Typography Analysis

Typography is the style of text used in a title sequence of a film and can be used in many ways to portray various themes. In this, I will be analysing the typography of three different title sequences and the effect it has on the audience.

FRINGE

Fringe, which is a sci-fi drama, has a title sequence which reveals a lot of the themes running throughout the show. The use of bold, blocky simple, all-caps text suggests that the show will be more serious than most. The use of scientific and even some unnatural words points to the idea of supernatural occurrences in the show. The image of a handprint in the show also implies that it will have mystery elements in the form of clues and possibly crime scenes. The entirety of the title sequence also revolves around the zooming out from details to reveal a larger picture, suggesting the how thorough the characters in the show may be with clues. That theme could also allude to there being an conspiracy in the show, with them seeing 'the big picture'.

ZOMBIELAND

Zombieland's title sequence makes clever use of kinetic typography by integrating the text into the world of the film. In each scene of the title sequence, the titles and names are affected by things occurring in the film, bringing to mind the film's self-conscious thematic parody of zombie apocalypses and slight poking of the fourth wall. By doing this we also see the destructive nature of the people and possibly suggests the destructive tendencies of the film itself. The red blocky all-caps text connotes the idea of blood and gore in the film but the white outline of the text represents the light-hearted comedic side of the film.



PANIC ROOM



 In Panic Room's title sequence, the large, grey, blocky, stationery, all-caps text is quite dull and juxtaposes the title of the film, 'Panic Room', which brings to mind frantic or frenetic text yet what we see is a very plain, slow, title font. The use of this type of text, especially coupled with the simplistic, grayscale buildings and the lack of diegetic sound, creates a very calm and boring atmosphere. The bevelled and reflective nature of the text once again makes it stand out where as it would've blended into the environment. The camera angles utilised in the title sequence are also notable as some are low angle and others are high angle, to the point where they begin to look like point of view shots, as if someone were sticking their head out of a window to look.