The Dark Knight Rises

Loving the build up to TDKR and can't wait to see it in just a little over a week, on the UK's biggest screen (BFI IMAX ). Below are some really cool fan-made posters and a re-cut trailer (in the editing style of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) that some hardcore fans have created. This grassroots activity is adding to the hype created through the masses of official online and offline marketing. You can check out more fan-made posters at tumblr. My favourite posters are the graphic design ones but the humour is quite funny in some of them too, such as this one >>>>>>>>>

Warner Bros and other studios have come to appreciate most types of grassroots production, recognising the benefits of happy fans and free marketing. However when fan-generated content spills into areas that clash with a property's core brand, then (like TDK himself) a studio will defend its territory! WB has frequently filed 'cease and desist' orders (threats of legal action) against fans, to prevent them from producing and sharing their own creations based on WB-owned stories or characters. <<<<<<<<< This poster hints at some of the most keenly fought against fan-art and fan-fiction, that which spills into erotica. Some studios believe fan-generated erotic content, which is inspired by their characters could be confused with officially produced materials and dangerously blur the edges of their brands' identities.


This could potentially be a problem for WB, as it battles to keep Batman dark, but not too dark for teenage audiences. Teens make up a key segment of the target audience for the Batman franchise and its related products such as action figures and costumes. Therefore WB definitely doesn't want TDKR to be thought of as too 'adult' by either parents (who might refuse to cough up cash), or national licensors (who might already be minded to give it a 15 certificate instead of a 12A, due to the "intense scenes of violence and action".

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Helvetica rules OK

The golden oldie of sans serif fonts is making a come back, on the silver screen. Why are film producers clamouring for the font that was designed to say nothing at all?

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/1260

If you want to know the film font...

Find out here:

http://www.linotype.com/2255-21522/movies20032006.html

They've got a large range of movie posters from the last decade and a handful of classics too. The details of all fonts are listed, the one used below is Aachen Bold.  It's one of my favourites posters from the site, I love the highly stylised layout which is really complemented by the choice of font. In combination with the hard-man expressions of the actors, the bulked-up, masculine font promises a film for tough guys such as myself

Great site

The Font Feed is "a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world. Eat up."

Amongst many other fascinating articles about the world of letters, it also regularly analyses movie posters - focusing on, you guessed it, the fonts used and how they tie in with the genre and themes of the films. It features posters from a mix of blockbusters and lesser known films, chosen on the basis of how interesting the design and use of font is. Check out the poster for The Girlfriend Experience which features in one of their posts, it is gorgeous. Fact.

http://fontfeed.com/archives/tag/movie-posters/

If JC was a Comic Sans fan

Graphic designers weigh up the magnitude of James Cameron's crime against typography and consider if it could have been even worse than papyrus...

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/12/28/hate-the-avatar-font-it-could-be-worse/

$237 million Avatar movie’s font is… Papyrus?

Here's a step by step analysis of how they tinkered with the papyrus font to get that 'extraterrestrial meets indigenous tribe' look.


http://aaronweyenberg.com/402/avatar-movie-font-is-papyrus