looking for the font that is used on almost every movie poster on bottom for movie informations. please see the attached which is cropped from the "war of the worlds" poster.
I've done a poster for a movie recently and the company that takes care of the PR and Communication send me Univers as being the font that is in use at Hollywood for all the informations that are used in the bottom of the poster. So, try Univers (the condensed and compressed versions).
Bee is URW's name for the old VGC "B" series. These were unnamed fonts that may go back further than Univers, and may have been knock-offs of Photo-Lettering faces. (Unfortunately, it's difficult to precisely date P-L faces, so I can't say for sure there was no Univers connection.) VGC had a whole series of fonts that only had a letter-number designation--no name--mostly casual scripts and such, but also sort of generic looking sans serifs, like the B series.
New information about the "B" fonts: They all originated at Filmotype in the 1950s. Each font had a different name that started with a G--Giant, Gaucho, Grant, Gazette, etc. VGC knocked these off in the 1960s (a common practice at the time) as the "B" fonts. In fact, most (if not all) of the unnamed fonts in VGC's catalog originated at Filmotype. P-L had similar fonts, but not quite the same design.
24 Jun 2005 — 1:36am
Hi,
I've done a poster for a movie recently and the company that takes care of the PR and Communication send me Univers as being the font that is in use at Hollywood for all the informations that are used in the bottom of the poster. So, try Univers (the condensed and compressed versions).
24 Jun 2005 — 3:05am
Also the Bee series discussed here
Tim
24 Jun 2005 — 3:07am
i belive that the font customarily used for billing blocks is called Bee.
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/bee/
24 Jun 2005 — 3:08am
looks like i am 2 minutes too slow!
24 Jun 2005 — 4:00am
Let's be nice and say URW Bee is "inspired" by Univers Ultra Condensed, which incidentally is the typeface you're looking for.
24 Jun 2005 — 4:13am
Previously discussed here.
24 Jun 2005 — 4:41am
Looks like its been previously discussed once a month here.
24 Jun 2005 — 8:07am
Bee is URW's name for the old VGC "B" series. These were unnamed fonts that may go back further than Univers, and may have been knock-offs of Photo-Lettering faces. (Unfortunately, it's difficult to precisely date P-L faces, so I can't say for sure there was no Univers connection.) VGC had a whole series of fonts that only had a letter-number designation--no name--mostly casual scripts and such, but also sort of generic looking sans serifs, like the B series.
23 May 2007 — 8:23am
New information about the "B" fonts: They all originated at Filmotype in the 1950s. Each font had a different name that started with a G--Giant, Gaucho, Grant, Gazette, etc. VGC knocked these off in the 1960s (a common practice at the time) as the "B" fonts. In fact, most (if not all) of the unnamed fonts in VGC's catalog originated at Filmotype. P-L had similar fonts, but not quite the same design.
FYI: The Filmotype library is being digitized.
Edit: I see that some similar information was provided in this thread: http://www.typophile.com/node/10616
13 May 2008 — 10:18pm
A new alternative to Univers Compressed, which you might like, is TypeTrust's Heroic Condensed.