Customer Reviews

Watchmen: The Art of the Film

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 0:37 Mins

Peter Aperlo, the author, has included a lot more visual content other than art illustrations in the book, all packing in to make it a rather thick book at 256 pages. It's well constructed and bind. Pages are thick low gloss with good colour reproduction.

There are five chapters in the book, namely Concept Art, Sets, Props, Owlship, Costumes and Posters. All pretty self explanatory.

First off, the art. These come in the form of character designs, storyboards (cute but not detailed) and beat board illustrations. There isn't as much art as I expected, the art in this book is seriously overwhelmed by photographs. Well, Dave Gibbons has already done most of the concept art in the comic.

The photos are shots of sets, locations, props, miniatures, film stills etc. To list a few, there are detailed close up of newspapers, New York wall graffiti, Blake's costume wardrobe and other miscellaneous items and backgrounds that appear in the movie. There are several unused concepts shown also.

I really enjoyed looking at all the gadgets, prop and location shots. They really give depth to movie adaption of the comic. I bet they will have even more meaning after I watch the movie.

There's not a lot of text other than the chapter introductions and short captions. It doesn't really need that much text anyway.

This book is highly recommended for Watchmen fans, comic and movie. It's well worth the money. I like it very much.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

In warehouses across the nation, there are mountains and mountains of Watchmen related books that exist only to spite Alan Moore. Nevertheless, the Watchmen fan on a budget will be faced with the dilemma of picking and choosing the right merchandise to complete his bookshelf or shrine to one of nerddom's greatest literary (and maybe-cinematic) achievements.

I would not recommend buying Watching the Watchmen: The Definitive Companion to the Ultimate Graphic Novel unless you're a collect-them-all type of guy who absolutely must have access to the original sketches and thumbnails done by Dave Gibbons. Spoiler: they're virtually 100% identical to the finished product, so you're basically buying a collection of black-and-white Watchmen pages sans text.

I will strongly recommend "Watchmen: The Art of the Film". Unlike a lot of visual concept books that spend a lot of time talking about the artistic process, this book goes straight to the heart and doesn't waste a lot of pages on exposition. Rather, it's crammed with visual goodies and full-spread pages, letting the art and design speak for itself. There are whole sections devoted to the fake newspaper clippings scattered throughout the film as either props or parts of montages: the level of detail that goes into an item seen on screen for seconds is amazing. Besides the conceptual art, there are even some photos that may be seen in Watchmen: Portraits. So for those of you thinking that you're not going to see any closeups of Nite Owl's costume or Silk Spectre's nightie, fear not: there's plenty to be seen here.

One of several books out about the soon to be released movie Watchmen. It is spectacular, full of incredible photos and behind the scenes info. I am a fan from the original publication of the comic and never thought a film would see the light of day. One of the greatest comic series of all time, this book does it justice. Once the film has come and gone, you will spend hours with this, a treasure chest of photos and art. The detail is tremendous, and you will not be disappointed. 250 packed pages.

With the Watchman coming to theatres March 6th, 2009, Titan Books has re-released two soon to be classic hardcover books celebrating the Watchmen. The first book, the Art of the Film, is a stunning book by Peter Aperlo that captures more than just the Art, but attitude and passion.

In only 256 pages, we are presented with concept art by Dave Gibbons, John Cassaday, and Zach Snyder for characters, settings, and the marvelous gadgets. Receiving special attention is the Owlship, the costumes, and the movie posters. This is a marvel of design, and competent text commentary that illuminates the photos where it is necessary. Fans of the Watchmen will recognize story elements from the comic, and hopefully soon, the movie too.

Of particular note is the oversize book design. This, like the over the top Watchmen media campaign, will not just sit on your shelf, it will dominate it. Just like the companion piece, Watchmen Portraits, these books demand to be noticed. With vivid colors and in your face presentation, this is not to be taken lightly. For instance, the movie poster section is outstanding! Try to pick a favorite out of the batch. Personally, I like the black and white with yellow lettering images, however, some of the color images aren't too bad either...

Be it the Silk Spectre II, Sally Jupiter, Ozymandias, Rorschach, Dr Manhattan, Nite Owl II, or any of the supporting cast, the images and art in the book can only be described as BOFFO!

If the film is as good as the book is, I can hardly wait!

www.titanbooks.com

Tim Lasiuta

As you can imagine, bringing a work this immense in scope to the movie screen is no easy task, and as both of these books show, it was exhausting. Watchmen: The Art of the Film deals primarily with the creation of the sets, backdrops, costumes, and assorted paraphernalia that populate the film. Just a quick glance shows how much effort went into each detail, including several newspapers with full articles, Rorschach's handwritten journal, and action figures based on the story's sellout entrepreneur, Veidt. Going inside (at least on the page) Archie the owl ship, Dr. Manhattan's laboratory, and Veidt's Great Hall gives just a hint of the exhausting work that went into re-creating all the details. A gallery of movie posters at the back of the book is a real treat too; seeing how real life has been framed to mimic panels from the original book is a sublime, nice touch.

Watchmen: The Art of the Film reveals the intense work that went into creating the look and feel of the film. It's a perfect complement to the film for those who love to see the magic behind cinematic creation (not to mention completist fans of the graphic novel).

Watching Watchmen transform from a book to a movie, and then back again in the form of this book, is mesmerizing. Even better, it seems to have been packaged by true fans of the original series, who paid attention to details not just of interest to students of cinema but to those things that fans of the books will seek out. Seeing little things, like Hollis Mason's book, Under the Hood, or comic books of Tales of the Black Freighter, are not only nice. They warm a jaded fan's heart and show the true magic of the movie: Its persistent devotion to the original source material.

-- John Hogan

The art of the film is just that, a look at the enormous amount of art that went into making the films including storyboards, production designs, concept sketches, props, sculptures, and more. As you read through this book and look at the thousands of pieces of art, you get a sense for the incredibly huge scope of the film. Was it necessary to create sculpts of each of the characters? Probably not, but it goes to show just how meticulous Director Zack Snyder and the production team were. The largest section of the book is devoted to concept art. This is where all the gifted artists came together to create the action first on storyboards, or to create the costumes and props through concept sketches before turning over the designs to the wardrobe and prop people to make the final product. Well-known artists like David Finch, Adam Hughes. Dan Milligan and others provided many of the concept pieces, some very different than what was used in the end product. A simply gorgeous book.

This is a great book containing production designs, conceptual drawings of scenes, prop closeups, and the like from the Watchmen film. This is a good companion to the Film Book (the softcover one with Rorschach on the cover) but like most other of the ancillary Watchmen books (Portraits, Film Companion, the Gibbons book, etc), it's really intended for the Watchmen fan who can't get enough of every aspect of the film's production (plus it's a bit pricey and there is some overlap in what is covered here), hence it's general appeal will be somewhat limited to the casual fan (so i only gave it four stars for that reason and the bit of repetition/similarity of material with other books). Very nice presentation, though, as it's hardcover with a nice dust jacket and quality printing/binding - maybe it would 've been better to just combine the film companion book and this one and make one giant book?

I just have to say this book is amazing! It's also very large and the pages are nicely weighted so it doesn't feel like you might rip it if you flip it. It's got great concept art by David Finch, which is very inspirational if you're an artist. And the quality is amazing I promise if you buy this you will not be disappointed, especially if you are a Watchmen fan this is a must have.

-SexyKPistol

Buy it! you will not be disappointed. Good art good story. nice development of artwork. great reference