Graph: The Audibility of Darth Vader’s Voice by Location on his Breathing Mask

There’s a lot of magic, both dark or otherwise, in the Star Wars universe. This is doubly true for the villain in the series, Darth Vader. But it’s not all magic. In fact, there is some cold, hard data out there about Vader. Specifically, we can chart just how easy it is to hear what he’s saying based on which part of his face it’s coming from. I’ve done just that in this bar graph.

Moss Effect: My Favorite Work from Artist Olly Moss

The other day, regular reader/unofficial mayor of Baltimore Scott Carberry posted a link in my comments section to some amazing work. It was to a poster for the 85th Oscar Awards. And the artwork blew me away. I found out that it was the work of Olly Moss. After a little digging, I discovered that Moss has created a LOT of movie poster art that I’ve seen and admired through the years, but didn’t realize he was responsible. I’m a designer for a living, and I can tell you that the quality that Olly Moss creates is what we all want to create. Here are some of my favorite movie-related posters created by Moss.

Menace, Indeed

This article is brought to you by my friend Jeff, who has an aversion to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and can wax poetic about Chewbacca. Today’s topic- determining whether or not Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace really was written for infants.

My 2 year old kid, Doolin, loves movies. He used to call them moomies but they are movies now. He has particular favorites that he likes to watch back-to-back-to-back ad infinitum. He eventually moves on to new favorites that we will watch roughly 100 times and wash, rinse, repeat. Yesterday, I was pretty sick of Puss in Boots and It Takes Two. I actually like Puss in Boots, but I want to strangle my wife for bringing the Olsen twins into our house. Digging for new material, I tried a couple things before deciding on a specific movie I thought he may like. What follows is a line of text updates to our mutual friend John.

Chewbacca: The Poem

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I made a stupid joke on Twitter that I was writing a poem and needed to know what rhymed with Chewbacca. That gave me the idea that an actual poem about Chewbacca- written from the heart- had the potential to be hilarious. But I knew I wasn’t the person to write it. There was only one person I know who could do it up right. That would be my friend Jeff, he of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang review. Jeff is one of the funniest people I know. So without further ado, here is “Jabberwakka”, a poem about Chewbacca, along with a bonus haiku to get you warmed up.

Ruining Movie Posters with Comic Sans

Comic Sans is a font with an interesting place in the graphic design kingdom. Most designers hate it. Hell, most people hate it in general. And that’s because it’s a bad font. If you really want to know why, then read this article. If you use it, graphic designers and font nerds and lots of other people will laugh at you. To illustrate the point about how bad the font is, I’ve recreated a bunch of movie posters using Comic Sans instead of the original font. No matter the era or genre, I think you’ll see how inappropriate it is, even in comic book films. Consider it a public service announcement.

The 12 Best Times People Yelled “NOOOOOOOO!” in a Movie

I wish life was like the movies. Whenever things go bad, you could reach as deep as you can and bellow out a deafening “NOOOOOOOOOO!” to let everyone know that you disapprove of something. Because that’s exactly what happens in movies when something bad happens. Here are 12 great examples.

Ten Common Wookiee Problems

At first glance, wookiee life looks glamorous. Wookiees in the Star Wars universe were heroes. They were loyal, they were courageous, and they were universally feared (and that applies to many universes). But a wookiee’s life isn’t all fun and games. The life of a wookiee comes with many problems. For instance:

The Evolution of the Movie Trailer

Movie trailers have taken on a life of their own. We’ve reached a point as a movie-watching society where people will go see films that they’re less interested in, purely in the hopes of catching a trailer for an upcoming movie with tremendous buzz. The whole process is absolutely fascinating. Despite the fact that most movie trailer styles have had an impact on the trailers of the modern era, trailers haven’t always had such importance for movie-goers and studios. Someone had to come up with the idea and implement it.

Other Ways George Lucas Could Have Made Star Wars Worse

Fans of the Star Wars trilogy have been up in arms ever since seeing the edits that George Lucas recently made to the original trilogy. They are no doubt letting the hatred flow through them right about now. The fine folks at the LAMB- Large Association of Movie Blogs- have a hilarious photoshop contest going on in conjunction with the event. It’s called “Other Horrible Changes George Lucas Can Make To The Original Star Wars Series“. If you have submissions, be sure to get them in by September 19th. I’ve taken my own crack at it. As much as the changes may have rankled fans of the epic trilogy, it clearly could have been worse. For instance…

Come on Baby, Light These Movie Characters on Fire

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I could give some sort of preamble here, an introductory paragraph of sorts. Doors reference aside, I think the headline is as much truth in advertising as you’ll ever find. What is this? It’s a list of movie characters who were lit on fire. It all begins with a spark:

Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
I suppose this also includes Rachel Dawes- both were taken down via explosion. But Harvey’s trial by fire is the one that we witnessed.