This has been bothering me for quite some time. Im looking to imitate the movie trailers of the 1940s and 1950s that were popular with B horror/sci-fi movies. There's filters in final cut that can give me the sepia tone of the film, the problem is the text that pops on the screen

For those not familiar see here
YouTube - Monster on the Campus Trailer (1958) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VnWeMwd5o)

here
YouTube - It Conquered the World movie trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOM0BfOE4Dw&feature=related)

I'm guessing this could be done in After Effects?

Any advice?

I'm sure I could do it in After Effects, but I could also do it in Sony Vegas. I don't know anything about Final Cut.

Think of how they did it back in the 50s. They would create a title card by hand, film it, and use crude chyron/chromakey techniques to overlay the title over the film. If you wanted a real authentic look, you could do that.

The lettering is hand drawn, then laid over the picture with an optical printer. The moves & wipes of the text are also done as opticals.

If you have a Wacom tablet or screen, you could easily draw text in Illustrator or Photoshop and then apply the same kind of moves & wipes that they did in these trailers.

You can do the "zoom-in", wipe, drop shadows and other transition effects with animating video filters, and motion settings in Final Cut.

You could create the text itself in FCP, but using Photoshop would likely be easier.

Don't forget to add a little motion jitter to mimic the gate weave in those old cameras/projectors.

Check out this title software:

Outerspace Software: 3D Effects for Video Titling and Digital Signage - HomePage (http://www.outerspace-software.com/)

I have it and am going to give it try for the 40's/50's look.

Great trailers by the way.