# Third-generation photocopy, one show only > A midnight screening flyer was hand-lettered, copied until the blacks blew out, and stapled to a pole. The degradation is the design and it can't be faked with a filter. August 18, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/midnight-movie-flyer Hand-lettered, crooked, in marker. `SATURDAY 11.45PM ONE SHOW ONLY`. Underneath, a photographic still copied so many times it's turned into pure black and pure white with nothing between. Somebody made forty of these on a machine they didn't ask permission to use. ## Why does a photocopy look like that? Because each copy is a copy of a copy. A photocopier has no midtones to speak of — it decides, per area, black or white. Run a photograph through once and the greys start collapsing. Run the copy through again and detail turns into blotches, edges gain a halo, and the paper's own dirt joins in. By the third generation the image is barely a photograph and is entirely a texture. That's the look, and it's why a "photocopy filter" laid over a clean image usually reads as a filter — real degradation is destructive and uneven, not a layer on top. ## What's the difference between this and a punk flyer? Purpose and tone, mostly. A gig flyer is announcing a band and usually collaged from ransom-note fragments — [that tradition has its own vocabulary](/stories/punk-collage-zine-aesthetic). A midnight movie flyer is announcing a *time*: one screening, late, probably illegal, definitely not advertised anywhere else. So the hierarchy is different. The time is the largest thing on the page. The title is often smaller than the hour. ## What should it say? A day, a time, and a constraint. `SATURDAY 11.45PM`. `ONE SHOW ONLY`. `NO LATE ENTRY`. `BRING YOUR OWN`. The genre of copy is scarcity — this is happening once, in a room, and you either turn up or you don't. Which makes it a natural format for anything that actually is one-off: a party, a gig, a screening, a leaving do. The flyer for a thing that already happened is a better souvenir than a photograph of it. ## Can I use a real film's still? Film stills are copyrighted photographs and the degradation doesn't change that. Running an image through a copier doesn't create a new work in any useful sense — it's still a reproduction, and a recognisable still from a known film is exactly what a rights holder would object to. An invented still, or a photograph somebody owns, both work. And an unrecognisable third-generation copy of your own picture is a genuinely good use of this style — [the same restoration question in reverse](/stories/restore-an-old-photo). ## Should the lettering be real handwriting? Yes, and it should be bad. Marker on paper, uneven baseline, words that run out of room and get squeezed. Hand-lettering imitated with a typeface reads as a typeface immediately, and everyone can tell. If a real hand isn't available, the letters at least need genuinely inconsistent weight and spacing. Same standard as [a setlist in somebody's actual handwriting](/stories/gift-for-a-musician). ## Is white the right garment colour? It's the honest one, and it's rare enough to stand out. Almost everything else in this bucket is dark. A white shirt with heavy black degraded copy on it reads as paper rather than as a print, which is the whole reference. Off-white and newsprint grey work too. It's also the one design here that improves as the garment ages, since the reference is already something worn out. ## Does it print well? Very — it's pure black and white by construction. There are no midtones to lose because the photocopy already destroyed them. Blown-out blacks, hard edges, blotches and copier streaks are all flat ink. The only thing to keep an eye on is overall coverage: a very heavy black area on a light garment wants to be broken up by the degradation rather than solid. One ink. Black. Nothing else belongs here. ## How do I get one made? Describe the flyer at [JustOG](/) — the day, the time, the constraint, and what the picture is. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped. Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop). One show only. There was never going to be a second one.