I mentioned in a previous post the opening credit sequence of the film Panic Room, which sets a foreboding tone for movie with the use of monumental 3-dimensional type, integrated into a sequence images of the buildings of upper Manhattan. The font (I think it's Copperplate Gothic) recalls the early 19th Century stone-carved lettering from the frontages of the societies and banks of the area, and it has an architectural quality appropriate to a film in which a room is the central character.
A film which uses the same technique to similar effect, albeit in a very different setting, is first-time director Duncan Jones' Moon (pictured above). Essentially a 1-man performance by actor Sam Rockwell, the film explores the theme of paranoia and madness as a result of extreme loneliness. As the text floats in the space around Rockwell's character as he works, it resembles a silent companion or invisible friend. Critics have described the film as concept sci-fi in the tradition of Tarkofsky, with a 70s-era retro-futuristic aesthtic. The accompanying publicity poster certainly fits the bill:
Next a couple of works by American painter Ed Ruscha (pronounced Ed Roo-SHAY... I always get that wrong). Ruscha apparently wanted to be a sign painter, but fell in with the wrong crowd. A retrospective of his 50-year career is currently showing at the Hayward Gallery.
Formerly a puppert-creator for psychedelic kids tv show Pee Wee's Playhouse, Wayne White these days creates paintings which sit just on the fun, folksy side of Ed Ruscha's work. With careful rendering of light, shadow and reflection, he integrates 3-dimensional type on to found thrift store paintings of often twee or sentimental landscapes.
Traditional wooden frames recall the canvases' former domestic status, and make them function as objects just as they do as images.
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