How tasty are these?
They're from Steven Hill's rather spectacular online collection of movie title screens. He's compiled a catalogue of over five thousand different titles, and they're a brilliant record of typographic stylings through the years. Definitely worth a browse.
via ffffound
A great big thank-you to everyone who has added to our list of rather fine motion graphics - Alistair has been sellotaping all the suggested films into his collection of favourites on YouTube, so do take a look. If you know of any other bits of great typographic film, just sling the links our way.
And if that whets your appetite, you might want to take a look at the decidedly brilliant Uncredited
A comprehensive collection of graphic design and opening titles in movies, it features a simply staggering amount of work from the greats of title design, and even has a disc with a stack of QuickTime movies of those titles (though it would have been fantastic if it had been a DVD instead).
Lovely stuff.
Mmm, Saul Bass goodness.
We're just doing a bit of research ahead of a bit of work Alistair's doing with some Central Saint Martins students over the next few weeks, and we need your help.
We're looking for the best / most interesting bits of motion graphics we can find, whether they're from television, film, music videos, online, wherever. The only important thing is that they're principally typographic. Alistair's started to put a few bits together on this You Tube page, and it would be fantastic if you could drop us any links or recommendations.
Thank you thank you.
We're not supposed to tell you about this. So, if anyone asks, you didn't hear it from us. This conversation never happened. We're not even here.
Secret Cinema is a new monthly movie screening event, showing "stimulating, challenging and groundbreaking cinema" in random locations chosen because they help add something to the film being shown. It could be anything: "derelict theatres, rooftops, parks and other secret spaces".
The location and identity of the film being screened is only emailed to subscribers the day before the screening, adding to the air of mystery (and ensuring a lot of online chatter too).
Their last screening was Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park (you can check out photos from the screening on their Flickr page).
The first film for 2008 is being screened this Wednesday, 13 February, in London and Bristol. Details about the what, where and when (as well as how to get tickets) will be emailed out tomorrow. We have no idea what the film will be, the only rumor we've heard is that it somehow relates to Valentine's Day. Go to their site to register for info. You can also check out their Facebook page.
The 7th Annual Bicycle Film Festival rides into London next Wednesday (17 October) for five days of, well, bikes and films.
There's a stack of movies being shown, including the Saftey in Numbers documentary (7pm Thursday), about the Fireflies team who ride across the alps each year in aid of leukaemia charity Leuka. Check out the PDF of the full program here.
We're particularly looking forward to the Joy Ride art show inspired by the bicycle, including bits by Michel Gondry, DAZE and D*Face.
Expect lots of overgrown kids on fixies, particularly at the Bike Polo championship on the Sunday.
We've always been big fans of film trailers here at We Made This.
When they're done right, they should have the ability to create a palpable sense of childlike excitement about a movie; they should make you lean across to your friend in the next seat and whisper "I really want to see that".
This teaser trailer for an as yet untitled JJ Abrams project (he's the polymath who wrote and produced Lost, as well as directing the pilot episodes; and who also wrote and directed Mission Impossible III) does that in spades.
The film is written by Drew Goddard, who's written episodes of Lost, Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which makes for a pretty hot CV in itself; and directed by Matt Reeves, who's done mainly TV work before.
Lost became a bit too much of a shaggy dog story for our tastes, but the pilot episodes were truly fantastic, and this trailer shares a lot of what made them great.
Looks like there's some online teasing going on too, at abz3293.com, Slusho.jp and 1-18-08.com.
We're excited.
Sunday evening.
Nothing on the box.
Not even that much on offer at Blockbuster.
But, we picked up Stranger Than Fiction, having vaguely remembered it getting some okay reviews, and while it's not an outstanding film, it has got some great motion graphics going on.
The central character, Harold Crick, is an obsessive compulsive Internal Revenue auditor, and director Marc Foster wanted to represent his thought processes with a visual GUI (Graphic User Interface for the non-geeks out there). He turned to the guys at MK12 to put something together, having been shown their reel as a reference.
Check out their site for the original pitch they created, the second pitch, the elegant and witty opening sequence, and the closing titles. The extras package on the DVD has also got a good description of how they arrived at their solution, but be warned, it's a bit of a lovefest.
High o'er the roof of the world he soars... free and unfettered as the roaring wind itself! Behold the sky-born spanner of a trillion galaxies... the restless, streaking stranger from the farthest reaches of space... this glistening, gleaming seeker of truth, whom man shall call forevermore.. The Silver Surfer!
This summer there are two more blockbuster Marvel Comics adaptations hitting the multiplexes, with Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer and Spiderman 3 both looking likely to pull in the popcorn munchers in their millions.
This sent us foraging in our bookshelves to find the really good stuff, the comics the characters are based on. Both of these are English versions of the US originals, dating from 1975 for the Surfer, and 1973 for Spiderman.
A few things really struck us.
First, those typefaces. They're fantastic. Check 'em out here.
Secondly, in the Spiderman comic, they have a running header at the top of each page, summing up the action. No idea what that's all about - was there ever a reader so time pushed that he thought "I know, I'll just read the headers to get a rough idea of what goes on this issue"? But they're still corking: FROM SPACE IT CAME! SPIDEY ON THE PROWL! and GWEN IS UPSET!
Thirdly, the Silver Surfer is the coolest. An immensely powerful totally silver cosmic being who grooves round the galaxy on a surf board, and yet remains totally angst-ridden about his place in the world. (Check out Jim McBride's under-rated remake of A Bout de Souffle, Breathless, for more Silver Surfer appreciation.)
We'll hold judgement on the movies; they're both franchise sequels, and the previous films of each were fairly patchy; but, Spiderman's new costume looks kinda cool, and the special FX for the surfer do look great.
If you're looking for some better comic book adaptations though, check out Sin City, Hellboy, Constantine, and possibly the upcoming 300.
'Nuff said.
This has been bugging us for a while, if you'll pardon the pun.
Sony have published lots of pre-launch shots of their new Playstation 3 (which is much delayed, and looks like coming out early next year), and they all show it with a large logotype emblazoned across its chest. The thing is, the logotype is set in the exact same typeface* as the current Spiderman movie franchise, the latest of which, Spiderman 3, is due for release early next year.
Just what the heck's going on here?
They're both Sony brands, so is it some kind of co-branding thing they're trying out? It surely can't just be an oversight as both brands are far too high profile; and the typeface is hardly being used much elsewhere. Either way, it feels like a huge mistake, particularly for the PS3, which should be presenting itself as a cutting-edge product, rather than one borrowing its identity from a movie franchise that's already four years old.
Deep strangeness. We'll be interested to see if the logotype is still there when the PS3 eventually launches.
*For the typegeeks amongst you, the typeface is a version of Mata by Greg Samata, though with a bit of a sideways lean to it.
The trailer for the new Michel Gondry* flick, The Science of Sleep, is online, and it looks like a fantastic movie, and very much in keeping with the music promos Gondry's directed for the likes of Beck, Bjork and the White Stripes.
The movie stars Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and is the story of a man who has trouble distinguishing between his dream life and real life.
*Check out the Cibo Matto promo - it's brilliant.
