Susan Bradley did the titles to Ratatouille (which I adored), Motorcycle Diaries (the movie that made me want to see South America like no other film before it), Dark Water (wow, what a depressing film!), The Matador and others. Her title design style and prowess are well knows. Check out the interview at thunderchunky.co.uk.

Labels: Interview, Titles

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

Handcrafted with love by BYU design students and faculty, for the 5th Typophile Film Festival. A visual typographic feast about the five senses, and how they contribute to and enhance our creativity. Everything in the film is real—no CG effects!

Shot with a RED One, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a Canon EOS 40D, and a Nikon D80.
Stop motion created with Dragon Stop Motion.

Creative Director & Faculty Mentor:
Brent Barson

Writing & Storyboarding:
Brent Barson, Jessica Blackham, Analisa Estrada, Meg Gallagher, John Jensen, Regan Fred Johnson, Colin “The Pin” Pinegar

Construction, Paint & Glue:
Brent Barson, Wynn Burton, Analisa Estrada, Meg Gallagher, Olivia Juarez Knudsen, Casey Lewis, Reeding Roberts, Deven Stephens, Brian Christensen (Brain Sculpture)

Animators:
Brent Barson, Wynn Burton, Analisa Estrada, Meg Gallagher, Olivia Juarez Knudsen, Reeding Roberts, Deven Stephens

Cinematographer:
Wynn Burton

Editing:
Brent Barson, Wynn Burton, Analisa Estrada, Meg Gallagher, Reeding Roberts

Hand Models:
Analisa Estrada, Meg Gallagher, Olivia Juarez Knudsen, Deven Stephens, Michelle Stephens

Original Music:
micah dahl anderson - www.micahdahl.com

Special thanks to Joe, Jared, Zara, and the Punchut/Typophile crew for enabling this!

Labels: Student Work, Titles

Danny Princz co-directed this great piece for Make Me a Supermodel Season 2. Danny had a pretty involved process but expained it well. He says

I co-directed the live action green screen shoot of the 18 talent featured in this open. The shoot was done on RED at 4K to provide flexibility with composition and camera movement for a 1080 finish.

I did the rough cut in FCP with proxies and then brought it in to AE via automatic duck. The scenes were then keyed in AE, comped against stills and a initial grade was done for the first client approval.

For the next phase I directed a run and gun shoot in Manhattan for the moving backplates. This was again shot on RED at 4k for flexibility. Due to the time of year we were limited in the amount of daylight and a relatively low sun.

After approval of the cut with the moving plates, the R3Ds were run through Redcine to 4K tiff files for final composting in AE.

Show Open for Bravo's Make Me a Supermodel Season 2 from danny princz on Vimeo.

Labels: Television, Titles

This was a suggestion from my friend Natsuki Kato. Very cool organic looking 3D (and I am curious to know how much is real and how much is rendered).


TOCAME Titles from combustion on Vimeo.

Labels: Titles

Interesting text animation/subtitling. Ken Broomfield posted this one to the AE-List. He recommends ignoring the substance and just looking at the design :-)

Labels: Titles

Note: both videos may take a while to load.

Mad Money titles by Shine



Koppel on Discovery: The People's Republic of Capitalism by Imaginary Forces

Labels: Television, Titles, Typography

Saul Bass is known for his stylized title designs on such films as Vertigo, The Man with The Golden Arm, It's a Mad Mad World, Psycho and others.

This one was posted to the AE-List and I thought it was cute and interesting take on Saul Bass's style. This homage was done by Bhilmers, a student.



Here is an authentic Saul Bass title sequence for the film Anatomy of a Murder.



And here's one for the film Seconds.

Labels: Humor, Retro, Student Work, Titles

Dru Nget is one of my former students and a good friend. He is making a big name for himself in Hollywood. He has been working with Shine Studio and has been designing/animating titles for film and television shows (Terminator Series and Women's Murder Club titles), as well as a network identity that I posted at 'Inspirations' in July 2007.

Dru's latest film titles were for the film Mad Money and they are really cool! See for yourself.

Dru says "The title sequence was inspired by the graphical elements that already existed within the U.S. currency, intermixed with colors from foreign currency. The most interesting aspect of the project was getting to see the details of the currency. Plus, it gave us a chance to redesign the currency from our perspective which was fun."

Labels: Titles

Beautiful fragmented chunks of type move around the screen as slats of the background flicker on and off. I love the music (U.N.K.L.E.? That's what the credits say.) The titles were done for the film Odyssey in Rome and were designed by Joost Korngold of Renascent.

Labels: Titles

I was talking to Tony Griffin who is one of the guys who runs the Thriller! Chiller! Festival in Grand Rapids, MI. He told me about a Michigan film maker and digital animator, Dan Land, who would be speaking at the festival about his film, Dirty Trousers, discussing techniques used by featuring before and after clips of his film as examples of digital animation using Adobe After Effects. (Michigan, represent!)

I was very suprised when I saw the trailer. It has a film noir feel, in black and white with spot color and lots of old film effects. It looks freakin' awesome.

If you're interested in checking out the film and filmmakers, the presentation is at the Wealthy Theatre, Saturday, October 27, 2007, 11:30am and $5 will get you in the door. I'm hoping I can interview the filmmaker or tape his presentation and put it on the website. More on the Thriller! Chiller! Festival. They're playing Black Sheep on Friday night!

Labels: Movie Trailer, Titles

A couple of the young men in my class saw 300 this weekend and were raving about the 300 End Titles. They were trying to describe the combination of very flat looking 3D with the blood spatter and so we Googled it. Boy, that was easy to find!

The Titles were done by yU+co who also did the titles to The Guardian, An Inconvenient Truth and lots of other film, television and commerical work.

I have to say, their website is cool, and at the same time one of the most irritating sites I've encountered in my entire life. Yes, they do some freakin' amazing work, but clicking on those little moving titles is really annoying. I don't have the patience. I just want to see their video work.... which, if I didn't mention, is truely stellar.

Labels: Titles

We're looking for a few good animators, editors, students or even just fans of visual effects to contribute to this blog. Not HTML skills necessary, but a good eye for the most ground-breaking and rule-breaking techniques and styles out there. We want eye candy! Yes, we do.

Interested? Drop me an email and tell me why you should be considered. You would be expected to make one post per week, but you can post more, as long as they're quality videos. You're welcome to add your thoughts and opinions about the video, too.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Commercial, Demo Reel, Documentary, Experimental, Film Short, Interview, Movie Trailer, Music Video, Podcast, Stop Motion, Student Work, Television, Titles

Unsettling Title Design for The Number 23 Bryant Frazer at Studio Daily (a part of Studio Montly) interviews Michelle Dougherty on Imaginary Forces' Agitated, Blood-Red Vision... the opening title sequence of the new Jim Carey Film, 23.

View the interview and see samples

Labels: 2D, Interview, Titles