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The Importance of Typography & Titles in Film

Most films online will lose their viewers within the first 15 seconds, making the first impression ever so crucial. So how do you keep people hooked when the first 15 seconds is usually a title screen? Blow them away with an awesome opening title!

A nice attractive font can make an entire difference on a film, bringing it from an amateur level to professional. But be careful, what you might think is cool could be ridiculed by others, so make sure to seek a professional designers’ help with this.

A good title will give your film some credibility and life to begin with. Viewers recognize these efforts and even though they might not say anything about it, they do engage to it. The title sequence usually sets the tone for the rest of the film, so if some quality work is put into the title, the same effort will usually follow in the film.

There is no need to go to Hollywood levels to create a good title sequence, most of the time just choosing the right typography and color with a nice background would be enough to leave people hooked. A simple fade in or even a mask wipe can work wonders, just get your speed right, you want it to look natural with the visuals and especially music playing during the titles.


See examples and read the entire article here http://filmshortage.com/typography-and-titles-in-film/
 
I absolutely agree, the way your title looks makes a huge difference in selling the audience.

More important than look: length. In an online video, if you even have one, it needs to be a second or two max. Nothing worse than a 16 second title in a 42 second video.
 
I think what WG is saying is that a good film has a balance of everything good. That includes the sound and music score too.

A good deal of Indie films are lopsided because money usually runs out by post and short cuts are taken to complete the film.
 
Speaking of texte. I LOL so hard when people put credits at the beginning of their short movie.

Seriously, unless you're staring George Clooney, nobody cares about some random dudes.
 
I agree, it needs to be short and sweet. Usually a little opening scene even before the title can let the viewer settle in. However 1-2 seconds is not enough, rule of thumb is to be able to read anything on screen slowly twice, so minimum 4-5 seconds per small group of words
 
I absolutely agree, the way your title looks makes a huge difference in selling the audience.

More important than look: length. In an online video, if you even have one, it needs to be a second or two max. Nothing worse than a 16 second title in a 42 second video.

I have seen some videos where the intro is 3/4ths of the entire upload...
 
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