Fonts and Titles: Introduction to fonts.

Opening titles, and titles in general, are extremely important within any film, helping recognise actors and the production team, as well as creating the tone and style of film (E.G Film Noir, Hard Gangster..) from the very start. Depending on the narrative, themes, tone and characters within a (thriller) film, a certain font will be used to help achieve one, if not all of these aspects. General fonts include: FONT- sans serif. This type of font implies that there is no flick on the ends of the letters, portraying more of a clean, structured tone. FONT- Serif. With this type of font, we can clearly see the flicks on the edges of each word. This creates much more of a formal tone, many associations made with Times New Roman

Introduction to fonts continued

FONT- Script. Script a is very fancy font; connotations made with period dramas or dramatic love letters, to which you creatively express your feelings and emotions. The style is extremely dated, and completely contradicts the gritty, dark tone of a thriller. FONT- Display/Decorative. Decorative fonts are generally, for decorative purposes only. Decorative fonts can be particularly hard to read, but portray a lot of fun and expression. FONT Monotype. This type of font is much like a type writer, having complete structure and form. The style is very simplistic and clear, and when used within a thriller, connote sharp, smooth traits of the protagonist, or clean and professional transitions within the editing of the film, very much like the sophisticated opening of Layer Cake. FONT- Symbol. This font is rarely used; unreadable, the font presents a sort of code to the audience, which doesnt have much relevance to the word itself ( FONT0. This font portrays more of a comedic effect.

Influences. Se7en.
The titles alone within Se7en immediately set up the film as a dark and gritty thriller.
The white, scratchy font is particularly uncomfortable; extremely bright against the black background, the title simply cannot be avoided, channelling all of the audiences attention onto it. The faint overlay and slight scratches are particularly unnerving, connoting physical scratches within violence and hinting that the film is not clean cut and smooth but instead, dark and enigmatic. The overlay of the font could express the continuation of a certain theme or situation, to which we soon learn, is a murder. It is also a visual pun that the film is impactful; it has imprinted itself one the screen, uncomfortably lingering and will do the same to your mind. The title also consists of all capitals, while the actors have been placed in lower case. This draws attention to the Film title, making it as memorable as the faces within the thriller, in which the audience are constantly reminded of who they are.

Other Influences
Appearing on screen as if someone is typing it, cleverly in sync with the soundtrack, the font used with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is very simple, clear, and relatively thin compared to Se7en. I particularly like how the lettering is somewhat balanced, in the sense of two words on each line. Being a simplistic and arguably welcoming, readable font, could possibly connote the narrative of the film being also simplistic, but not giving too much away. Again this font is all in capitals, creating emphasis upon it.

Dafont.com
The font soul mission looks very gritty and eroded, portraying the themes of death, and possibly the fragmentation of the flashbacks (with the white smudges and flecks) within our own thriller. A thinner font, the lettering in Birth of a Hero is a lot closer together, with slightly tilted Gs. Although I look the slender look of the font, I am not particularly fond of the style of the G; it feels to me out of place. However, I can understand how this would fit a thriller nicely due to the fact of the tilted letters; a slighting on edge font could portray the edgy narrative of characters, there is something slightly off or dark about the thriller. I particularly like the type writer style of this font. It has a sense of structure and is very clear but the letters are slightly smudged, portraying that not everything is as it seems, like that within Se7en.

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After deciding on the type write style font, we found several contenders to use for our titles:

Out of these three fonts, we particularly liked Rough Typewriter. Similar to Se7en, the width and spacing of the font was perfect. However, the style seems to clean cut and slightly formal. Therefore we will not use this font as we want to achieve a slightly grittier tone, foreshadowing dark events in just our titles.

Following on from Rough Typewriter, 1942 Report and Albertsthal Typewriter express more of a worn in and uncomfortable tone. I particularly like the slight overlay on Albertsthal Typewriter; connoting the same lingering, messy effect as the font in Se7en.

Final Font.

Our final decision for our title was to use the font Albertsthal Typewriter. Clear, slightly scratchy and all in capitals, this font suits our gritty tone and enigmatic theme, whilst attaining the attention on the audience so rightly deserved of the actors and production team. The style of ink from a type writer also hints a detective style narrative, set up by the death of Iga. The actors/editors names will also be in the same font and in capitals for the sake of contiunuity.

Changes.
Although our font is definite, we wish to change the font colour to white. This is because our backgrounds are relatively dark but also, to achieve an ambiguous portrayal of narrative and characters. This is because the audience witness Crowe kill Iga but for reasons unknown. The white font therefore emphasises his moral ambiguity; his name alone symbolizes death and darkness, but the font is in white, connoting purity and wellbeing