Film Trailer: Title Font

DAFONT.COM colors of autumn

When researching title font conventions in a previous blog post, Ella and I concluded that we wanted our film trailers title font to by in the handwritten style. We went onto http://www.dafont.com/ and went onto the Script styled font, and then proceeded to look through the Handwritten fonts.

While looking through fonts, there were so many different styled fonts, Ella and I had to discuss exactly what we were looking for in a font. What we were looking for:

- Bold

- Clear

- Not too girly/swirly.

- Not too square.

I personally really liked the fonts in the style of Autumn Chant as shown below, as I feel it has a really unique, romantic and authentic look. However, Ella and I both agreed on the fact that it wasn't very bold or clear, which is something we wanted.

Ella and I liked the appearance of 'KG Eyes Wide Open', however, it's quite swirly and appeared a little bit too feminine and girly for our liking. We then found 'Midnight Chalker' which we really liked the style of, although, it was slightly too square and in a block format, so we then tried to find a similar font to this.

While looking for a similar font for 'Midnight Chalker', we found 'Colors of Autumn' which had all of the characteristics we wanted our title font to attain. 'Colors of Autumn' was a handwritten styled font which was both bold and clear, meanwhile not being particularly feminine and not too square and formal.

Film Trailer: Title Font Conventions

Trainspotting 1996
This film is of the same genre as our film trailer, which is Social Realist Drama. The title is modern, bold and simple. The contemporary and minimalist title means that it easy to read and so audiences can recognise it easily. However, the simplicity of it can mean that it doesn't have anything specifically recognisable about it. The makers of 'Trainspotting' overcame this by adding a bold colour to the title: a classic bright orange, which has now become a signature colour for the popular social realist drama.

Blue is the Warmest Colour 2013
This French film has a very similar plotline to 'Loving You' and is a romantic drama. The font of the title appears to be handwritten or hand painted in water colour paint. This is effective as it makes the title and subsequently the film appear to be more personal and less objective and bold like the 'Trainspotting' title font. Like 'Cyberbully', 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' also links their title with the films content as the audience is shown in both the films trailer and the posters that accompany that the central protagonist's love interest has bright blue hair.

Cyberbully 2011
This film is an American television channel called ABC Family, Original film. It addresses issues of bullying, particularly on social media which is a prevalent feature of our film 'Loving You'. The title font in 'Cyberbully' links to the theme of social media and cyber bullying and so the font is linked to this by the fact that it is styled in a technological way. The title also includes two forward slash's (//) for the l's in the title. This also links to the theme of technology.



The Perks of Being a Wallflower 2012
Like 'Blue is the Warmest Colour', this film is also a Romantic Drama which is similar to the genre of our film. The font of this title is in the style of a type writers font. This links with the handwritten styled titles as it makes it more endearing. This is an effective quality to have if your film includes romance, which 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' and 'Loving You' have. It is also something that you want your film to be associated with if it is a Romantic Drama.






My Conclusion

Ella and I have focussed on the romance aspects of our storyline in our trailer and so it would seem appropriate for us to use the title font conventions of the films similar to this like 'Blue is the Warmest Colour', instead of choosing a bold, minimalistic, and objective title font like 'Trainspotting' which lacks emotion and connection with the characters, storyline and even the audience. The purpose of our film and its trailer is to evoke emotion and I believe one way in which Ella and I can help ourselves achieve this effectively is by choosing a font for title which is both eye-catching but sincere. I therefore conclude that the best styled font for achieving this is the handwritten styled font. I will also go through a step by step process of how Ella and I will choose a font for our title which will be used in our final products. This is because the title's font should remain the same or similar across all forms of a films advertisement: Trailer, Magazine and Poster. This way it is easier for the audience to recognise across the varying forms of media.

Film Trailer: Casting Shots

This is Ann who played our central protagonist: Alice. It was brilliant when Ann responded to the poster Ella and I displayed around our school as Ann matched the description of our fictional character. To fit in with our social realism genre, we wanted an actress that was similar to the character they were playing. Ann not wearing a lot of makeup is in keeping with the characteristics of Alice as I wanted Alice to be excluded from the makeup connection that many girls stereotypically bond over, this was to heighten the ideas of isolation for Alice.

This is Flo who played our central protagonist's love interest: Maggie. Floe and Ann both responded to the poster Ella and I made, together. Flo didn't ideally match Ella and I's character description of Maggie, however, we found Flo as Maggie's actress very effective as it reinforced the 'realness' of the characters. Ella and I's character description of Maggie was the stereotypical 'blonde' 'girly-girl', however, this stereotype isn't often replicated in real life and so if we had succeeded in achieving the 'perfect' actress, then we would have subsequently risked losing the social realist effect our film was supposed to portray. Maggie and Alice were supposed to be relatively opposites in the social hierarchy that is ingrained within school environments. Therefore, Maggie was supposed to be a 'girly-girl' who was motivated by what is often considered to be the materialistic things in life, like makeup. This was a feature that was supposed to heighten the idea of Alice as an outcast and Maggie as a unreachable goal, strictly to reinforce the ideas of tough love.

This is Ben that acted as Maggie's Boyfriend: Brad. Despite Ben being rarely featured in the trailer, his role as Brad was fundamental to the portrayal of our storyline. Ben didn't respond to our poster, however, Ann and Flo both recommended him and so Ella and I got in touch with him and he was very happy to help. Similarly to Maggie and Flo, Ben didn't ideally match the character description we had for Brad as originally Brad was supposed to fit in with the stereotypical American 'high-school jock' but obviously with a British take on the common stereotype. However, in doing this, Ella and I would have subsequently risked losing the social realist effect we desired. Ben as Brad's actor makes his character much more realistic and emphasises the element of true human emotion that I wanted to carefully portray in the trailer with soft-focus and dismembered shots. Brad not fitting the stereotypical 'high-school jock' character also allows for more character development in the full length film because his character isn't immediately explored with the use of stereotyping.

Second Draft of Film Trailer Plan

shot 1: both characters stepping into shower, low angle shot.
shot 2: alice wiping steam from shower door.
shot 3: in shower, both characters.
shot 4: establishing central protagonist and setting: school.
shot 5: over the shoulder/pan shot of alice seeing Maggie with brad in car.
shot 6: car back window shot showing car driving away from brad and Maggie.
shot 7: dismemberment shot.
shot 8: shot of Maggie and alice on a bed.
shot 9: 2 girls kissing alice cheek with sound bridge.
shot 10: high angle and bridge shot of alice and Maggie.
shot 11: shot reverse shot of alices face illuminated by laptop screen and then whats on the laptop screen.
shot 12: either shot reverse shot or breaking 180 degree rule while alice and maggie are arguing.
shot 13: close up shot of the computer screen and  alice scrolling through social media comments.
shot 14: alice and Maggie in the shower.
shot 15: shot of the 2 together continued from either shot 5 or 6.
shot 16: alice scrolling through social media comments again.
shot 17: alice and Maggie on a bed.
shot 18: continued shower shot.
shot 19: sound bridge 'all has changed since loving you'
shot 20: title: 'Loving You'.

Film Trailer Storyboard: Draft 1

Story board 1 powerpoint from Millie Turner

Film Trailer: Music

Ella and I both want to create our own music for our film trailer. Following trailer conventions of sound, we aim to create a light-hearted and upbeat song for the beginning which will then transition into a more heart-felt and dramatic piece and the trailer unfolds. Ella and I are both singers and so we thought it would be a good idea to use our voices in the trailer as it is the instrument we are the most confident in.


The light-hearted and upbeat song for the beginning of the trailer will be created using the Mac's and the Logic Pro software on them. During the later half of the trailer when the sad and dramatic music will be used, we plan on incorporating our own version of the song 'Leave your Lover' by Sam Smith as it relates massively to the plot line of our film. A key lyric in the song is 'Leave your lover, leave him for me' which links directly to our plot line as the central protagonist wishes her love interest will leave her boyfriend for her.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=182TRJq9Zt8



Ella and I are currently in contact with the Music Department at our school where we will arrange to record the song in the recording studio. As Ella and I aren't very confident in the piano part of the song we have asked our friend Molly who is a confident pianist to play the piano part for us while we sing.

Film Trailer: Actors

The nature of our film trailer requires a particular level of acting quality that may not be found in our close friends. Because of this, and also the film trailers content, we both wanted actors that would take the role seriously. We then came up with the idea to ask the Drama Department at our school whether there may be anyone ageing from 16-18 to participate in our film trailer. We emailed the head of the Drama Department who asked for more information about the film trailer that she could pass on to her students.


I then created a poster to email the head of the department and also to print off and put in various places around the school. The poster included all relevant information about the trailer and what we required of the participants. We placed the poster in the Sixth Form corridor and Common room where we knew there would be an influx of people around the 16-18 age bracket. We also placed the poster in the windows of several drama classrooms and also on the Drama Departments notice board.



We didn't receive huge amounts of interest at first but as time went on more people emailed us enquiring about the roles. We now have all the participants we require and will be filming on Thursday the 24th of November. This is much later than what we had originally hoped, however the central protagonist's actor that we chose was unable to film in October half term which was our desired time slot.