Saul Bass Motion
Without Sound - The movements flow with regard to gravity. I feel like they have good start up and stopping speed that you would see with gravity and external forces. I really payed attention to the way the motion moves rather than timing with sound. It helps see the fluidity of the objects.
With Sound - With sound you get an entirely different feel. The big brass band playing really made me feel like I was watching an older tv show. The sequences seemed more like watching I Dream of Jeanne. The hand took on the appeal of Thing in the Adams Family.
Six Youtube Videos
W/O sound - The movements of the type seem jerky at times. Also, the legibility wasn't that fantastic, but I don't think it was about the words, it was about what the words did. The word "vibe" shook giving the feeling of vibrate. I think the city had the words "Bustle" moving up and down. The movements of the type gave you a sense of what the word itself describes. The images and graphics usually just popped onto the screen and the type grew from them. Sometimes it work, but others it seemed awkward. It was good from the body, but not so much the record.
With sound - The sound gives it a metro city feel. The droplet fits well with the beat, but the "Let's take a hit" doesn't fit with the type on the screen. I honestly liked it without music better. I liked determining my own feel of the motion. The music just decides it for you. The color is mostly black, but when the trumpet gets more upbeat, more colors are thrown in. These go with the music's feel. Yellows, blues, and reds. Transitions are mostly following a line of type until it can begin a new sequence of type.
W/O Sound - I can easily read the speech with just the type and I know what's going on. It is also easy to tell which words Dane Cook is yelling about because the color gets more vibrant and the text gets HUGE. The words also take the form of what he his talking about. Driveway turns into a driveway and so forth
With sound - The laughs actually go with how many laughs start with. I love the fading of the text. The timing is so great on this and the way the type layers is spectacular. The colors are mostly yellow and white with pink for laughter. It really is just for contrast instead of emphasis. The transitions come with laughter and disappearing of the text. The text never really leads you to a new section of the speech.
W/O sound - the first thing I noticed was the speed. It was all pretty fast and hard to see emphasis due to stopped or slow words. I could barely read some of it. The way the type transformed or lead into other type was nicely done. I liked the background and the yellow, blue, and gray. These changed the color of the background to vary the video up a bit.
With Sound - Woah there is a creepy low voice guy reading this. The speed of the type really doesn't match his cadence of the voice. He seems to have a slow drawl and the type was flying by with undue emphasis.
W/O sound - the type starts out huge!!! and pretty much stays huge. The big words are hard to read because the type was sped up to fit it all. It was very blurry. The fight between the two characters was noticeable by type color, actually words, and location of how they flew to the back and edges of the screen
With Sound - So, the who big words thing...they aren't shouting until about the middle of the video. Also, grammar...it's wabbit season...not its wabbit season. Dumb. The only part of the speech that really is neat is the fight and how the fire explodes at the end. I do not care for this one that much.
W/O sound - The movements of the type were kind of like frame by frame cinematography. It was very jerky, but I will have to wait for the sound to see if that fits in with the sound. It was really hard to tell what I was supposed to read first because the later type never really faded out for a bit so type just kept piling on without clear hierarchy. Transitions are just white flashes on the screen, but it works with the choppy way the type moves.
With Sound - I never expected a country song. The choppy motion of the words doesn't go with the fluidity of the singer's voice. It is actually really distracting. The chorus is pretty sweet. The typography is formed well and looks fantastic. I would make the type slide like in the Saul Bass Motion piece. His was fluid and ran with a speaker. It wasn't halting.
6. Flight of the Conchords - If You're Into It - Type in Motion
Without sound - what makes this video the most unique is that it starts off like a real book. The pages turn and the words fly off the page to make a blank slate for the next page. Sometimes the words were replaced by graphics, and the type created really neat looking layouts and combinations. The words also multiplied even if the speaker doesn't repeat them thousands of times it helps the viewer understand the meaning behind his words.
With Sound - Guitar! and birds? The placement of the words really fits with when the speaker pauses and his fluidity. The type also changes for which singer is singing. The nice soft singer is a thin, serif font. The deeper voice is all caps, bold, sans serif. The closing of the book really goes with the end of the music. I think this is my favorite because the type does more than just write what the singer says, it also gives character to each voice and connotations.
3 Movie Title Sequences
1. Catch Me If You Can
Fantastic. I have always enjoyed this title sequence. The graphics, lines, and colors all perfectly represent the time and feeling of the film. It gives you a sense of drama. The cat and mouse game that takes place during the movie is well thought out in the title. The characters conflicting attitudes and roles is also evident. Scale changes in the beginning show how the main characters are equally above the "normal" people. Then, near the end they become smaller and about the same size. They are taken down a notch in society and more even with each other.
2. Panic Room
They were the first (really) to put type into a city scape and make it look like it was just part of the environment...then of course Heroes did it several years later. It has become popular in other movies also, but Panic Room really makes it legible without making you read everything head on. The type also sometimes is like a hide-and-seek game. The music also sets the scene for showing the danger of what's about to come. The metallic sheen of the letters could also relate to the metal room the main characters will spend most of their time in. The city is shown as a busy place which contrasts with the isolation the characters feel when intruders enter their home.
3. Spiderman 2
I love the comic book effect on all of the marvel comic movies. Spiderman 2 really outdid them due to the lighting, music, and spectacular typography. The text flies, breaks apart, scatters. The graphics are all enhanced with lighting. The photography all has a nice comic book effect and gives you a recap of the first movie. It's like the audience gets to see the graphic novel prequel of the movie they are about to view. It engages the viewer, but it does take away from the words when the pictures are also there. I barely read them.
