Typecasting Strikes Back
Thursday, August 26, 2004In the spirit of Mark Simonson’s Typecasting and Son of Typecasting…
By now every filmgeek knows that George Lucas will be reintroducing even more changes to his Star Wars trilogy when they are released on DVD later this year. While, like most people, I believe the original untouched version should be preserved and available to fans, not all of the changes are as horrendous as “Greedo shooting first”. This particular change I like; it’s from the scene in which Obi-Wan Kenobi shuts down the tractor beam of the Death Star:
The last time I watched the movie this close up of the computer console made me laugh a little - that it was not only written in English but that it was set in Akzidenz Grotesk. No offense to Günter Gerhard Lange, but it’s nice to see his typeface replaced with something suitably more alien.
Akzidenz Grotesk was indeed designed “a long time ago” (in 1896), but Germany hardly qualifies as “a galaxy far, far away”.
Zombie Claire says:
I prefer TRACTOR BEAM / POWER if only because the fake language looks so Trek/Generic-Sci-Fi-runes…
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Robot Johnny says:
It’s not the English that stood out, so much as the font… best to not have any labels at all if the font you’re going to use is one that so obviously places the film in the 70s (the haircuts do that job on their own just fine).
What IS kind of dumb about the new graphics is that if you close enough you can see that it is still in English, but changed with a simple substitute alphabet… the same character replacing ‘R’ in ‘POWER’ replaces ‘R’ in ‘TRACTOR’ , for example.
Zombie Claire says:
I don’t think the font never stood out. Even if graphic designers recognize it and think 70’s for most Norms it’s still a boring straightforward serviceable put-me-on-your-computer-panels-I’m-very-boring font. I think the made up runes look really silly. There’s still numbers in there too. King George must have hated the english words on there because he camoflagued them, if he hated the font he could have made it Mistral or something and then I for one would have LOVED IT even harder LOL LOL OH KING GEORGE, erasing my memories
Fink says:
I never really thought about it much before, but isn’t it funny that a machine of that size (the Death Star) has a beam of immense power like a “Tractor Beam” whose power is controlled by what amounts to two light switches?
Robot Johnny says:
Those light switches, however, are perilously positioned over a precipitous open pit!
Fink says:
Nice alliteration Johnny.
And I don’t throw that compliment around to just anyone you know.
Kevin says:
I found the absence of signage in most of the movies distraction. I get the feeling Lucas isn’t a reader -or has little appreciation for text. There’s no pedestrian signage, no traffic lights, not even directions to the pool. Someone would tell me to punch the hyper-drive and I’d hit the seat warmers.
Mark Simonson says:
Nice one, John!
I made a decision with my Typecasting series to avoid movies set in the future or in imaginary or alien worlds. How can one say the typography is inappropriate? But Star Wars is an interesting case, since it’s not supposed to have anything to do with Earth and it supposed to take place a very long time ago. Who know what they would have used, but it sure wouldn’t be Akzidenz Grotesk. On the other hand, everyone also speaks English in the films. So maybe, just like the language, the fonts were changed to something comprehensible and equivalent from our own world. So, they wouldn’t have used AG, but they would have used something equivalent from their own world.
I suppose the next logical step for George would be to change all the dialog to something appropriately alien and use subtitles throughout, like The Passion of Christ. The final step would be to use CGI to change all the human characters into aliens.
Robot Johnny says:
Something tells me we’ll be seeing new versions of _Star Wars_ every couple of years until we have what you’ve just described, Mark!
Zombie Claire says:
Please don’t say things like that, you’re jinxing us!!!!
Llunch LLady Lloyd says:
I don’t know anything about the fonts, but I want to get involved in this Star Wars conversation, so I will point you to my brilliant idea for a new Star Wars movie.
Ryan says:
Lange obviously came across relics from an ancient civilization whose intergalactic space debris came to rest in the hills of germania. He just copied and repackaged it as Akzidenz, dUUUUHHH!!!!