Chinatown VHS  tape

Chinatown was a movie produced in 1974 and directed by Roman Polinski. Chinatown is a story that follows Jack Nicholson's character J.J. “Jake” Gittes, a Los Angeles private detective who is hired by a woman named Evelyn Mulwray to investigate her husband's errands. J.J.'s case soon becomes skewed when he attempts to investigate and meets the real Mrs. Mulwray and discovers he was hired by an imposter. The VHS displayed was published in 1998 in Hollywood, California. 

The front cover features the hand-made scripture title “Chinatown” and the two characters of the movie hand-painted against a yellow and black background. Jack Nicholson's character is seen smoking a cigar as the trail of smoke outlines the character Evelyn Mulwray; only her face is seen in the yellow backdrop. The same trail action can be seen towards the bottom of the package as it depicts an ocean wave. The main actor's names are featured at the head of the package. The back of the package presents a brief summary of the movie, starting with a distinct drop-cap. The back features memorable scenes from the movie as well as the title at the top. The back covers production copyright, movie rating, and a barcode available for customers to scan. 

This piece of design is pertinent for design history as it displays VHS covers that were specially designed based not only on surface-level movie background but also deals with screenplay studies by putting it into a style targeted to this specific genre. Another point of interest is the cover also reflects an art nouveau style.