Day: February 6, 2019

Posted in All Posts, Research

Titles, Fonts, and Representation

Posted on by rebeccaawolff

I decided to do some research on the types of titles and fonts found in coming-of-age comedies, as well as how different groups of people are represented.

Titles

The generally accepted order of titles is:

from Mean Girls
  • Name of the distribution company
  • Name of the production company
  • “A (producer’s name) Production.”
  • “A (director’s name) film.”
from Mean Girls
  • Starring…(starting with the lead actor/actress, then followed by the most important supporting cast)
  • Featured cast members
  • The title of the movie
  • Casting by…
  • Music by…
from Mean Girls
  • Production designer
  • Editor
  • Director of photography
  • Producer, Produced by…, Executive Producer
from Mean Girls
  • Based on the…(not applicable to my project)
  • Written by…
  • Directed by…

This order can sometimes be changed so that the distribution company, production company, and title of the film go first and the rest follows, or so that the title of the film is last. I will go back to this post when editing my film so I know what order to put my titles.

Fonts

When introducing the title of a coming-of-age comedy film, simple fonts in bright colors on black backgrounds. A few of the words are often bolded, but not all of them. None of the fonts have “tails” on the ends of their letters, which means they are using a sans serif font. The letters aren’t usually handwritten in coming-of-age comedies, but in just comedy films, sometimes handwritten, blocky fonts are used. Juno (2007) uses very animated and handwritten fonts, while the title sequences that I did in-depth research on use simple fonts (see above). I also noticed that the fonts used in title sequences don’t use lowercase letters; they are all capitalized. I don’t like the look of handwritten fonts, so I will be using a modern sans serif font, such as Dosis. I really enjoy the simplistic look of all capitalized titles, so I will be using this in my title sequence.

Representation

from Legally Blonde

Most comedy movies make fun of common gender, race, and class stereotypes. They often make women, races other than white, and the wealthy appear unintelligent. One way films do this is through a “dumb blond” female character, such as Cher in Clueless (1995), Elle in Legally Blonde (2001), and Karen in Mean Girls (2004). Women are often the target for sexual jokes that would be considered sexual harassment if they were said in the real world. The “male gaze” is a concept that is heavily used in order to make these sexual jokes. Comedies often make black and hispanic characters seem “ghetto”, violent, and poor while asians are shown to be nerdy.

from Lady Bird

Representation in coming-of-age movies is slightly more complex. In coming-of-age films with female leads, the “coming-of-age” part often focuses on a woman coming into her sexuality. They often do this after being used by a male romantic partner, which shows women that this is the only way to be comfortable with who they are and shows men that’s it’s okay to use women. There is also a clear distinction between economic classes in coming-of-age cinema; the protagonist is either poor (like in Lady Bird) or rich (like in Clueless). Like comedy films, the wealthy are often portrayed as stupid.

Sources