In contrast, another, calmer narrative level is created by colourful full-frame intertitles, displaying Johnny’s text messages with the police and his daughter. These title screens become their own platform of storytelling, advancing the plot and providing brief moments of relief to the on-edge viewer. We designed those “text”-screens as well as the main-on-end credits using Lineto’s Bradford Mono.

A sketch from rilkes notebook
SOURCE: DLA-Marbach

The film initially creates a sense of tension and overstimulation. SMS messages appear as interludes, breaking up the frenetic pace of the story: legibility is key. The interludes must make it clear which character is writing to whom (sender-recipient); the text is displayed with sharp cuts and fills the frame. We solved this through a clear visual hierarchy inspired by messaging UIs. Recipients appear above the message, senders below. Furthermore, the communicating characters are colour-coded. Johnny, with his intoxicating impulsiveness, is depicted in a muted dark red; Inspector Nele in a cool blue; and Johnny’s daughter Nele in a hopeful green.

Typographically, we chose Lineto’s Bradford LL Mono, a font that conveys the seriousness of the content and, as a monospaced typeface, is reminiscent of typed notes. Johnny’s restlessness is reflected in the sharp cuts between the messages, which are emphasised by the contrast of colours.

In a previous draft, the panels appeared in colour-coded text on a black background, alternating from left to right to metaphorically express the panther’s pacing back and forth in its cage.