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.