EN SCÈNE
The Art of the Title
EN SCÈNE
The Art of the Title
mise en scène (mee zahn sen) French.
1. Any and all design elements that make up the visual theme for a theatre or film production. 11. The phsyical setting of an action; as of a narrative or a motion picture.
EN SCÈNE en scÈn e: the a rt of the title
is an interactive
Film titles can be great fun. In them we see the bond
experience through the vast history of film title
between the art of filmmaking and graphic design
sequences. Walk through the decades and view the
— and perhaps visual culture as a whole. They have
very best in film making from the 1900s until today.
always served a greater purpose than themselves:
Leaders in the art of title sequences are highlighted
to move the overarching story forward. Whether you
throughout the progression of not only film making,
are a motion graphic designer, a digital artist or a
but also graphic design, typography, fashion, and
connoisseur of design, we hope you are inspired by
other social trends. This spatial timeline moves
these film titles and the ideas they suggest to your
through the rich narrative of title sequences and
own creative endeavors.
exposes the evolution of more than a century’s films.
ta b l e o f c o n t e n t s
Early 1900s
1902
1910
1914
1916
1918
1920
A T RIP T O T HE MOON
F R A NK ENS T EIN
CINDEREL L A
IN T OL ER A NCE
j . searle dawley
james kirkwood
d . w . griffith
T HE E Y E S OF T HE MUMM Y
T HE C A BINE T OF DR . C A L IG A RI
georges m é li è s
ernst lubitsch
robert wiene
04
06
08
10
12
14
1924
1927
1931
1933
1937
1946
PE T ER PA N
ME T ROP OL IS
M
herbert brenan
fritz lang
fritz lang
T HE IN V ISIBL E MAN
M A K E WAY F OR T OMORROW
T HE L A DY IN T HE L A K E
leo mccarey
montgomery
26
28
1920s – 1940s
james whale
18
20
22
24
robert
1950s – 1980s
1955
1959
1962
1963
1964
1979
T HE M A N W I T H T HE GOL DEN A RM
NOR T H BY NOR T H W E S T
T O K IL L A MOC K INGBIRD
CH A R A DE
GOL DF INGER
A L IEN
kyle cooper
kyle cooper
kyle cooper
saul bass
kyle cooper
david fincher
david fincher
david fincher
david fincher
kyle cooper
david fincher
david fincher
32
34
36
40
42
44 1990s – Today
1995
1999
2006
2009
2009
2011
SE 7EN
F IGH T CL UB
kyle cooper
david w . prescott
david fincher
david fincher
C A SINO ROYA L E
EN T ER T HE VOID
UP IN T HE A IR
daniel kleinman
tom kan
gareth smith
martin campbell
gasper no é
jenny lee
T HE GIRL W I T H T HE DR AGON TAT T OO
jason reitman
48
52
54
56
58
&
neil kellerhouse david fincher
60
“
It makes you thrilled to be in this theatre at this moment, getting ready to see this movie. It makes you glad that you are nowhere else in the world except where you are, getting ready to see something amazing. —
k yle cooper
02
e a r ly
19 0 0 s
Early
1900s
si nce the i n v ention
of the cinematograph, simple
title cards were used to top and tail silent film presentations in order to identify both the film and the production company involved, and to act as a signal that the film had started and then finished. In silent cinema title cards were used throughout to convey dialogue and plot and it is in some of these early short films that we see the first examples of title sequences themselves, being quite literally a series of title cards shown at the beginning of a film. The arrival of sound did little to alter the convention except that the sequence was usually accompanied by a musical prelude.
e a r ly
19 0 0 s
03
“
For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake. — a l fr ed hitchcock
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
a trip to the moon
unknown
DIREC T OR
george m é li è s
1902
by alex ander ulloa
Like many of Méliès’s films, A Trip to the Moon
Some have claimed that the film was one of the earliest examples
was sold in both black-and-white and hand-colored
of pataphysical film, while stating that the film aims to “show the
versions. A hand-colored print, the only one known to
director, Georges Méliès, aimed in the film to “invert the hierarchal
survive, was rediscovered in 1993 by the Filmoteca
values of modern French society and hold them up to ridicule in a riot
de Catalunya. It was in a state of almost total
of the carnivalesque”. This is seen as an inherent part of the film’s
decomposition, but a frame-by-frame restoration was launched in 1999 and completed in 2010.
04
illogicality of logical thinking”. Others still have remarked that the
a trip to the moon
plot: the story pokes fun at the scientists and at science in general, in that upon traveling to the Moon, the astronomers find that the face of the Moon is, in fact, the face of a man.
“
You can plan for everything and say we’re going to do something that looks effortless, but that’s not really realistic — it takes on a life of its own. — k y l e cooper
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
frankenstein
unknown
j searle dawley
1910
b y b e n r a d at z
Frankenstein (1910) is the first known film version of Mary
Strangely, for those of us familiar with the Universal Frankenstein
Shelley’s novel. The film was produced by Thomas Edison’s
(1931), Frankenstein’s monster is constituted through chemicals
company and directed by J. Searle Dawley. Very soon
in a large cauldron in a sequence that employs puppetry of a skeleton, is limber of movement, and speaks fluently to his
after its release, the film was deemed sacrilegious for its
creator. The performance of Augustus Phillips (Frankenstein)
macabre content — tame by today’s standards, shocking
is deeply couched in Victorian stage traditions, all posing and
in 1910. Consequently, the film was not shown in many theaters and fewer prints than usual were struck for sale.
sweeping gestures. Charles Ogle, however, does a good job of bringing the monster to life in a fright wig, extended fingers, and slapstick shoes.
frankenstein
07
“
The cinema, like the detective story, enables us to experience without danger to ourselves all the excitements, passions, and fantasies which have to be repressed in a humanistic age. — c a r l jung
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
cinderella
unknown
james kirkwood
1914
b y j u l i e n va l l e e
Cinderella is a 1914 silent film starring Mary Pickford,
Cinderella is a winsome young girl who lives with her wicked
directed by James Kirkwood, Sr., produced by
stepmother and ugly stepsisters. They abuse her and use
Daniel Frohman, and released by Famous Players
cinderell a
the world, but doesn’t know a fairy godmother is constantly
Film Company, later known as Paramount Pictures.
helping her. One day, she is collecting wood from the forest
The film is based upon the famous fairy tale with
and meets Prince Charming. They immediately fall in love with
the same name. The film was released on DVD as
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her as the house maid. Cinderella thinks she’s all alone in
each other, but lose contact. Soon, a ball is arranged by the prince to look for his future wife. The stepsisters think they
a bonus feature from the DVD of Through the Back
make a great chance in being chosen by the prince. Cinderella
Door (1921).
wants to go as well, but isn’t allowed to by her cruel family.
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
intolerance
unknown
by tom keller
Director D.W. Griffith’s expensive, most ambitious
DIREC T OR
d . w . griffith
1916
“
Cinematography is writing with images in movement and with sounds. — robert bresson
silent film masterpiece Intolerance (1916) is one of the milestones and landmarks in cinematic history. Many reviewers and film historians consider it the greatest film of the silent era. The mammoth film was also subtitled: “A Sun-Play of the Ages” and “Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages.” The film was the most expensive film of its time, costing about two million dollars (a third of which was used for the Babylonian segments), but it was commercially unsuccessful in the US, partially due to the financial burden of having full orchestration accompany the film. Its complex, sometimes baffling, unwieldy construction and its pacifist themes may have contributed to its unpopular reception just prior to the US entrance into World War I. Using cinematic methods ahead of their time and influencing a whole generation of future film-makers, he included a crane shot and spectacular crowd scenes and exterior sets (and live elephants!) for the fantastic Babylonian sequence. The innovative finale is an overwhelming, rhythmic, conglomerate sequence which weaves all four stories into a stirring, fastmoving and exciting climax - as the suspenseful drama begins to conclude, the cross-cutting increases in tempo and rapidity with shorter and shorter segments of each tale flowing together. intolerance
11
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
the eyes of the mummy
unknown
ernst lubitsch
by lol a l andekic
1918
“
The exotic setting and outsized melodramatics of The Eyes of the Mummy apparently
resonated with German audiences, who were devastated by the effects of World War I. In
There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one. — er nst lubi tsch
little over a month after the film’s October 3, 1918 premiere, revolution broke out on the streets of Berlin; Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated and a Republican government was established. Son of a well-to-do Jewish tailor in Berlin, Lubitsch displayed an early aptitude for the theater, becoming an apprentice to the prestigious company of Max Reinhardt in 1911. He made his first appearances as a film actor in 1913, mainly in comic roles such as the clothiers apprentice Moritz Abramowsky in The Firm Marries (1914). Around the same time he started directing his own films, including the smash hit Shoe Salon Pinkus (1916), in which he also starred as the lustful shoe clerk. the eyes of the mummy
13
“
Typeface has got to be a character through the narrative. It should really carry a part of the story. — nic benns
F IL M T I T L E
the cabinet of dr . caligari
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
unknown
robert weine
1919
b y b e n r a d at z
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. The film used stylized sets, with abstract, jagged buildings painted on canvas backdrops and flats. Pommer put Caligari in the hands of designer Hermann Warm and painters Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, whom he had met as a soldier while painting sets for a German military theater. When Pommer began to have second thoughts about how the film should be designed, they had to convince him that it made sense to paint lights and shadows directly on set walls, floors, background canvases and to place flat sets behind the actors.
14
the cabinet of dr. caligari
16
19 2 0 — 19 4 0 s
1920– 1940s
du r i ng the tw en ties
and thirties different kinds of
films were produced for different audiences. While some people pushed for films that depicted utopias and perfection, others wanted to see reality and current events discussed in films. It is through this that film makers began to express their opinions on current issues and offered different ideas to their audiences. Starting with the post World War I era, throught the Great Depression and with a short look at gangsterdom, it is easy to understand that film makers drew their inspiration from real life and the events going on around them.
19 2 0 — 19 4 0 s
17
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
peter pan
unknown
herbert brenon
by lol a l andekic
The film closely follows the plot of the original play, and even goes so far as to incorporate much of its original stage dialogue in the intertitles. Added scenes include Nana the dog pouring out Michael’s medicine and giving him a bath, and Nana bursting into the home at which a party is being given, to warn Mr. and Mrs. Darling that Peter Pan and the Darling children are flying around the nursery.
1924
“
There’s no symbolic or conventional filter between me and reality as there is in literature. The cinema is an explosion of my love for reality. — pier paolo pa sol ini
Like the original play and several other versions, and unlike the 1953 Disney film, the 1924 version makes it clear that Wendy harbors a romantic attachment to Peter, but Peter, to Wendy’s annoyance, only thinks of her as his mother.
p e t er pa n
19
“
I should say that I was a visual person. I experience with my eyes and never, or rarely, with my ears... to my constant regret. — fr itz l a ng
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
metropolis
unknown
fritz lang
1927
b y b e n r a d at z
One of the biggest film events of the century, a “Holy
Since then, an expert team of highly respected film archivists
Grail” among film finds, Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi epic can
has been working at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in
finally be seen – for the first time in 83 years – as the
Germany to painstakingly reconstruct and restore Lang’s film. The results, as premiered at the prestigious Berlin International
director originally intended and as seen by German cinema-
Film Festival in February 2010, are spectacular.
goers in 1927. Shortly after that 1927 release, an entire
Late in his life, Lang responded to a question on Metropolis by
quarter of Lang’s original version was cut by Paramount for the US release, and by Ufa in Germany, an act of butchery
asking his own question, “Why are you so interested in a picture which no longer exists?” Finally, reconstructed and restored, the director’s film “exists” once more.
very much against the director’s wishes.
metropolis
21
“
I made my films with a kind of sleepwalking security, I did things which I thought were right. Period. — fr itz l a ng
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
m
unknown
fritz lang
1931
by alex ander ulloa
M is supposedly based on the real-life case of serial
In 1930 when Lang placed an ad in the newspaper stating that his
killer Peter Kürten, the “Vampire of Düsseldorf”,
next film would be Mörder unter Uns (The Murderer is among Us)
whose crimes took place in the 1920s, although Lang
shoot the film at Stakken studio. When Lang confronted the head of
decided to use the subject matter of M there were
Stakken studio to find out why he was being denied access to the
Grossmann, Kürten, Denke,” Lang told film historian Gero Gandert in a 1963 interview.
m
threatening letters in the mail. He was also denied a studio space to
denied that he drew from this case. “At the time I many serial killers terrorizing Germany — Haarmann,
22
and was about a child murderer, he immediately began receiving
studio, the studio head informed Lang that he was a member of the Nazi party and that the party suspected that the film was meant to depict the Nazis.
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
the invisible man
saul bass
james whale
by tom keller
The Invisible Man is a 1933 science fiction film based
1933
“
A director must be pretty bad if he can’t get a thrill out of war, murder, robbery. — james whale
on H. G. Wells’ science fiction novel The Invisible Man, published in 1897, as adapted by R. C. Sherriff, Philip Wylie and Preston Sturges, whose work was considered unsatisfactory and who was taken off the project.[1] The film was directed by James Whale and stars Claude Rains, in his first American screen appearance, and Gloria Stuart. Rains portrayed the Invisible Man (Dr. Jack Griffin) mostly only as a disembodied voice. Rains is only shown clearly for a brief time at the end of the film, spending most of his on-screen time covered by bandages. In 2008 The Invisible Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Rains’ portrayal of The Invisible Man is considered to be one of the main Universal Monsters and is often listed with the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Mummy and Gill-man.
the invisible man
24
“
Typeface has got to be a character through the narrative. It should really carry a part of the story. — nic benns
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
make way for tomorrow
unknown
leo mccarey
1937
b y b e n r a d at z
This is a nearly-forgotten American film made in the Depression. It tells the story my mother imagined for herself. A couple has lived happily together for 50 years. They lose their home to a bank. Their five grown children are sincerely sorry to hear this, but what can they do with them? One has moved to California and is rarely heard from. The others live closer, but don’t have the space to take in two people. The great final arc of “Make Way for Tomorrow” is beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s easy to imagine it being sentimentalized by a studio executive, being made more upbeat for the audience. That’s not McCarey. Everything depends on the performances. Beulah Bondi was not yet 50 when she played Lucy (with makeup by Wally Westmore) and Victor Moore was 61. In appearance, movement and performance, they are very convincingly old. In the film they’re around 70. That was thought a much older age in 1937 than it seems today. 25
m a k e w ay f o r t o m o r r o w
“
The opening title sequence of this 1959 crime drama is a classic piece of graphic design — giving the movie a strong, timeless indentity that still inspires filmmakers to this day. — jul ien va l l ee
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
lady in the lake
unknown
robert montgomery
1947
b y j u l i e n va l l e e
Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir that
Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled private
marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery,
detective Phillip Marlowe (Montgomery) submits a murder story
who also stars in the film. The picture also features
Eve, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett (Totter) hires him to
and Jayne Meadows. The murder mystery was an
locate the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby (Ames). One month
Lady in the Lake.
l ady in the l ak e
his work, but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. On Christmas
Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames adaptation of the 1944 Raymond Chandler novel The
27
to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the premises to discuss
earlier, Chrystal Kingsby had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons).
29
19 5 0 — 19 8 0 s
1950– 1980s
the stu dio system
in Hollywood declined, because
many films were now being made on location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad, such as Pinewood in the UK and Cinecittà in Rome. “Hollywood” films were still largely aimed at family audiences, and it was often the more oldfashioned films that produced the studios’ biggest successes. The growth in independent producers and production companies, and the increase in the power of individual actors also contributed to the decline of traditional Hollywood studio production. Further, the nuclear paranoia of the age, and the threat of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange (like the 1962 close-call with the USSR during the Cuban missile crisis) prompted a reaction within the film community as well.
19 5 0 — 19 8 0 s
30
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
the man with the golden arm
saul bass
otto preminger
by tom keller
The movie opens with one of the most famous, influential and controversial title sequences in movie history, the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm, designed and conceived by Saul Bass as a means of creating much more than a mere title sequence, but something that actually enhances the viewer’s experience by contributing to a mood built within the opening moments of a film.
1955
“
Bass fashioned title sequences into an art, creating in some cases, a mini-film within a film. His graphic compositions in movement function as a prologue to the movie. — martin scorsese
Similarly, the film’s jazz soundtrack (played by Shorty Rogers and His Giants with Shelly Manne) was a landmark in film history; it followed on somewhat from the score provided by Alex North for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). The famous theme music was written by Elmer Bernstein. Jet Harris released the theme as single in 1963, Sweet covered the theme song on the UK version of their album Desolation Boulevard, and Barry Adamson released a cover version on his 1988 album Moss Side Story.
vertigo
32
“
My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it. — saul ba ss
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
north by northwest
saul bass
alfred hitchcock
1959
b y b e n r a d at z
Perhaps the best way to frame Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller
It is appropriate, then, that Saul Bass establishes this theme in both
North by Northwest is to examine the least conspicuous
the tone and design of the main title sequence — his second Hitchcock
word in its title: by. In the context of the film, ‘by’
outing, following Vertigo the previous year. Almost immediately, the open canvas of forest green is jailed by a series of intersecting lines, setting the
represents a crossroads — a point of intersection between
ground rules for the sequence by corralling the sans serif title blocks into
two paths that would otherwise never meet. Intersections
vertical columns, rising and falling as though tethered to one another. The
are further explored in the transient locations Hitchcock
sequence is split into three distinct tiers — the first being entirely graphic, with the titles superimposed over the gridded background. In the second,
chose to shoot: downtown cross streets, trains, airports —
the graphics dissolve into the reflective façade of the C.I.T. Building in
even the infamous crop-dusting scene, which takes place
Manhattan — the location of Thornhill’s agency — perfectly mimicking its
quite literally at a crossroads.
orthographic window framework. The third tier brings us down to ground level, observing the anonymous masses navigating the Big Apple.
north by northwest
34
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
to kill a mockingbird
stephen frankfurt
robert mulligan
by alex ander ulloa
In the first seconds of this dawning glory, Elmer Bernstein’s notes softly dot and fade. A child, our beloved Scout, hums lullabylike. At the heart of the masterpiece, a cigar
1962
“
The most important thing is to think with your heart, not with your head. Be heavily emotional versus practical. — st ephen fr a nk f urt
box. At the heart of the box, Gregory Peck. A silent pocket watch ticks in remembrance. Scout lifts a crayon and sets in motion the quiet, unintentional roll of a marble and the wonderment of the examined life found in every moment, of every life. Stephen Frankfurt’s opening title sequence for To Kill A Mockingbird forces one to slow down, to note the window reflected in the marbles. We get the sense that this lolling calm happens just off screen while, on the other side of that window, Atticus — the very embodiment of security — sways thoughtfully on the porch swing. to kill a mockingbird
36
37
to kill a mockingbird
to kill a mockingbird
38
“
An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?” — fr a ncis for d coppol a
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
charade
maurice binder
stanley donen
1963
by alex ander ulloa
When screenwriters Peter Stone and Marc Behm submitted their script The Unsuspecting Wife around Hollywood, they were unable to sell it. Stone then turned it into a novel, retitled Charade, which found a publisher and was also serialized in Redbook magazine, as many novels were at the time.
39
charade
When the film was released at Christmas, 1963, Audrey Hepburn’s line, “at any moment we could be assassinated,” was dubbed over to become “at any moment we could be eliminated” due to the recent assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The dubbed word stood out quite clearly and all official video releases of the film have since restored the original dialogue, though some public domain videos taken from original release prints still carry the redubbed line.
“
Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity. I’d say that film is the sculpting of time. — a ndr ei ta r kovsk y
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
goldfinger
robert brownjohn
guy hamilton
1964
by juliet kinchin
As memorable as the film itself, the title sequence of
Brownjohn’s short but influential career
Goldfinger (1964) captures the sexual suggestiveness
integrated the fields of design, advertising,
and wry humor of the James Bond mythos. Scenes
goldfinger
in 1960 to London, where he was at the
from the film are projected strategically onto starlet
epicenter of the burgeoning “swinging ‘60s”
Margaret Nolan, while minimal credit texts balance
scene. Brownjohn deployed type in dynamic,
each shot. It was designer and art director Robert
41
film, photography and music. He moved
abstract forms, in this case illustrating both his mastery of modern graphic design and
Brownjohn (American, 1926–1970) who conceived,
his ability to apply sophisticated graphic
designed, and directed this sequence.
treatment to popular media.
“
I knew exactly what to do on Alien, it was funny. — r idl e y scot t
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
alien
richard greenberg
ridley scott
1979
b y b e n r a d at z
Crossing over an eclipsing planet with the title appearing in non-linear, segmented letters. From the outer letters inwards (even the middle swath of the letter “E” is last to appear), everything points to the center. That is where the parasitic pupae come from — the middle of you. Steady, dark tension. Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film’s title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature that stalks and kills the crew of a spaceship. Dan O’Bannon wrote the screenplay from a story by him and Ronald Shusett, drawing influence from previous works of science fiction and horror. The film was produced through Brandywine Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox, with producers David Giler and Walter Hill making significant revisions and additions to the script.
43
alien
45
19 9 0 — T O D AY
1990– Today
t h e e a r ly
1900 s saw the development of a
commercially successful independent cinema in the United States. Although cinema was increasingly dominated by special-effects films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997), independent films like Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) had significant commercial success both at the cinema and on home video. Filmmakers associated with the Danish filmmovement Dogme 95 introduced a manifesto aimed to purify filmmaking.
19 9 0 — T O D AY
46
“
You can plan for everything and say we’re going to do something that looks effortless, but that’s not really realistic — it takes on a life of its own. — k y l e cooper
F IL M T I T L E se 7 en
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
kyle cooper
david fincher
1995
b y b e n r a d at z
Directed in 1995, David Fincher’s Se7en is a film that defies easy categorization. Perhaps too dark to qualify as a golden classic despite having all the right ingredients, neither is it a cult film in the traditional sense, as it is stocked with A-list talent and propped up by a smart script, a memorable score and rich cinematography, and a production value in lockstep with Fincher’s own vision for the film.
Directed by Kyle Cooper while at the newly-formed Los Angeles arm of titling giant R/Greenberg Associates, it’s a short story told in fragments and vignettes, following the hands of an unknown man — presumably the antagonist, John Doe — as he makes entries in his diary alongside clippings from books, selfdeveloped photographs, and found images and objects, giving the audience an intimate look into the mind of a serial killer obsessed with religion and, more to the point, attrition.
s e7en
48
49
s e7en
s e7en
50
“
Everything seems really simple on paper until you take a camera out of the box. — dav id fincher
F IL M T I T L E fight club
T I T L E DE SIGNER david w . prescott
DIREC T OR david fincher
1999
b y b e n r a d at z
We follow a path outwards from the fear center
The opening title sequence was supposed to be starting inside the
of our protagonist’s brain, moving through various
fear center of Edward Norton’s brain. The electricity is like photo
cerebral micro-landscapes and exiting a skin pore,
fight club
to be impulses, fear-based impulses. We are changing scale the
ending between the sights of a Smith and Wesson
whole time so we’re starting at the size of a dendrite [and] we are
pointed into his mouth. This immediate relationship
pulling back through the frontal lobes, going through this black
between cause and effect, where the source of
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electrical stimuli that is running through his brain. These are supposed
section where there are particles; we’ve left the brain and are going through the skull casing. This is inside the skull where Arnon’s name
fear is linked directly to the chemistry behind that
appears, inside bone where apparently there is some fluid in, which I
emotion, establishes that the violence is not trivial.
did not know. And then we pull out through this clogged pore.
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
casino royale
daniel kleinman
martin campbell
by devin z ydel
2006
“
Director Martin Campbell commented on a possible card motif for the sequence and Kleinman ‘took that and ran with it as far as possible. One starting point was Ian Fleming’s own design for the first edition of Casino Royale, which used the hearts from a playing card. I also remember that a puff of gun smoke stylised into the form of a club symbol came to me early, and I sketched that.’
I wanted to simplify the look, give it a harder feel than the hi-tech ultra-glam with which the titles have become identified, Graphic design seemed a good way to go in this direction. — da niel k l einm a n
Working alongside Kleinman was William Bartlett, head of inferno at Framestore CFC Commercials, who said: ‘The previous film, Die Another Day, was almost the apotheosis of the old style. We’d taken it pretty much as far as it would go–the glossiness, the focus pulls, the fiery transitions–and I was delighted to be taking a new approach. Danny took the essences of the casino world–playing cards, roulette wheels, and the patterns on money itself–as his lead design elements.’ c a s i n o r o ya l e
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“
Its crescendo rhythm leads you to a euphoric ascension. You feel the visual and auditory onslaught. You don’t need to read, you just experience the typefaces, the names and the music. I find it to be a successful contrast to the really calm first scene. — g a sper no é
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
enter the void
tom kan
DIREC T OR gasper no é
2009
b y b e n r a d at z
Like sighs from a scythe in a wheat field of psychosis, the opening title sequence for Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void is a melting onslaught of typographic design foisted upon the senses. This unrelenting visual overdose hacks pleasurably at the viewer, as the tip of a nail does finding its destiny. Names become bright little deaths fired to a machine gun beat; the images encircle your pupils as LFO’s “Freak” drives the nail deeper. Gaspar already had an idea for it: he wanted a fast-paced compilation of typefaces, all very different, inspired by films, flyers, and neon signs to announce the tone of the film. It was a peculiar case because the title sequence was in French, English and Japanese… He is very sensitive when it comes to typography — he had already done some himself for movies and posters. He even collects film posters.
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enter the void
“
The sequence ultimately depicts the world as Ryan (George Clooney) sees it: distant, abstract, and detached. — g a r et h smi t h
F IL M T I T L E up in the air
T I T L E DE SIGNER gareth smith
&
jenny lee
DIREC T OR jason reitman
2009
by ian albenson
A title sequence that incorporated aerial footage was our first thought. We assembled a gallery of interesting aerial photography that had an abstract quality and sent it off to Jason. We looked at the artwork and photography of Andy Goldsworthy, Ed Ruscha, and Alex MacLean during our research. Our initial thought was to do it by hand somehow — perhaps painting the aerial shots with a subdued color palette. We assumed that there would be NO WAY to actually shoot this footage, given the budget of the title sequence. Our jaws dropped when we saw a rough edit of some of the footage in the film. He was planning on using a number of these shots throughout the film for city title cards as well. It was an absolute gift and we were thrilled to have access to such spectacular footage.
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up in the air
F IL M T I T L E
T I T L E DE SIGNER
DIREC T OR
the girl with the dragon tattoo
neil kellerhouse
david fincher
by lol a l andekic
The beat sidles in: a throbbing arrhythmia peppered by desperate, howling vocals, and then that ooze. That viscid, black ooze that seeps into everything, penetrating crevices, dribbling into lips and eyes, suffocating and sensual and silent. Each ebony form is made osmotic — surging and melding, torn apart and punctured, ensnared, set ablaze — thrashing in the deep. Through flashes of embers and murk, sticky vines creep, hands grapple, foul petals unfurl, and sable fists inflict their fury.
2011
“
We used black ooze as a unifying element throughout the vignettes. Everyone’s had a bad dream where they are caught in some molasseslike substance and not able to move. It just fit. — t im mil l er
In this elegantly violent title sequence, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Karen O’s version of “Immigrant Song” swells when coupled with Blur Studio’s monstrous fantasy in David Fincher’s newest offering, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. t h e g i r l w i t h t h e d r a g o n tat t o o
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Š 2012 by Stephanie Schlim En Scene: The Art of the Title All Rights Reserved. Printed at Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Typeset in Mrs Eaves, Univers, and Bodoni. Perfect bound and printed double-sided on Staples cover stock paper.