The Lord of War title sequence shows the journey of a bullet from the factory to the gun to the head. It’s reminiscent of the “Naked Gun” series. It uses CG frequently. Though I think it’s good, the creator had this to say “Sadly, the HDR-based CG imagery robs the piece of it’s realism”.
Dawn of the Dead title sequence
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/dawn-of-the-dead/
The remake of Dawn of the Dead has a well made title sequence that I find interesting and engaging. It makes you tense for the film and acts as a type of prologue. Kyle Coopers design shows real war footage mixed with acted news stories and red blood covered credits. The soundtrack is covered by one of Johnny Cash’s songs that subtly describes the devil. According to IMDB, Kyle’s inspiration to become a title sequence designer came from the 1962 film “To kill a mockingbird"s title sequence. It had obscure cuts similar to those in the Dawn of the Dead sequence but of-course, not as tense.
The Dawn of the Dead title starts with a scary ambiance as credits appear between sharp flashing images of zombies. 10 seconds in it admits to being Dawn of the Dead with a homage to the original films sequence. It continues this style for a while longer as the sounds of a press conference regarding the zombies plays out. The mood tenses up slowly as it reaches the climactic dialog where Johnny Cash’s song "The man comes around” plays to what is now sharp short video scenes of mayhem and chaos between the credits. This continues for the remainder of the title sequence until it dies off. I think the song gives the chaos a certain hopelessness with it’s upbeat tempo.
This title sequence is for a show I invented called “The Assassin’s Order”. Maybe not the most original concept to come from my mind, but I like the title sequence none the less. The Assassin’s Order would be a TV series about an underground group of freelancers who take it upon themselves to work outside the police and protect their city in the name of liberty. It could relative to superhero stories, but with much more realism.
Each episode would start with a 3 minute introduction, possibly showing someone evil committing a crime, it then starts the title sequence. The title sequence itself is not very long, and is simplistic, fairly linear, and hints heavily to the events in the show. It opens panning to the right to a lit candle. After a few moments of light music, it gets heavier as the candle blows in the wind and reveals a table with a dagger behind the candle. As well as this, an actor’s name is also revealed. It cuts soon after to pan over the table facing down at it. As it passes the dagger, it cuts to a zoomed shot where another actors name is revealed through the reflection of the metal. In another shot, a hand reaches to pick up the blade and sheaf’s it in a sleeve on his back. The editor’s name is then revealed behind his arm as he pushes it in. It then cuts back to the candle, as the lower part of a man’s face comes in from the side and blows out the candle. At the same time, the music dies and a black screen is left with the directors name in the centre. The episode then begins. The title sequence will last about 25 seconds.
My title sequence uses scenes from the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise to create a sequence for the second season of a TV series. I was going to do something live action but a few things went wrong.
Assassin’s Creed is a video game series with 4 main games and a 5th coming out later this year. The story is set in 2012 as a Templar organisation called Abstergo seek out pieces of eden to control the world. Against them are the Assassins. You control an Assassin called Desmond who was captured by the Templars and is forced into a machine that can look at the DNA memory of his ancestors. The Templars try and look back through Desmonds memories to see where his ancestors hid the Apple of Eden. He later escapes and is placed inside the Assassins Animus to follow the same routine against the race for time.
I made my title sequence for the second season of a TV series so that the sequence itself can contain all of the necessary information as a catch up of what would'v happened in the first season.
Since the second Assassins Creed video game, they have opened with a catch up video explaining what was missed in the previous game. My video has the audio from some of these catch up videos but keeps it completely spoiler free. I also add in questions and hints of what might happen in the later episodes, like “What do you three have in common…" I also used the actual voice actors names in the credits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntgJeG8OWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzF26k5fGUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUdP2jZ1cHc
Those are links to the ingame intro sequences of the last 3 games. I used footage or audio from them as well as material from the video games themselves. I think mine is different because it hides the story but subtly reminds people what happened.
I created a logo that reflects my films. Here’s the production of it.
Here’s the final design, aided by multiple feedback from friends:
I feel it reflects my style as it looks classy and very bold. It shows formality and also looks flashy.
This was the original design:
Many people told me that “PRODUCTIONS” was hard to read split up, and it took them a second to understand the image as a whole. This couldn’t be acceptable as the logo needs to be instantly understandable.
The second design:
this version addresses the problems that were mentioned before, but I feel it gives the stylish lines more emphesis than the text. Then onto the final version (top of page) which blends the lines into the light which appears to be coming from the center of the image.
Here is a variation of my logo that a friend made for me. They make quite a pair:
TV title sequences can be very similar to the ones in films. A difference being that TV sequences are shorter then films. In both media’s, the sequences can be as detailed, or as vague as they want. I think the most effective are those that are simply suggestive to the plot.
An example of a title sequence that is very informative and representative of the show is Merlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmn1uEnlc-Q&feature=fvst
This is a great action adventure show and the title sequence represents this perfectly! It’s fact paced and shows pop in footage of the monsters and fighting from the show. It opens to show the sword under the lake which King Arthur eventually comes to possess. The camera pans above the water into a fog. Among the fog, the credits of the actors are accompanied with the characters faces coming out of the mist. The text is in gold and has a Serif font that matches in with flashing cryptic old language text. While the opening credits continue, the screen shows a series of short second action moments throughout the series. The title sequence is only 30 seconds long exactly, and gets to the point of presenting what the show has to offer. As the sequence reaches its end, the camera slowly zooms towards the city of Camelot. Fire is blown towards the camera as a dragon flys past the screen and reveals the Text “Merlin” placed nicely against the castle. The text comes on with animated fire but that soon fades to bring everything to a static image. The music succeeds at being epic and cheesy at the same time. It suggests imediate action and not too much depth, keeping it perfect for a family audience.
A different taste of TV can be found in The Borgias. It's a historical fiction series created by Neil Jordan. The series is based on the Borgia family and the conspiracies of Rome during the Italian Renaissance. The series is dark and has mature themes throughout. The title sequence is around 1:40 in length and is very subtle and suggestive to the events of the show. The style of the opening is very clearly based around the 15th century where this show is set. The video reveals paintings as illustration while the text appears in a very thin bold font. In an interview, Garry Waller; the creater of the title sequence, said this: “We’re using the paintings as a concept because of their richness and symbolic references to themes within the show”. The transition between paintings plays out as cracking inside the paintwork, including black spills of paint moving across the white background. The black spots of paint could symbolise blood with the juxtaposition of the imagery in the paintings. It’s interesting that they chose to show the paintings with cracks included, even though most of them would be recently painted at the time. Perhaps the state of the paintings can suggest a dying nature. The transitions reveal more paintings that show love, religion, death and murder. Strangely enough, none of the paintings used are of Leanardo Da Vinci’s works, as this era was his prime. Instead, the art used are from varies era’s, most of the paintings were made up to hundreds of years after the show is set. Perhaps in not showing Leanardo’s work, they are suggesting that the show will offer new things, and not what you automatically associate with the era. Finally, the soundtrack is of a violin, which can be easily associated with the 15th century. Back in those times, minstrels walked the streets playing instruments for coin. A popular choice of instrument for them was violin, which helps to associate it with the era.
http://www.artofthetitle.com/tag/the-borgias/
The third example is Game of Thrones, which in a way, is a mix of both of the above. It has the mythology of one, but the themes of the other. While similarly to Merlin, it shares a similar era, magic, dragons and the same difference between good and evil; Game of Thrones also shares all the harsh themes such as love, sex, death and conspiracies that you’d find in The Borgias. Game of Thrones leans more towards the latter show as they seen to share the same target audience. The title sequence starts immediatly showing metal rings orbiting the sun. They instantly give an example of the high production values. The rings show pictures of burning cities and dragons. The main theme of the show is present and enters the violin stage as the camera looks towards the earth, which seems to just be a giant map. The picture comes into the cities as they emerge out of the map into 3D. Due to the miniature size of the city, the growth could suggest that it’s in the kings hands as he builds it up from the ground. Throughout the title sequence, it moves from city to city and watches it grow. The second city is smaller than the first and is only made of large screws that turn out of the ground, and basic triangles for trees. The font on the credits is very close to that of Lord of the Rings and also includes a small image to the left of each name. The images are stylised to what you’d expect to find in a book of that time. After a minute and a half, the screen returns back to the sun as the rotating rings form up to reveal giant hollow text saying Game of Thrones revealing the burning sun behind the letters. The music throughout shares the epicness of Merlin but has a deep feel to it. The pitch of the violin almost sounds sad, which can suggest plenty of death. In an interview, the creative director of the title sequence Angus Wall said the original idea was of a raven flies between the 2 main locations of the show. However people couldn’t tell what the locations were, so instead the sequence was redesigned to show a large map.
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2011/05/12/game-of-thrones/
Title sequences in film and television are short montages of clips at the start of the production. They aim to show the important credits and put the audience in the right mood.More often in television than film, the title sequence will occur after a short segmant, showing the opening plot development and leaving it on a minor cliffhanger that gets resolved soon after the title sequence.
In TV, the title sequence can last from a few seconds to around a minute and a half for television, and around 3 minutes for films. In movies, the title sequence will most likely appear as soon as the movie starts, with no prelude. But it’s not uncommon to have a few minutes of action at the start followed by the title sequence. In films, this is most common with action or thrillers. For example, to open the film with a murder, then begin the title sequence. You would expect only to work on TV, but in “Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of shadows”, the opening segment of the movie does a fantastic job of expressing Sherlock Holmes’ character.
There are title sequences for movies, sitcoms and soaps, that have become iconic. Like photos of the River Thames in London often being mistaken or immediateness linked with the opening of EastEnders.
Movie series Star Wars and James Bond all have iconic title sequences, that get parodied frequently. Check out this opening of the movie “Cat’s and dogs”. Due to the plot of the film revolving around animals being secret agents, it has created an intro heavily based off of any 007 intro, but adapted to fit this film.
http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00199-cats_and_Dogs_The_Revenge_of_Kitty_Galore
