Planning: Title, Font and Logo Ideas

Title

Possible names for our film so far have been ‘Burning in the Skies’ which resembles the nuclear missiles and explosions tearing through the sky, also signifying the end of time. ‘Burning Jacobs Ladder’ was another name we had as Jacobs ladder was a ladder to heaven which the Patriarch Jacob dreamt about, therefore the burning can symbolise the severed connection from heaven as well as connoting the nuclear explosions once again. ‘Crack the Sky’ was the other possible name we came up with as nuclear war has effects on the atmosphere and the disruption it has had on civilisation.

Other names in which we came up with, but aren’t using are ‘Beyond the dying light, fading light, fifteen winters, 23:57, minutes to midnight, the birth and death of a day, shadow of the sun, solitary wasteland and shadow of the day’.

We found this font, called 'A Bite', on urbanfonts.com and decided for the following reasons that it would the ideal font choice for our title, Dust, and would furthermore be put into our trailer, website and poster. First of all, the fonts salient features are congruent with, and also reinforces, our post apocalyptic genre; the letters are degraded and are beset with abrasions, smudges ad marks, making it appear as if it has been corroded - as if by radiation etc. We prompted for black lettering to correspond with the dark, mature themes in our production, whilst also rejecting sans serif as we believed it didn't fit the title very well and it didn't link very well to our production - aside from the incorporation of some biblical elements (the bible does generally have gothic typography) but we concluded that the link would be too tenuous for most to pick up. One problem that arose from our chose to use black coloured text was that it was always embedded in a white background when saved as a separate individual file which, when applied to Pinnacle when editing the trailer, abruptly ended the feel of a well polished trailer and effectually ruined the finale with an 'amateur and scruffy' finish. So, to get around this, we had to construct the final shots of the trailer to have a background as close to white as possible so that the title could fade in and immerse with the background.


As for the actual title- 'Dust' - it was a fitting choice since, ultimately, in death everyone and everything becomes dust and reverts back to their/its most microscopic components and obviously in a world following a cataclysm, most is dead. In addition, from the inception of the post apocalyptic genre, we were immediately interested in scriptural quotes as a slogan, given their instrumentally profound, and sometimes ambiguous, effects on people as well as the tendency of more people being attracted to religion when desperate, such as what we can assume would happen in a global catastrophe - it incites hope. This actually ended up how we decided the title as this planted the seed for the discovery of our chosen quote and from there we chose the word dust from it given the aforementioned connotations. Overall, it is an optimal choice for a title given the correspondence with our production whilst also being quite catchy.


At one point we liked the idea of the slogan dissipating in the trailer, leaving just the word dust which would then enlarge, centre and become the title. However, this proved too much for Pinnacle and the idea was lost.

Production Logo

For our production logo, we have had ideas of having the progression of man from apes with it ending in a man with a gasmask on. This would then show how we have evolved from apes towards men but, the gasmask would suggest that we have progressed into war or inhospitable conditions due to the connotations linking towards gasmask. Therefore this links well with the genre of our film with it being a post-apocalyptic. If we used this logo idea, a possible title of our film could be ‘Revolution’, but with the ‘R’ added as if it was added or graffiti’d on.

 

Another idea for a production logo is that it shows a man removing his face with something else inside of it. This is quite surreal and disturbing as the face is merely acting as mask for something controlling it deeper inside. Not only does it evoke a neurotic and dark nature but it is also open to multiple interpretations that can all essentially correspond with the film genre we are making; the dark nature of it would link well with our film trailer, but would also be able to link to other films easily due to it having no distinctive links with other genres. If this logo idea is used, we could use the title ’big empty’, ‘host’, or ‘writer’s block productions’ etc. as they can all relate to the logo in some way. The ‘writers block’ also plays on ironic humour slightly as it suggests the production group are lacking imaginative and fresh ideas, yet they have mustered up an entire feature with an accompanying trailer.

After a number of circulated ideas, drafts and disagreement, as a group we finally opted for this design and name pictured above. After seeing a similar design in impertinent booklet on APD of a person removing there face as though it was on a hinge to reveal an empty blackness inside, we were inspired to make something similar. It had quite an effect on me so by replicating it, to some degree, we would have a quite profoundly surreal, dark and yet obscure enough to derive equivocal meaning for the consumer; that can all essentially correspond with the film genre we are making; the dark nature of it would link well with our film trailer.

Not only does the picture of person removing their own façade to reveal an empty black void not only evoke a neurotic and dark ambience, but it also raises questions about the voids purpose - what is it? why is it there? One interpretation is that it is a dark volition, it is the malice of man hidden away by our facial features. This would definitely correspond with our film genre as it is that dark will of mankind that causes the apocalypse in the first place! However, that doesn't go to say it can't link with other genres as interpretations of it can fit many others, even, hypothetically, ones without dark or mature themes as long as the logo is augmented to reflect the genre such as other production logos do i.e. such as the Warner Bros. animation in The Matrix Trilogy appearing as code in the movie or Dreamworks animation for the Shrek series. 

We chose the name 'Writer's Bloc' for our production mostly due to its play on the words and it being more phonetically pleasing and understandable than one word names; some ideas were also rejected because they are already used. For example, we had the idea of The Big Empty, inspired by a fictional landmark in Fallout but unfortunately discovered that there was already a production named The Big Empty thus, to reduce confusion or copyright claims (in a hypothetical real world context where we are a real company), we looked for alternatives. In the end, Writer's Bloc was the optimal choice. We are technically a coalition of persons with a common purpose, 'a bloc', and assuredly we do a lot of writing in order to produce the film so the name makes sense. 'Writers bloc’ also plays on ironic humour and play-on-words as, due to similarities with the term writers block, it suggests our production group are lacking fresh, innovative and imaginative and ideas, yet we would have mustered up an entire feature with an accompanying trailer; this furthermore makes the name more memorable as it has a unique and peculiar quality to it that most production companies lack. And finally, the title corresponds with the design as the person is devoid of anything in his head, where a person suffering from writer's block will be devoid, or struggle at least, with ideas - so it is basically an artistic representation of Writer's Block as well.