"Movies that scar"

David Fincher: A Film Title Retrospective from Art of the Title on Vimeo.

"I don’t know how much movies should entertain. I’m interested in movies that scar."
               —David Fincher

David Fincher is arguably one the main reasons growth in the importance and design of title sequences  has happened. In all his films he has moved the use of the title sequences into a new direction. His films are very "distinct from one another", but are an undeniable Fincher film. From reading through an interview between Ian Albinson and Fincher it was really interesting to see how much influence this director has over his title sequences. The titles can prepare the audience for whats to come in the film. Fincher finds the titles to be well made not for pleasing the eye, but moreso for an engangement to set the scene and pull your interest. Movies that will be good always have superior title sequences as well.

For example, the title sequence for Seven, designed by Kyle Cooper. This carefully designed title sequence was able to give a glimpse into the world of the story you're about to enter and "did very important non-narrative things."

Another incredible sequence most people have seen is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This sequence, not directly having anything to do with the plot of the film to come get your psyche in the mindset of the film.

My personal favorite sequence and movie though is the wonderful Fight Club. The microscopic view from inside Edward Norton's brain and zoom out to a shotgun rack focus to his face is simply incredible. He think the title sequences themselves are "part of the entertainment form."



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Opening Titles - The Kite Runner

This is a very simple but powerful opening-title sequence directed by Ben Radatz at MK12. It is really appealing to me because it is an example of a very economical approach to design that works very effectively. The title animation for Kite Runner presents the credits moving around space and being connected through moving brushstrokes that relate to the typography used throughout the piece. It is simple but nonetheless efficient and while being aesthetically pleasing it also clearly connects to the cultural theme of the film.


MK12 // The Kite Runner: Opening Title Sequence from MK12 on Vimeo.

I can see many of the things we learned in class being used in this piece; variations in opacity, camera movement and the general animation of the brush-strokes  and letters although extremely well crafted seems to be very straight-forward as to the way they could've been made, specially if using after effects. It is nice to see that as the semester went by and we kept exercising what we learned I can now look at some of these title-sequences and figure out how they were made and even try it by myself.

Music Video Project

I was brainstorming ideas for my music video project for class. Since I like sports and have a lot of footage of the football team I film, I was thinking of a way to incorporate that. I like the song, "Heart of a Champion" by Nelly for my project. For this project I would like to be moving through different layers of football footage. This song has a lot of great motivational lyrics that pertain to exactly what the footage is showing. For the lines in the song that are really good and tie in directly to the footage, I want to have just those lyrics come out overlaying the footage. Again, not all the lyrics will display on the screen, just the ones that have a lot of meaning to what the footage is showing. I don't want this to seem like a karaoke style video like most of the lyrical videos on Youtube are. I want to be sure to keep the motivational sports theme in it.