Happy Halloween!

While searching for a Halloween related video, I found Cirque du Freak's title sequence. And since it is Halloween and we are working on our own title sequences, I thought this was very appropriate. And plus the creativity and motion graphics are very impressive.



Here is an interview with the Motiongrapher Brandon Lori. To read the complete interview, click here! (I highly suggest it)

"Specifically, for Cirque du Freak, what was the most challenging aspect of distilling the film’s long-form narrative into the economy of time provided by a main title?"

"It is quite a challenge to condense the film’s long-form narrative into a title sequence. I normally do not over think too much in creating a complex narrative for the opening unless it is needed. The idea of a main title sequence is to set up the tone and mood for the audience to discover the story as the movie unfolds. The opening sequence needs to be metaphorical in content and impressionistic in tone. Unless there is a very specific prologue that the filmmaker feels strongly needs to be explained, I usually will try not to be too literal and keep it simple.

We don’t want to reveal too much about the plot of the film in the title sequence. As for Cirque Du Freak, it is a graphic opening. The idea is to introduce six freak show characters and bring them all together through the journey of two puppets. I wanted to let the credits play an important role in the sequence. They become the main actors throughout the sequence then the story becomes a backdrop. I think title design is about the titles and other elements are secondary."

"Can you explain the title’s typographic significance, and how you decided to have the letterforms serve a dual purpose in providing information, while also becoming interactive devices for the characters?"

"The typography is inspired by some older reference in graphic design history. I am particularly interested in Dada artists such as Filippo Marinetti in the way they use letters to literally illustrate the content. It becomes a figurative poem. And concrete poetry—the idea of seeing letters as actual objects, as well as Bradbury Thompson’s work in the 50’s and 60’s. All those are the original source of inspiration on what we did for the title.

I also wanted to invent a new way of seeing how the credits behave. If you see the credits as actors on stage instead of just titles in the foreground, then we can imagine them to do anything that you want them to do as long as you direct them. They can dance and they can interact with the characters. In this case, they are truly the actor on stage with the puppets."

Creative Credits:

Project: “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” main title sequence

Client: Universal Pictures
Design/Animation: yU+Co., Hollywood, CA

Creative Director: Garson Yu

Art Director: Etsuko Uji

Designer: Edwin Baker

2D Animator: Wayland Via

2D Animator: Allen Yeung

2D Animator: Jill Dadducci

2D Animator: Chris Coogan

3D Artist: Pota Tseng

3D Artist: Stephen Delalla