The art you see throughout this web site
has a particular significance that you may never have realized.
It's quite possibly the first example of imagery created for
the point-of-purchase and mass-marketing of home cinema. Unlike
larger, semi-professional film gauges (like 16mm), the relative
affordability and popularity of 8mm movies allowed for them be
marketed in department stores and camera shops, and, as was
already the case with music and books, packaging played a large
component in consumer appeal.
CASTLE FILMS GENERIC
BOX FOR SCI-FI FILMS
CASTLE FILMS, ONE
OF THEIR BEST COVERS
REPUBLIC PICTURES
COVER FROM 60”S
Most retail “packaged movies”
started out having simple, generic company identity art
adorning their paperboard envelopes, or maybe went as far as
somehow signifying the genre (cartoons, comedy, sports etc)
with the specific titles rubber-stamped on the spines. However,
by the late 50's, companies like Castle Films and Columbia had
begun to lavish colorful illustrations specific to the films
within each box, and, needing to compete, other film companies
soon followed suit.
KEN FILMS COVER - 60”S
AMERICON COVER - 60”S
COLUMBIA COVER - 60”S
The quality of the artwork itself varied
greatly from company to company, with Castle Films again going
that extra distance to create original, well-rendered
illustrations, rivaled only by some of the equally impressive
packaging from Republic Pictures. Companies like Ken Films
usually relied on renderings “inspired” by (but
more crudely rendered than) the original poster art, whereas
Columbia Home Movies more often than not utilized a given
film's original B/W newspaper ad slicks, reformatted with the
addition of color tints. Probably the worst custom covers came
from British companies Mountain Films and Heritage, some of
which are laughably crude, but nonetheless, they still have a
certain charm, quite possibly because of their crudeness.
ORIGINAL CASTLE COVERS WITH THE LATER
“ANDY WARHOL” VERSIONS
FROM UNIVERSAL 8 BELOW THEM.
By the 70's, styles of graphic art had
begun to change from painted and drawn illustrations to more
photography-based imagery, and the film boxes reflected this
trend. Castle Films (soon to become Universal 8) began what are
often unfavorably referred to as their “Andy
Warhol” covers, using garishly-tinted and posterized
stills from the films in a generic, formatted layout. Currently
not as popular with collectors, they will probably gain in
value as time goes on.
Horror titles are amongst the most popular
to present-day collectors, with packaging often carrying as
much (if not more) value than the films inside. Many scour eBay
auctions for choice boxes to round out their horror memorabilia
collections, even if they have no projector with which to show
them. This isn't really surprising when you consider that with
the future of VHS looking bleak, early “Big Box”
VHS covers are gaining popularity as the next venue for
collectors of horror film-related graphic art.
