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Vintage 1990 Bicycle "It" Deck

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Vintage 1990 Bicycle "It" Deck
« on: November 06, 2015, 01:30:52 PM »
 

Cryptocard27

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Do you know if the Bicycle deck used in the "It" television film based on Stephen King's novel was really printed by the United States playing Card Company or if the clown is just a sticking on the card back for the needs of the movie?

Otherwise, I know that some collector's items of movies are auctioned. Maybe one of you have this deck in his collection?

Thank you
 

Re: Vintage 1990 Bicycle "It" Deck
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2015, 03:54:45 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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Not having seen the film, but knowing a little about TV production, I'm going to take a guess here.

If the cards are hardly featured and the backs don't get much visibility, I'd wager they simply modified existing Bicycle Rider Backs.  A TV production from 1990 would have had a fairly tight budget, even if it was an adaptation of a Stephen King novel, so shelling out thousands of bucks for a minimum print run or hundreds of dollars each for prototype decks sounds less likely than shelling out tens of dollars for some graphic artist to print up a few stickers to slap on the backs of an existing deck, especially if the cards weren't required to perform exceptionally well.  Less money spent on cards, more money spent on donuts from Craft Services!

(You might or might not get the last reference, Maxime - Craft Services are the people who provide food and drink on-site for the cast and crew of a professional TV or movie production, as opposed to the days of the classic, major studios, where everything was shot on the studio lot and there would be a company cafeteria near the sound stages.  People on-set or on-location tend to eat very well; the bigger the movie budget, the better they eat!  The companies that provide Craft Services tend to be all-out affairs, on par with a fine catering service, and are usually equipped to do so almost anywhere, even under difficult conditions.  They're also known for seeing to the contractually-obligated dietary whims of even the fussiest movie stars; if a studio's contract promises a star some bizarre or obscure culinary specialty or treat, it's Craft Services that delivers it, like Elvis Presley's famous fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, sometimes served with bacon.)

But back to the point - the studio would take the least expensive route, and back then, the least expensive route would have been to have a graphic artist modify an existing deck, due to the print run requirements of USPC.  A custom-made deck would be less costly than even a single prototype deck, and it's unknown how savvy the company was at the time about protecting its (then-expired) copyrighted artworks and I think the more recent tactic of using trademarks on a broader scale didn't come around in the corporate marketing world until soon thereafter.  The modifications in this case would have probably been a full-length sticker trimmed to cover the entire card back, or a smaller sticker trimmed to cover just the center if it wasn't going to be see up close a lot (and remembering that TV was lower-resolution back then so details weren't as sharp as today).
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Re: Vintage 1990 Bicycle "It" Deck
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2015, 05:56:17 AM »
 

Cryptocard27

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Thank you for your answer Don. I found the scene of the film with the bike and playing cards to give you a better overview.
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl4pVOo56Kc
« Last Edit: November 07, 2015, 05:56:30 AM by Cryptocard27 »
 

Re: Vintage 1990 Bicycle "It" Deck
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2015, 06:48:20 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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I can nearly guarantee you that the deck was mocked up using stickers.  Not only that, but the shot was taken at a different time with a different pack of cards!

As Richard Thomas' character very lamely makes a fake spill, tumbling the cards to the ground, it's not easy to identify the faces but it's clear that they're not all Aces of Spades.  Furthermore, the tuck box appears normal - notice that the clown's head extends into the border area in a way the normal Rider Back center doesn't.  However, when the cards are shown in a cutaway on the ground, the only few that are face up are Aces of Spades, as if to imply they're all Aces of Spades.  Richard Thomas was almost certainly holding an ordinary pack of Bicycle Rider Backs when the scene was shot, with the clown-backed cards being shot by a second-unit photography team, designated to shoot cutaways and all the filler material - shots that don't have the principle actors in it.  It's cheaper to have a second unit for a major production, so as to not tie up the main unit which is doing the principle photography - all the shots with the main actors, speaking roles, etc.  Both units shoot simultaneously, with a less-experienced camera team usually working on the second unit because less artistic skill is required - the shots are often rather pedestrian in nature.

But as only two faces are visible, and perhaps a dozen or less card backs, printing stickers to trim and place on the card backs would have been far more cost effective than printing brand new decks, and the "second unit" photography team would only have needed two packs of cards, enough to show two face-up Aces of Spades - but considering that off-the-shelf Bikes are cheap in bulk, they probably bought a brick or so, using only what was needed.  In fact, the cards were probably provided for the crew by a separate property company, as by that time in Hollywood a lot of studios sold off their own prop houses to save on the expense of operating one.  They probably keep cards on hand in large quantities for use on whatever film set calls for a pack of cards, and may even have original or reprint vintage decks for period films.

A good example of efficient use of second-unit teams was in the original "Star Wars" film.  The Rebel base on the planet Yavin 4 at the end of the movie (the planet that the Death Star was trying to destroy before it was destroyed itself) was shot in Tikal National Park in Guatemala using Mayan pyramids as the main structures.  There's a single shot of a man holding what looks like some kind of scope or sensor device as a bunch of X-wing fighters take off into the sky (the special effects were done much more impressively for the Special Edition, but the shot appears in both versions).  The entire crew for this shoot consisted of two people, a cameraman and his assistant.  In fact, the assistant did double duty, posing as an extra in costume, holding up a light meter to look like his futuristic sensor tool, with the pyramids in the background.  They were literally on the ground for not even a full day - they arrived, shot a minute or two of "B" roll for the scene and hopped back on a plane to California!

Other appearances of the Rebel base exterior were done using matte photography and the interiors were all filmed on soundstages in England.  Closeups of extras flying in the ships were done with a single cockpit mockup in the special effects lab in California, often using the same helmet with new paint/stickers on it to give it a different appearance.  As I recall, it was reportedly a Green Bay Packers football helmet with appliqués and googles added!

But I digress.  The point I'm making is that if there's a cheap option that works visually, smart directors usually take the cheap option while foolish directors often eventually find work elsewhere.  The key is that it has to work visually - we saw a pile of playing cards spilled on a tarmac-paved street at a distance of a few feet and shot for television in standard definition (480i, a fraction of the present full-HDTV standard of 1080p or even the broadcast HDTV standard of 720p), so fine details would not be visible and not even a full deck of cards was shown - there was just enough to evoke the idea of a spilled pack of clown-backed Aces of Spades.  It would have required a few decks to acquire Aces of Spades and a few extra indifferent cards with custom-made clown stickers placed on the backs to get the job done - no fancy playing card print jobs, no custom deck being manufactured.  The entire cost of making that handful of cards with custom backs would have been perhaps fifty to a hundred bucks, probably much less if stated in 1990 dollars.  Computer printing wasn't common, but custom print work was common enough and even simple silk-screen printing was within the reach of the hobbyist at the time.  It would have been a noteworthy line item on the prop budget, costing more than the typical non-custom prop, but it was necessary to the shot and fairly inexpensive compared to the cost of some custom props.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2015, 06:49:10 AM by Don Boyer »
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