Anyway, here's my comps for the DVD cover. They're generally pretty straightforward--Berlin wall, Richard Burton, cold war spy stuff. Luckily, with a title that evocative, you don't have to do much to get the point of the story across. This was an occasion where my first instinct was actually the direction we wound up going in, pretty much un-altered, so I'll save that one for last.
The second cover I worked up I had a strange fondness for because there's basically no logic to why that inset photo of Richard Burton should work at all--but for some reason it does, and that kind of inexplicable thing is always kind of fun. But of course, at the end of the day it's a big movie star head in the inset, which is maybe a little tacky.
This next was my (misguided) attempt to bring a little color into the mix, give the whole thing kind of a '60s spy novel flavor... it winds up being a little too "pop," though. The composition wouldn't be bad if rejiggered into black and white (maybe leaving "SPY" in some color), but is kind of a plot spoiler anyway, and the focus is a bit too much on the girl rather than the spy in question. (I do like the way she's looking at "SPY" though.)
This one's pretty simple, just Richard Burton sitting on the Berlin wall. There's nothing wrong with it, but nothing groundbreaking either.
And finally, the winner, a really simple shot of the Berlin wall with some strong type overtop. It's a little bookish, but in a good way, I think. Not using Richard Burton was an initially controversial choice (we don't get many movies starring well-known
Anyway, all of those were sent around at the same time, and that last was the consensus choice. For contractual reasons, Martin Ritt's name had to be removed from the cover, which was a shame (both for design and content reasons), but not the end of the world. And thus you have the final cover:
8 comments:
Not to nitpick but... well yes, yes to nitpick... Richard Burton is a Welsh movie star not american...
While I do like the final version, I like the Richard Burton on the wall version best. Nice work type-wise regardless, though.
Patricio--
Well, he is a star of American movies, i.e. an American-movie / star as opposed to an American / movie-star... Or, uh... alright, fine, you got me, my mistake! ;)
sixfive--
Yeah, that other one's not bad, either--you'll be happy to learn that it wound up as the booklet cover... feel free to slide the booklet under the plastic wrap and use that as an alternate cover!
;-)
I liked the cover very much, bought it even tho I already had the Paramount dvd version. I think that the title sequence of that film is a movie unto itself. The wall looks like an abstract expresionist painting.
So here's a design question for you... That white type on a (more or less) white wall should be unreadable, right? So---why does it work so well? Did you bring the white point way the heck down towards grey in the Levels control? Or is there some other stroke of genius at work?
Great design work on a truly magnificent movie. This is one of my favorite spy movies of all time.
I like what you do, Eric Skillman. :)
That Fuzzy Bastard--
I promise it's not some big secret... it's just a grey wall. I'm sure I adjusted the levels slightly, but mainly it's just the nature of that photo. (It is at night, after all.)
Kid Shay, Capree-- Thanks!
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