After playing in the world of franchise cinema for his last three films, Ryan Coogler wanted to return to directing something original, and deeply personal. "Sinners" has become a wildly successful hit, both critically, commercially, and culturally. The story tells the story of two twins in the 1930's who leave their mobster life in Chicago to return to their home in the Mississippi Delta, looking to establish a juke joint, while a mysterious supernatural being on the prowl finds himself drawn to this very location. The film is a delight, one where the passion of the filmmakers is only constant display, one that alternates between a rich drama and exploration of place and culture and layered metaphor, exploring the horrors of the time, both literal and metaphysical, while also delighting in pulpy B-movie genre fun. The film is a celebration of Black culture and history, and above all, a love letter to the history of Black music in America.
Reuniting with director Coogler is Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson. The composer also had a deep personal connection to the Blues, and as always, dove heavily into research and building a team of musical collaborators and mentors, striving for rich authenticity. His music is an absolutely integral part of the storytelling, with Göransson not only composing the score, but also co-writing a number of songs, many of which are performed on screen during the rapturous musical numbers. The music draws heavily from the Delta Blues, featuring the Dobro resonator slide guitar, with themes for the "Smokestack" twins, their young pastor's-son guitarist, and an Irish edge for the vampire crew. As the film goes along, the music incorporates more modern elements, culminating in a full Southern rock opera. While the score is not always easy listening for those accustomed to strictly orchestral fare, the score it nonetheless intelligent, layered, memorable, distinct, and utterly inseparable from the film.
Two albums were released for the film, published by Sony Music, one is the soundtrack album, featuring all the original songs as well as pivotal period pieces used and/or performed in film, and a score album. I've created a total of eighteen new covers to choose from. The two official covers are for once perfectly decent, but I wanted to explore more artwork for the film, and as always, make my own tweaks to the existing art. For simplicity's sake, I ended up just consolidating the credits between soundtrack and score into one.
Covers 1-7 all feature official promotional artwork. Most required the usual edits, sometimes combining multiple posters and/or wallpapers to get the full image or to paint out text and titles. The only one that needed some major shifting was Cover 7, the IMAX poster, in which I moved and re-sized "Stack" to better fit the cover shape, and then re-blend him in.
Covers 7 and 8 feature two pieces of original artwork officially commissioned for the film. 7 features moody art by Nikkolas Smith an activist and illustrator. Cover 8, I haven't actually been able to find the particular artist, but the pieces features a pivotal sequence at the center of the story, and pays tribute Ernie Barnes' "Sugar Shack".
Covers 10-14 features the Poster Posse's collection, featuring (in order) commissioned art by: Ali Shimhaq, Estevan Silveira, Kwasi Amankwah, Chris Garofalo and Leke Fonge. Covers 10 and 12 requires a fair amount of edits, shifting the lower half of the image up and re-blending and editing the title for 10, and extensive paint-outs for 12.
Finally, the last four covers feature various pieces of fan artwork I found online.
Cover 15 features a lovely pulp style by Shawn Mansfield, to which I slid the bottom portion up significantly and had to mask out and re-blend the stitches back together.
Cover 16 features a more minimalist and evocative piece by Kode Abdo/Boss Logic, one of several tributes he made to the film. I just needed to widen out the sides to better accommodate the image.
Cover 17 feature art by Nuno Sarnadas. Cover 18 features lovely work by digital painter Lorgio Niim. Fortunately both of these required little editing, and were ready to showcase their stellar designs.
Hope you enjoy!
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