SerenityVerse

Serenity Movie Promotional Items

November 12th, 2007 Posted in Serenity Books and Media

Serenity Movie Posters: Generally, the best and cheapest place to find the various posters is on eBay. Look at a number of different listings before you buy; verify that you are buying an original poster and not a reproduction, and check with the seller to make sure that the poster will be shipped in a way that will avoid damage in transit.

US Full-Size Double-Sided Movie Poster (27″ x 40″): This is a double-sided poster printed on heavy, glossy paper. These are the posters that are displayed in movie theaters. Double-sided in this case doesn’t mean the same image appears on both sides; there’s actually a mirror image on the back side with a matte finish. They are designed this way to look good when backlit, but will display very nicely in a standard frame. Retail price for the full-size poster is 19.95, but you can get them for a lot less on eBay. You can buy pre-made frames in this size at Michaels (a craft store) for about $25.00, but they go on sale from time to time for $10.00 or 50% off. US Mini Poster (11″ x 17″): The mini poster is one-sided, printed on more lightweight paper. It’s very nice though, and would be a great option to frame if you are short on wall space. Also a good budget choice because frames are easy to find and cheap.

UK/International Double-Sided Movie Poster (27″ x 40″): This is a double-sided poster printed on heavy, glossy paper. These are the posters that are displayed in movie theaters. Double-sided in this case doesn’t mean the same image appears on both sides; there’s actually a mirror image on the back side with a matte finish. UK/International Mini Poster (11″ x 17″): The mini poster is one-sided, printed on more lightweight paper. It’s very nice though, and would be a great option to frame if you are short on wall space. Also a good budget choice because frames are easy to find and cheap.

UK Quad Mini Poster (12″ x 16″): This mini poster takes the UK/International design and presents it in a landscape format.

German Movie Posters (23″ x 33″) and (33″ x 47″) Similar to the UK art, but slightly diffferent…and of course it’s in German These typically cost a lot of money because it is very expensive to ship items out of Germany, but I’ve found a US-based site, www.moviepostersusa.com which is selling the 23″ x 33″ for 9.95 plus about six dollars shipping. They say the posters are authentic; if they are this is a bargain.

US Full-Size Single-Sided DVD Poster (27″ x 40″): This official promotional poster was sent out to video stores for display to promote the Serenity DVD. You can probably find one by going to your local video store and asking them if you can have theirs after they take it down - ask them to keep it up longer than they plan to, to help promote the DVD! Your best bet is smaller video stores as I’ve found, at least in my area, that larger chains don’t seem to have them.

Cast Poster Single-sided poster with a promo pic of the cast. I haven’t seen it, but it’s inexpensive and might be well worth picking up. My only reservation is that the picture (while very good) doesn’t have the full cast, and as someone who loves every crew member, that doesn’t sit quite right with me.

Serenity Mylars: Mylars are the translucent cards used by movie theaters over the door to the theater and in the box office above the times for the movie. The larger ones that go over the door are called mylars, and the little box-office ones are mini-mylars. I have one of the full-size Serenity mylars framed and hanging above my bedroom door. I bought it from www.moviemylars.com. It’s very cool and happens to be great if you’re short on wall space. Reasonably priced custom frames to fit them can be found at www.americanframe.com.

Apparel and Accessories

Serenity T-shirts: These come in black and brown. A downloadable inkjet transfer of the logo was released online as well, and some people are selling shirts which are made with the inkjet transfer rather than professionally produced. These were given out at screenings and available through the late Universal Browncoats board. Hints for telling if your shirt is authentic: the T-shirt brand on the label is M&O knits. The logo is raised, somewhat rough and rubbery. There’s a black base screen, part of which fades as a shadow and looks almost like black sharpie or similar. The white lettering is a bit puffy and raised higher than the other colors. The company that did these is Allied Advertising.

Serenity Hats: These are black baseball caps with an embroidered Serenity logo that were given out at screenings of the movie. They are one size fits all with an adjustable clasp.

Serenity Pins/Buttons: badges, to those in the UK). These were given out at screenings and the like. They are very nice, attractive, and have a high-quality look.

Serenity Keychain (US version): A clear plastic keychain with an insert showing the Serenity logo on one side and another version of the logo on the reverse with “cantstopthesignal.com” across it. These are very nice, and durable to boot! I’ve had one on my keychain for quite a while now and it still looks new. The plastic casing doesn’t seem too prone to scratching. These were given out at screenings.

Serenity Keychain (International version):

Press Kits and Similar

Serenity Press Kit: The Serenity Press Kit sent to print media (US version shown here) includes a press folder, a 32-page press booklet with photos, and a press CD containing high resolution images and a 23-meg 480×272 Quicktime encode of the trailer that starts with the trading station robbery.

Press Screening Pass: This is what the press screening passes look like, more or less. Press screenings generally take place in the week prior to release, for local media such as newspapers to see the movie for review. The back of each pass was slightly different depending on the theatre the screening was playing at and who sponsored the screening locally. The front is glossy though the back is not, and it’s printed on a light card stock. A nice promo item to have.

Press Junket CDs: A very rare trio of promotional audio CDs (I’ve never seen them on eBay), these “Press Junket” CDs are a series of group interviews with Joss and the main cast (except for Alan Tudyk, Ron Glass and Chiwetel Ejiofor) done for radio stations. A transcript (though I’m not sure if it’s complete) of these interviews can be found here: http://www.countingdown.com/features?feature_id=3783166

Serenity Press Sheet: 8.5″ x 11,” one-sided, printed on heavy, smooth, slightly shiny cardstock. Very nice item that is commonly used to collect cast autographs, because there is lots of black space that a silver sharpie shows up well on. Even without autographs, this would be a very nice, striking item to frame and put on your wall if movie posters aren’t your thing. There is another version which has pictures of the cast members that take up about half the card; there is still black space but less of it.

Serenity US Postcard: High-quality 5″ x 7″ postcard featuring the Serenity logo as it appeared painted on the ship. This is a very nice item; I framed mine that the lovely browncoat idrawart was kind enough to send to me. The front of the postcard is shown on the left; image of the back of the card is on the right.

Serenity US Postcard #2: Smaller 4 ” x 6″ postcard, featuring a variant of the US movie poster art. Also very nice quality and fun to have.

Serenity UK Postcards: There are 5 of these postcards, each featuring a different character. The characters are Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Inara, and River. The back of all cards is the same.

Serenity Trifold Brochure: Relight reports “I got mine at the third of the Can’t Stop The Signal screenings on June 23rd. I’m pretty sure they weren’t distributed before that, because everyone was raving about them after getting them. Very nice item. Again, printed on a glossy card stock.” I myself was lucky enough to get my hands on one of these the other day and it’s a very nice item to have; nice comments and a good cast picture. It’s quite large, 8.5″ x 11″ folded.

Serenity Exclusive Sneak Peek DVD: This DVD was available on July 26, 2005 in a plain white paper disc envelope as a free bonus with Best Buy’s original UK version release of the new 2004 Battlestar Galactica’s first season. It contains a promo video that is 12:37 in length and features many clips seen in other promotional videos but also many clips that are not seen in other promotional videos. Interestingly, the disc label is BATTLESTAR_GALACTICA, and many people bought this first season release of Battlestar Galactica just for this Serenity promo DVD. The DVD (or at least a version of it) was also sent to video stores to play in their TV monitors to promote the film, and as such, it loops automatically.

Universal Browncoats Forum Store Items

The late Universal browncoats forum featured a store where one could “purchase” items by accumulating points through participation in various challenges. These items were not for sale for cashy money. Some of the items were exclusive to the site; some not. These are the ones that were exclusive, as far as I know.

Serenity Logo Patches: This patch is 3″ across, very detailed and high-quality with dense stitching. All of the shading you see on the patch is stitched; nothing is printed on. It’s a fantastic Serenity collector’s item, and incidentally the only item I was able to get personally from the browncoats store. If you missed out on these, a slightly similar Serenity patch (not a copy of this one, but still shiny) is available through www.browncoatpatches.com.

Serenity Bandana: The design of this actually looks pretty cool in the picture. Anyone seen it in person?

Serenity Mugs: A blue insulated-coffee-mug style cup with the word Serenity on it. If anybody who actually owns one of these could send some comments, it would be appreciated.

Serenity Ship Window Cling: Static cling, goes on the inside of your window. Reportedly very shiny.

Serenity Chopsticks: One member who got these reported that they were plain light red plastic chopsticks. One says Serenity on it, and the other has the Chinese pinyin for Serenity. Packaged in a plastic bag. The image below was pulled off an image search; it conflicts a bit with the report above because both sticks say Serenity on them, so I’m not sure if these were from the store or somewhere else. Relight says he’s heard reports of people getting two of the same chopstick, so that may account for it.

Soundtrack CD Sampler: A promotional copy of the soundtrack, this CD was mainly available through the Browncoats Website Store. It cost 2000 credits. Although it contains the music from the soundtrack, it contains a slightly different track listing for the “Trading Station Robbery” track. On the official soundtrack, it is one track totalling 3:07. On the sampler, it is two tracks at 1:46 and 5:13. I’m not sure if the extra music from the sampler is included as another track on the official soundtrack, or how that all worked out. The sampler tracks are still available for download from www.cantstopthesignal.co.uk

Acquiring Promo Items

Most of these items will show up on eBay if you watch for them. Another option is to find a fellow browncoat who has extras and would be willing to sell or trade them. I have an area set up to post trade and exchange want lists at my forum, www.serenityverse.com/forum.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank relight (Brandon Klassen in the real world) for his invaluable help providing pictures and descriptions for most of these items. Without his contributions, this page would just be a dry list of item names!