Typography + Motion = Kinematic Typography

March 20, 2008 3:14 PM

Great Scenes from TV and Film, Told Using Only Typography (and Sound)
posted by spec80 (20 comments total)

Ace. The Pulp Fiction one has been a favorite of mine for a while now. Especially the last line.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:26 PM on March 20, 2008

Pulp fiction: excellent.
Fight club: terrible. Impact? With a drop shadow? What the hell were they thinking?
posted by matthewr at 3:31 PM on March 20, 2008

the animations offer a great in-joke to those who have seen the film.

Yeah, that hilarious joke about the outmoded stuttercam and crufty look? I would love to see someone do a piece about Fight Club that wasn't handcuffed to 9 year old Fincher style choices. That was artless. Jack's font wasn't right at all, imo.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:33 PM on March 20, 2008

The lebowski ones were so-so, but as in-jokes go, I thought the first one was interestingly reminiscent of the neon-on black credit sequence in a mildy amusing way.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:37 PM on March 20, 2008

Needs more Comic Sans.
posted by Muddler at 3:38 PM on March 20, 2008

These are a popular student project, and I enjoy watching them... perhaps more than I should.
Here are a fiew I've found. Most of these are NSFW (text and audio, obviously).

Full Metal Jacket
Alcohol Ad
Music Video
Type Itself
posted by Richard Daly at 3:39 PM on March 20, 2008

So many of these miss out on why the Pulp Fiction one worked: the original actually captured the back and forth between the characters extremely well. The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia one isn't bad, but the Kill Bill one seems a lot like someone mimicking the style of the Pulp Fiction one without thinking about why the actual scene worked in the movie. (Plus the choice of typeface is less than inspired.) The "fuck a stranger in the ass" also suffers a bit from the same syndrome. The type is pretty much all the same size, the visual transitions aren't as interesting as the Pulp Fiction one, and with the latter clip in particular, you don't really get a good sense of the interplay between the people in the scene.
posted by chrominance at 3:56 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

These are fun, thanks.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 4:05 PM on March 20, 2008

I thought the Big Lebowski one seemed to capture the voices well, using the changing angles and colors.

Young-Hae Chang does stuff that feels similar, but with original text and an unchanging font.
posted by ignignokt at 4:14 PM on March 20, 2008

I really enjoyed these, especially Pulp Fiction and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I am a very visual person, so I often get mental images of words while they're being spoken (either by me or someone else). It's a little weird to watch these...kind of looks like what's going on in my head all the time...but usually my brain uses a typewriter font.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:33 PM on March 20, 2008

That was better than I expected. Cool.
posted by oddman at 4:40 PM on March 20, 2008

Following the YouTubery results in this classic -- Who's On First? Brilliant.
posted by ZakDaddy at 4:51 PM on March 20, 2008 [3 favorites]

I came here to post the Who's on First, better than the pulp fiction one.
posted by fullerine at 5:13 PM on March 20, 2008

Needs more Comic Sans.

FLAGGED. What the Hell is wrong with you?
posted by louche mustachio at 6:51 PM on March 20, 2008

The Kill Bill one was one of the better ones, but missed a great opportunity with the Japanese translation.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:04 PM on March 20, 2008

Wow, the one for the "Who's on First" routine is extraordinary!
posted by darkstar at 12:27 AM on March 21, 2008

Pretty sure this is a double.
posted by Mister_A at 6:30 AM on March 21, 2008

Well not exactly precisely a double, here is the original post on Pulp Fiction done in this style...
posted by Mister_A at 6:37 AM on March 21, 2008

I liked the Fight Club one a lot. I couldn't make it through the Pulp Fiction one...probably because I'm burned out on that particular "classic" scene.

For some reason, this kind of stuff pleases me. Especially when it's a .gif file.
posted by nevafeva at 9:52 PM on March 21, 2008

I wish they had been a bit more original (than just being animation.)
The office/dwight speech? how about more flicker/old film (a la mussolini)?

When I was watching the V speech, I was dying for the letter V to stand out and be different (and every 5 letter word as well.)

It's seems that they saw the pulp fiction one, and didn't push themselves hard enough. I thought the fight club one was decent...and I liked the images...but from the moment of burn, it would have been more 'true' to have 'jacks' speech (his screams) inside the shape of the lips.
posted by filmgeek at 6:17 AM on March 22, 2008