Two fine fire melt title reveals open Howard Hawks’/Christian Nyby’s “The Thing from Another World” and John Carpenter’s immutable and Hitchcockian “The Thing,” respectively. In speaking with Krystian Morgan, a 21-year-old from Wales we relearned a thing or two about work ethic, humility and the importance of fresh eyes. Morgan’s title sequence, based on Carpenter’s vision, was created when Morgan was in his final year in university where he studied motion graphics and compositing. His grave atmospherics veer into different territory, away from the effective simplicity of the originals with mutations rising to the fore, all the while echoing 90′s Romanek/Reznor and involuntary quivers of the Brothers Quay.

Special Optical Effects, Peter Kuran discusses the title effect from John Carpenter’s “The Thing: Terror Takes Shape”:

“When I did the effect for the title I used…a fish tank that was about four feet wide by two feet high. I put smoke in the fish tank and on the back of the tank I put the title that was drawn on an animation cel and behind that I had a piece of plastic garbage bag which I stretched over a frame and behind that I had a light pointing through the letters. When I photographed it, I put a flame from a match to the plastic. The plastic would open up and let the light through the letters. That is how the letters look like they form and burn on with the [light] rays. It was a simple process but we went through a lot of takes; one take only formed the letters “N.G.”

NOTE: On a film set, the mark of “N.G.” or “N.F.G.” is taped to any equipment that does not work. No good.

Art of the Title: Please discuss your inspiration for this piece on an immersive and influential level. What stirred your soul to go this dark with the material?

Krystian Morgan: When I saw the title sequence for Se7en for the first time, my mind really was opened to how perfect imperfections could be. Up to that point i was so used the the same after same ‘perfect’ white titles on the opening footage, that seeing this raw, and wrong looking type showing up on screen was just mesmerizing and more than that was that it had reason to be. I also remember at that time really being excited about the style of the opening and closing animation of the 2008 Onesize reel. I am inspired by the thought processes that goes into the work of others. The titles for Dexter for example. I’m a big fan of substance over style.

I tended to trade between dark projects and lighter projects in university. I relate with the darker material a lot more, that side of films; humanity, morality even. I’ve always been fascinated with the power that film and video can have over a person, that people can be taken to places. With that in mind I wanted people to be unsettled by this piece, to want to look away.

ATS: The beat in the action at the beginning is invasive and the text penetrates and issues forth. Tell us about how you went into animating the type, conceptually, from start to finish.

KM: For me the text is the representation of ‘The Thing’ itself. I wanted the text to encapsulate the essence of what the ‘The Thing’ is and what it does, in a subconscious way. We know that the creature is made up from all the different forms of life that it has come in contact with, so the text had to have that same mutt characteristic. It’s oddly shaped, it’s made up from different font styles and sizes, it latches on, it changes and morphs. It’s relentless, when it fades away into the background it finds a way back in a different form (the next name). I wanted it to feel organic, alive and unpredictable in movement.

ATS: It is interesting you did not attempt to match the look of the film but managed to get the feel of it.

KM: It’s always quite a touchy subject talking about updating something that is so recognizable and loved passionately by so many. John Carpenter’s remake was warranted and worked because he felt he had something to show that the original Howard Hawks film didn’t. But I found it strange that whilst he updated the monster and the film that the titles are almost identical to the original. I like both titles, but personally think the original Hawk’s titles are superior from a visual stand point and the Carpenter’s titles are better in the sound department.

Howard Hawk’s The Thing From Another World (Click to Watch QuickTime)

The prospect of getting a fish tank and filming the burning of the titles practically, was exciting, but I wanted to explore some different ideas, some of which meant taking certain liberties by means of a different perspective and not being destructive to the film by trying to either repeat or one-up it.

My concept was to both show the creature and not show the creature. I wanted ambiguous shots. The way I see my title sequence is a precursor to the film; what actually happened to the Norwegians? It was important that I used real footage as I wanted even the thought of such textures near you, on your skin to be excruciating.

ATS: The hand is a very effective cap to the sequence. Did budget constraints fuel creativity?

KM: I had pretty much zero budget on this sequence, I think I ended up spending less than 20 GBP’s on the entire video. I used a combination of a borrowed HDV camera with my trusty mini dv and point and click camera to capture all the footage, and worked almost only in After Effects.

I felt the end needed some reality something that a viewer could identify which would transfer us from the sequence to the film itself. It was suggested to me to watch Jacob’s Ladder its use of suggestion has the viewer questioning if what we saw actually happened. The idea being that the hand is instantly recognizable as human, but the movement suggests otherwise. This is one of the areas of the sequence that I would have liked to have taken further, I believe I could have found something more there.

ATS: You mentioned you believe your stills are stronger than the video itself. If you step through a sequence shouldn’t every frame seduce the eye?

KM: When I said that I think I was far to close to the video, it was my life for a while and the way it turned out wasn’t exactly as I pictured it beforehand. I’m now looking at it for what it is and not what it was set out to be. I don’t think every frame of a sequence needs to seduce the eye, I think that could be a limiting idea. Like films the in-between shots can be used to make the ‘key’ frames or key plot points more resonant and I think if you skip frame by frame through most films or title sequences you will pick out high points from the low points. Of course this is not always the case. The titles for ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ is so saturated with imagery and design that any frame is as good as the last.

When I made the title sequence I was still very much trying to find myself, I still am, but it’s a lot clearer now. I experimented with a different workflow and structure…[it] is hard to [address what] didn’t work because to this point it’s a video that’s taken me farther than most of my others and I’ve had a lot of great feedback; something I was initially scared of, I was worried I’d be savaged by the film’s fans for trying to tamper with something that’s important to them, but this has not been the case. But I have to say I probably wont use the same approach again.

I haven’t yet been able to fully translate what is in my head but I’m still learning everyday and trying to improve, more so now than ever since leaving university and now doing it every day as an occupation.

ATS: Why did you make this? What were the requirements (self-imposed and instructed)?

KM: It was my third and final year at university and I was feeling a bit disappointed in myself that I hadn’t worked nearly as hard as I could have in prior projects. This particular project was open so I got to decide what I wanted to do. I really enjoyed doing a title sequence in year one and title sequences are definitely the thing I like most about motion graphics and design in general. I knew I wanted to go dark, and I wanted something “virusy.” My tutor Chris and I were discussing possible ideas, namely thinking of a Cronenberg type of movie. Later on I posted on Twitter asking for suggestions for movies based on my ideas for the video and someone [Rupert] suggested, “The Thing.” He told me that he had stayed with Dean Cundey, the Director of Photography of “The Thing” and got a chance to see a lot of the props from the movie. So the next day I told Chris about the prospect of doing “The Thing” and he thought it was a perfect choice. It worried me a little as the original title sequence was shown to us in year one in a compilation of brilliant examples of title sequences, he also told me that he expected a lot from me on this project as he too was a fan of the film and wanted me to do it justice.

John Carpenter’s The Thing opening titles (Click to Watch QuickTime)

I’m ashamed to say that up to that point I had not seen the film, so I bought a double dvd of both the Hawks’ and the Carpenter’s versions and watched in awe. The John Carpenter film seemed like home, like I’ve seen it a hundred times before, like “Jaws” or “The Shawshank Redemption.” Once I came up with the concept of where I wanted to take the title sequence I couldn’t think of anything else.

ATS: How do you view the idea of collaboration after going through this process?

KM: Now, great!

I’ve always been a solitary designer, I come from a small village in Wales and have trouble relating with a lot of people as my interests are so different to what is considered normal there, so I’ve always felt by myself in that sense and even when there were more like-minded people in university I always took my work home and brought it in when it was due. “The Thing” to me is a movie primarily about isolation, you could watch it with the mindset that there is no creature and everyone’s suspicions [fueled] the killing and it would still work.

Up to that point “The Thing” sequence is ironically the most collaboration I had done on a project, in the sense that I listened to someone else’s suggestion and feedback. When I’m solely working on a video, I have a tendency to get tunnel vision so an outsiders perspective is really valuable.

Going from university to working in the creative industry has been a shock; I’ve been able to progress and progress because of collaborative [environments]. If I start being unhappy with an aspect of work or life, I’ll change and am not afraid to be ambitious in the future and follow the dreams I had as a kid. Teamwork is a great thing, but working alone can have benefits too, if you’ve ever heard the saying, “A camel is a horse designed by society,” that can sometimes be the case. I think I’m a better decision maker and idea generator than a designer at the moment, but I’m having fun working on the latter…I’m currently developing a feature film which I’m going to produce over the next four years.

The Thing (1982)
Visual Effects Designed by: Visual Concept Engineering, Peter Kuran
Miniature Supervisor: Susan K. Turner
Animators: Katherine Kean, Keith Tucker
Opticals: RGB Optical, James Hagedorn, George Lockwood

USA | 1982 | Color | 2.20:1 | English/Norwegian

The Thing From Another World (1951)

USA | 1951 | Black and White | 1.37:1 | English