Projecting Quality Scarlet Letters and Movie Titles
Scarlet Letters creates titles for motion pictures.
OUR SERVICES categorizes the work we do and showcases examples of our work.
ABOUT US tells about where we came from and what we're about.
FILM TITLES is a year by year summary of films we've been a part of.
How Our Independence Works for You
For our entire existence, our only guarantee of future work has been to do well for the client. We have no long term contracts, only a commitment to doing good work quickly and billed reasonably.
Today Scarlet Letters works with post production supervisors, title designers, editors, digital intermediate facilities and directly with filmmakers. We work with all of the major studios, the mini majors, the indies. The credits departments at the studios know us.
Scarlet Letters isn’t owned by a diversified media or post production company. We serve the movie industry by being independent in structure while collaborative and complementary in function.
Staying Current, Not Becoming History
Ben Schoen and Thomas Tetreault started the company in 1983. We were two ambitious young guys, determined to succeed in business for ourselves and to have fun doing it.
Our background was in Los Angeles advertising typography, pleasing the art directors and designers of national ad agencies, graphic design studios and record labels. This was pre-personal computer. We set one letter at a time on Phototypositors, used phototypesetting fonts and pasted things together.
Our tools were T-squares, exacto knives, waxers, light tables and stat cameras. We shot Kodaliths and registered for animation stands with pegging bars.
We applied the standards we learned in ad typography to typesetting movie titles. We proofread carefully, we kerned selectively to client tastes, and people noticed. Title designers opted to have us prepare their artwork. We developed relationships with title designers, with trailer companies and digital facilities, and with the movie studios.
It's been a remarkable ride as the technologies and workflows changed, and we've adapted. With the shift to full digital post production of movies over the last decade, we've established a reputation as the "go to" place for end titles.
This is a brief synopsis of our past and we're looking forward to the future.
Our Mission is to Satisfy Clients
Our philosophy is to satisfy clients with attentive, prompt service and quality control that is imbedded in how we work. If we do this, everything else falls into place.
Sometimes companies forget what made them successful in the first place. We pledge to continue to adapt to the demands of our industry, to listen to our clients, and never, ever take a client's work for granted.
We've thrived for over thirty years by treating each project as if we have to prove ourselves all over again.