The direction for this project was to create something ghostly. Typographically I went with a font named Brunella, which turns out to be so old I can barely find a trace of it online beyond a decades-old defunct foundry. Our archives nevertheless have some treasures and I was particularly drawn to the sharpness of the lowercase h ascender and the pointed abruptness of uppercase R’s leg. The font as a whole feels slightly irregular and I found that to be appropriate for an eerie tone.

In regard to the animation, the most important detail for me was to make sure the graphics retained the 16mm production value of the film. To do so, I matched the film’s grain and I tracked shots to replicate the jitter. I used a series of blurs to soften the edges of the letterforms and also overlaid duplicate text layers with varying blend modes. For key words and names, I added an effect that randomly oscillates the opacity of the letters as well as an ethereal shine illuminating from the text. I lastly implemented a smoke reveal. The graphics were meant to be tailored to their respective backplates in color and blend, however the timeline for the trailer finish didn’t provide enough time for that process, so they ultimately ended up more uniformly white. The selected samples here however are presented with the blend they were meant to have.

Below are selected samples of other type explorations.