Typography (Jodie)

An area that I decided look at is the typography of the opening credits. Credits are vital to telling the audience what type of film they are about to see for example colourful, bold writing is normally associated with comedies. Taking this into consideration we need to decide what type of font will suit our psychological thrillers. It order to see what type of font is used in this genre I first looked at related films and made a note of their aesthetics.

Gothika
This is quite a simple title credit as it is a clear white font on a black background. The font itself seems quite formal refering to the serious issues that may be dealt in the film. Also the font has a old fashioned feel to it to suggest it was set in a earlier period of time. The white on black is effective as it stands out and attracts the eye. Also by using a larger letter at the beginning and end of the word, this makes it seem balanced which is aesthetically pleasing.
Se7en
I like this typography as it looks like a form of handwriting. This suggests the film is like a visual diary or that it will be from a particular persons point of view. Also the handwriting seems quite scribbled which may be a child's handwriting or someone with a difficulty in writing. This difficulty may related to a psychological problem which is often found in psychological thrillers.
The Beach
The first thing I noticed about this font is that the different shades of blue outlining the title gives the impression the word is under water as it makes a wave effect. This is used to emphesise the theme of water within the film. Also both the blue and white contrast greatly with the black making it clearly stand out.
The Butterfly Effect
Although I could not screen shot it, the typography is across a picture of a butterfly which gradually morphs into a brain scan. This was very effective as it sums up the story line of the film in two pictures. The butterfly was chosen so symbolise the theory being focused on and the brain scan to represent the character mental disability. The shade of blue used for the images creates and calming but cold affect on the audience which could resemble the different moods the audience will feel within the film. The font used is in a lighter shade to stand out against the imagery and the use of the capitals shows the butterfly effect's importance in the film.
Thirteen
This typography also uses the white on black effect to make the wording clear. However it is quite interesting as it uses a font which looks like the stereotypical type writer font. The font itself is usually used in textual documetns and is quite monotoned through equal spacing and denisty of colour. This could represent that the film consist of a serious of balanced events or characters. The boldness of the word is also quite striking and overpowering to show some form of domiance.
The Machinist
This is one of the few bits of typography which has a picture as the back ground. I find it intersting as it implies that the "machinist" is the character in the background and therefore acts as an introduction. However the picture in the background is still quite dark therefore the title is clear to read. I like how although the audience is looking out to the city, the reflection in the window is telling the story of one of its civilians. This makes the two images compliment one and other. Also an establishing shot of the city is often a code and convention of a thriller.
Silence of the Lambs
These credits are different to the rest as it uses three colours isntead of two. The red of red emphesises the word silence. As red is a code and convention of blood and death it suggests the silence being refered to is a result of a death or murder. This could be a technique we use in our own film title if it is longer than one word.

Overall from my research I can conclude that psychological thrillers nearly always use light shaded fonts against a dark or black background. Any extra colour, normally blue or red, is used to hlighlight specific words or themes within the film. Also any imagery used is to give a brief insight into the story line or notable features of the main character. By sticking to these codes and conventions of psychological thriller fonts, our typography will be well suited to our own film opening

Also as another part of research we as group went on the Apple Macs and experimented with the differnt fonts they have on iMovie. We discovered that it had many different fonts we could chose from which the size and shape could be altered. Once we have picked a film title we can experiemnt what typography to get the best result for our own movie opening. Screen shots of possible options will be posted at a later date.