenty years ago called "Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies" (and subsequent blog posts) where I called attention to anachronistic typography in films.

The thing I noticed was that most of the examples (especially the worst ones) were from the nineties onward. In the video above, the guy mentions that prior to the nineties, nearly all Hollywood films got their printed props from Earl Hayes Press, but then started doing them in-house. This fits with my observation. Apparently, once production companies started making their own props, the knowledge and expertise of Earl Hayes Press was lost.

Since then, especially in the last ten years, this attention to detail seems to have recovered. The level of quality in more recent films has become at least as high as the examples shown in the video (and given me much less to complain about).

Michael Wallner

Thanks for the video, John.

I just hope they washed their hands really well before handling everything.