Film typography comparison

I decided to compare our opening scene typography to those of many famous horror films. We got inspiration from various films and used fonts that not just conformed to the genre but also suited the situation of our scene.
 

One of the most famous horror films, Saw, used very simple writing in promotional posters however used different writing in the actual opening scene. On posters, it is bold, sans serif red writing which is very simplistic. In the opening scene, it is a thin blue serif font that is wavy to reflect the water in the opening scene. This made it harder for us to choose which ones to use for credits and which ones for the main title. 



 

Another example, Se7en, uses the same font for the credits as it does for the promotional poster. This is effective because it is based around a handwritten, shaky effect and is white. The other text on the screen is serif which is good as it shows the religious theme of the seven deadly sins.

 

In comparison, our typography and titles are loosely based around both of these. For the main title, our font is large, sans serif and the colours are red, black and white. The credits that show throughout are a font with 'spraypaint' in the title. We thought this was perfect because it looked spattered like blood, however we did it white because it suited the colouring more and stood out. It also didn't emphasise blood which suggested the fact that it's a psychological horror as well as slasher.
 

I think we did well with typography and choosing fonts because they seemed to be well suited to the scene and the feedback we received about the typography was all positive as everyone liked the font.

Editing: Improvements on Title

Faceless Editing: Improvements on Title

Upon audience feedback after previewing our first draft of our video, our feedback suggested that the title of our piece whilst had fitting typography that fit with the gene was too dark to view on screen. Previously, when creating the text on Photoshop, I had made it with darker spots intentionally to try and fit in with the idea of a horror film including dark scenes and dark plots. However, I didn't take into account having difficulty seeing it.

We went back to the Faceless opening scene in Final Cut Pro and used the colouring tool to improve this. I moved up the brightness on brightness/contrast and used the brightness tool to make it lighter. This allowed us to see the text clearer. However moving the brightness up made the title loose contrast and the colour of the red blood in the title faded. This resulted in it looking less impactful.

To fix this I moved up the contrast to deepen the colours and darken the shadows of the title. This allowed it to still be bright as I kept the brightness of it as it was. Overall I am happy with how the title came out, as it fits with the genre and thanks to our audience feedback can now be seen clearly.

Typography of The Shining

. "A Stanley Kubrick Film" enters the screen. The colour used for the titles is a strong, neon turquoise-aquamarine. This is where the credits begin, with Jack Nicholson and the other actors and actresses names being shown with the costume designers and such. These opening credits are not like the usual thing we see when it comes to a horror film. Compared to a film like a modern day horror; such as Insidious, or Sinister, we can see that the opening titles are very different. There are a limited number of credits on The Shining, but films like Insidious have many credits to open to, including production companies, producers and so forth. The credits differ with their simplicities and technological differences. Where The Shining is simply aqua-blue with bold letters in front of the screen for its credits, placed in the middle of a scene that runs with eerie sounds as the camera follows a car, we aren't missing anything due to the large names coming up on screen from the bottom and leaving from the top, not staying for a second as they all follow the trail. Whereas films like Insidious have opening credits which are very different. The font moves, and has elements of 3D with its shadow and fade in and fade out technique with its graphical design. The titles of Insidious are smaller than The Shining's, and only stay in the corner of the screen while nothing is happening, and is usually just a black screen or an old object with mist coming off of it. The Shinning is different due to its large titles and big, bold and blue text that goes across the screen and is impossible to miss.

Faceless Editing: Text/Typography

Faceless Editing: Text/Typography:

When deciding what text we were going to use for the titles, we wanted it to suit the horror/slasher genre of our film. We wanted it too look rough and originally wanted a text that looked quickly hand-drawn. We began by looking at text that would have this effect. The first typography that we considered was 'Bradleyhand' typography. Whilst it gave the 'hand-written effect' we wanted it looked too 'teenager' and didn't fit the horror film genre.

The next text we looked at was 'chalkduster'. We considered this as a possible option as it had a rustic look and still looked hand-written. However, we decided to not use this one as whilst it had the effect we wanted, it didn't fit a slasher film

The final text we looked at was Octin Spraypaint at a scale size of 67.0. Whilst this typography didn't have the hand written effect we originally wanted, it was suitable for our genre but also looked like a type writing effect which gave it an aged feel which made it look rustic. We chose for the text to be white, as it stood out on the screen as a lot of our clips were dark. Capital letters were used to make it more dramatic.

To make it look like it was appearing in the scene, as if painted on the wall, we had to rotate the text to line up along the wall. In the picture below you can see the name 'Tom Hiddleston' has been turned to match up with the metal bar. We rotated it 3%.

For a more dramatic effect we wanted to make the text appear as if static was moving the text about on the screen. We looked on the effects options on Final Cut Pro and found a 'bad TV' effect where you can manipulate the text to look static. However, when we added it onto the text it caused the text to disappear. Instead we included a transition effect called 'feature' which made the letters appearing in a canon sequence.

 Overall, despite not achieving our original want for the typography I think what we created was a lot better than our beginning idea as it fit with the genre and was easy to read without looking like children's scribbles. 

Typography of Insidious

The Typography of Insidious

The titles for this film include the title and the opening credits show the cast and crew of the film as well as the production company and who it was made by.

These titles fit very well with the film, because it uses a bold and dark red colour over the titles which is on screen, and fits well with the image on screen, especially the non-diegetic music that is heard over it with the strings of a violin being played and plucked.

The titles do move, and the main title of the film 'INSIDIOUS' has lighting below it, making some of the letters a darker red than the others. The font is also 3D, as it has shading on some edges, and uses a font like it is from the Medieval era as they are rather big and 'pointy' at the edges. The titles are impressive, as it makes it seem like there is a wild flame in a lantern in this film which is actually foreshadowing near the end of the film as the Patrick Wilson's character enters the ghost realm with nothing but a lantern to guide him through the darkness. The words become closer and closer to the screen, and really give you a sense of how this film will draw you in by making you unable to stop the events occurring. The main title of the film has rapid flashes, most likely to give someone an epileptic fit. It fits well with what is occurring in this scene, as it sets up a mysterious character in a widow's gown, holding a candle and grinning directly into the camera before the title appears, giving the audience a jump scare with the sudden pace of sound and flashes on the screen.

The opening credits for this film show the actors of the characters and those involved with actions such as director of photography, producers, the directors, and casters. Each title that appears on the screen acts the same as the film title, where it is red and is 3D with a shadow effect with light on the letters. The screen is black and white, so the titles that appear on the screen do stand out and are visible. There is a smoke like effect when they appear and disappear, and depending on where they appear on the screen, they move the other direction and downwards or upwards. The letters are much smaller than the title, and the music is calm as these titles open up the film. The effect used to make the words appear and disappear go well with the film because it is like a ghost, with a misty presence around it interrupting the heat.

The typography for this film is very well done and has been thought about, since they fit very well with how the film has been done and the genre that the film with in with it's paranormal elements and sinister looking red. 

Practical: Typography

Typography: Faceless

An important part of an opening scene is the title, it's name, along with the typography as this can show what genre the film is and what the narrative is going to be. For my practical I decided to experiment on Photoshop to see what I could come up with.

Our title is Faceless, as our genre is Slasher/psychological with a narrative about a killer who wears a mask to hide their identity, therefore we thought the name faceless fitted this theme as it continues the suspense and mystery of who the killer is.

I started off putting my text in the center of the canvas, making it the focus point for an audience.

For the typography, I wanted something simple. I didn't want to use serif as our storyline doesn't follow a religious theme but I also wanted to put a few effects onto the text to show what genre it is part of as well. Before deciding, however, on a text, I colored the background layer, black to show it is a dark horror film.

I used century gothic text and bolded it as this is still quite simple and is thick enough to leave space to add effects (ie. a blood effect into it). I also decided on a deep red colour, symbolizing blood, linking with the slasher genre.

Afterwards, I used a erase 'grass' brush and erased over the text, swiping the eraser over the words to make it look like it had been scratched off, going over certain areas of the text more than others. Originally I was going to leave the text like this as I felt like it showed an overall creepy look and portrayed the genre of the opening, however, i decided to experiment more.

I looked at the different filters available and thought the wind option could create a good effect (filter--> stylized--> wind). It didn't make much of a difference after using it, however it did make the black erased areas more blurry, making it look more distorted.

I duplicated the text layer twice, coloring one black the other the same red as before and put it under the erased layer. The black used to keep the black erased effect in place whilst the under red layer, I blurred to make the outline of the text a more defined edge.

Following from this, I flattened all the layers together before duplicating it. Then, the top layer I colored black and white. This gave it a rough effect as if it was metal. I carried on by using the eraser tool and erasing the top layer on certain areas so that the red from the bottom layer could come through. This made the text look like metal with red blood stains splatted over it, giving it a mechanical horror feel, fitting in with the genre of slasher.

Finished product:

Overall the typography effect I used I think was effective in portraying the genre of slasher. however it doesn't show any correlation to our planned narrative story line or link in with the title 'faceless', perhaps I could add the image of a mask somewhere on the text to show it is a psychological as it will follow the story of the killer who wears a mask.

Film Titles & Typography

Film titles & Typography

I I wanted to look in the use of film titles for different genres to get ideas for our own film title. I looked into supernatural horror and slasher as they are the two genre's we were most interested in.

     Supernatural Horror:

The uninvited: This relates to the genre of horror, and through the use of the title as well as the creepily made movie poster where the supernatural being is peering into the window, is used to scare the audience further as they realize this could happen to them in their own home. The title symbolizes something unwanted terrorizing someone and tells the audience what is expected from the film. The typography used is san serif and looks like condensation on a window making it look cold and linking in with the title of the 'uninvited' it also suggests it's location is set in a house.

Paranormal activity: Despite it already being a well known franchise due to it’s amount of films made for the series, the title shows it is a supernatural horror revealing something dark and strange is going to happen. The title is san serif and it is in a red colour, symbolizing the danger of what is going to happen in the movie, it also helps the title to stand out.

The Babadook: Sounds like a child-like word, as if it has been made up from a child’s imagination. This gives an insight to the narrative of the movie. The title is once again red in serif text, symbolizing danger and the gore of the 

A lot of films use the word ‘the’ at the beginning of their titles to further emphasis the title as something important. However a lot of horror movie’s stick by the stereotype of having a single word as their title (Orphan, Annabelle, Sinister) and it is usually something linking to the genre they are part of.

Slasher:

Scream: I looked at the film; Scream and thought about how the title links well with the genre of slasher, suggesting something horrific is going to happen as we associate screaming with fear, showing what the audience can expect from the film. The typography is simple white san serif, it is unique due to the sharper point of the 'M' on 'Scream' the colours contrasting the black colour of the movie poster making it stand out. 

Nightmare on Elm Street: Nightmare on Elm Street uses the colour red on their title to symbolise the blood and gore of what the audience can except to see, relating to the genre of slasher and makes it look dangerous. The typography has the word 'Nightmare' in a larger size, making it stand out. The word 'nightmare' associated with fear. The title also reveals where the location is set, Elm Street.

The Cabin in the woods: The title to this movie is creative as it relates to the location in which the film is based. Conforming to the common conventions of thriller movies, as it is set in an isolated location, in a woods, where there is no help nearby. The typography is serif and is in black, it has been edited to have scratches over the text making it look old, dirty and as if it has been scratched by the claws of something, giving it a sinister feel.