research into fonts

A serif is a decorative stroke that finishes off the end of a letters stem. A san serif is a the same font without the serifs at the end.

Serifs originated in the Latin alphabet with inscriptional lettering - words carved into stone in Roman antiquity. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968 book 'The Origin of the Serif' is now broadly but not universally accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first painted onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks, which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs. Another theory is that serifs were devised to neaten the end of lines as they were chiselled into stone.

These are some film titles where you can clearly see where serif or san serif is being used. 'The Bodyguard' clearly is a serif font as each letter has serifs coming off the edges. 'The Hole' is clearly sans serif as it is straight block letters. 'The Bodyguard is the only title using the serif font in the picture below. 

All these titles are thrillers and have used the font san serif which is one of the main conventions of thriller fonts. The usage of the serif font for 'The Bodyguard' may be because they want to go against the conventions and could be used to symbolise a more formal established theme within the film. This may appeal to a older audience and therefore a larger audience.

All fonts are apart of the same category but all have small differences that make them unique. This is shown in the title 'Seven' as it gives an effect that the title has been painted on the screen with smudges round the letters.

The conventions text colours used in thrillers are red, white, black, dark blue and purple. Red is conventional for all thriller films as it connotes danger, blood and struggle often associated with the thriller genre. The colour black is predominantly used for background of titles in thriller films as it symbolises a dark unsettling nature and a mysterious plot that we must decode as an audience. This can be similarly explained for the colours dark blue and purple. The white colours stand out against the other colours and connote binary opposites.