Personally, I have never been a fan of the covers that consist only of a photo - it has been my strong conviction that artwork on movie covers should be something much more impressive that just a single shooting. This is the reason why my favourite covers were the ones with pure paintings or cartoons, the ones that are quite distinctive and attract the eye. However, I cannot deny the fact that as soon as I saw the poster to be discussed below, I truely thought it was brilliant - a great photograph with so much emotion in it.

The movie Thin Red Line is among my favourite movies of all times - was movies are something that has always been in the interest of people. The plot is amazing, revealing the horror, the truth about the war, tells the story of all those people who fight for a cause which some of them have not even picked up. This is the reason why the movie as a product is quite impressive and loved by the spectators.

But the cover of the movie is just spectacular - it is a single photograph but a person can encounter so many emotions, such a diversity of feelings in three different faces, faces that are even not completely revealed. A person would see only three ordinary soldiers, hiding - their eyes are looking at different directions, as if they are waiting or rather - thinking about different things. The look on the one face is pure fear, fear of the war and its horror, a future patient helping to create more Mental health jobs, the other expression is more like a sign of curiosity, the third one - filled with bravery. Everyone can give a meaning to each of the faces, there are no Hollywood starts on that photograph - just ordinary soldiers and their emotions written on these small parts of their faces.

For example do any of today’s teenager think being a “teddy boy” or girl is “hip” or many adults for that matter. I know because apparently a family member was one and I saw pictures in books somewhere. Apparently it was today with some type of rockabilly type music and the girls had swirly round skirts and the boys mopeds and high hair with funky suits.

Now if you ask a teenager what they think of teddy boys and girls you might get some strange confused even concerned looks. If your lucky and your teenagers considerate enough they might let you relax for the day thinking your overworked and help doing some extra chores. However if you show them them or a digital picture even (if you don’t want to explain what a record is and then a cover for it and why its so big and what a record player is) of the Beatles loney heart club album you might actually get some interest.

Its still appealing to the rebelliousness of youth with all its wild colours and in your face artwork. Its got mod style suits, sexy blonde ladies in gold, china dolls and a multicultural mixture of all sorts of famous faces all in one place. Each time you look at it something new seems to appear. Even the beatles themselves are in their double in two styles of dress, one of which is quite an interesting mixture of wild colours and old style soldier or band type uniforms.

Inded the the seemingly serene landscape is not the regular colours of nature a person might hope to find whilst traveling or viewing a landscape painting. There are no lush green valleys or deep blue rivers. There are no rocky mountiains of stony greys and green moss. The lankscape here hints at the destruction about to enfold.

The sun seems to be a screaming hot ball. The landscape has in common only one colour. Red. The colour of blood. The colour that would soon be drenching the once green valleys and serenic hills in the distance when the apocalyspse was to unfold.

The rivers are not blue or green but a shade of red depicting the seemingly unnecesary war that the US deemed it neccesary to enter in the name of democracy. The movie depicts a small part of some of the happenings in Cambodia at the time of the Vietnam war as an agent is sent in on a secret mission to assadinate a renegade Green Beret.

The movie highlights the conflicting loyalties of war and those that are caught up in it. What seems to be at first glance a natural behaviour is not always the case in acutality. Just as the Green Berets find his loyalties changing in his new enviornment and is no longer who he appears to be so too this movie picture for the film “Apocalypse now” is not the peaceful scenic picture it appears to be upon first impression of it.

The mystery and orientalism of the storyline can be deduced by the far away open mouth of a cave over mountains of desert sands. The mouth of the cave itself is modeled on the mouth of a wild animal it seems ready to swallow up all who dare to venture inwards to its domain.

The contrasting colours of the night sky are beautiful to behold. The deep midnight blue sky of darkness all around are interdispersed with the shining stars of the night sky. The energy of the earth below is highlighted by the light of the moon. The energy and danger of the night is highlighted by the contrasting redness of the earth below. It is easy to tell why eventually they took this design to make roller banners and base the marketing of the movie around.

The romantic characters are safely above sailing through the night blissful in each others company. The magic carpet allows them to ride along in the night sky to wherever their dreams and wishes may take them.

When one has such powers the panthers jaws that open to a cave entrance way to many treasure of gold and precious jewels can indeed be called home. The toe seem to gently prepare to land from their nightly excursion and return to their magical home within the desert and to all the adventures and mystery that environment may hold.

Some record covers are just so damn good, aren’t they? You know the kind I mean; those instantly recognisable ones that are now such a big part of our popular culture.

Here are a few of my personal favourites –

· ‘Wish You Were Here.’ – Pink Floyd.

Some people may argue that ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ has a more iconic cover, but I think this one pips it at the post. Two guys shaking hands and one of them bursting into flames; how weird is that? Is it about getting a bum deal or is there a deeper meaning to it all? Who cares, it’s just such an awesome idea for a record cover!

· ‘Diamond Dogs.’ – David Bowie.

Hmmm. This is a bit difficult. Bowie has delivered so many good albums over the years and several of them have really good covers (granted a few of them are a bit cash for gold-esque, looking a little bit like a cheap 80s ad). Think ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Aladdin Sane’, ‘Low’ or ‘Hunky Dory’; they are all pretty memorable. However, I think that the cover for ‘Diamond Dogs’ is the most fitting one of all. What you see on the sleeve is very much what you are going to hear when you put it on…

· ‘Never Forever.’ – Kate Bush.

Okay, so it wasn’t as commercially successful as ‘Hounds of Love’, but it was still a cracking album. Besides, who gives a stuff about the commercial thing anyway??? This is an excellent cover; Mrs. Bush literally giving birth to oodles of strange ideas!

· ‘From the Choirgirl Hotel.’ – Tori Amos.

A perfectly weird cover for a perfectly strange album! Tori introduced pulsing bass lines and insistent Dance beats on this record, giving the whole thing a dark and other-worldly feel. The ‘not quite in proportion’ portrait art on the sleeve goes so very well with the whole thing!

Intrigue

Make a poster that people will stop and look at, if you can get a conversation started about it then it is even better and more likely that people will end up wanting to see the film.

Informative & Concise

A great mysterious movie poster may get lots of conversation going, but unless you actually tell people what it is they are looking for it is a wasted effort. Make sure the typography is legible, and you include all the relevant information (director, actors etc.) in the correct formats. Provide a clear message and don’t make your audience work for it, speaking of audience…

Audience

Your target audience is important; if it’s not a kid’s movie, stay away from the cartoons and cutesy images. Also, never confuse the audiences for a romance and an action flick, it will never fly.

Space

Leave some, don’t assault your viewer with images; remember one strong message is a lot better than a bunch of little ones that only half come across.

Striking

We all like to be surprised, we all like a double take, catch someone’s eye with a unique design and you got ‘em hooked.

Memorable

No matter how cool the design, if people don’t think of it next time they are going to a movie, then there isn’t really a point…