One of the quintessential features of a silent film are the title cards and intertitles, these are frames that use text and sometimes illustrations to accompany the film and compliment the visuals. At the turn of the twentieth century, films were increasing in length and needed a supplement to explain the action on screen or provide dialogue, hence intertitles were born with their first appearance in the 1901 film Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost. It is generally agreed that there are two categories of titles: dialogue titles and expository titles, these were used to help the audience follow the narrative and provide context (Chisolm, B. 1987).
The most common fonts for intertitles were: Pastel, National Old Style, and Photoplay, but as films progressed more elaborate typography emerged with the fonts reflecting the genre of the film (May, J. 2010).
Examples of intertitles, modern and classic. The Artist (2011) City Lights (1931)
The title and intertitle cards for Shut-In are predominantly an homage to those of the 1920’s because the film itself isn’t set during this time period and so needs a more modern interpretation to avoid a clash of styles.
Shut-In has no dialogue whatsoever therefore the intertitles are expository in nature and used to convey onomatopoeia such as a thud or a door knock, this is because these sounds are important to the narrative and are vital to the audience understanding the actions on screen.
Here is the shortlist of fonts I have selected for the intertitles, they were chosen based on their similarities to fonts typical of the era. They read ‘Thud’ because this will be present on one of the intertitles, however, it will not be in black but white instead. After much deliberation, I believe that the central font is the best option due to it’s more contemporary yet respectful of the classic era feel to it, in close second came the font Bellerose, that lost out due to it’s more contemporary aesthetic.
Using the ‘Noir-et-Blanc’ (black and white) font, I created what I believe to be an authentic looking intertitle with a contemporary flavour. I hadn’t initially planned to use quotation marks but found it looked pleasing to the eye and so decided to include it. Although it may not appear on the above image, there is a subtle texture to the black background which adds a little depth to the overall look.
Bibliography
- Chisolm, B. (1987) ‘Reading Intertitles’. Journal of Popular Film and Television 15 (3), 137
- May, J. (2010) ‘The Art of Film Title Design’ Smashing Magazine [online] 04 October. available from <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/> [03 April 2015]
- Neary, D. (2012) Diary of a Film Cricket. [08 March 2012] available from <https://thefilmcricket.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/top-10-intertitles/> [08 April 2015]
Dan Biddle 