When did large title cards in TV/movies become popular?

August 18, 2019 8:15 PM

When did the recent trend of large onscreen font to show a scene's location start?

I've noticed a lot of recent TV shows and movies (such as Captain America: Civil War, Mindhunter, and Killing Eve) use large font on title cards to show where a scene is taking place. I feel like this trend has been become more and more prevalent. I'd love to know more about when it started and how it got popularized.

posted by jaybeans to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

This is not a new thing. It has been around since silent pictures and in every decade so I disagree with the premise, sorry. But with the going away of opening credits from movies and even some shows in favor of just ramping right into it, which was kind of an early/mid 00s thing, I could see the belief that what’s happening is new.

It isn’t though. I do think Fincher and Tarantino have always been fans though of the big on screen words (but also for some reason I kind of blame Fincher for helping us get away from opening credits).

Again, not new. My favorite recent use of it in the most silly way was Aquaman which would just toss them up nonsensically.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:27 PM on August 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: ALL CAPS, all the time: why are so many shows bombarding us with giant fonts?
posted by bluecore at 9:31 PM on August 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

Corrupted Texts: Silent Cinema and the Intertitle

Godard's Intertitles

Here's a near-identical question on Stack Exchange
posted by reductiondesign at 9:57 PM on August 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The first time I can recall the recent overtly dramatic location info was the first season of Preacher.
posted by fullerine at 12:48 AM on August 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

While not quite being screen filling Warehouse 13 (2009) had huge location text that was integrated into the back ground of the establishing shot. EG: the entire side of a passing train would spell out Washington or something. Or the wall of the Astrodome would say DALLAS.
posted by Mitheral at 9:52 AM on August 19, 2019

Or the wall of the Astrodome would say DALLAS.

Jesus, I hope not, since obviously the Houston Astrodome is not in Dallas.
posted by sideshow at 11:11 AM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Fringe sometimes went a bit overboard with this.
posted by Pryde at 7:29 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]