Mark Raats Speaks Out On 'The Rise Of Skywalker' And Fan Backlash
Posters, especially movie posters, are a big part of Star Wars culture. Artists like Ralph McQuarrie, Tom Jung, Tom Chantrell, Roger Kastel, and Drew Struzan have created pieces of art that are recognizable by people well outside the fandom, even if they don’t know the artists' names.
One of those who have worked as an illustrator for decades is Australian-based Mark Raats. Raats has created posters for all nine movies of the Skywalker saga, as well as for Solo, Rogue One, and recently even for The Mandalorian, in addition to dozens of posters for the main characters. But he isn’t fixed on Star Wars and has also done posters for Indiana Jones, Blade Runner, Back to The Future, and several Marvel films, to name only a few.
In a recent interview with The Direct, he talked about his poster for The Rise of Skywalker, his collaboration with Lucasfilm and Disney, his way of working and how he sees his role as an artist caught between making both the fans and his clients happy.
Here are some highlights:
Creating The Poster for The Rise of Skywalker and Working with Disney and Lucasfilm
When he was asked to come up with a poster for The Rise of Skywalker, he wanted to do something that was different from a typical movie poster with the heads of the main characters on it. Instead, he incorporated several iconic images from all nine films of the saga into one sheet. Interestingly enough, only one of these images actually is from Episode IX (if you don’t count Rey’s hand and Luke’s repaired lightsaber).
Raats says that both Disney and Lucasfilm have been quite supportive and didn’t oppose his idea, but he also admits that the communication and the approval process has become more difficult and time consuming since the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney. Before October 2012, he had sent his work directly to Lucasfilm, and George Lucas himself gave his approval (or didn’t) usually within 24 hours. Nowadays, he has to send his creations first to Disney in Melbourne, who check it and then send it to Disney in Los Angeles, who check it and then send it to Lucasfilm in San Francisco, and the same happens in reverse once everything has been authorized.
Painting vs. Digital
Raats has been creating art digitally since the early 80’s, but when it comes to making a movie poster, he still prefers old fashioned painting, something that has more and more been pushed to the sidelines in favor of doing things completely on the computer. Although Raats laments this development, he admits that having a Photoshop file with many layers does have advantages over a painting on a physical canvas where everything is “fixed” once it is done. In these days, movie posters often vary from country to country. For example, the theatrical poster for The Force Awakens had a bigger picture of Han Solo and a smaller one of Finn than the one in the US. Also, posters are needed in several formats in order to be used in different media or for various outlets (printing, social media, press conferences, bigger and smaller cinema venues). Such adaptations can be done quite easily when you are working digitally, but are much more laborious when you have to paint them several times in different layouts.
The Role of the Artist
Mark sees the main role of a movie poster being to invite the audience into the story, and he creates his artworks hoping that most people who see it will also like it. And so far, he didn’t have to suffer from much backlash from “fans” who were disappointed with his work because they expected something different. This also holds true for his poster for The Rise of Skywalker, which, according to Disney, was seen by 25 million people within the first ten minutes after its reveal. Quite some pressure.
"I've been fortunate because I don't think anything that I've done has come away with massive backlash from any of the fans. It will always be a small fraction who will want something different, but for the most part, they're happy. So that, for me, is the most important aspect of creating a movie poster."
But he also has a very pragmatic way of seeing his role in the creation of a poster or an illustration. True, the ideas may be his, but the final decision of who and what is shown on a poster and how the piece is structured and presented is often made by someone else.
"I see some of the blogs where artists are absolutely caned for something that they do. But the truth of the matter is that it's not the artist's decision. It's the artist's decision to be part of this machine. And there a lot of other people who are involved."
Raats says that if you work for something like Star Wars, “you're part of a huge engine driving all of these franchises.” So, Raats got comfortable with accepting that the say will always have the people who hired him. Therefore, it is important for him to make them happy with what he does. Because when they are, they will hire him again and again.
Source(s): The Direct