I started to play around with some fonts that would look good in my title sequence. I want to use a sans serif font (meaning it has no tails on the letters) because most films in my genre use this style of font. I downloaded a few fonts from 1001 fonts and tried different capitalization and bolding patterns. After choosing one, I added titles to my title sequence.
Font Tests
This is the first font I tried, called Agoestoesan. Of the four I looked at, this was my least favorite. It’s just too cheesy and that’s not the look I’m going for. Also, the source I referenced in my last post advised against using cheesy fonts because they make your work look unprofessional. Additionally, the bold text doesn’t really show up the way I want it to. Overall this one wasn’t a win.
The second font I tried is Microsoft Yi Baiti. I like this one a little bit better, but I still feel like it isn’t the best fit. I don’t like how my title looks in this font, but I like the credits part. However, this isn’t going to be the one I choose because it is too formal; I need something more fun.
The third font I tested is Kohinoor Bangla. This is much improved over the previous two. It has a more interesting look than the others. However, just like the last font, I don’t like how the title of the film looks in this font as well as how this font looks when bolded. Because of these reasons, I will not be using this one.
The final font I tried is Libel Suit. This is the one I like the most. It reminds me of the font used in The Edge of Seventeen, but slightly thicker. It has an interesting look to it without being too formal and I really like how the title of my film looks in this font, which is something I haven’t experienced with the other fonts. It fits really well within the font conventions of comedy films too. This is the font I’ve decided to use for my titles.
Colors and Transitions
After picking my font, I needed to decide what color my titles would be and how I wanted them to appear on the screen. For the color, I chose yellow. I know it’s sort of loud but it seemed appropriate for my genre. As I’ve mentioned before, comedies often use bright colored text (pink, yellow, orange, etc.) so using a bright color would conform to comedy genre conventions. The Edge of Seventeen used yellow text and since my movie is so similar to that one, I figured yellow was a safe choice for a font color. For text transitions, I went with a simple fade in/fade out for all of my superimposed text. Most of the title sequences I’ve watched from the comedy coming-of-age genre use this (ex. The Breakfast Club and The Edge of Seventeen). The fade in/fade out is barely noticeable, but I feel like it makes the overall look of my video smoother.
How I Added Titles
When it came to adding titles to my project, I struggled. I have redone my titles four times so far, and who knows if I will end up redoing them again. The titles on iMovie are awful and don’t have the capability to let me put my own font in, so I had to find a a different way. One of my friends showed me how to do it using Power Point and the green screen feature in iMovie. Basically, I made a powerpoint with my titles in my desired font (Libel Suit) and color (yellow). I also added the fade in/fade out transition. You can download this powerpoint below for reference. Then I changed the background color of the ones I wanted superimposed to green. After that, I screen recorded my powerpoint in order to capture the transitions.
Then I imported the screen recording into iMovie, placed the titles where I wanted them and cropped the titles to be on the screen for around 3.5 seconds each. I went to the toolbar in iMovie and clicked on the two overlayed boxes that can be found to the right of the magic wand. In the dropdown menu that appeared, I clicked “Green/Blue Screen” which superimposed the text on the screen perfectly.
I also added the logo for my production company at the beginning of my title sequence because most movies include this. I did this by downloading it from Youtube and then adding it to my iMovie timeline. I’m not sure if this is a necessary feature and I might remove it later.
Below is my title sequence with titles. It still doesn’t have sound.
Sources
- https://www.1001fonts.com/sans-serif+headline-fonts.html?page=9&items=10
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=silbBKuaXI4
- https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/youtube-converter
- https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22903?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
- The Breakfast Club title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF–IfvbioQ
- I streamed The Edge of Seventeen title sequence from Netflix.
- I used various IMDB links throughout this post. Their specific URLs can be found when clicking on them.
A Lot To Learn 