The Credits Please
My New York Times weekly film update this week included an article on film credits, or title sequences, focusing primarily on Randal Balsmeyer of New York's Big Film Design, responsible for all of Spike Lee's films, among many, many others (pdf link). Design of title sequences, introducing the actors, writer(s), director(s) and other important players, is an artform only about 50 years old, beginning with the innovative Saul Bass. My friend Jim wrote an online essay, Just the Beginning: The Art of Film Titles, which traces the evolution of main-title sequences by focusing on Bass's pioneering work for Hitchcock and the contemporary designs of Kyle Cooper for the movies Se7en and Mimic. This essay is definitely worth reading and features some clips of Bass and Cooper's credits.
Chicago credits, from NYT
As the Times article mentions, sometimes credits can outshine the movie they precede. Although no specific movie comes to mind, I don't doubt this assertion. On the other hand the titles may be an afterthought or repetitious, as is the case with Woody Allen's films (although his simple, traditional credits fit his low budgets and his own brand of neo-realism).
Here's some of my favorite sequences, or at least ones that I remember, more difficult than it sounds:
- Fight Club - "The camera tracking all the way from DNA out through Edward Norton's nose, a la Powers of Ten" (Thanks to Behrnt).
- Panic Room - Names follow the perspective of office buildings, a contemporary update of another favorite, North by Northwest.
- The Royal Tenenbaums - Using books to act as credits and help tell the story of the Tenenbaum family, influenced by Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons.
- Run Lola Run - A huge watch and cartoon Lola setting up the plot for the next 80 minutes. Also the end credits run backward with a slightly odd "Ende-ing".