Ideas for creating titles

[odyssic]

I'm creating black and white titles for a black and white film. I'd like the classic white letters on the black background. The thing is, it is basically going to be a silent film with frequent, perhaps wordy captions. So I was checking to see if anyone had any suggestions for a set up for titles that are quickly changed. What kind of backing, what kind of letters, how to attach them? I'm shooting 16mm.

Also, I was thinking of a 16mm bolex titler. Can the 8mm titler support a bolex H16? Maybe i'll just hang the board on the wall and shoot that?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks!

Steven

[Mitch Perkins]

I'm creating black and white titles for a black and white film. I'd like the classic white letters on the black background.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks!

Steven

Frienda mine used a laptop screen - no fields, no flicker - easy to select white-on-black - tons of fonts - easy to punch in titles - perfectly straight/aligned. I don't remember seeing video lines in the image. Maybe they could be crushed out if they are there.

HTH,

Mitch

[onsuper8]

You could cheat big time, do it Flash or in Final Cut or whatever, export as a DV file and then get transferred to Super 8!

[Janne]

Frienda mine used a laptop screen

I have done that as well. It works very well.

[odyssic]

What kind of f stop is the labtop screen shot with? Seems like it wouldn't be enough light to get the whites white?

Steven

[mattias]

it's borderline. at 18fps and f1.4 you get pure whites. at 24 fps and f2 you get grey. in my experience.

/matt

[Guy Bennett]

Here's an idea I had but have yet to use:

Typeset and print out the titles you want, black text on white paper. Set these up as you like and shoot them in B&W. Have a negative print made (if you're shooting 16mm) or have your film developed as a negative (if you're shooting Super 8 ), and you've got white titles on black that you can just edit into wherever you like.

[Janne]

You can't edit them together with the original because the emulsion position changes in printing.

[Justin Lovell]

when i shot the titles for 'rage of silence' I printed the type on transparency paper and placed it ontop of a (mock) light table some opal diffusion with a couple diffused 1ks underneath it.

I was planning on having certain letters move slightly, by creating multiple layers of type the same way you would in After Effects.

ie. layer 1 is: R GE
layer 2 is: A
through stop motion, single letters can be flickered on and off or moved around to create a jittery feel.

...trying not to give away toooooo many secrets

[Mitch Perkins]

What kind of f stop is the labtop screen shot with? Seems like it wouldn't be enough light to get the whites white?

Steven

10 or so time-exposed frames can be repeated on NLE system (copy/paste;paste;paste...)
This allows for moocho bracketing - pick the best frames.

Also 9/12 fps for exposure, then speed up in NLE?

IOW, fix it in post (brightness/contrast).

Shoot in dark room for best contrast (no reflected light on laptop screen).

Mitch

[reflex]

it's borderline. at 18fps and f1.4 you get pure whites. at 24 fps and f2 you get grey. in my experience.

What about shooting single-frame? No need to shoot titles in real time.

[steve hyde]

...lots of cool ideas here.

I did a quick literature search on old school titling methods and came up with a few out-of-print titles that might be worth tracking down:

"The History and Art of Motion Picture Title Production" , David J. Boin

"Focal Guide to Movie Titling", Philip Jenkins

"The Master Handbook of Still and Movie Titling for Amatuer and Professional" Elinor Stecker-Orel

Steve

[odyssic]

Thanks for all the ideas. My fastest lens at the moment is F2 but I'll try to shoot a monitor at 18fps.

Also, those old school books sound interesting too and I'll look into that. I'm working in very traditional methods so wouldn't mind going all the way with it. I'm working with worprint.

I thought I would get answers like... pin letters on black velvet... or something, but these are interesting and sound very practical.

Thanks!

Steven

[jpolzfuss]

Some stupid ideas:
* get yourself a blackboard
* use white plastic/wooden letters on black paper
* print the captions/titles/... black on white, then go to a copy-shop and make an inverse copy - if you do have a lot of pages, you might think about turning them into "white on black" on your PC and put them into one large PDF (e.g. by using OpenOffice's "Export to PDF"-function). ( <- Depending on the number of pages and the copy-shop it might be cheaper to do those inverse copies than printing a PDF-file. On the other hand the PDF-file should give better results.)
* Create your titles onto your computer save them as uncompressed or lzw-compressed TIFF-pics and get them printed as "digital photos"

[jpolzfuss]

I forgot this one:
Get yourself one of those slide-frames with glas (no plastic!). Hold it above a candle until it's completely black. Then use a needle to write onto the slide-frame. You can now project this slide and film the projection. When you project onto a moving arm (e.g.) instead of onto a screen, you'll get effects like in the titles of "goldfinger" or "from russia with love".
Of course you could project "any other slide" with a still photo from your title, too.
And of course we're now living in the digital page and hence you could do the same with a video-projector connected to your computer... .