Graphic Font Samples - Posters

Although generally the title font used in the trailer is the font used on posters, in Blue Valentine the font used on posters is completely different to that used in the trailer. 

Trailer: 

Poster:

We wanted to explore this type of change in font and style so we looked at similar types of fonts on DaFont. If we recreated this style, we could still keep the simple fonts within the trailer and then use a completely different font on the poster. We liked how it is clearly a love story (aside from the tagline on the poster) through the 'V' as a heart and so looked for childish and clearly heart-shaped fonts.

JulesLove:

I really like this font as I think it works in conveying a style to do with love but at the same time is more interesting than being completely childish. However, I am slightly worried that this would also come across as a teen film as it could be seen as that.

KBBonjourSweetheart:

I really like the simplicity of this font. It would match very well with the simple font used in our trailer. It is also quite similar to the font used on the Blue Valentine poster. However, I think it may be too delicate and thin to be used on a poster as it would not draw the attention of the eye from our audience. 

Sweethearts:

Although I like how neat and simple this font is, I think is it very difficult to read. Also I think it is possibly too childish for the style we are aiming for.

However, when looking through the fonts, I also liked the look of these fonts for the poster as I feel they leave lots of room to play around with effects.

Roadway:

 Boarder:

W.H.

Ident Planning 1

We have decided to use the same production company name that we used for our AS-level coursework but create a different ident. Our chosen name was 'Silver De Courcy Films' or SDC. Although our trailer is for a low budget indie film, we wanted to take some inspiration from the moving idents used in  Optimum Releasing.

Our initial idea was to use a moving light to form the letter of the company's title. This grew into the idea of a lightning bolt forming an 'S' and following into the full title of the company. This use of light is very popular in a number of idents we have looked at such as Optimum Releasing:

We wanted to create this same sort of flashlight effect which goes across the title and highlights it. Therefore our basic idea was to create a lightning flash to form the 'S' and then follow the rest of the title through with a flashlight effect. 

W.H.

Final Tagline

Because we want to start making our graphics, we needed to decide on a tagline. For final inspiration we looked up famous quotes about love and stumbled upon Leonardo Da Vinci's quote:

'Life without love is no life at all'

We then began to edit it to make it less dramatic and obviously not a direct quote. However, looking through our shotlist, it was clear that we would have to split it into 3 parts, as our working tagline was 3 parts and split up the shots well. We have finally decided on:

'There is no life worth living / if without / the one you love'

W.H. B.M.

Filming Diary Entry 2

This weeks filming was very successful. Due to our planning ahead, we managed to complete all the shots we had prepared for and in style of what we wanted.

We started the filming with the shots 5 and 6, showing the couple at university. We had sent a message out to ask for people to come and be extras in the filming, and lots of people turned up. This was very pleasing and helpful as it made our scene look very realistic but also meant that we could place people around our two main actors so that it didn't look strange and too obvious who the focus was meant to be on.

Our next part of filming was in Costa where the couple were meant to be having a date. This was also very realistic and relaxed as our actors are already together, so we told them to act natural and just moved our shots around them according to the shot list. Luckily we had time to do this before the end of school so there were not hundreds of people milling around, but there were enough to make it look realistic.

Finally, we filmed in the library, doing shots 8-11. This was slightly problematic as the shot required us to move the camera along with the actors through the bookcase but the bookcase was slightly lower than the height of our actors, so they had to crouch making it quite bumpy. However, after a number of tries, we finally managed to make it run smoothly.

W.H.

Title Research

For the title of our film, we want something quite simple which does not sound too cheesy. However, we do want it to sound dramatic at the same time.

'Dear John' is rather an intriguing and interesting title because it is the start of a letter, so the audience is left wondering who is writing the letter, and who 'John' is. We could do something similar,  but 'Dear Isaac' is too similar.

'Blue Valentine' is another interesting title. Our title will be more similar to this in the way that it is very abstract and does not really let the audience know what the film is about, whilst at the same time managing to somehow capture the whole of the essence of the film in two words. The juxtaposition of the words 'blue' and 'valentine' are interesting because blue is usually affiliated with tragedy, and feeling sad or lonely, whereas valentine is just the opposite. The word 'valentine' suggests romance, so lets the audience know what the film is about and roughly what to expect, whilst leaving an element of mystery.

'Revolutionary Road' is another two word title. This title could ultimately be about anything, and does not particularly hint towards a romantic film, 

B.M.

Sound

For the sound in our trailer, we are using mainly non-dijetic sound. We will be putting one music track over the trailer - this is because other romance trailers such as Dear John and Blue Valentine use a single track rather than multiple tracks. The track will be melancholic and rather simple, with guitar and voice and maybe piano. We will write our own lyrics, roughly according to the narrative of our film.

We will also have some dialogue in the trailer, for example when Isaac and Grace are at the bus stop at the beginning they are having a conversation. We will use a micro-track to record this on set, and upload it onto Final Cut Pro to put over our filming. It is important we get the sound right, because this part slightly let us down on our coursework last year.

We will alter the feel of the music according to the mood we are trying to create in different parts of the trailer. For example, here, Grace is putting her head in her hands because she is upset and frustrating, so we will try and make the music sound very sad and dramatic to get across what she is feeling to our audience.

Similarly, in this shot Grace and Isaac are having a tension filled argument, so we will have the music building up. We may also make it louder, and amplify the sound of Isaac shouting to show the large scale of the argument.

In shots like this, we will make the music sound lighter and more happy, and have happy lyrics rather than sad depressing ones. This is to show the audience the different stages in Isaac and Grace's relationship, taking them through the basic narrative of the film without giving away too much. Also, we want to evoke emotion in the viewers which our music will hopefully do.

B.M

Filming Schedule 2

On Thursday we will be filming shots within school. These shots require a lot of planning as they have a lot of extras involved and we also have limited time to film them as we are using school facilities.

The first set of shots we will be doing is Shots 5 and 6.

These are showing the characters where they meet - at university. We will be using our lecture theatre for this as we think it looks most like it is out of a university. However, as it is a lecture, we need a lot of extras to make it look realistic. To make sure this happened, we wrote a post on our year's Facebook group asking them to come and sit in as extras. We have asked them all to bring a piece of casual clothing such as a hoodie etc. to make it look like they are actually in university rather than just in uniform.

So that we don't waste time with the extras, we will be arriving in the lecture theatre at 12.35pm to set up the shots and position of Grace and Isaac. We have asked the actors, Thea and George to arrive at 1.15pm and the rest of the extras to arrive at 1.30pm so that we have time to run through what the main actors have to do before everyone else arrives.

In the afternoon we will be filming Shot 12.

It is necessary that we film this after lunch and before the end of school because otherwise our location will be extremely busy and impossible to control. This will be filmed in the café in our school as it looks most like it is out of university.

Following this, we will then be filming Shots 8-11.

This will be filmed in our library at school as we cannot film in Sussex library. We have already tested the area we will be filming, which is quiet and away from other pupils so there wont be any distractions. In preparation for this, we asked the Librarians whether we were allowed to film in the library last week just to check that it would not be disruptive to other peoples' work.

W.H.

Filming Diary Entry 1

Today we had a very busy day filming all the shots in Brighton. Although we managed to get some good shots with the sunset on the beach and within the Brighton Laines, we did not manage to film everything as I think we overestimated how much time we had.

We arrived in Brighton at 12 but could not get hold of our actors until about 1.30 which allowed us time to work out shots from our recce that didn't quite work and finalise any problems we had with our filming schedule. After that, we started filming Thea, playing the character of Grace, redoing shots we had done in the recce, such as shots 32 and 35. We then used George, playing Isaac, to do the shots of them together in the house. To make sure we had enough time before the sunset, we left for the beach at 3.00 and managed to get some really beautiful shots of the sunset with them on the beach.

After the sun had set we went through the Laines filming them walking along. We tried this out twice. First we used the tripod and tracked them with zoom then we created a handheld effect which we had done in our first task last year ('The Package') which we thought would work really well with music to create a romantic feel.

Following this, we then returned to the house to finish off shots in the evening of Grace and Isaac fighting. We only managed to complete 4 or 5 shots before it was time for us to go home. However, we will be returning to Brighton at a later date to finish these off, as there are not many left.

W.H.

Filming Schedule 1

This Sunday we will start our first day of real filming in Brighton. Since we are travelling down only for one day, we need to be prepared so that our timing goes to plan otherwise we will not be able to finish the shots we need to do.

Sunset: 15:55

12:00: Location - 5

Shot 20 - Grace, Costume 10, Isaac, Costume 2
Shot 32 - Grace, Costume 12
Shot 44 - Isaac, Costume 2
Shot 35 - Grace, Costume 13

13:00: Location - 1/2

Shot 15 - Grace, Costume 4, Isaac, Costume 1
Shot 57 - Isaac, Costume 6

14:00: Location - 1.4

Shot 48 - Grace, Costume 13
Shot 54 - Grace, Costume 13

15:00: Location - 1.2

Shot 13/14 - Grace, Costume 6, Isaac, Costume 1

16:00: Location - 1.3

Shot 17/18 - Grace, Costume 6, Isaac, Costume 1

17:00: Location - 5

All evening/fight shots (27-9, 33-5, 47, 51)

W.H.

Graphic Font Samples - Titles

As mentioned in the post below, both 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Like Crazy' both use simple and delicate fonts throughout both their credits in the trailer and also as their title.

In 'Dear John' and 'Blue Valentine', the title font used is much chunkier and bolder than that of RR or LC. In BV, throughout the trailer the font used is very simple, however the final title is completely different font.

For 'Dear John', an equally chunky font is used, yet appears throughout the whole trailer for the credits as well.

I think that if we did use a different font to the rest of the trailer, it would have to be a bolder font as this highlights the title for the audience. However, it also will appear on the poster so must be bold enough to stand out on paper as well.

I prefer the condensed font of BV to DJ, and I also think this could work better with the rest of our graphics as we are using very simple and delicate fonts. Our working title we are currently using is 'Degrees of Separation', and I will be using this title to test out different possible fonts for our title.

Arial Narrow Bold:

Avenir Condensed:

Both of these are basic fonts from Microsoft Word which are dull and very unprofessional looking. Since we couldn't find anything that looked interesting enough on Microsoft, we downloaded fonts we think could be useful from 'DaFont.'

Absender:

I really like this font as I think it's simple but has something different about it than usual bold block writing. I also think by using this font, it separates our film from the typical hollywood mainstream romances and adds an edgier feel.

 Dunkin:

I don't like this font as it is a bit too simple and rounded. I also think it would not fit with our genre.

 Pharmacy:

This font reminds me of a rom-com or chick flick and I think therefore it too light-hearted for our film as it sends off the wrong signal and completely contrasts with our genre.

 Valentine:

I think this is also quite similar to the font used for chick flicks or teenage books, therefore I think it doesn't work as it sends out the wrong signal.

 Viafont:

I like this font a lot, especially as it is so simple. However, it reminds me slightly of a sci fi film or the font used for certain modern bands. If the letters were possibly more rounded, it would not be so sci-fi and alien. 

W.H.

Graphics Font Samples

Since we are using complicated backgrounds for our graphics, we will replicate the convention of simple fonts like other trailers that we have seen. These are some fonts we have tested out.

Revolutionary Road/ Like Crazy use a very basic font, similar to Arial or basic fonts like that.

As most trailers use capitalisation we will also use this, but I do like the change from lower case to upper case in Revolutionary Road, which we will use.

Calibri:

From

WILLA MARSTON

THEA HOPE

GEORGE EDWARDS

I think this looks too amateur and not as professional. Therefore I think we need to use a more sharp edged font rather than rounded. Also it is such a widespread used font over Microsoft that I think it becomes too over-used and is not very interesting. 

This is a lot nicer as it is quite classy. Its also very similar to Revolutionary Road, so echoes the feel of that trailer. However, we have to be aware that this must also be the title font so need to make sure that this would not be lost on the poster due to the thinness of the font and also that it doesn't look too simple.

This is very similar to Avenir Light but words slightly better as it is thicker so won't be lost on the poster. However, it also retains the classier style than that of Calibri.

This is very similar to Avenir Light but is slightly rounder and more compressed.

This is a bit too sci-fi/modern for what we want. It slightly looks like a modern typewriter and I think this creates a different feel than that of what we're looking for.

W.H.