A Comparison of Video Covers of ‘A Night to remember’ and ‘Titanic’

The films are both about the well-known, tragic event that happened to the unsinkable ship, Titanic, on 14th April 1912. Over half the passengers were dead in this incident, many from freezing cold and drowning.

There are 40 years of difference between the two films, ‘Titanic’ in 1998 and ‘A Night to Remember’ in1958.

Each film company advertises their film differently. As the cover of ‘Titanic’ reflects the film is a love story. This can be figured out from the 2 main characters of the film hugging each other. Rose’s (Kate Winslet) side is on the clean and gold-stripped side of the ship but Jack’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) side is dark. This suggests that Rose is rich and travelling as a first class passenger but Jack is poor and he is travelling as a third class passenger. ‘Titanic’ is aimed at teenagers. The reason for this is that both of the lovers are teenagers as well.

‘A Night to Remember’ looks like the tragic film devoted to the ship Titanic. It reflects what really happened that night instead of telling a love story like ‘Titanic’. The cover suggests that the film is focused on the horrible event that happened to the ship. The picture of the cover shows how dramatic the film is.

Both of the films are in two different genres. ‘A Night to Remember’ is an action film. ‘Titanic’ is a romance. Both of the films reflect this in several ways on their video covers. Few of these are main pictures, colours, title font/colour/size/position, blurbs, stars, and tags like academy awards. Both of the films have used these to advertise and to reflect their genre.

‘Titanic’ contains a bold title outlined in gold. Names of the main stars are written at the top of the front of the cover. It is also mentioned in the bottom that ‘Titanic’ is the winner of 11 academy awards. Gold is used all over this cover including the texts the title and other little details. Age certificate is also including which is making this film unsuitable for people below 12 years of age. There are many more logos included such as ‘THX’, ‘Dolby Surround’, ’20th Century Fox’ and many more.

On ‘A Night to Remember the age certificate is PG. The title mentions that the night Titanic sank is a night to remember. 4 main stars are listed at the front. The cover has logos like ‘Carlton’ and ‘VRPC’, which stands for video packaging review committee. The background is black.

I think that the cover of ‘Titanic’ is much more effective because it won 11 academy awards and that doesn’t happen very often so it is a very good advertise. Also the good choice of pictures and the way colour gold is used throughout the cover is very eye-catching. Although the film ‘A Night to Remember’ was made in 1958 the video cover was made in 1998 using the clip material from 1958 ‘Titanic’ still looks much better.

Read also:

Representations of the Villain in Westerns have altered to meet the values of a changing society
About A Boy
Does “Woman in Black” Follow the Conventions of the Horror Genre