Especially since I saw this motion graphics piece which lists names of artists who make title sequences which have changed the industry and makes the move in a way that represents their individual style. I think it is so beautifully done though, the lighting is beautiful and I really like how much thought went into the piece as they had storyboard it exactly as they'd only have one hour to film all the bits they wanted. Another interesting fact is how they used a smoke machine to increase the mis-en-scene and they even put duct tape on the windows to enhance the shadows.
A History Of The Title Sequence from From Form on Vimeo.
When I saw this I immediately had an idea to represents the signatures of directors and animators I have discussed in my essay. Mainly because the entire conclusion leads up to the fact that they aren't auteurs, they each have a signature / stamp.
At first I couldn't decide whether to mix live action and animation or just have it all animation. So as a Starting point I decided to list people I'd mentioned in my essay and what I thought there signature/stamp was.
Tim Burton:
Gothic, big eyes, buttons, cheshire smile, scissors cutting the name up.
Lee Hardcastle:
Plasticine Name, Shots fired at it and bleeds. Representing his signature of violence in claymation.
Len Lye:
Flickering Abstract Shapes, Almost unrecognisable font, lots of bright colours.
Lotte Reiniger:
Name in black, which are silhouettes that come to life and dance off the page. Possibility of coloured lighting.
Wes Anderson:
Shot sets the scene flits back to text which changes colour and morphs to a pale blue boy running after a taller female character, symmetry is key for this one.
Studio AKA:
Faces with funny noses,
Camera shot are often swooping down onto the scene.
Other possibilities; Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder.
I then went on and narrowed it down to my three favourite. I did really really want to choose Wes Anderson as a signature as the essay ends on his note, but it would have to be rather long as he has such an impact on a film, and I just didn't think I would have time to do it to a good enough standard.
Instead I decided to stick with the L's and choose Len Lye, Lee Hardcastle and Lotte Reiniger.
At This point I was still debating whether or not to do it as stop motion or flatter, on paper/computer.
I decided to make a list of this I'd need to do these three,
Lee Hardcastle, Black Paper, Red Plasticine.
Len Lye, Paint on paper, scrape lines in, use one thing for the circles.
Lotte Reiniger, Black and White Paper Coloured Lights.
At this point I started playing around with different styles of lettering for Lee Hardcastle, and decided to put an Alien's Head instead of the Second E in Lee, and replace the T in Hardcastle with a toilet. This is relating to a couple pieces of his working (T is for Toilet, and An Alien Claymation). I came to the conclusion I wanted the Alien head to have a light flicker on and off and stay on and transport it up and then have the letters shots and finally end on the toilet exploding to turn the screen a pinky red to start Len Lye's signature.
At this stage I was still playing around with development styles and I settled on having the actual lettering for Lee Hardcastle boil so I wrote three different versions of his name and duplicated them into an image sequence which I then photoshopped the action onto.
This first signature actually took a lot longer than I thought it would, and with time running out I regretfully dropped Lotte Reiniger's Idea. Mainly because I'd rather have two quite well done rather than rushing them all.
For Len Lye's signature at this stage I decide I wanted the lettering to fit into circles and to have the negative of the name flash with the positive, I also decided that I then wanted circles to float across the screen and swallow the most circular of letters (leaving only the N Y to flash invertedly.) Then finally I want smears of lines to go up and make those lines disappear ending on a blank screen and fading it to black.
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