Comments on: Fonts at the movies

Fonts at the movies

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:59:40 -0800

Fonts at the movies.

Previously.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:03:17 -0800

I love stuff like this. I am becoming a type geek, help me!!

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:06:17 -0800

"Have a fling with Comic Sans"? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?

By: brownpau

brownpau — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:18:19 -0800

15 minutes ago, I saw this on Typographica and had the post all typed up and ready to go, then this came up in my 'doubles' notice box. Heh.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:21:00 -0800

I have noticed that over the past couple of years, the industry is using less of that overwrought Serif font (that I guess is called Trajan based on these links) in favor of a narrow, minimalist, helvetica looking thing. See Bourne Identity .

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:30:35 -0800

I must know more about motionographermedia.com. Who did that? It was fantastic.

By: SmileyChewtrain

SmileyChewtrain — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:37:54 -0800

It's true. Trajan really is the movie font.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:44:31 -0800

I like the big fat red ones... makes it real easy to tell which films to avoid. I'd love to see the other Marketing people's faces if you turned up to a meeting with the demo poster lettered in Comic Sans.

By: gemmy

gemmy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:10:48 -0800

I love fonts, although not enough to read blogs about it, I guess. So I'm happy you posted this, it was very interesting, thanks. And I agree with shakespeherian, that vid from motionographermedia.com was fantastic!

By: ImJustRick

ImJustRick — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:16:21 -0800

I'll second the opinion that Gil Sans Heavy, in red is a beacon that reads, "Avoid! Avoid! Avoid! "

By: Terminal Verbosity

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:17:38 -0800

shakespeherian: more info from a site that is pretty cool and fpp-worthy in it's own right.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:25:56 -0800

Ah! I foolishly tried www.motionographermedia.com without trying it sans 'www'. Thanks muchly!

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:48:46 -0800

Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies Typecasting: Review of, and Commentary on, Film Typography Previous post on "Say What Again."

By: kidsleepy

kidsleepy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:20:23 -0800

i've always been a wes anderson + futura girl myself.

By: Man-Thing

Man-Thing — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:32:08 -0800

Stanley Kubrick liked sans serif fonts. Here's something from this article in which his former assistant, Tony Frewin, showed a journalist around Kubrick's offices: I take a break from the boxes to wander over to Tony's office. As I walk in, I notice something pinned to his letterbox. "POSTMAN," it reads. "Please put all mail in the white box under the colonnade across the courtyard to your right." It is not a remarkable note except for one thing. The typeface Tony used to print it is exactly the same typeface Kubrick used for the posters and title sequences of Eyes Wide Shut and 2001. "It's Futura Extra Bold," explains Tony. "It was Stanley's favourite typeface. It's sans serif. He liked Helvetica and Univers, too. Clean and elegant." "Is this the kind of thing you and Kubrick used to discuss?" I ask. "God, yes," says Tony. "Sometimes late into the night. I was always trying to persuade him to turn away from them. But he was wedded to his sans serifs." Tony goes to his bookshelf and brings down a number of volumes full of examples of typefaces, the kind of volumes he and Kubrick used to study, and he shows them to me. "I did once get him to admit the beauty of Bembo," he adds, "a serif." "So is that note to the postman a sort of private tribute from you to Kubrick?" I ask. "Yeah," says Tony. He smiles to himself. "Yeah, yeah." For a moment I also smile at the unlikely image of the two men discussing the relative merits of typefaces late into the night, but then I remember the first time I saw the trailer for Eyes Wide Shut, the way the words "CRUISE, KIDMAN, KUBRICK" flashed dramatically on to the screen in large red, yellow and white colours, to the song Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing. Had the words not been in Futura Extra Bold, I realise now, they wouldn't have sent such a chill up the spine. Kubrick and Tony obviously became, at some point during their relationship, tireless amateur sleuths, wanting to amass and consume and understand all information. Tony obviously misses Kubrick terribly.

By: jca

jca — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:49:00 -0800

One Font to Rule Them All

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:26:19 -0800

OK, but who the hell says Comic SAHNZ? I know he was trying to make her dishier, but hey. It's English. We say SANZ. Or if you want to sound authentically French, SAHNG.

By: kpmcguire

kpmcguire — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:22:58 -0800

Trajan is not just limited to movie posters. They love it in real estate, too. Or anywhere sentimental claptrap prospers.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:38:15 -0800

Yet another example of the Trajan of the Commons.

By: tepidmonkey

tepidmonkey — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:21:06 -0800

Don't miss "Etched in Stone".

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:59:19 -0800

Weird. I don't remember using Trajan on one title treatment or movie poster. Not within the last ten years, anyhow.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:17:37 -0800

Put me in the category of "never noticed this until you pointed it out, found it interesting once you did, but can't really get worked up about it to care one way or the other." Along with the other 90% or so of the people, I suppose.