So you are sitting there in front of the computer with your editing software of choice open (let’s say Final Cut Pro for this example), and you’ve just finished your short or feature. It’s exactly the way you want it, but it’s missing something: a title. So you fire up the title editor in Final Cut, type in your title, and put it at the beginning of the film. Easy, right?

Crappy Title

Here’s the problem: this may be able to fool your mom, but every trained eye that views your movie is going to think one thing before the opening frame, which is “uh oh, the default title type. This is going to suck.”

So after making every effort to make your film look like a high-budget production, you blow it all on Lucida Grande. Even casual viewers have seen this type of title so many times they sort of know what it is, and even if they don’t, they aren’t being wowed by it.

What to do? All you need is a little boost from the world of typography, and in this article I’ll be talking about some tips specifically for filmmakers about dealing with typography and fonts.

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