A major studio built on a foundation of horror films 109 years ago, Universal Pictures now mounts a contest soliciting amateur-made posters and other marketing images celebrating the fright genre. Universal’s Out of the Shadows contest is partnered with onliner Tongal, which is a digital platform connecting businesses with vendors providing graphics/creative services to brands.
“Tasked with telling a story through one image of a creature, artists must create original, imaginative storytelling through their artistic medium of choice, whether it be traditional drawing or painting or transmedia,” says a Variety story by Haley Bosselman. “One winner will receive $10,000 and have their art recognized be an esteemed panel of judges.”
Monster fans, if you’re an artist, an illustrator, or a designer, Universal Monsters: Out of the Shadows art initiative is offering you the chance to create the next generation of horror icons.
— Tongal Contest Rules
The contest runs Feb. 11 to March 4; prize recipients will be announced March 29. Entering the contest enables participants to download IP that can be used in their entries.
“This is the further democratization of storytelling and it empowers the next generation of talent and fans to help shape the next generation of monsters,” Tongal co-founder and CEO James DeJulio says in a statement.
Entrees for the Out of the Shadows contest are prohibited from incorporating recognizable talent in their works, because that would infringe on the right of publicity of actors.
For example, Bela Lugosi cannot be a recognizable element in image for the Dracula franchise, even though the late actor is synonymous with the Dracula intellectual property (IP).
The Hollywood professionals who are judges for Out of the Shadows are Robert Kirkman (“The Walking Dead”), Andy and Barbara Muschietti (“It,” “It Chapter Two”), and film marketing image-makers Crash McCreery, Tristan Eaton, Afua Richardson, Matt Taylor and Yuko Shimizu.
The contest benefits Tongal and Universal with this one-sided disclaimer to the public. “By submitting an artwork entry, your submission immediately becomes the sole property of Tongal or its assignees,” the rules say.
Universal and Tongal have teamed up before in recent years to stoke fan-created content in earlier contests for theatrical rereleases/anniversaries of “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park.”
In its founding a century ago, Universal Pictures was second-tier Hollywood distributor anchored in horror. Then in the 1960s, it acquired film libraries from other studios and upgraded its own film releases to major-studio caliber. These include “Jaws, ” “The Birds,” “The Sting,” “E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Airport,” “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park”; the first two and last tiles are in the horror/thriller genre, by the way.
Prior to the 1960s upgrade, Universal was a niche player that was particularly noted for inexpensive but famed horror films of the 1930s including “Dracula,” “The Mummy,” “Frankenstein” and “The Invisible Man.” The studio made earlier horror films in the earlier silent-film era too. Those horror flicks are based on books, whose IP mostly passed into the public domain — meaning no longer exclusively copyrighted. But the movie adaptations are still copyright protected and Universal Pictures — now owned by cable TV conglomerate Comcast — mounted efforts in recent years to build a moat of exclusivity on its horror assets. For example in 2017, Universal Pictures created the Dark Universe umbrella brand encompassing its movies, including selectively producing modern remakes.
Related content:
- Variety: Dracula and Frankenstein and the Mummy, Oh My! Universal’s Classic Monsters Inspire Art Initiative
- Press release: Universal Pictures Out of the Shadows Art Contest
- Tongal: Universal Monster: “Out of the Shadows” Art Contest
- DreadCentral.com: Universal and Tongal Launch “Universal Monsters: Out of the Shadows” Art Initiative
Leave a Reply