Printed language
Words the audience reads: titles, captions, signs, headlines, credits — the written code inside the frame.
- printed language
- reference
- written-code
Any text the film asks the audience to read: title cards, credits, superimposed captions, on-screen signs, letters, newspapers, phone screens. Printed language always carries two meanings — what the words say, and what the style of the words claims (a typeface is a tone of voice).
What to look for
Who is the text addressed to — a character or us? What does the typography borrow (news, bureaucracy, romance, nostalgia)? What do captions claim to authenticate?
Canonical cases
The false-precision captions of Psycho — the opening — city, date, two forty-three p.m. — dressing voyeurism as documentary. The period title styling that opens Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), cueing a 1940s women's picture the film then refuses to be (Alice — the prologue).
Sources
Bordwell & Thompson — Film Art on credits and inserts.