Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century

“Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century” erscheinen, die nun bereits vorbestellt werden kann.

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Press Release, Buffalo, NY

The documentary film, Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century, is now ready for DVD release and select theatrical screenings.
 
Making Faces follows the work process of the late Canadian graphic artist Jim Rimmer through the steps in creating a metal font. The film is shot and directed by P22 founder Richard Kegler in HD Video. It started as an idea to document the making of the first ever font that would be simultaneously released in metal and digital formats. The font "RTF Stern" was released in 2008 through P22 type foundry with Jim Rimmer casting metal fonts to order for much of 2008.
 
This almost lost art of metal type making is known by few and even fewer have designed their own typefaces. Jim Rimmer designed and cast many of his own designs. This film follows his technical steps interspersed with insights into his creative process, inspirations and kind humanity. The main film runs 45 minutes, however the DVD includes several bonus features that go into further depth on some of the technical aspects of creating metal type. These additional bonuses include a newly digitized silent film from the preeminent American type designer of the 1930s: The Creation of a Printing Type from the Design to The Print by Frederic W. Goudy and a cast piece of type from a matrix cut by Jim Rimmer to show the final product made in the film.
 
The DVD is in standard resolution, however since the source footage was shot in HD, it offers high quality for the final DVD. A limited edition package that includes a Blu-ray version as well as subtitled versions in several languages is stated for release later in 2011.
 
More than just a technical "how-to" film, this design documentary is inspirational for anyone who values things being made by hand or with tools in the physical world: a theme gaining much currency in the digital age.
 
The film has been screened in various unfinished versions at conferences in Berlin, Vancouver, Seattle, Two Rivers, Wisconsin and Nicosia, Cyprus. Upcoming screenings in the US and Europe are currently being arranged. Updates on the film and screenings can be found online at: http://makingfacesfilm.blogspot.com/