VISUAL LANGUAGE
Unit 45 – Type and Letterforms
TASK 5:
Karin Fong
Prologue Films
submarinechannel.com
"Enchanted"
Movie end sequence: Garson Yu (USA)
Movie end sequence: Garson Yu (USA)
Enchanted is a Disney movie, part animated and part live action about a princess from an enchanted kingdom that is transported somehow to the real world, to be more specific to New York City. This title sequence has plenty of fairy tales characteristics: there is a story book that closes in the end of the movie, right before the title sequence appears, with the quote reading "the end" in a sweet script style type made of little stars. The book is similar to old story books that we can see in ancient library shelves and also in the beginning and/or in end of a fairytale animated movie. When the book closes, we see the title of the movie in the hard cover of the book, with serif style letter forms relating to old tales books. This kind of letter forms used to be painted by hand in the medieval times.
Then there is a close up in the embellishments of the book cover and the titles start to appear with a decorative Art Nouveau font in a serif style used for the main credits with beautiful embellishments around the typography that invokes associations of romance and fairytale. The embellishments grow from the first letters of the first name of each person. This again comes from the idea that we have of a medieval times book where the firsts letters of each chapter were big and all ornamented and painted by hand. A good examples of this can be seen in old bibles and tales books. We also can see that the embellishments have plenty of natural elements such as leaves and vine leaves that is also a characteristic of a medieval times in which the wine was a noble beverage therefore the vine leaves appear various times in books of those time.
The illustrations were hand-drawn and they have a watercolour look to hints the iconic fairytale world of imagery and create a playful narrative that blends elements from the film with broader fairytale symbolism with also real world elements like a brief case (at 1:26) and the city silhouette (at 1:03). But i believe that the lettering were manipulated digitally using image editing programs such as photo shop and animated together with all the background illustrations.
The pastel coloured and the "girlie" look that the illustrations and the lettering have catches the attention of a very young audience, specially girls that believes and likes fairy tales and princess story but also parents that enjoy watching this kind of movies with their children. This is a family movie where the world of the children meets the real world of the grown ups.
"Cargo – Innocence Lost"
movie title sequence: Designer Maxim Ivanov (Bulgaria)
In this opening sequence the titles look like they are some kind of a box around the actress and the font of the titles are similar to scratches, as if someone is scratching the wall or door trying to escape of something. This gives the idea that the woman is maybe being kept inside of a room or a box. Also, the woman it half naked which enforce the feeling of loneliness. The name of the movie is "CARGO" as in something being transported or shipped, with all this evidences is obvious that the movie is about people being shipped around the world as cargo, expectantly women as sex slaves. Human traffic is a very common crime in the modern society we live in.
The letter forms are displayed type giving the idea of scratches made by human nails when scratching the walls or doors trying to escape something. I think the type was made digitally using editing programs for example Photoshop. The colour of the type is white to contrast with the dark place around the actress.
The letter forms are displayed type giving the idea of scratches made by human nails when scratching the walls or doors trying to escape something. I think the type was made digitally using editing programs for example Photoshop. The colour of the type is white to contrast with the dark place around the actress.
This title sequence is mysterious and catches very well the audience specially the woman and people aware of this crime, we can see the woman in the title sequence is suffering and the scratched letter forms boxing her, give us the feeling of wanting to help the poor woman but we can´t so we stay watching what will happen next hoping someone who can will.
"Juno"
Jenny Lee + Gareth Smith, Shadowman Studio Graphics
This movie portraits the actions of an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.
The movie starts out with a real life image of the protagonist walking down street but then there is a transition and the background changes to drawings similar to those of a teenager and this is where the first letter forms appear: The letters are coloured in a bright colours and are untidily made as if they were drawn by amateurs with feltips pens. The text is in Sans Serif style with a clear attempt at 3D drawing. The colourful cartoonish letters fit perfectly against the dim coloured (also cartoonist) background in which they run in.
Immediately the audience is given a hind that this movie will be about a teenagers life, since the colouring of the font is made with pens you could find in any secondary schools' classroom the audience can also induce the movie will be related to this day and age, and possibly part of the movie may have some relation education and/or studies. There is some cleverly done interaction between the font and the images in the background, for example Michael Cera's name next to the guitar, where in the movie he'll be the guitar playing lover boy.
The letter forms seem to have be drawn and coloured in by hand like some of the images running behind it. We can also see some of the background was made with photocopies and photographs and put together like a collage. In the end the entire thing was scanned and digitally edited with image editing programs and animation programs to give all the animated effects
The type, font, and bright colouring give the sense of a comic book or even a colouring book, this help young adults relate better with the sequence of the movie.
The clear target audience is modern day teenagers, in particular female teens. Raising awareness of the common criss of teenage pregnancy.
"Final Destination 5"
movie title sequence: STEVEN QUALE, NEW LINE CINEMA
This is the opening sequence of the thriller movie Final Destination 5. the lettering apear straight away after warned brothers' logo intro. The effect used makes it seem as if the letters are part of a moving transparent glass, which is smashed by the fall curious items coming from behind the glass. Making references to the death of characters in previous movies. For example the explosion of the notorious air plane which started the enterprise. These are all 21st century items this shows the audience more or less the idea of the time and location of the movie.
The type is in bold, Sans Serif style with a constant beige colouring which contrasts with the black background. The tittles are smaller than the name of the actors and producers. The effects which make it seem as if the words are shattering are manipulated digitally, but with basis on the recorded breaking of the glass.
The explosion and destructions of the tittle sequences gives the idea that this will be an action based movie. Also, the text is in caps lock and this gives the idea of screaming or immediate urgency which will help catch the attention of it's target audience, people who enjoy thrill and mystery.
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