What is Film on Paper?

Film on Paper (filmonpaper.com) is a movie poster archive: a collection of more than 2,000 film posters from the UK, USA, Japan, Thailand and other territories, presented alongside detailed catalogue entries and articles by Sim Branaghan, author of British Film Posters: An Illustrated History. It is a reference and browsing resource for people who want to look at posters, identify them, or read about their design and production context — not a shop or a streaming service.

What you'll find on the site

The archive is organised as a blog-style sequence of dated posts, each devoted to a single poster. The most recent entries shown on the homepage carry dates such as 26.01.18, 05.01.18, 11.12.17, 20.11.17 and 03.11.17, so the format is a running log of additions rather than a static gallery.

Each post opens with a title line naming the film and the poster's country of origin — for example, "Jaws / program / Japan" or "Blades / one sheet / USA" — followed by a structured details block.

The poster details block

Every entry records a consistent set of fields, which is what makes the site useful for identification rather than just viewing:

Fields that don't apply are left blank rather than filled with guesses, so an empty "Designer" or "NSS #" is itself information: the site doesn't claim to know.

What the write-ups add

Below the details block, each post carries a short essay. These typically cover the artwork's origin, the film's production or reception, and notes specific to the physical item.

The Jaws entry, for instance, explains that Roger Kastel's image was originally commissioned for the paperback cover of Peter Benchley's novel, and that Universal bought the rights to reuse it for the poster after seeing the artwork — after which it became one of the most imitated and parodied images of all time. It also notes that Kastel painted the Empire Strikes Back one sheet, links to his official site, mentions that the author also holds the original US one sheet, and points out that this particular Japanese program includes production images and a hand-written message aimed at Japanese "movie buffs."

The Blades entry identifies the film as a Troma production headed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, and describes it as one of the only golfing-related horror films ever made.

Who it's for

• Collectors and buyers checking what a poster actually is: type, size, single-sided or double-sided, country of issue, and whether a designer or artist is attributed.
• Researchers and writers looking for poster-specific detail — artist credits, print origins, taglines — that general film databases often omit.
• Design and film enthusiasts browsing for the artwork itself and the stories behind it.

Practical notes

The site is in British English and is built as an archive with permalinks and comment threads on individual posts, so entries can be linked to and discussed directly. Nothing in the site's own material indicates pricing, membership, or a paywall, and no payment or login mechanism is described — treat it as a reference archive unless you find otherwise on the site itself.