Click to Watch

Art of the Title would like to give thanks. At the centerpiece of your meal remember, the Thanksgiving holiday is about people. And so, “Soylent Green.”

Sequence editor Chuck Braverman, known for his flash frame kinestasis montage/films, opens director Richard Fleischer’s film adaptation of “Soylent Green” with images of the blossoming bourgeoisie. The plague of population pressures is then conveyed with such surehanded conviction that you believe, we all believe, just how easily the cookie crumbles.

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 848×368 | Size: 26.8 MB | Running Time: 2:17 | Year: 1973

Audio Extra: Commentary by director Richard Fleischer.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click to Watch (contains nudity)
Click to Watch 720p HD Version (contains nudity)

What it is to be reborn.

A closed-mouthed catfish and cheery gator serve as an aquatic admission into a place that suffers the rot of intolerance and blackish baptisms. Stick shacks sulk under Spanish moss. Jace Everett’s song “Bad Things” plucks and coos over the risque and the religious imagery of Alan Ball’s title sequence for “True Blood” contextualizing the slutty and the sweet swamp-goth vampiric mise-en-scène.

Elements of this sequence have been compared to elements of Andrew Douglas’ mesmeric, stunning, one of a kind film “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus.” Art of the Title’s intention in providing the opening to “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus” is pure. It is very good southern surrealist cinema.

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 848×480 | Size: 18.8 MB | Running Time: 1:31 | Year: 2008

720p HD Version | Format: QuickTime H.264, 1280×720 | Size: 36.6 MB | Running Time: 1:31 | Year: 2008

Video Extra: Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus - Opening Scene

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 853×480 | Size: 46.2 MB | Running Time: 4:02 | Year: 2003

Video Extra: Digital Kitchen’s True Blood Featurette (contains nudity)

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 640×360 | Size: 26.1 MB | Running Time: 3:01 | Year: 2008

Click to Watch

Nautilus rockets, McCarthyism in an Atomic Age, moonlit-framed rooftop chases, lightning bolts that echo Saul Bass and a symphonic score by Kevin Manthei punctuate director and title designer David Bullock’s opening to “Justice League: The New Frontier.”

David Bullock:

“I put these together with a great compositor by the name of Aziria Owens. Azi would, in After FX I believe, build the shots from layered storyboard files that I “cut” in Photoshop. Once the individual shots were finished they went to WB’s editing department. Some of the Avid work is a bit clunky, but this thing had no budget! Going for a Saul Bass approach was not only the right design approach, it was economical as well. Although we had no real $ I agreed to put the titles together on weekends over the course of two to three months while I directed on Sony’s “The Spectacular Spider-Man” toon.

Over all the movie was robbed of time. That being the case Darwyn and I had many discussions on how to cram story info into the titles as well as set a tone. And even more discussions about fonts!
I based at least half of the shots on Darwyn’s NF comic covers and interior pages. All that was left to do there was chose a great “BluNote” color scheme and figure out how to get in and out of the shot. The remaining shots were attempts at capturing the tone of the era’s design greatness.

Kevin Mathei came up with a ever building soundtrack that really adds intrigue to the piece. Honestly I was all about a Brubeck style jazz approach, and would still liked to have pursued it, but was out flanked by producers. Remember the great Johnny Quest title music? That’s what I’m talk’in abooouuutt! That said I’m very happy with what we have.

Any way, I hope you enjoy the titles and the movie. It was a great opportunity, and I revelled in it!”

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 872×480 | Size: 21.2 MB | Running Time: 2:01 | Year: 2008

Audio Extra: Commentary by writer Darwyn Cooke.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio Extra: Filmmaker commentary.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Production Extra: Download David Bullock’s original storyboards from the title sequence (5.3MB Zip Archive)

Click to Watch

When Art of the Title watches a fluid steadicam composition what takes place is a kind of sustenance.

Filmed at Rua Teodoro Sampaio, famous in São Paulo (Brazil) for its concentration of shops selling musical instruments, the opening sequence to Anna Muylaert’s film “Durval Discos” is organic in its ease as DP Jacob Solitrenick treats us to the relaxed pathology of the street.

At once you figure the arrangement and mute any notion of it, allowing the credits to simply come when they come. We are somehow reminded of a certain conversation Robert Duvall had with Sean Penn in “Colors.” Duvall Discos!

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 720×304 | Size: 43.8 MB | Running Time: 4:36 | Year: 2002