Welcome to a brand new Magic: the Gathering Photoshop fun series! My name is Geoffrey Palmer. In case you're wondering how this all got started, let's begin with a brief history of myself and this series. I've been a video editor and graphic designer for nearly 20 years. I started playing Magic when I was a teenager with friends. The first deck I remember making, that wasn't just a pile of nonsense, was Lin-Sivvi. Rebels anyone?! I took a long break from the game, but came back in 2015 and started playing with Magic's wonderful artwork to make my own creations. I animated a whole pile of artwork that still gets used by many content creators to this day.

In early 2021, I Photoshopped the beloved children's character Paddington into a piece of Magic artwork. The community response was overwhelming, with many saying they couldn't wait to see the rest of the series. The next day, I made another Paddington mash up, then another, and I was off to the races. I finally concluded the series at the end of last year with the 200th edition.

I took a short break after that series concluded to think about what was next. Movies have always been another great love of mine, so it seemed a natural fit. For this series, I'll be taking the IMDB Top 250 Films of All Time and crashing the world of Magic: the Gathering right into it. Each day, I'll reveal the next piece of the series - so follow along! As a bonus, every Friday I'll be dropping an article where I discuss each day's piece from that week. Let's jump right into the series with our first Magic at the Movies mashup!

Kicking the whole series off, we naturally begin with an absolute classic: The Shawshank Redemption. This was my first attempt to see if this whole idea would work. Whereas in the previous series I had brought Paddington into the world of Magic, in this series, I decided to bring Magic over into the movie scenes themselves. There're no hard and fast rules, but generally I'll try to pick an iconic scene from the film and work Magic into it. All the better, if the characters appear to be interacting with each other.

In this scene, the warden has discovered that his prized inmate has escaped through a tunnel in his cell. Angrath had the perfect expression of shock and awe when paired with the Warden. He replaces the captain of the prison guards in this scene. I slightly blurred him to account for the depth of field and he fits right in. Almost immediately, I knew this was a series I wanted to continue!

On day two, The Godfather was up and I immediately thought of New Capenna. Ob Nixilis in his wonderful pinstripe suit fit perfectly in this scene of mafiosos sharing a meal together. I love how he's gesturing to the woman on camera left as though beckoning her into the scene. This was a complex scene to cut out, but well worth it. The Godfather is truly one of the all-time great pieces of American cinema.

The Dark Knight is chock full of iconic scenes and is still (probably) the greatest superhero movie to date. I consider it one of the only superhero movies to transcend the genre and stand amongst the other classics of cinema. I looked at so many scenes trying to decide what would work best, but in the end this rooftop meeting between Gordon, Batman, and Harvey Dent fit the bill.

Jace, the brooding hero of the Multiverse, was perfect to face off against the Dark Knight himself in a showdown for who can look the most dark and gritty. This is a DC film after all! My only regret is not finding a scene I liked with the Joker, but Heath Ledger's performance is so incredible that it's probably better left on the silver screen.

The story of the Godfather continues in this follow up epic to the original masterpiece. I must confess that I haven't watched this film, but it's definitely on my list. Still, there's plenty of iconic scenes that jump out from other references in pop culture. None more so than the "kiss of death" that Michael gives Fredo. "I know it was you, Fredo! You broke my heart!"

Swapping in for Fredo, we find Kess, Dissident Mage. Her expression fit perfectly into the scene and I love how her fist came up to Michael's chin as if to say, "just try kissing me, punk!" Kess is one of my favorite cards from the cEDH scene (which you should definitely try!). This was a fun close-up composition, and I'm really glad it worked.

I believe 12 Angry Men was the second film that I explored to see if this series would work. It's not a film that I thought initially would lend itself that well to a Magical mashup, but then I was thinking about the word "angry" and of course one of my favorite cards from Exodus came to mind, "Hatred"! What an iconic card featuring the evil Greven il-Vec. It's simple mashup, I bet most will need an extra moment to see what's changed in the scene. Hopefully everyone gets a good laugh when they see it. That guy is extra angry!

That wraps up the first week of the series. The response has been universally positive and I'm having a blast making these. Thanks so much for coming along as well roll tape on more Magic at the Movies!