Here's a cool site I found at /Film a while back and completely forgot to post. It's titled Movie Title Stills Collection. Created by web designer Christian Annyas, the website features screenshots of many different film titles from the early 1900s to present day.
You might think this is a complete waste of time, but for somebody like me who loves movies, it's fucking awesome! I'm really digging this. I've always been fascinated by title cards, often comparing fonts between films, and sometimes even font colours (you'll notice that the older Westerns often seem to share the same striking shade of bright yellow). It's interesting to me because over time, title artwork has evolved and advanced just as filmmaking itself has. But it's not filmmaking. It's design. It's typography. It's a whole different realm.
The most recent title card to grab my attention was for Michael Mann's film Public Enemies.
Fairly simple on the surface, but unlike anything I'd seen font-wise before. Turns out it was specifically designed for Mann by renowned typographer Neville Brody.
"Michael Mann understands the power of a good title sequence and always commissions his own. For Public Enemies, he wanted a font that evoked the Depression era, so I got inspiration from publicity posters for Roosevelt's New Deal initiative, which promoted economic relief after the 1929 Wall Street collapse. They're designed in a very constructivist, Soviet, communist style. My font is very solid, clearly masculine, immovable, and it has some very specifically naive details, like the way the horizontal strokes are all slightly too wide – we've taken out the optical correction. And if you look at the 'B' you'll see that the holes in the middle are a little bit too small – they look like bullet holes – which is very apt." - Neville Brody
Brody is so specific in what he was trying to achieve with this font. It really takes my appreciation of typography to a whole new level (for more on Neville Brody's New Deal typeface go to Creative Review). Here are some of the other title cards that I remember and appreciate the most.....
There is no justice without sin.
Family isn’t a word… it’s a sentence.
Four days, three nights, two convertibles, one city
No one stays at the top forever.
He was never in time for his classes . . .Then one day he wasn’t in his time at all.
The thing that won’t die, in the nightmare that won’t end.
If adventure has a name… it must be Indiana Jones.
The Horror. . . The Horror. . .
Grease is the word
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
On every street in every city, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.
When beaches open this summer, you will be taken by Jaws.
Never give a saga an even break!
Your golden ticket to imagination and adventure!
A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere.
The ultimate trip.
Unlike anything you have seen before, as Cinerama hurls you into the most extraordinary days of World War II!
You only live once… so see the Pink Panther twice!!!
An impregnable fortress… An invincible army… and the unstoppable commando team.
The entertainment experience of a lifetime!
It spans a whole new world of entertainment!
The story that sweeps from the great Southwest to the Canadian border in VistaVision.
The more he yearns for a woman’s arms . . . the fiercer he lusts for the treasure that cursed them all!
They had a date with fate in Casablanca!
I hate him! I love him! He’s a scoundrel! He’s a saint! He’s crazy! He’s a genius!
Out-leaping the maddest imaginings! Out-thrilling the wildest thrills!
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