The Titles

Now I've started creating my rough cuts I need to think about the title at the end. The font for this is very important in determining a mood for the film and needs to be in keeping with the crime thriller genre. The titles for the films I've studied tend to be sans-serif and relatively simple, for example 'Gone Girl' and 'Fargo'.

However, there are exceptions to this general rule. Some films stick with the sans-serif theme but add something different or peculiar to the text to set it apart and make it stand out. This creates a feeling of unease in the audience as there is a disruption in the pattern of the text which is less comfortable to look at. This is shown in 'Zodiac' where the 'O' has a cross through it and in 'Se7en' where a number is used instead of a letter, emphasising the importance of the title in the plot (seven deadly sins) and also connoting that something out of place has a gone on and needs to be righted. They have also used a font which is not solid but appears broken and 'jumps' about on screen. This is unpleasant and has quite violent connotations, again linking to the theme of the film and creating a deep set unease in the audience. 

Finally, there's the films which break the mould entirely - those with serif fonts and special effects to create more obscure, interesting titles. This is shown in 'Pulp Fiction' where coloured serif text is used and 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' which has an entirely different font to any other titles I studied. These titles are less in keeping with the crime thriller genre but are more able to affect the audience's initial reaction to the film as they can manipulate the font in any way they like. 

Personally, I would like my film to be more identifiable as part of the crime thriller genre so I am going to use a sans-serif text however, I really like the effects of titles which are slightly different like 'Se7en' and 'Zodiac' so I'm therefore looking at fonts which help me achieve a feeling of unease in the audience whilst maintaining quite a professional feel as the film is about a police investigation. This maturity should come from the sans-serif effect as it is more matter of fact. These are some fonts I've been looking at. 

I like the second one down as it shows the holes left by mystery and corruption in the investigation in the film. It looks like there's pieces of the text missing which I really like because it reflects how the pieces of the case are missing and how they can see what's going on but not the specifics enough to stop it; it just links really nicely to the plot and themes in my film. 

However, I also really like the bottom one as it seems normal but it's split through the middle, connoting that something is drastically wrong with the whole situation, something very subtle but which prevents all the pieces of the case coming together correctly.