- Hey, what's up, guys?
And welcome to this episode of the "Front Row".
My name is Ryan.
I'm a motion graphics artist
and animator here at StudioBinder.
- And I'm Chris, I'm the editor here.
And today we're going to look at some of the best
- And worst - Opening sequences.
(laughing)
This is why we are behind the camera,
behind the computer.
♪ The Front Row - Title Sequences ♪
When we think of title sequences,
we think of them purely as function
to put in your opening credits
of people who worked on it. - Yeah.
Usually, it's the part of the movie
you just want to like skip over.
- But opening title sequences
can really be an opportunity to convey tone
and story beats.
And budget does not necessarily dictate
how good a title sequence can be.
- We're going to talk about what works,
what doesn't work
and hopefully, give you something to think about
when you work on your own projects.
- You ready? - I'm ready.
♪ ♪
"Catch Me If You Can" was good I remember so.
Let's do it.
♪ ♪
- Looks like this is actually a mix of cel animation and digital.
♪ ♪
It looks like they took cut-outs
and they frame by frame animated them
to make them walk.
And that's just over a transparent background
laid over this digital footage.
♪ ♪
This stuff digital - you can tell this like photo 3D cars.
- Seems like they took a big chance.
They thought so far outside of the box with it.
It's a normal movie
but the decision to go in a 2d animation direction
really sets it apart.
Had it just been footage of Leo running from Tom Hanks
and the same music
would have had a completely different effect.
- In-depth and little you're getting elements of the story here.
- It's so like Pink Panther-esque.
♪ ♪
He's slick.
A lot going on
but he's flying under the radar.
Even that like little party scene with all the people,
he's just kind of in the background.
- Blending in, he's almost saying "Catch Me If You Can".
- That was meta.
♪ ♪
It is not an animation movie
yet they went with complete 2D animation.
And the result of that is
we still remember that 20 years later, right?
Should we check out the next one?
- Let's do the next one.
- All right, next up is "The Room."
Best movie ever.
Wiseau-films.
- This is fine, fine director right there.
♪ ♪
- The funny thing is
it's not that bad.
(laughing)
♪ ♪
- The music is insane though.
I mean, why is it so dramatic. - Yeah!
- Tommy?
- Oh, and it tat a text on a shot of him.
- Dang. - Genius.
Why is the text so low?
- Yeah.
- Oh, it dissolved from outside to inside.
"- Hi, babe."
(laughing)
- Hi, babe.
- So I guess what's bad about this...
very uncreative.
(laughing)
- The movie is called "The Room."
And we're seeing the bay.
- Zero room.
(inaudible)
- Would've been cool if it was just like static shots of the room.
Inserts of the room.
- Just football.
- Exactly, exactly!
Things that tie back.
It's so funny how we... (inaudible)
But for real like that could have worked
if like the football, there's a picture of Tommy with the football and Greg.
- A picture frame of them two with the flowers.
- Yeah, there's an opportunity
to tell more of a story through inserts, b-roll.
You take this title sequence.
You put it to a different song.
And slap on a different title
and it completely holds up.
- Yeah.
On to the next one.
"The Dawn of the Dead".
- I remember this movie.
- Yeah, that effect they did with the text looks really cool.
One way you could achieve that
is probably taking a you know plate with ink
and blowing the ink out
and then doing some kind of a mat over the text
to get that effect, to make it look like it's blood.
"- Health-hazard or military concern."
- Quick Cuts! Quick Cuts!
♪ ♪
I will see I wonder if they shot all this
or this is just found footage.
Yeah, this has to be all found footage
like there's no way they...
Let's get 1 million extras
to shoot this one-second clip.
Found footage is basically third-party footage,
you can find all over the Internet.
I think it's just riot footage.
Blood cells, cop cars, ambulances.
Cheated for a zombie apocalypse.
I mean clearly, that's what they do here.
I mean, they shot a little vignettes with zombies clearly.
♪ ♪
- The juxtaposition to with this horrible thing
and this like very chill
Johnny Cash country song.
Yeah, music choice.
You can always go with
the obligatory horror zombie music for that title sequence,
but actually subverting
going in a completely different direction.
Tarantino does this a lot.
♪ ♪
Scorsese does this a lot.
♪ ♪
Where they use a song that they just like.
That's just fun
and put it to visuals
that doesn't necessarily call for it,
but it gives it a very distinct personality.
Quick Cuts!
Quick Cuts! Quick Cuts!
Quick cuts!
But it's a little cheesy.
- Yeah. - The TV noise, the glitching.
This is very MTV
that aesthetic of the early 2000s.
- Yeah, it brings me back to the early 2000s.
I think that's the big issue there, you know, yeah, exactly.
All right, what do we got next?
♪ ♪
Ah, "True Detective".
- Oh yes, love the music.
It's T-Bone Burnett, right?
- I think yeah, you're right.
- Big Lebowski.
There it is T-Bone.
I feel like this was the first one
that really took this style.
- The double exposure style.
Yeah, it became a trend in that following years.
It's already kind of burnout.
But this kind of set the stage for that.
♪ ♪
One way you can achieve that
as character shot on a green screen,
the background removed or cut out,
laid over the footage of the background.
And it looks like they did a blend
in quite a bit of these.
It looks like they left in some of the gradient
to get some of though
you can kind of see the three-dimensional element of the character
even when they're completely cut out.
♪ ♪
It's nice that they went and did that purely for style.
♪ ♪
You don't really notice a lot of the stuff
the first time around
but now that we're sitting here analyzing it.
I'm picking up on all these little elements
that come up later on in the show.
- Yeah. Oh, I didn't even notice that a little map
that comes up in the top corner of Woodie's head.
"True Detective" had so much visual candy.
A lot of the double exposure.
A lot of images within images.
The more you keep watching it throughout an entire season
throughout eight episodes,
you're going to pick up little different things
that are going to relate to certain episodes.
Because when I see murder of the girl with the antlers
when I see the... and there's here the next episode
I'm like, okay.
- Gives you a reason to watch it.
- That's a testament to a strong title scenes.
♪ ♪
- Wow, that was a lot of we watch.
- Well, thank you guys for watching.
If there's anything you should take away from this
is that opening title sequence
even though may seem like a very simple vessel
just to put in your credits
is a very important way
you can relate tone,
important story beats.
- You can go in a lot of different directions
with the opening title sequence.
A lot of different things work.
It really depends on what your vision is
and what you want to get out of it.
Well, check out StudioBinder's blog to get more free resources
on post-production, motion graphics, video editing tips
some LUTS, some free downloadable.
So check those out.
- Let us know what you think.
Let us know what you need.
We create those resources for you guys.
So let us know in the comments below.
- Goodbye.
- You ready? - I'm ready.
- Let's jump in.
- You press it right there.
- This is a button.
It's free to get started.
(laughing)
- Free to get started.
♪ ♪