Magic Trip Title Sequence

             So earlier in the semester I posted about the documentary Magic Trip in my fiction field class with Arturo. Recently while I was checking out the link to the forget the film website I stumbled upon the opening title sequence to this documentary. As it is one of my favorite documentary films of all time I thought it would only be right to do a breakdown of this sequence. The title sequence was created by Karin Fong, a creative director and designer based in New York City. Alex Gibney an academy-award nominated director/ filmmaker asked Fong in 2009 to design the main and special title sequences for the  epic American road trip which ultimately inspired the peace and social movements of the 1960's.

                      

Fong stated that the paint on film aesthetics were inspired from experimental filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage and Len Lye. This is an example of frames from a Stan Brakhage film with the paint on film technique.

The author of the article asked Fong if she had ever tried LSD, she described herself as being a "straight arrow." Although not having a personal experience with the powerful psychedelic substance Fong was able to visualize and understand more of its effects by researching Ken Kesey. Ken Kesey is an American author known for authorship of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as well as his major role in the road trip and the acid trials done by the U.S Governement in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Here is a video of the recording and movie insights involved with Ken Kesey and his experiences with the LSD trials. Fong studied this and many other examples of the effects and insights about LSD in order to create an accurate feel of the drug for her title sequences. 

                   

Here is a little more about Karin Fong (creative director on Magic Trip)...

                   

God of War Title sequence

http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00176-God_Of_War_III



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXjS0pjPscw
(for some reason blogger won't let me embed this)


So my post from last week got me interested in looking at video game title sequences (the few that there are) and how they differ in structure from more traditional film title sequences. They deal with an obvious structural problem, games are expected to be interactive, and title sequences draw upon film in that they are clearly not. So, last week I talked about how the title sequence in The Last Of Us had other utility in that it was useful for the story. This week I want to talk about the title sequence from "God of War 3", published by sony. Again, this is one of the few video games that has a title sequence in the first place, but the title sequence here is useful for another reason, it artfully fills in the "previously on" sequence. Almost every tv show will include a "Previously on" segment including information that the viewer will need to understand the story. So is the case with video games, this type of information fill is fairly common, especially when the gaps between sequential games can be years, programmers find it useful to fill in the player with backstory if they didn't play the earlier games, or remind previous players what happened.

So first I want to talk about this title sequence specifically for its art style, because it is so incredibly striking. It looks like it is a painting from a greek pot or sculpture, which fits in with the mythology of the game. The background texture is incredibly detailed and cool, and the characters are appear as mostly psedo 2d and 3d cutouts on a 2d background, with some drop shadow to give dimension. Also, the use of lighting is incredible, especially at the beginning, to emulate a forge. Some interesting particle effects are used as well to transition between events.

One thing that I want to focus on however is the fact that this title sequence serves another purpose. The things that are animated are events that happened in previous games. It fills in the gaps that the player may or may not have, artfully, avoiding the simple "previously on" sequence that every media viewer in the world is tired of. I find it really cool in both the cases of The Last of Us and with God of War that the game makers decide to use a title sequence to make their game more "cinematic", as many games try to be, but also work to give this sequence extra utility. This title sequence passively fills in the viewer on the backstory of the world, without getting so much in the way, and still being entertaining and interesting to watch

Karin Fong is Awesome

Karin Fong, one of the founders of Imaginary Forces, is recognized for her work with film, television, ads, and even video games.
Fong began her career with a job on the production team for The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) under the command of Kyle Cooper. Cooper then took Fong along and created Imaginary Forces where they both remain working.
One of Fong's first independent projects was Dead Man on Campus(1998).

This title sequence shows similar attributes to previous work with Cooper, for she used 2D animation and quick cutting motions. The movement is comparable to the Sure Target tool we learned in class on Thursday.
Fong since has done amazing work on title sequences such as television series Boardwalk Empire (2010) and films Rubicon. 

 

Fong made title sequences for movies like Cat in the Hat, 102 Dalmatians, Charlotte Webb, The Pink Panther 2, and Ray. He as also done work on Ads for Herman Miller, Target, Honda, and God of War. 

Click here to see Fong's Demo Reel