Enter the Void and All Of the Lights

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/enter-the-void/

I read a very interesting article this week on art of the title about a specific title sequence, from "Enter the Void", and a fairly prominent example of either homage or plagiarism, depending on your point of view. First, lets talk about the title sequence. It is incredibly aggressive, with heavy, bassy beats and almost unreadably text, mostly because of the speed. In fact I would argue the text is almost unimportant, because it streams by so fast one couldn't ever be expected to actually read the credits. However going frame by frame shows some really really cool designs for names, that are only on screen for literally a few frames. However the thing that the sequence really does best is play with the idea of a title sequence. It doesn't really accomplish crediting the actors and crew, what it does is be flashy, aggressive, and introduce the themes of the movie to the viewer right from the start

Another thing I want to touch on is a possible plagiarism of this sequence in a music video. The song, Kanye West's "All of the Lights", has a pretty great music video. However if you watch it, the opening sequence looks, almost shockingly so, exactly like the titles from enter the void. The graphic designers behind the music video said that it was just homage to the "enter the void" sequence. Tom Kan, graphics designer on Enter the Void, didn't seem to mind to the level of suing Kanye West, but did say "Plagiarism always devalues the imitator". He did go on to say that the expansion of the internet has allowed for collaboration and imitation between graphic designers like never before, which I think is a very interesting thought, and a very good point.