Kinetic Typography

What is Kinetic Typography
"Kinetic typography refers to the art and technique of expression with animated text. Similar to the study of traditional typography of designing static typographic forms, kinetic typography focuses on understanding the effect time has on the expression of text. Kinetic typography has demonstrated the ability to add significant emotive content and appeal to expressive text, allowing some of the qualities normally found in film and the spoken word to be added to static text. Kinetic type has been widely and successfully used in film as well as in television and computer-based advertising. Perceptual psychology research on attention, reading performance, and comprehension has indicated that time-based presentation of text can be used effectively to capture and manipulate a viewer’s attention and in some cases improve overall reading performance."
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Our first project is a kinetic type project based on dialogue from a film. The brief states that the piece should be roughly 30 seconds long and two voices must be heard. Whilst searching YouTube for examples I came across the two clips you see above. The first scene is from Phone Booth where Colin Farrell's character is locked in conversation with Kiefer Sutherland, a gunman hidden in one of the many high rise buildings that surround the Phone Booth that Farrell is now unknowingly trapped in. Elements of this project that I found really effective include the moments where the words build up like blocks to reveal themselves as two buildings side by side evoking the setting, this was done just as effectively when the rifle was constructed from the words Sutherland's character uses as he describes it and the binoculars that appear when the "B" tips on its side, overall it suits and fits the tone of the piece perfectly - playful, mischievous yet sinister. In the second video, based on the rules of Fight Club from the movie of the same name, Tyler Durden's words are transformed to create a piece that moves smoothly and doesn't suffer from the same fate as many of the other kinetic type projects using the same dialogue, which are difficult to read or are too fast. As well as the smooth movement here I also like the way the camera returns to reveal a bit of text that's being reused in the dialogue, this really adds to the clarity. The tone is captured well by using a grungey typeface and rusty background which captures the darker nature of the film.