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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.

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Audio Extra: Filmmaker commentary.

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