Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Helvetica (2007, Documentary) Blu-ray Review

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-10-2008, 05:08 PM:

Anyone who has visited Film-Tech long enough knows I'm a quite a lettering enthusiast (or font geek, type nerd, etc.). Most know my disdain for the over-use of Trajan in many elements of movie marketing, especially movie posters. However, the widespread use of Trajan is nothing compared to the use of the type family Helvetica, by far the most used type family of the last 50 years.

Gary Hustwit spend a couple of years and a great deal of his own money making the documentary Helvetica. It's seems really strange that anyone would make a movie about a font. The liner notes in the disc's case even discuss that point. However, the documentary is not just about the widely used font. The history and growth of popularity of Helvetica is used as a jumping off point for a broader discussion of how type affects our lives everyday.

This documentary is not some highly technical discussion about how to tweak fonts and get them to look better. It's more of a general discussion that is very accessible to anyone how doesn't know squat about type or design.

Helvetica spent much of 2007 touring film festivals and art museums. It was just released on Blu-ray (and DVD) May 6.

Some of the greatest living graphic designers and type designers are interviewed in this documentary. Many are passionate about their like, admiration or even hatred of Helvetica. Erik Spiekermann, best known for type families like ITC Officina and FF Meta, says, "Helvetica is everywhere, like McDonalds on every corner. So let's just eat crap." It was refreshing to hear some of these great designers talk about the responsibility any graphic artist has in his work. What he does will either add harmony to the environment or just fucking pollute it.

I found the views being expressed in Helvetica to be inspiring. I feel the same way in my work of designing large electrical signs. You don't make a lot of money or gain a lot of glory doing such work, but it is still great to be able to drive by some cool looking neon sign and say, "yeah, I designed that." If I don't do a good job on a particular project I'm going to end up being reminded of it every time I drive by some piece of shit quality sign I designed for the next 10 to 20 years.

Video Quality is not reference quality, but it was quite a bit better than I expected even though this is a single layer 25GB BD encoded in MPEG-2. I figured the show would be a sort of budget DV type of production. Helvetica was recorded using 1080p high definition video cameras. Luke Geissbuhler was the DP for this project, which was a change of pace from the work he did with Sacha Baron Cohen on Borat. The 1080p footage was then processed via digital intermediate (in part to simulate the film look). Quite a few scenes in the movie have great levels of detail, whether it's shots of Times Square in New York or closeups of "old guard" designers like Wim Crowel or Hermann Zapf. There are times where the image quality gets a bit soft. Sunlight from outdoors contaminated a few scenes, either turning things a bit blue or blowing out highlights. You'll see a decent bit of noise in dark shadow areas. Still, this is high image quality for a documentary mainly featuring interviews.

Audio Quality is satisfactory. There's nothing wrong with the audio at all. It's just mostly confined to the front stage. Some of the music on the audio track is interesting. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 at 448kb/s.

The only extras on this disc consist of 18 chapters, with each chapter concentrated on a specific designer. This is additional footage not featured in the main documentary. All 18 can be played in order, or you can choose a specific designer and just go with that. If you watch Helvetica, at least check out the interview with Erik Spiekermann.

I highly recommend this documentary to anyone with even the slightest passing interest or curiosity about type and design. 4.5 stars out of 5.

Limited edition versions and other merchandise is available at the documentary's web site:
Helvetica Film

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-10-2008, 11:53 PM:

I want to see this.

For those interested in printing processes, I can also recommend "Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu," which is a documentary short about the last day of hot metal typesetting at the New York Times.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-11-2008, 10:56 AM:

Sounds like it would be interesting. I'm sort of a sideline type geek, I guess...interested, but don't know too much about it. It's one of those "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" things.

quote: Scott Norwood
Etaoin Shrdlu

I remember this! The wife of the couple who used to own my theatre was a Linotype operator at our local newspaper. I think a Linotype is about the most fascinating thing to watch run.

Posted by Tom Mundell (Member # 4555) on 05-12-2008, 11:54 AM:

I saw this when it was playing at the AFI Silver theater and really enjoyed it. Definitely recommended!

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 05-25-2008, 04:54 PM:

Because of Bobby's review, I rented "Helvetica" and watched it last night. It was fun to watch people talk about so passionately about a typeface, going to the point of journeying to the 'vault' to look at the original design drawings. It's not real technical so I think anyone would like it.

I've been looking for "Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu" but it's not at Netflix; I won't bother looking at Blockbuster.

If anyone is interested in other seemingly minor subjects with an interesting story, I would like to suggest;

"The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary." It's a book though - I don't think anyone made a 'filmed' documentary yet. They thought the OED would take 2-3 years, but after that length of time, they weren't even out of the "A"'s yet. One of the main contributors to the OED was a crazy guy who cut off his own penis. Yeow!

Also, the documentary; "Going out of Business" about the closing of the Griswold Machine Works, makers of cement splicers.

Posted by Ed Inman (Member # 2583) on 06-06-2008, 04:04 PM:

I need to check out that movie. I am one of the last active letterpress printers in my state--I can still cast hot metal Helvetiva (and hundreds of other fonts) on an Intertype machine made in 1924.

I also have an original 16mm print of "Farewell etaoin shrdlu." Great film.