The movie before the movie
The 'Art of the Title' website critiques the opening sequences that can pull you into a movie - or turn you off
If you happened to catch Matthew McConaughey goofing off in "Sahara," a 2005 made-for-matinee treasure hunt, you might have noted the opening credit sequence: The camera pans the fictional office where maps, photographs, and news clippings introduce the film's main characters, provide a back story, and set a tone of adventure in one continuous, masterful shot.
But you probably didn't.
Artistic, sophisticatedly crafted credit sequences at the beginning or end of films too often pass by viewers unnoticed, according to Ian Albinson, creator of the blog "Art of the Title." The website offers a medium to display and discuss movie and TV title sequences as a distinct form of cinematic art.
"There's a new breed of designers coming out; they are seeing sequences like little movies in themselves," Albinson says. Integrating graphic design, animation, and live-action footage, they create effects like the hand-drawn imagery of a Sunny-D toting title character in "Juno" and the morphing ink splats that open "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."
"Thousands and thousands of layers come in to the final piece from all different sources," he says of such mini-masterpieces.
Albinson started collecting his favorite sequences about six years ago, a process made easier by the ability to import chunks of footage from DVDs onto a computer and analyze them frame by frame. As a freelance designer and media producer, Albinson decided to bring his passion for film titles to the Internet about a year ago, and www.artofthetitle.com was born.
The blog's concept is simple: Every week or so, Albinson and collaborator Alex Ulloa hand-pick and post title sequence clips, add a dash of interpretation (or not), and leave the door open for user comments. Films are listed alphabetically in the left hand column of the screen.
Site visitors can click, watch sequences, and weigh in, but it's the curatorial eyes of Albinson and Ulloa that set "Art of the Title" apart.
"I'm the writer and I inform the design; he's the designer and he informs the writing," says Ulloa about the division of labor.
Albinson and Ulloa met while working for the science education department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. They lost touch for a time after Albinson relocated to Bristol, Vt. - Ulloa lives in Somerville - but reconnected in a virtual friendship enabled by all forms of cyber communication: e-mail, text chat, audio chat, video chat, screen sharing, Web-based project management applications, and, of course, cellphones, to operate the titles website.
It's a labor of love; the site doesn't generate revenue. And Albinson and Ulloa don't see the role of their partnership as criticism, though Ulloa says he does consider their site as a facilitator for that criticism. "I want to stimulate conversation and help to stimulate creativity," he says.
As an example, Ulloa cites a posting in which he faults a title sequence that follows a bullet from its manufacture to its role as instrument in the murder of a child, for having "too much message and not enough heart." A flurry of comments further dissects the sequence, spurring a blogger identified as Marc to point out the importance of close examination of such short cinematic works in light of "the amount of thought put into the creation of the sequence in the first place."
The industry that has grown up around title sequences has roots in the 1950s work of graphic designer Saul Bass, who designed title and end sequences for such renowned filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. In Preminger's "The Man With the Golden Arm" (1955), for example, Bass's introduction angles blocky lines in and out of frame; the last line becomes a dangling, twisted arm, which segues to the story of Frank Sinatra as a drug-using card dealer. The image was also the focal point of the movie poster, also designed by Bass.
The practice of spending screen time and money on credits fell from favor somewhat through the late '80s and early '90s.
And then came "Se7en." Designer Kyle Cooper brought an auteur's influence to his opener for the 1995 film, which Albinson says deserves a prominent place in the title-sequence canon. In it, grubby, bandaged fingers wield a razor between flashes of autopsy photos while a dark soundtrack pulsates doom. Albinson admires that the sequence both stands on its own and preps the audience for the thriller to come.
"Art of the Title" itself has been gaining currency within the motion graphic design industry. While the site registered only about 85 page visits as far back as March, Albinson reports tracking over 700,000 page views since then, through Oct. 1, noting that August was the website's most popular month so far with 183,000 page views. He credits a mention on the design blog www.kottke.org in April, and subsequent mentions on other highly regarded blogs like www.motionographer.com, with the spikes in traffic.
Now industry giants like the LA-based Imaginary Forces, co-founded by Cooper after his success with "Se7en," are knocking on its door with title clips they want to have posted.
"We don't have many dedicated platforms to discuss film title work specifically," says Michele Lu Kumar, spokesperson for Imaginary Forces. "Now we know we have a place to go when we want to share our news with people who understand the history of the film title."
David Schwarz, a creative director for the New York-based motion graphics design company Hush, attests to the time and ingenuity that goes into even very short fragments of film. Most of Hush's business is in producing television spots and commercials, but title sequence design allows them to stretch their form. Schwarz sent Albinson a sequence Hush created for the film "Paraiso Travel" by poring over an early cut of the film and sifting through production stills and photos of talent and locations.
"It was a lot of material," says Schwarz, "but you've got to know the film, the back story, the intentions of writers and directors."
"Art of the Title" juxtaposes clips from newcomers like Hush with classics from masters such as Saul Bass, or compares tension in such disparate works as the opener from "The Changeling" (1980) and the 1994 Lars von Trier television series "Riget." Ulloa wants users to see the breadth of what's possible in one scroll, in what he calls "a level playing field."
Albinson and Ulloa are surprised by the response to their website. "I am excited every day checking my e-mail, it's really crazy!" says Albinson, who has started scheduling interviews with title sequence creators he wants to feature on the website.
Kyle Cooper is on the short list. 