Journal Entry 7: Typography in Hollywood

In this entry I am going to look at the typography on the covers from three of my favorite movies. Movie covers are very interesting because there are so many interpretations that can be made for one movie. This phenomenon was seen in the recent Take Two movie poster contest. The posters were all different from the originals, and even posters that were created for the same movie were vastly different. Posters and covers are a little different but the premise is basically the same.

The first is for the movie called Trailer Park Boys: The Movie. This movie is based on the Trailer Park Boys show. They took a lot of elements from the show and condensed them down into a shorter motion picture. I think one of the best elements of this movie cover is how they used a dirty old license plate to frame the text. Most of the cars driven by the main characters (especially Ricky's car) are old and kind of trashy, hence the old license plate. They probably could have done a better job at blending the type with the license plate, but this may have become too contrived. They used the same font for all of the elements on the cover, the only differences are the size, and some of it is in italics. It is a very bold font with thick stroke, I believe it is Impact, or something very similar.

The next movie I chose is Donnie Darko. This is the director's cut, I like the cover for the director's cut better than the original because it is less crowded and it generally fits the theme of the movie better. This movie is a science fiction film that is very ethereal and the way the typography for the title was handled, reflects these aspects of the movie. It is hard to tell if the type that is "ghosted" behind the title and words "The Director's Cut" is even the same words. When I look at it, I see what almost looks like an X behind where the D is, but the end of Donnie and Darko look like they have the correct letters. This aspect of the typography is what really gives the ethereal feeling.

The final movie cover I chose is Quentin Tarantino's cult classic Pulp Fiction. It is filmed in Tarantino's signature style with ton's of violence and a nonlinear story line. The slab serif font for the title seems to fit this cover perfectly. I can't think of any other example of lettering that would fit this better. This font is very bold and in your face, just like the movie.