Terry Gilliam: “One great thing about Python is we used to always play around with titles and text. Since there was nobody to stop us we just had fun. The first time we showed this to an audience they just couldn’t believe the world could be turned upside down…normally we watched films with people speaking Swedish with English titles but [not us], we did it backwards.

This is as cheap as you can get when it comes to titles. When maintaining a very low production standard you can get away with murder. It’s always dangerous when you try to make good, proper films where you just cannot do these kind of jokes.”

Terry Jones: “It’s very dangerous to look for significance in Python’s stuff; it just seemed like a silly idea to us. We realized we needed mock-heroic music but at that stage we couldn’t afford to record more music [for the titles] so the only thing I could do was go to a music library, DeWolfe in London and I spent weeks sorting out bits of music.”

John Cleese: “No one had ever mentioned to me about these hilarious credits that Michael Palin had written so I sat down expecting to see a perfectly normal set of credits at the front of the movie and there was all this wonderful Nordic stuff about moose.

We first screened this at the Cannes Film Festival. These subtitles got huge laughs and right at the end of [the sequence] the film stopped and everyone laughed and applauded. Then these men in French fireman uniforms with gold helmets came racing in and stopped the film and we had to go outside. It was a bomb scare. And everybody thought it was part of the film. It was perfectly timed because it was just after the credits so it didn’t interrupt anything. That was a good start.”

“SHORT FILMS 1 showcases…filmmakers and 30 of their ideas. Intriguing, hilarious, weird, thoughtful ideas made all the more awesome by the series of headaches, excuses, glitches, hurdles, burning hoops and absolute impossibilities that once stood in their way.”

“For this opening title sequence, we decided to use a literal element from the show to reflect one of its strong underlying themes…things aren’t always the way they seem and rarely go as planned. The series, Météo+, is a French, comedic drama about a staff of eccentric characters operating an independent weather network.

And stylistically, we wanted to keep the feel pretty organic and not use a lot of effecting or compositing. The graphic device of the floating forecasts seemed to be a great subtle touch – both clean and slick at the same time.”

Art of the Title: How did you become involved with the project?

Nirvan Mullick: The title sequence was produced by The Picture Mill. Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda, More) was scheduled to direct the sequence, but then had a scheduling conflict. Mark was my teacher at CalArts, and for some reason called me up and asked if I wanted to take over the job. Being fresh out of school and terrified, I said no, but Mark talked me into it. So this ended up being my first commercial directing job. Mark helped me estimate a budget as I had no idea how much to charge. I met with the producers, bluffed my way through a meeting, and then was off to the races.

ATS: With the opening sequence you dove headlong into the small madness of angry, oppressed rats – what was your approach to directing this?

NM: The idea was to move through Willard’s basement as if it was the character’s mind, treating the physical space as a metaphor for his mental decay. I wanted things be a little off at first, and then unravel into madness as we introduce more animated elements. We only had 2 weeks to built all the sets, puppets, and shoot the sequence, so the challenge was to find a way to create that feeling within the production limits.

ATS: This sequence holds a dense diversity of process including montage, live action, collage, stop motion, clay and more. How does this diversity reveal itself to you?

NM: Gradually. The sequence starts in a seemingly real space, and then slowly moves into abstraction, finally ending in the black of a rat eye as the opening shot of the movie begins. Gravity defying water drips up from rusty pipes as the camera reaches the main title card. We then continue into an air vent- as the grate disintegrates, we let loose and begin introducing many different elements. The camera continues to move through the walls, into the drywall, the insulation, and the electrical wiring, and the inbetween spaces. The feeling of rats is everywhere, an infestation. It builds toward a breaking point.

Incorporating so many techniques was a challenge, but I had a great crew that helped pull this off in a very short time. A great idea came from Rick Orner, who suggested incorporating elements of Crispin Glover’s book Rat Catching into the sequence. We called Crispin’s mom (the book’s publisher) to get permission, and got word back that Crispin thought it was a cool idea. Kathleen Lolley then made some great wall paper textures from the art in the book that were peeled layer-by-layer. The red spine of the book can also be seen in the shot with the zombie rat skeleton. This was actually a real rat skeleton made from a dead rat my friend Jonathan Silsby found downtown; he inserted small aluminum wires into the bones to make it a functional puppet for stop motion. We only had time to use stop motion sparingly, but we tried to use it in ways that amplified the creepy texture and emotional tone of the story.

ATS: To what degree is your approach to the work clinical and at what point does it become emotional?

NM: The clinical side revolves around technical details, budget, and meeting deadlines. But we were all emotionally engaged with the ideas. My whole crew was excited to be bringing stop motion to the big screen, and everyone brought a lot of themselves to the project. We were only involved in creating the stop motion and live-action elements- all of the post and compositing was later handled by separate team, so we had to distance ourselves from the final piece, which was a bit frustrating. The post ended up being delayed, and then the final compositing and editing was rushed, and we later found out that we were given the wrong aspect ratio to shoot in, so a lot of our work got cropped out. It’s cool people still like the sequence, but I remember feeling a bit disappointed by the final piece, because I know it could have been better. That probably speaks to whatever emotional attachment I had. I think stop motion animators tend to invest themselves into every frame.

ATS: In your opinion, how important is music and sound design for a sequence like this?

NM: Extremely. In this case, the music was done first. I listened to the music before storyboarding and fleshing out the sequence. The music set the tone and the timing for the animation and the piece as a whole.

ATS: How does connectivity effect art?

NM: I believe people make unique connections based on their own perspective and experience. Everything is inherently connected, but Art succeeds for me when ideas are put together in interesting and unexpected ways.

ATS: What is your take on the Surrealists and other influences on your art?

NM: When I first stumbled into experimental animation, Jan Svankmajer was a huge revelation. Surrealism and stop motion are a great fit. There is a great mix between the real and the unreal in stop motion. I’m also a big fan of Yuri Norstein, Egon Schiele, Henry Selick, Michel Gondry, and the work of micro-miniaturists like Hagop Sandalgean and Nikolai Sydristy.

ATS: Are there any new artists whose work has surprised you?

NM: I’m stunned by the artists at CERN who conceived and built the Large Hadron Collider. I know it’s a physics project, but I think it’s the best collaborative experimental work of art ever. Ron Mueck and Arthur Ganson also blow me away. Street artist Blu has been doing some really cool pieces, and Jeff Lieberman’s Absolut Quartet piece is brilliant- you can find it on YouTube. In general, I’m digging art that is playing with scale, exploring new media, pushing limits, and engaging audiences in new ways.

ATS: What are you working on now?

NM: The 1 Second Film project- a non-profit collaborative movie being produced by Stephen Colbert, Kevin Bacon, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, and over 11,000 participants from 66 Countries. I’ve been working on it for the past 8 years, and probably have another 2 more years before it’s done.

“We did the sequence together with art director Marina Grandi and project manager Monica Masciocchi from FBF (Frame by Frame Italy).

It took about 6 weeks to finish. The lead artist, Alexandras Polevojus, who also did the Boris 2 sequence, is one of the pioneers of 3D compositing in the Baltic States and one of a handful of pioneers of motion graphics after the Soviet Union collapse.”

“Boris was a very popular TV series in Italy after its first season. When the producers decided to make a second season, Piero, a project manager from Fox Channels Italy and Juan Pablo, the art director, invited CREATOR to test how we would imagine the actors underwater. The series takes place in a film studio, and the director always asks for advice from his best friend BORIS the fish. Fox liked what they saw and we got the job. It was impossible to schedule a shoot with all the actors together so they were shot against green screen. Keying the actors took some time. After we got the footage it took about 6 weeks to reach the final result. We just won the silver at Promax|BDA in New York.”

“No sueltes la soga que me ata a tu alma.” (Don’t loosen the noose that ties me to your soul.)

In huddled flight a flicker-inducing moth hotly flits between the filament and Vincent Gallo’s gaze. The spatial elegance of Stephen Faustina’s title design for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro” is to the eyes what wine is to the blood.

Seeding light fractals arrange the type. “Wind sweeps the road, you can not go back.”

Going home will never be the same again.

Art of the Title: How did you first become involved with Tetro?

Stephen Faustina: I have had the honor and privilege to work for Mr. Coppola as a senior graphic designer through his company, Francis Ford Coppola Presents for five years now.

To me Mr. Coppola reminds me of a colorful painting of a Hindu deity with 6 hands, and each hand is holding something delightfully different. I say this because as a designer I am fortunate to design for so many of Mr. Coppola’s different interests and passions such as his resorts, wineries, food products, Zoetrope ALL-Story magazine and now his film.

I first became involved with TETRO when I received an email from Mr. Coppola that informed me I would receive the credit list and the rough footage for the opening credits. He wanted to see what I could do with them. Suddenly I had to switch gears from wine label design to movie titles…things rapidly progressed from here.

ATS: Describe the development process of the sequence.

SF: Well when I first started to work with the title sequence, the sequence had no sound and the final title sequence time had not yet been determined. A little/BIG side note; this was my first time designing title sequences or anything dealing with film/video, so I really did not know where to start or what software I should use. I’ve never used After Effects or Final Cut Pro and did not have time to teach myself these programs; however a program I did know is Photoshop. I quickly started to utilize Photoshop CS3 video capabilities (I was really impressed with it). This allowed me the freedom to begin showing Mr. Coppola a variety of different title sequences. I was relieved to know I did not need to execute the final polished title sequence; I just needed to develop a direction that appealed to Mr. Coppola.

The two visual components that made a profound impact on me creatively for the development of the opening titles was when the character Tetro (played by Vincent Gallo) stares contemplatively at the light bulb/moths and the shots of the blurred light cells. These images acted as my guide to determine what font and size to use for the titles. It is through the study of the light cells and the moths’ relationship to the light bulb was how the letters TETRO, with the wavering R found its form.

Roman Coppola shot the blurred light cell sequences for the opening and closing titles. I had many ideas, the best solution I thought was for the titles to have them interact and at times mimic the light cells Roman shot, while playing off the angle and the light fractals. I wanted to still have the sequence look relatively clean and elegant. Most of my favorite sequences are movies from the 1970s with simple type treatments that interacts with the sequence frames to form a beautiful composition. I really liked watching Sisters and The Changeling open credits, which you have on your site.

The font I selected was Sabon. Designed by typography master Jan Tschichold, Sabon has a classic appeal, which flowed nicely with the titles and accompanied the music.

ATS: You mentioned working together (I assume with Mr. Coppola), so detail that for us.

SF: I am fortunate because I not only worked with Mr. Coppola, I also had guidance from Walter Murch the legendary film editor. I did meet with Mr. Coppola a few times in person to discuss the project but the majority of the communication was via email. I would send Mr. Coppola my different design solutions for the titles and he would then tell me what he thought worked and what did not and then provided me with his vision and direction. Mr. Murch was also wonderful with directing me on which cards to hold longer and with the timing.

After the opening and closing titles were almost approved, I was vacationing in Amsterdam and ended up going over to Prague to work with the visual effects company, Universal Production Partners. We were able to execute the things I could not achieve technically and to polish it up. I literally sat in a room for two days with one of UPP’s Flame masters, Vincent Badia. It was great to be able to communicate and see executed all the little fine detail I was not able to technically apply myself to the title sequence. UPP also did the visual effects for Mr. Coppola’s last film YOUTH WITH OUT YOUTH.

ATS: Was there anything that took you by surprise when working on this sequence?

SF: Working on this project reminded me of collaborations I have done in the past with various artists. When I had more time on my hands to make art, my artist friends would mail me a painting or collage and then leave space for me to paint on it resulting in a wonderful collaborative piece. The spirit of collaborating with past artist seeped into the approach I took with creating the title sequence for TETRO. I felt like I was laying type on a visual moving canvas.

I was surprised too how I never grew tired of working on or hearing the music of the title sequence of TETRO. Osvaldo Golijov composed the dynamic score for TETRO.

In the end I am grateful for the opportunity to be apart of the beautiful independent film, TETRO.

I. Pre-Production

Art of the Title: How did the trailer come from the book, “The World of Yuki 7″?

Kevin Dart: I had been thinking about doing a fake movie trailer for about four years. I was talking to someone about the fake movie posters I do and we discussed cutting out the different elements [of the posters] and animating them in After Effects, and it seemed like we could create an amazing looking animation fairly easily. I thought for a long time about situations where I would be able to apply that idea. I thought it would be a neat piece to expand the story. I wasn’t thinking in terms of promotion. I was thinking I wanted to create this really believable package and the trailer would enhance that.

ATS: Conceptually, was the trailer put on hold as you started to develop the book?

Kevin Dart: The book and the trailer were developed simultaneously. I had worked with Stephane on a project in London and the “Kid Cole & Klay” piece before that. The first work of his that I saw was a title card for Kid Cole & Klay using a painting I had done of a harbor. I was blown away and immediately wondered what else can this guy do? I remember thinking he was a phenomenal talent. So for the trailer I thought, ‘if this character was being introduced to audiences in the 1960′s then what would be the most eye-catching way to do that?’ I then started thumbnailing ideas for the trailer as I was figuring out the book.

ATS: Stephane, take us through the first discussions with Kevin, what attracted you to the project?

Stephane Coedel: I worked with Kevin before on “Kid Cole & Klay” and “BBC Olympics” with Pete Candeland, and I was already a big fan of his work. I think we both really enjoyed the experience. So Kevin asked me, at the end of last summer if I’d like to do an animated trailer for him, he didn’t tell me all the details (that it was to advertise his new book). At first he said it was an experiment, like a kind of pilot. He wasn’t sure of its purpose (at least that’s what he said).

When he explained the concept, he flipped the right switch: a trailer for a James Bond-like movie, released in 1964. I didn’t need any more to say yes. My brain was already on high speed because I could see all the little things I always wanted to do in animation but never had the opportunity to include in my previous work. Kevin was giving me the perfect playground!

ATS: Cyrille, how did you become involved?

Cyrille Marchesseau: I’ve known Stephane for a long time now, we worked together on projects in France before he set up in London. I appreciate his work, he is a very talented guy and a good friend of mine.

When he told me about the job, I wasn’t aware of Kevin’s work so he showed me “The Amazing Adventures of Kid Cole & Klay” and the work on his website. I was very impressed by his talent. He has a very personal way of designing. It is unquestionably ‘Art’! Beautiful illustrations, amazing drawings…

Stephane and I are both fans of vintage TV shows like “The Avengers,” “The Twilight Zone” and “The Prisoner,” so when he gave me the storyboard with a few of songs (for reference) my job became easier. I’ve always been interested by that music.

ATS: What films did you research?

Kevin Dart: When I began the project I started watching a lot of spy movies and researching them online. The early James Bond movies, especially “Thunderball” and “You Only Live Twice.” I know I sent the trailer of “Thunderball” to Steph quite a few times. It had a wipe I really liked as well as the way the characters were introduced, especially the women where they’d be framed ‘pretty’ but not doing much as their name would wipe across the bottom of the frame.

And there is a great European spy film called “Deadlier Than The Male.” So I was watching these movies and studying the compositions, especially “Danger: Diabolik” which has these amazingly composed scenes. I thought about what would capture the essence of the 60′s spy genre before thinking about the flow of the trailer. I thought the scene where Yuki is driving her car against the rear projection screen could be iconic. I wanted to do a close up of her eyes; there is something about that that came across as really pulpy. At the time these were random scenes. It wasn’t until later that I had to figure out how to string them together.

ATS: So there were key elements throughout the genre that you wanted to highlight in the trailer?

Kevin Dart: Exactly, and once I had those images in my head I started to get a good grasp on what the first movie, “A Kiss From Tokyo” was about. I started to understand how I could repurpose these already-established images [from my faux film posters] to fit the storyline.

ATS: You mentioned you did initial thumbnails. How did you flesh those out?

Kevin Dart: I did a few rounds of sketches on paper, then painted these really quick black and white thumbnails on the computer so that Steph would have something to time out into an animatic, but there were a lot of problems. I didn’t have the character designs and I hadn’t finalized the story lines! I realized there were a lot of issues with how it was flowing and how it was reading but after I had the animatic I began to have a better handle on who the characters were and did a major revision to match the trailer to the direction of the book.

II. Production

ATS: What was the process once you’d received the first materials from Kevin?

Stephane Coedel: He sent me a b&w rough storyboard. It was the very early stage, the title wasn’t yet “A Kiss From Tokyo” but “The Secret Agent Girl of Danger Cove” and Yuki 7 was named Yuriko. I first did a rough edit of the stills on a temp soundtrack to have an idea of the length and the rhythm of the whole trailer. I then did a rough animation test on the three opening shots of the trailer to show Kevin how I was going to treat the picture, and to see if we were on the same page about the overall feeling we wanted to give to the audience. He was really happy with it and then he produced a colored and layered version of the board with a slightly different cut and a new title and the finalized name of our secret agent girl. And then I started the big work.

ATS: Kevin, you’re in Los Angeles, Steph is in London and Cyrille is in Paris. How did you organize your collaboration?

Kevin Dart: It was done entirely with email. The process went smoothly because Steph and I had worked together before. After I had the animatic I could start painting the artwork for the different scenes. I would send those to Steph as I completed them and he would send me back finished animated scenes.

ATS: At what stage was the music brought in? Did you begin with a temp piece?

Stephane Coedel: The music is always the first thing I think about when I start a new job. Right after our first discussion I sent Kevin one track I took out of a 60’s music compilation (“09 La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanott” from Gianni Ferrio, from the album “Easy Tempo Vol.1”) as a reference, it was a bit too punchy and modern but it had the right vibe, then I dug into my vintage music collection and found quite quickly the right reference composer for the trailer: Laurie Johnson. He’s responsible for one of the most famous and cult British TV series soundtrack, “The Avengers.” I couldn’t avoid John Barry as an inspiration but Laurie has this dry and rough feeling in his sound I was looking for. Like a less sophisticated mix which makes us feel closer to the (big band) orchestra, more intimate.

So I came up with a temporary mix of two tracks from “The Avengers” and edited the board on it. Then I called Cyrille Marchesseau and briefed him about the concept and sent him the video with the ref music. He was very enthusiastic about it. I told him he was free to come up with anything but had to respect the timing and rhythm of the reference as the edit was depending on the music.

ATS: How did the music develop?

Cyrille Marchesseau: I don’t really have my own method to composing but it often begins on the piano. Since jazz is my language, I improvised for many hours, working on the main title theme and many arrangement ideas. I was tempted to make a big blockbuster “Hollywood” orchestra arrangement but Stephane told me: “You are in the sixties, in a dusty studio in London.” Thanks to him, I decided to write the score for a smaller orchestra. In the end I recorded all the instruments myself using a soundbank, but I didn’t use any samples or programming. It’s a multilayered recording approach, meaning each instrument is recorded live, one by one and there’s no programming involved. The main setup I had was a computer as well as an old revox tape recorder, so when the track is recorded you can’t change it, you have to record it again. Even though it’s a longer process it’s much more realistic than what a computer could produce.

Cyrille Marchesseau – Miss Yuki

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The storyboard was very precise, and the shooting script too, so I emphasized the scene changes, first with a simple organ chord, then using the vibes, piano, and eventually the whole orchestra. It was a lot of fun to rearrange the ending four notes of the James Bond theme on the “martini” close-up at 00:00:58! We wanted the music changes to be more like glimpses of the movie and not trailer-centric, so there are five themes in one minute and forty five seconds!

ATS: How did you arrive at the beautiful finished piece?

Cyrille Marchesseau: For the final mix, I made a downmix to mono, added some vinyl noise and scratches, played with the pitch and made some little tempo variations to have a “floating” feeling. Stephane wanted it to be much more dirty, so I destroyed the mix, changed the EQ and reduced to a really short bandwidth. You should hear the music before the distorting process!

Cyrille Marchesseau – Where is Yuki?

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Some of my influences were Laurie Johnson, John Barry, Henri Mancini and Lalo Shiffrin. My work here was a tribute to those brilliant composers and many others, even if done subconsciously. The trailer is an homage in a way -and not only in the music. It’s wonderful to show how creative and attractive that period was. It is such a part of our collective knowledge. I hope the audience enjoys it!

ATS: How was the final artwork prepared? In your blog, Kevin, you discuss putting things on different layers; how much was layered, eg., separating your background from your foreground and your characters?

Kevin Dart: What I’ve learned in working on these productions with Steph is that my job is to give him a bunch of things to play with in After Effects. Whenever I make a scene I try to keep everything separated so that he can take any piece from the scene and do whatever he wants with it. Using Photoshop I painted as many layers as I could. Having the animatic allowed me to plow through.

ATS: Stephane, can you breakdown the production process for us, starting with the file that Kevin sends you and ending with the final output.

Stephane Coedel: I asked Kevin to produce layered versions of his illustrations slightly larger than what would appear in the frame, usually the character has a specific pose and so I’d cut his body into pieces (hand, forearm, neck, calves, feet, etc…) and draw the hidden parts of the body which might become visible when animated. The same goes for the background, sometimes I’d have to create more layers than what Kevin provided, to create parallax effects or accentuate the refocusing effect.

I didn’t use a 3D camera for this. I tried to fake the 3D feeling as much as I could, because I didn’t think it was appropriate for this project; most scenes are very classically composed, it’s either front view or profile, like old time movies. After I animated the scenes, I’d play with the focusing. For some scenes I’d have to create a Z Depth* in Photoshop in order to be able to refocus during the scene. Then I added the lights, light beams, mist, and lens flares to create an atmospheric depth and produce a stronger “shot in studio” feeling.

To finish, on top of everything, I put a grading layer to give the colors an old film tone. Then the film grain and the dusts and scratches. I never use the generic After Effects filters for film damage or grain, it’s too noticeable, so I usually customize it and apply it as a footage layer in overlay and set the levels the way I want. The same goes for the dirt layer. That was an SD sequence already shot that I retouched it to make an HD version.

*Z Depth is a b&w picture which is used as a reference to create some depth effects like defocusing, or misty environment. The darker the value, the farther from camera it’s supposed to be.

ATS: How did you replicate the in-camera and post “imperfections” of the 70′s (60′s) spy-era films?

Stephane Coedel: I’m obsessed by imperfection, I like when there are little mistakes and aberrations in a film. It makes it warmer cause you can feel the people behind the magic. When I was a kid, all the movies were on film, everybody was used to the picture becoming greenish, slightly distorted by the tape one frame before and after a cut. Most special effects were hand made using either a lens trick, a chemical reaction on the film itself, on set pyrotechnics or miniature sets.

For this project, I only used my memories. I often do that cause it helps me to not limit myself. If I look at some archive footage and try to imitate the imperfections I see, it’ll only be a basic copy. If I use my memory of this imperfection I saw long ago, my imagination and my background might have slightly modified and amplified some part of it, giving it more impact and personality. For example, the not perfect blurry wipe at 00.57 is a thing I remember I’ve seen in The Avengers TV series. The explosion shot is inspired by Jerry Anderson’s TV shows, and the car chase scene is something I saw so many times when I was a kid that I didn’t feel the need to look at old movies to reproduce it.

I created one first animation for the background putting the sun in the frame so it would create a lens flare. As the background is supposed to be projected on a screen behind the character in a studio with lights focused on Yuki, I assumed the background picture would be less contrasted and would have a vignette due to the projector itself. And I presume that it was hard for the technicians to avoid having any drop shadow of the foreground elements on the screen, so you can see at the bottom of the picture, on each side of the car the drop shadow of its front window’s frame. And Also, the light direction is totally wrong as the sun is in Yuki’s back but she’s lit from the front. It’s typical of those old school scenes.

III. Post-Production

ATS: While collaborating, did Steph ever ask for something different that what you had already provided?

Kevin Dart: After we started doing the final scenes I recall Steph writing me about a building that was exploding in the background and asked me why I hadn’t put that in the final scene so we did wind up including that. There are some scene that I believe he switched around so they would flow better. There were times were Steph would ask for extra elements. All his ideas really enhanced where the trailer was going.

ATS: Was there much back and forth between the two of you?

Stephane Coedel: Actually not that much, Kevin was busy producing artworks for his book and I was also working on some other projects at the same time. I was using my free time working on the trailer. I would keep Kevin updated with small videos of the latest scenes I did and, quite often he was happy with it, sometimes he would suggest some clever changes or I would ask him to produce a new elements which I thought would help to tell the story. I have to say, this was one of the smoothest collaboration I’ve had.

ATS: The trailer seems to have become a really good marketing tool for the book even though it wasn’t initially envisioned this way.

Kevin Dart: We wanted to include a companion piece DVD to include with the book. But that didn’t happen for a few reasons. I didn’t realize how expensive it is to make DVDs. Also, once the trailer was finished I showed it to a few friends and became obvious that this was something we had to put out there for people to see. We were confused as to what we would do with the trailer up until the point that we released it. I didn’t expect the response it got but was super excited by it all.

ATS: When was the trailer finished?

Kevin Dart: Pretty much the same time as we were finishing up the book which was early March this year. Originally the trailer delivery was to coincide with the DVD. We ended up not doing that but it was amazing seeing the trailer and one of the hardest things was not showing it to people. I had a feeling that people were really going to like it and we kinda had to just sit on it for 3 or 4 months until the time was right to show it off.

ATS: How do you keep your focus?

Kevin Dart: Keeping focus is always a struggle. We didn’t have much money to make this trailer but both Steph and I were really passionate about this so it wasn’t hard to carve out time to work on this. I believe he had to work on this on nights and weekends.

With the Yuki stuff, it was a project with passion, I never had any problems motivating myself to keep going with it, which is kind of a new experience for me because most personal projects I work on kinda fizzle after a few month but this one, for whatever reason, kept going.

Stephane Coedel: It depends of the job, sometimes it can be hard to keep a clear vision of where you wanna go, but here, it was obvious from the start. I had everything in my head already, all those references I’ve had for so long were just waiting to be digested and used. It was like going home in a way, I didn’t have to think, I knew already how I would proceed for each scene, what filters I would use and what it would look like at the end.

ATS: Where do you want to take the character? You’ve done the book, which details the world. You’ve done the trailer detailing one of the films from that world. Where else do you see this going?

Kevin Dart: I’m kind of hoping the character takes on a life of its own with people picking it up and talking about it. More books, a graphic novel perhaps. I’d like to involve more people with the project to help expand the universe. I’m hoping to pitch it around to studios as a feature idea or something along those lines.

ATS: Are you suggesting something more open sourced?

Kevin Dart: That’s been one of the most fascinating things about this project. I was always very attached to the character but never so attached that I wouldn’t let others input their ideas. Through every step, when I contacted different artists to contribute to the book they would ask “What can I do with this character? Is it okay to do this?” I didn’t have any rules because I was interested to see what they would do. To me, this is a kind of big playground that is open to all these different ideas.

And it was the same with Steph. I didn’t really have notes for him on the stuff he was doing because I saw it as something he would inject his own vision into. I never worried that Stephan would come back with something that was not in line with what I was trying to do. It was amazing to me to see how it all came together.

ATS: What inspired you on this project?

Kevin Dart: I think a lot of it was the collaborative aspect of it, seeing the stuff my friends did for it and seeing how excited they got about it, kept me excited the whole time. There were a lot times I got pretty bummed out about how it was going but then something would always happen, like one of my friends would send me a piece of artwork that they’d done and it would get me excited all over again. I’d say that my friends inspire me more than anything.

As far as looking back at what makes me do what I do, it’s a lot of great movie poster illustrators, especially Bob Peak and Robert McGiness. I think there was a time in the 50s and 60s where illustration reached…I don’t want to say it peaked because that’s kind of depressing, but it was age for illustration where people were experimenting and doing things you just don’t see anymore. It’s kind of sad when you see movie posters nowadays and you compare them to the illustrated movie posters they used to do. None of the new posters really capture the scale and the sense of adventure that the older posters were able to do.

ATS: So what’s next for you?

Kevin Dart: The first two or three months of this year I wasn’t really taking any freelance work because I was so focused on finishing this book and the trailer. The day we sent the pdf to the printer I had to start on a new freelance job since I’d been putting this stuff off. Right now I’m working with Pete Candeland again on a new commercial at Passion, and I think Stef’s going to be working on it to.

Stephane Coedel: I finished a new opening title for a pilot created by Charlie Bean for Cartoon Network and I’m working as a compositor on a short film directed by Chris Garbutt also for Cartoon Network. I plan to start working on my first short in September.

Art of the Title: How did you become involved with the production?

Matteo Manzini: This is our third title sequence for Stephen Frears. Our working relationship with him began on ‘Mrs Henderson Presents’ – a two and half minute piece of traditional animation. Our previous project with Stephen was ‘The Queen’ and ‘Chéri’ began in much the same way, with an elaborate creative treatment progressively being trimmed back to an elegant series of still text cards. However, months later and after initial feedback on earlier edits, Stephen asked us to explore an opening piece that would introduce his leading character (Léa de Lonval, played by Michelle Pfieffer) to the audience, in a visual history of the Belle Époque (a decadent era in France 1890-1914), ensuring that we match in texture, tone and colour, the footage to follow.

ATS: What was the time frame?

MM: Initial discussions were in April 2008. Production began on the sequence as you see it, September 2008 and delivery of final sequence was January 2009. There were breaks for various editorial approval and screen tests in-between.

ATS: How did you develop the various artistic styles?

MM: Every step of the title sequence was created and thought out by us, in FO. We were given a voice over to follow and the rest is our concept, design and execution. Additionally, Alan MacDonald (Production Designer for the film) provided support for some of the artwork and helped us to keep in continuity with the style of the film.

One linking element is a background pattern in the sequence that also appears within Léa’s apartment as a wall-paper; we designed all the wall paper patterns, save two. We were provided many old picture frames collected at markets, along with hand written notes and stamps. The newspaper was scanned in off an actual broadsheet, with some slight editorial changes and additional pictures.

ATS: Are the photographs originals?

MM: Yes. Despite many of the photographs being of the early 1900’s permission had to be researched and granted before we were allowed to include them in our sequence. Inevitable late changes were made when agreements could not be reached between the ‘Cheri’ production office and the owners. However, when it came to a particular shot of the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, the very best image we could find (both in quality and resolution) was on someone’s flickr page. Thus it came to be that a certain Rich Ford earned a credit at the end of the feature by generously allowing us to use an image he took while on a trip. The image is still on his page to see.

ATS: How was the sequence put together?

MM: The photo frame cards had to be created, pulling in the separate layers within Photoshop along with some aging of certain images. Background patterns were designed in-house except for two handed us from production (seen as a wallpaper in Léa’s apartment) and smoke elements which are a combination of footage alongside Maya particle effects. All elements were imported into Adobe After Effects, animated and several cameras were seamlessly linked to give the impression of one continuous move.

ATS: What was the most difficult aspect of this piece?

MM: We had to create an opening sequence that would introduce, as well as blend organically with the film. The challenge was to avoid a sort of BBC documentary approach with a long carousel of boring pictures. The most difficult thing was to tell the story in an exciting and visually strong manner. We only had a bunch of pictures to work with…nothing else. It was very difficult to bring the piece to a dynamic level yet keeping it as an intro for people that know nothing about the Belle Époque.

One of the biggest challenges was the integration of the known face of Michelle Pfieffer with old images of the period. Careful work had to be done to make them convincing, and often we were only able to use her head or profile. Matching the right Michelle headshot with the correct image of the period, was never easy. All initial pictures, headshots and image combinations had to be cleared by Michelle before fine-tuning and final integration into the sequence. We had to change the lay out weekly due to the availability of some images. The editorial process was very long and kept the project on standby for a time.

ATS: Tell us how the decision was made to not include credits? What was the discussion?

MM: As we started to sketch the whole opening title sequence (in an animatic form) it became apparent that the combination of the voice over narration and the many images with titles was going to be too much for the audience to digest. We had to keep the piece faithful to the original brief: to tell quite a long story and let the people know about the Parisian Courtesans and Léa during the Belle Époque. With that, it came quite natural to push the titles a bit later in the film.

ATS: What about the use of narration?

MM: The film’s director and screenwriter took that decision. Stephen Frears’ narration was the most obvious way to tell so much in such a short time. In fact, the voice over appears here and there during the film itself and works well in keeping the film and opening titles together.

“The challenge with the title sequence was to bridge the gap between the opening scene in 19th Century Italy (where we establish Fraccini for the first time), and the beginning of the rest of the film in present day London. Iconic scenes from the film were chosen and adapted to construct a light-hearted, graphic narrative throughout which a central character would travel. The intention was to have a sequence with no cuts, where each scene transitioned seamlessly into the next. The styling was a deliberate homage to Saul Bass, but with the focus of creating something unique and contemporary.

Seemingly on the run throughout the various scenes, the silhouetted figure encounters (and escapes) a number of different situations before finally being caught at the end of the sequence, where he’s forcibly thrown into the rest of the film.

The sequence was nominated in both the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival and British Animation Awards.”