Title

We decided on the title "Blackout" for our film, a direct reference to the protagonist's periods of memory loss, which we make clear when Violet finds Kevin's medical records. It could also be interpreted as a synonym for death, which fits in with some of the darker themes and ideas in our film.

Typography

We knew that we wanted to use a white font on a black background. The dark background is conventionally used in title cards to draw attention to the text, and in classical cinema when there was no Technicolor white was the only colour which clearly stood out. Therefore the title card will be reminiscent of the iconography of traditional film noirs filmed in the 1940's and 1950's. This was important to us because we are filming a neo noir which actually subverts many of the conventions of these films.

Title cards of classic film noirs

We began by looking at the fonts on Final Cut Pro X. Although we would have more choice on custom font sites, we would have had to export the title card as an image which would have been of a lower quality and harder to animate. We found three fonts that we liked

What we liked	What we didn't like
Simple and bold font makes it stand out	Possibly overly simple, looks too boring
Sans serif with no embellishments means the audience won’t struggle to read it	Nothing which directly links it to film noir or the film itself- very generic
The subtle reflection makes it a bit more sophisticated

What we liked	What we didn't like
Very clear, large lettering	From a distance it still looks too simple and boring
The font does not just use solid blocks of colour but markings which look like scratches to give it texture	The markings, which make it look rough and damaged are possibly more reminiscent of an action film than a film noir

Our Final Font

What we liked	What we didn't like
The typography is retro and reminiscent of old film posters, such as classic film noirs.	It doesn't contrast with the background as much as the first fonts, so we would have to make it as big and bold as possible.
It is still fairly simple and bold, even if it is not white, so it stays legible.
Close up, there is a shadowed pattern which makes it more interesting. The combination of black and white is again associated with film noir specifically.