Forget the Film, Watch the Titles

The Dark Knight Rises

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:37:00 PST

You could be forgiven thinking that Kyle Cooper and David Fincher collaborated on the titles to The Dark Knight Rises – the upcoming Batman movie that isn't out untill summer. This unofficial title sequence was created as part of a class assignment by a student of Communication Design from Istanbul, Turkey. His name is Doğan Can Gündoğdu.

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:05:00 PST

If you think nouvelle vague equals the rough-edged cinematic language by the likes of Godard and Truffaut, think again. The Young Girls of Rochefort by Jacques Demy is an homage to the great Hollywood musical. Featuring George Chakiris alongside the French diva-in-the-making Catherine Deneuve, the film and its magnificent opening sequence represents the quintessence of the French film talent of...

Copelia

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:21:00 PST

You've got to give it up for Momoco. This small London studio did what many title designers only dream of – they made their own film. Copelia is a short, intelligent sci-fi love story that features some of the most hallucinogenic futurescapes we've ever seen. Watch the Titles premieres the main title and we picked designer Nic Benns' brain about his pet project, as he shares the amazing process...

Momoco interview

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:21:00 PST

Momoco is arguably one of the most prolific UK studios specialized in creating main titles for film and tv. Their body of work includes many main titles for tv shows, such as the crime drama Luther (BBC), the BAFTA-nominated titles for Misfits (E4), and more recently Strike Back (HBO). The list of movie titles is even longer and includes 30 Days of Night, Hard Candy, Dangerous Parking, Love Act...

Fantomas Strikes Back

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:54:00 PST

An unusual mix of ink-painted backgrounds, cartoon animations and improvised typography designed with oil pastel crayons. The main title for Fantômas se Déchaîne is officially credited to Berthon Films. But who was the creative force behind this forgotten studio? This quintessentially French piece of animaton could not be left uncredited...

X-Men: First Class

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:36:00 PST

Prologue's Simon Clowes crafted a crisp and clean Maurice Binder-esque graphical representation of what lies at the very core of the formidable powers of the X-Men superheroes: gene mutation. In this Making Of X-Men: First Class, Clowes talks about his title sequence, the lasting appeal of the classic Main Titles by Bass and Binder, and he shows us the original board art, an alternative 3D moti...

Che?

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:34:00 PDT

Director Roman Polanski directed Che? in 1972. It's the last movie he made before heading off to the US to shoot Chinatown - the movie he is now most known for. The subtle and poetic handwritten title sequence for Che? was designed by Jean-Michel Folon - a Belgian artist living in France. It's a lovely ode to the classic Hollywood title sequences of the 1930's and 1940's, set to Schubert's "Dea...

Playgrounds Digital Arts Fest 2011

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:54:00 PDT

"it needs to be a 'you-should-have-been-there' moment," was essentially the creative brief of the annual Playgrounds Digital Arts Fest to design studio HEYHEYHEY. Together they came up with the idea to do a Live Titles Show wherein the speakers would perform their own titles. An extremely stressful but very rewarding experience, according to HEYHEYHEY. The audience seemed to love every second o...

Magic Trip

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:58:00 PDT

UPDATE, Oct 1: Exclusive on Watch the Titles: the article now also includes the brilliant animated VA sequence from "Magic Trip." Karin Fong, Creative Director at Imaginary Forces directs the main titles and special sequences for Magic Trip – a movie about Ken Kesey's legendary, LSD-infused 1964 road trip from California to New York. Fong and her team did an amazing job visualizing Kesey's alte...

Les Malheurs d'Alfred

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:45:00 PDT

This title sequence brings us back to one of the main reasons why we started Forget the Film, Watch the Titles back in 2006 – to recognize and pay tribute to title designers. Unfortunately, the identity of the title designer who created the whimsical stop-motion titles for The Troubles of Alfred remains unknown.

Motherless Brooklyn

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:32:00 PDT

Tipped off by the mere hint that Hollywood heavyweight actor Edward Norton would be directing a feature based on Jonathan Lethem novel, French designer Remy Le Rumeur rolled onto an ambitious venture to create his version of the opening titles to the anticipated “Motherless Brooklyn” movie. Immersing himself in research and taking cues from Dadaism and the book’s Tourette syndrome suffering pro...

Leonard Maltin reviews Watch the Titles DVD

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:30:00 PDT

This made our week. A favorable review of the Watch the Titles DVD by renowned US film buff Leonard Maltin on IndieWire. "I’ve always loved ingenious title sequences."

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:13:00 PDT

No CG (this is 1972, after all), or any other form of film processing was used to create the title sequence for The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. It's just magic and a deck of cards. The illusionist's hands performing the card tricks are Gérard Majax's. Majax, who is like the French David Copperfield, was, and still is a TV star in his home country. In French Fridays – our program dedicat...

A History Of The Title Sequence

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:37:00 PDT

We receive a lot of emails from young designers asking us what they have to do to become a title designer. I always tell them do what Jurjen Versteeg did, and just do it! In 2009, Versteeg created an unofficial title sequence for Into the Wild, and was subsequently asked to design the titles for a major US feature. In 2011, Versteeg returns with A History Of The Title Sequence - another standal...

L' Aile ou la Cuisse

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:47:16 PDT

French Fridays guest curator Laure Chapalain unearths another forgotten gem from the treasure chest of French title design history. For the comedy L'Aile ou la Cuisse, title designer Michel Saignes, who once stated that title designers are "prisoners of the medium’s stereotypes,” drew inspiration from the revolutionary work of Douglas Trumbull, the VFX pioneer who was responsible for the psyche...

Rango

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:25:00 PDT

Amazingly, the end credit sequence for Rango was done in just a few weeks, yet it's a very accomplished and unique project that is founded on old school analogue handiwork, including intricate illustrations, woodcut art, and handdrawn typography, with a bit of Hendrix thrown in for good measure. Prologue's creative director Henry Hobson reconstructs the process and shares the beautiful concept ...

Les Gaspards

Fri, 20 May 2011 07:59:50 PDT

Another rare nugget of French motion design from the seventies. This entertaining title sequence by Tito Topin and Jed Falby for Les Gaspards serves as a social-political commentary on the gigantic urban development projects in Paris, which transformed parts of the Parisian capital into a big contruction sites for several decades.

Cleo from 5 to 7

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:14:00 PDT

French Fridays wouldn't be complete without the “grandmother of the French New Wave,” Agnès Varda. The smartly constructed title sequence for Varda's masterpiece Cleo from 5 to 7 serves just as much as a prologue to the film, and features immaculately composed close-shots of hands and tarot cards, punctuated by typography. “I wanted to make a very violent sequence that confronts the film with i...

That Man From Rio

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:21:00 PDT

One of France's most well-known title designers Jean Fouchet created a highly innovative animated title sequence using strips of colored paper offset with dynamic typography for L'Homme de Rio (That Man From Rio) – Philippe De Broca's classic spy-adventure movie whose archeological theme was an important inspiration for George Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones saga.

Saul Bass posters and storyboards in London

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:13:00 PDT

Kemistry Gallery in London devoted a show to the film posters and film titles of Saul Bass. The show also included several of Bass' storyboards, such the boards for the famous shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho – one of the most bone-chilling moments in the history of cinema. We thought it'd be nice to give you an impression of the show and some of the works that were featured in it.