A really amazing coincidence.

[Albert Noble]

Having just finished an animated film, two weeks ago I started on another,
entitled FONTS. To my amazement in the IAC magazine that has just arrived is an article by, Andrew Gagg, all about Fonts!!
I thought that quite creepy, as the world of fonts is seldom discussed,
much less an animated film of how fonts do battle with each other.

[Dave Watterson]

Or is this mystic Albert's influence?

I rejoiced to see those pages in FVM, because fonts - indeed the appearance of text - is almost as important as its content. The right font and good layout enhances meaning in magazines, sets the scene for a film in its opening title, conveys respect, or the opposite, for the readers.

[Dave Watterson]

For those who may not know, Albert is the creator of a very famous animated film:

RED TYPE
An allegorical portrayal of the East-West conflict. A single sheet of paper acts as the only setting for this simple, but effective, piece of animated story-telling. The maker typed 25,000 characters onto 500 sheets of paper to make this film (1,000 characters were used for the opening credits alone). A dope sheet was prepared from a master optical sound-track and the visuals were shot to match this.
The sequel is called Black Type.

It won IAC Awards and Ten Best Oscars ...

[Michael Slowe]

Albert Noble, there's a name from the past! So glad to read that he's still film making, I think that one year we shared the stage at the NFT, a long time ago! Red Type was a work of genius, where can we still see it, can Albert please tell us?

Text is a tricky thing to deal with on film because quite often we are constructing titles etc which will appear over media and it is difficult to judge it right. I don't like huge lettering, filling the screen like they used to but you still need it to be easily readable and matching the mood of the background. I'm using "Red" software to access my title types and it takes me a long time testing different ones, especially as on my software many listed types aren't actually there! I admire Woody Allen's method whereby he consistently uses the same type face over all his films and when you see it you know instantly that it's a Woody Allen film. However he does not place his text over backgrounds, it's always on a black screen.

Dave, I believe in telepathy, really and truly.

[Albert Noble]

Well, hello Michael and Dave.
Much water under the bridge.....some of mine a bit muddy
Are you still making films, Michael? Or, in this day and age, Videos.
Have you any links to them?
I'm sorry, but cannot remember you at NFT, a wonderful cinema
which I assume is still there....I left London 40 years ago, now living
in the sticks, splinters and all.

The original films of Red and Black type have been lost
over the nigh 60 years since they were made.
However, I have uploaded onto Utube very poor copies of them
once shot off a 16mm projector in a haphazard way !
I simply love the vintage scratches etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT1dZG6GYE4&t=8s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ERYL03_aaI&t=49

60 years ago I was going to make GREEN type using green typewriter ribbon
but couldn't think of a story using green. Now things have changed and
GREEN has new meaning against RED CO2 !

All the best, both of you. Take care.

[Michael Slowe]

Albert, so sorry to hear about your lost originals. I had my best 16mm film prints digitised some years ago to have decent archive copies. Mind you, they look rather 'filmic' now compared to 2 and 4K!

Yes, I'm still making films, just cutting my latest this month. All my stuff (1970 onwards) is on my web site michaelslowefilms.com which has been constructed by a media professional grandson. It doesn't always come up unless you enter it in the top URL window. The films are categorised in sections, People, Places, Art, Animals etc.

Albert, we must be the oldest of the old film users now, it doesn't seem all that time ago since we were writing and speaking to Tony Rose and his team at Movie Maker, happy days.

[Albert Noble]

That's a nicely presented web site of yours, Michael.
So far my favorite film is 'Glass Art'
I didn't see any dates for film productions and wonder if
you have considered showing them?

Yes, I guess we are among the oldest...I'm 89.25 I measure
my age in quarter years now as there's probably not too many years left,
although I still take one hours walk each day.

[Michael Slowe]

Well Albert, you are ahead of me by exactly two years. We have had two centurions and countless nineties in our family so I might have a few more films in me yet. I'm glad you liked my site. As to dates, I might try and have them added but this information is not relevant to anything really. That Glass Art film was shot at London Glassblowing in around 2010 and they have just had a zoom exhibition and demos of what they do. Have a look at On Silk which is similarly nice to look at.

[Howard-Smith]

Michael Slowe, you mentioned Woody Allen’s use of a particular font, white on black. The font is named ‘Windsor’ and he’s been using it for over 40 years, usually accompanied by old-fashioned music.
I copied his style of credits meticulously for my comedy ‘Blue Lady’ and was disappointed that no-one seemed to recognise this, even though the credits ended with ‘Written & Directed by Wally Adam’ which should have been a give-away.
Even if you don’t want to watch the whole 17 minutes of this film (which was poorly received at BIAFF) you may want to watch the opening credits and maybe skip to the closing credits too:
https://vimeo.com/357696327