Typography research

The choice of typography, which will ultimately feature in our teaser trailer, poster and website, is important as it aims to reflect the film's genre as well as the mood of the film. To get an idea of what style of typography we will use, I decided to research existing films of the urban drama genre and the typography they use. The films I researched were 'Kidulthood' (2006), 'Fish Tank' (2009), 'Ill Manors' (2012), 'Shank' (2010) and 'Sket' (2011)- the posters of these five films, with their typography, are shown below.

I found that common conventions of the typography used in urban drama films were:

• Bold text
• Simple, standard typeface 
• Stylised in some way (e.g. the mix of capital and lower case letters in 'Kidulthood' and the image of a man inside the 'A' of 'Shank'.
• Worn lettering ('Kidulthood' and 'Sket') 
• Red or white font colour

The worn lettering used in 'Kidulthood' and 'Sket' is effective as it reflects the harsh reality of living in the urban setting in which the films are set. This allows the audience to fully realise the mood of the film which is anchored by the, for example, menacing and dark images as well as the urban drama itself. 

The use of white as the main colour for the typography is usually used in urban drama film posters to contrast and stand out from the overall dark colour scheme of the poster in general. The contrast of black and white is a classic combination and one which conveys, in this sense, crime as well as the sense of good and bad in society.