The Main Title Sequence Can Establish the Story of the Film

Through Visualizing the Narrative.

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Motion Media Design Department

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts

Savannah College of Art and Design

By

Kyuyong Lee

Savannah, GA

June 2011

Accepted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts

at

The Savannah College of Art and Design

Min Ho Shin Date

Committee Chair

Woon K. Yong Date

Committee Member 2

Michael W. Betancourt Date

Committee Member 3

Table of Contents

Contents...................................................................................................................page

Abstract.........................................................................................................................1

Introduction...................................................................................................................2

Body I. Tonalization .....................................................................................................5

Body II. Integration.......................................................................................................8

Body III. Implication...................................................................................................10

Conclusion...................................................................................................................12

Work Sited...................................................................................................................14

Bibliography................................................................................................................20

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The Main Title Sequence Can Establish the Story of the Film

Through Visualizing the Narrative.

Kyuyong Lee

June, 2011

While film title sequence has been evolving as a form of experimental filmmaking,

still the main purpose of title sequence is to arouse their interests and maximize moviegoers’

expectation so that they can possibly concentrate on the movie. It can be demonstrated how to

visualize the concept of the film and tell the story through a couple of title sequences: Dr. No,

The Incredible Hulk, Fight Club, and Inception.

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Main title sequence refers to the method by which cinematic films present their title,

key cast and/or production members. Technically, motion graphics in a main title sequence

represent a convergence of graphic design, film, video and photographic technology. The role

of motion graphics within the main title is to create image-making and storytelling with in-

your-face visuals and eye-catching layouts. According to Jon Krasner, the author of Motion

Graphic Design, film title sequence has been evolving as a form of experimental

filmmaking.1 The main purpose of the title sequence is to arouse moviegoers’ interests and

maximize their expectations about its atmosphere and tone, so that they can concentrate on

the movie.2 Ultimately, the main title sequence can establish the story of the film through

visualizing the narrative; it is this type of title sequence being examined in this thesis.

Garson Yu, a director of yU+co., stresses the role of motion graphics in Motion by Design:

Motion graphics, which represent a convergence of graphic design, film, video and photographic technology, consider as digital techniques in title sequences. What makes motion graphics cinematic (apart from the fact that the medium is film) is that when we look at an image in a cinema, we have no other distractions and are willingly led by the film-maker into a fantasy world. Cinema motion graphics help to set the tone of the world into which the film-maker wants to draw the audience.3

The history of film title design has been greatly influenced by changes in technology,

according to Garson Yu, and rapidly advancing digital technology of converging design and

visual effects can create virtually anything we can imagine.

In an interview with Kyle Cooper on the website Forget the film, watch the titles,

Cooper says:

A great title sequence sets an expectation; you’re in the theater, and you see the sequence, and you forget about everything else, and you don’t want to be anywhere else, but right here at this moment and get you excited.4

1 Jon Krasner, Motion graphic design. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc., 2008, 26. 2 Spencer Drate, David H. Robbins, and Judith Salavetz. Motion by Design. : Laurence King, 2006, 21. 3 Garson Yu, introduction to Opening credits: Motion by Design by Drate, Spencer, David H. Robbins, and Judith Salavetz.: Laurence King, 2006, 21 4Kyle Cooper. "Forget the film watch the titles." Submarinechannel. http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00184-Kyle_Cooper_interview_pt_2_2.

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The role of title sequences according to Cooper is, above all, catching your attention. As you

need to establish your first impression within 90 seconds, the main titles, which are the first

images that viewers experience once the lights are dimmed, should capture a moviegoer’s

heart. And once you are engaged by the title sequence, you are more easily lead to the world

of the film. Yet, some films might not be able to stand alone without first explaining their

back story or a hint at the symbolism behind the drama. Other films might need to set a mood

for a sense of direction before the start. In this sense, setting a mood for the story, integrating

the story, and implicating the story can be effective ways for the title sequence to establish

the story of the film so that the audience can understand the story and be absorbed in the film

as quickly and fully as possible. These approaches to title design overlap in both approach

and technique since they develop from the same historical sources in the 1950s.

In an interview in Film Quarterly, Saul Bass, the legendary designer of innovative

title sequences, states his views about title sequences:

My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set a mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.5

Bass recognized the importance of a movie’s first moments. He popularized the idea of titling

movies either at the beginning or end with sequences that added something in a highly

symbolic and evocative way. Bass also created print graphic identification for films that not

only title the film, but also serve to unify and drive entire marketing and advertising

campaigns. After Bass’s innovations, title sequences have become more varied and play more

important roles beyond setting a mood as Bass mentioned. The main title sequence of

Terence Young’s Dr. No (1962) (Fig. 2), designed by Maurice Binder, is a good example to

demonstrate how effective visual means are in creating the mood for a film. This title

5 Pamela Haskins. "Saul, Can You Make Me a Title?": Interview with Saul Bass." Film Quarterly (1996): 12-13.

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sequence reveals a stylistic bridge between Bass’s title sequences and recent film title

sequences integrate or implicate the story.

Janet Merewether, a film-maker, digital media artist, and academic who has taught

film, video and design at various universities in Sydney, Australia6, explains how some

directors view title sequences:

Some directors feel that the title sequence should reflect a subjective state from a character’s perspective. Other films require a titles sequence which will help to set the period, location, mood or pace of the film. Sometimes an audience is eased in slowly, yet on other films their attention can be actively focused by a short, sharp, arresting sequence that will engage them with a shock.7

A title sequence can help the film through reflection of some situations by implication, set the

emotional tone and visual style by integration, and grab the audience’s attention by

absorption. In this sense, main title sequences that integrate with the film narrative have three

approaches: tonalization is a device, which uses the titles to set the mood for the story;

integration is an approach which unites the title and story; and implication is an approach

which suggests the story through the titles. (Fig. 1) The title sequences from Dr. No (Fig. 2),

The Incredible Hulk (Fig. 3), and Fight Club (Fig. 4) demonstrate how to visualize the

narrative of the film using the techniques of tonalization, integration, and implication. At the

same time, picking up the examples throughout the history of film would give you historical

sense of title sequences.

Also, to demonstrate the three categories of relationship (tonalization, integration,

and implication), I created, as a visual project, three different title sequences for Inception

(2010), directed by Christopher Nolan (Fig. 5). The concept behind the story is: in a world

where technology allows you to enter someone’s mind through dream invasion, planting a

single idea within one's mind can cause unexpected results. It could be the most dangerous

6 Janet Merewether. http://gogirlproductions.com.au/about.html (August 2010). 7 Janet Merewether. "The Beginning Before The Beginning." Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine, 2005, p.108.

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weapon or the most valuable asset. The theatrical version of Inception has no title sequence,

making it an ideal candidate for crafting these types of title sequence. Moreover, Inception

has such a complicated story that there are unresolved questions about the end of the story:

Does Cobb ever wake up? What is the evidence that shows the whole film is a dream? How is

the dream machine brought to deeper dream levels? and so on, according to IMDB8, the

Internet Movie Database, one of the most popular community websites for films. This shows

that audiences might need some help to understand the story in either way of the categories

mentioned above. Although the origin of film titles can be traced back to the silent film era,

several film title sequences from Dr. No in 1962 to Inception in 2010 would be enough to

demonstrate how the main title sequence visualizes and establishes the story in order to gain

the audiences’ attention.

1. Tonalization

Walter Murch, the editor for The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999),

explains the role of titles in setting the tone of a film:

The title sequence of a film is like the frame around a painting: it should enhance and comment on what is ‘inside,’ alerting and sensitizing the viewer to the emotional tones, the story ideas, and the visual style which will be found in the work itself.9

Murch’s metaphor of the frame for a painting is useful in considering the title sequence. As a

wood frame or a steel frame provides different emotions for the painting, certain emotional

tones are needed for each story. Either bright or dark colors in the frame can change a

painting’s tone and mood, the same is true for film. Murch’s comments highlight the title

sequence’s capacity to set a mood for the story as the frame around a painting builds a

sensation for the content.

8 IMDb.com, Inc, FAQ for Inception, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/faq (2010) 9 Walter Murch, introduction to Applied History and Sesthetics: Motion graphic design by Jon Krasner. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc., 2008, 21.

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The title sequence of Dr. No (1962) (Fig. 2) is broken into three sections. This film is

the first in the series of James Bond films, and starts with a white dot as in any other Bond

film. This dot fades into the inside of a muzzle, masked by red, which appears to symbolize

blood after Bond shoots one bullet. It establishes the high energy, active character of the

Bond series immediately. As James Bond’s theme song plays, there is a multitude of dots that

turn into a single dot again. Dots of different sizes, grouped in a matrix in several different

colors, show rhythm and movement with a couple of different sizes. Some dots are repeated

‘On and off’ in a small group, finally forming the main credit, Dr. No. This ‘On and off’

animation, not a linear move, creates a unique mood like an LED ramp while every dot

moves lively through repeating turning on and off at a standstill, and sometimes right and left,

or up and down, sometimes regularly or irregularly. The nonlinear movement goes better

with the strong, staccato tempo than linear and raises the level of completion. That the timing

of the animation varies is also a factor in how the sequence holds our interest and sets the

tone and mood. Another one of the most powerful elements that creates rhythm and

movement in the titles is sound. Bond’s theme song, which is now well known in popular

culture, is as essential to these titles as the animated dots. Ultimately, the dots create a lively

and energetic mood through their rhythm and tempo.

The second part of the title sequence provides a different tone. It shows a group in

silhouette of people whose hair and dress implies they are Jamaican, dancing to merry

Jamaican-style music. It continues the mood from the first section. This choice helps to

establish the idea of “Jamaica”, which is the setting of the story.

After the dancing people, there is the third section, which presents another silhouette

of three blind men walking with sticks. The development of this section reiterates the idea

shown by the white dot in the very beginning of the title sequence that became the inside of a

muzzle: the sequence with three blind men suggests that things are not as they appear since

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when the sequence ends we discover they are not really blind. Putting aside the broad hint of

the story with these blind men, the happy Jamaican mood is continued with a little different

music. Although the main title sequence of Dr. No is separated into three parts each with their

own music, this final section establishes the mood of the film and graphically links the

silhouette-titles to the first shot of the film. It moves directly from titles to story.

My title sequence for the film Inception (fig. 6) uses “the totem” from the

story to set the tone and mood. A dream-like reality is created in my title sequence

by putting “the totem,” (a spinning top) in each setting where the different dreams in

the film take place: in a van, on a plane, in a hotel lobby, at a house, and at a

beach (Fig. 5). The only thing moving at normal speed in the sequence is the top,

while the environment moves unnaturally slowly. These different speeds reflect how

time in the story runs at a different speed at each level of dream. A slow, drowsy

mood emerges from how the environment around the top and the slow camera

movements (zooming, panning, or tilting up or down). The tone and mood in this

title sequence attempts to be as if each shot had been extracted from the film.

Besides the visual elements, the sound and background music reinforces these feelings

of weariness so that you might be able to notice the feeling of the story is not

comical, or horrific, but dreamy, drowsy, nervous, and solemn. It also gives continuity

by connecting the shots that leap and skip through time and space. So, a top’s image

with proper atmosphere and background music in the title sequence can represent the

mood of the story.

A main title sequence employing tonalization consists of its own soundtrack, credits,

and images created by montage sequences and motion graphics to establish the tone and

mood of the story. A well setup mood with just this nature of title sequence can, sometimes,

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make audiences feel that they have already watched the movie without any direct information

about the story.

2. Integration

Some film sequences inform the audience of the story that is about to unfold.10 This

type of title sequence integrates the story into the main title by showing the back story

through a montage sequence or through other graphic means. The integration of the story

helps audiences understand and arouse their expectation of what is coming up next. The main

title sequence for Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk (2008) (Fig. 3), designed by Kyle

Cooper, encapsulates the film’s background knowledge: who Bruce Banner, the main

character, is, how he became the Hulk, and what happened to him afterwards. This sequence

is an extended quotation / homage to the 1976 TV show of the same title. The credits appear

green like the Hulk, and gaseous materials, a human’s skull X-ray, and magnified pictures of

blood and cells running, which seem real, are edited together. The skull X-ray blasts into

green particles and forms the type “Hulk,” which marks the beginning of the main title. The

integration of these live action shots and motion graphics enable this situation—Banner is

about to transform—to be recognizable and dramatic, the same as when Banner becomes the

Hulk. This main credit plays for 20 seconds; the remaining two minute-long sequence

introduces the rest of the credits, and summarizes the back story. The scene where gamma

radiation causes Banner to become the Hulk follows. Without revealing the Hulk’s whole

appearance, a point of view shot from his perspective shows him destroying facilities and

beating people: a woman who will be known as a scientist and Banner’s lover, and the

general, who is the film’s “villain,” in conflict with the Hulk. By not showing the creature,

10 Spencer Drate, David H. Robbins, and Judith Salavetz. Motion by Design: Laurence King, 2006, 21.

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audiences might wonder how frightening and ferocious he looks, while just imagining his

“up-graded look” from the 1970s show.

The camera pans over newspaper headlines and reports dealing with Hulk, pictures

of traces swept by Hulk, routes on a map, and images of armed soldiers chasing him, with the

general’s anxious face in a montage that suggests that Banner, or the Hulk, is being chased by

the mobilized force. A metronome’s tick goes faster and faster synchronized with faster beats

in the music, fast running cells, and the flashback of the accident are used to emphasize the

feeling of rising tension at the moment Banner becomes the Hulk. Banner stopping the

metronome, showing the end of the main titles as the story starts.

The integration of the back story in a montage makes audiences feel that they already

finished a short story as a prologue before the actual film’s story begins. In The Incredible

Hulk, integration lets the audience wonder what lies ahead: how much hardship and adversity

is waiting for him, and if he can go back to an ordinary life with his lover. Since this film is

aiming for the ages who have grown up with the 70’s Hulk and also for the new ages who are

aware of Hulk just as a good green monster, telling them the back story of Hulk provides

essential information, but also creates continuity with what the story was.

My title sequence for integration could be called “how to steal the thought”

(Fig. 7). It takes the form of an information graphic. In the film Inception, the story

is concerned with using dreams to steal industrial secrets as a form of industrial

espionage. This is a complex idea that might need some explanation before the film

starts. Answering a question from the story can help audiences understand it: What

does the “dream team” do? This question can be answered by showing the steps for

stealing a thought. My title sequence uses subtitles to explain, through evocative

imagery, this process:

1. Collect the information of the target

2. Drug the target to sleep

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3. Work the dream machine

4. Invade the target’s dream

5. Steal the thought

By putting stationary characters in a 3D space, where the camera moves, my titles

suggest a series of moments captured from a dream. This series traces the process of

theft: One of the dream team members in black tries to steal a key from the target

in red on a street. The key represents important information about the target. In the

next step, a member of the dream team puts a drug inside the target’s drink, while

the target is distracted. The 3rd step shows that the target and the dream team

members connected to the dream machine, allowing the dream team to enter the

target’s dream. Next, the dream team members are running in a maze to search for

the secret they are trying to steal. Finally, they get their objective, and the maze is

revealed to be a part of the target’s head.

The process of getting into the target’s dream introduces essential information

for the story, but does not reveal the complexity of that story which spreads out to

several levels of dreams that characters journey through. This title sequence tells what

the dream team does.

As the two title sequences of The Incredible Hulk and “How to Steal the Thought”

demonstrate, the integration of the story can be a way that the director might want to

appropriately inform audiences going into the story. In this sense, the main title sequence can

create new and independent images and tell the back story of the film.

3. Implication

Some conceptual images help audiences retrospectively to understand the story of a

film. This means that the title sequence can suggest the story to follow by hinting about the

characters or the concept of the film. In David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999) (Fig. 8), the title

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sequence implies that the story told by narrator is not entirely “real,” a suggestion made by

starting inside his head. This title sequence begins with a dolly-out of the camera fhrough a

flashy CGI-sequence, which looks like a brain’s neural map. It begins with black liquid

coming out of big lump, like a rock, which transforms into complex webs as it zooms out.

The camera keeps pulling back to another place where something like stalactites are. The

camera continues past them, emerging from a long tunnel, and a big hole. This long tunnel

turns into a pore with a strand of hair on the character’s face. Sweat drops run, and other

beads of sweat stand on the head, nervous hairs are upstanding, and the expression is

“freaked out.”

Considering these distinctive and marked shapes, the CGI suggests magnifications of

nerve cells, blood, vessels, and tissues in a brain, skull, and skin, and the sequence suggests

the film is (literally) a “head trip” happening inside this character’s mind. This conclusion is

the “implication” of this type of title sequence. Through the story, it is revealed that the

narrator has created “Tyler” as a virtual alter ego—a hypermasculine dream self, a “film self”

built out of pure identification—who challenges the narrator and does things he is too timid

to do:11 Thus, beginning inside of narrator’s brain implies that what will be shown in the film

could be related to his mental state. The tour of the brain shows that what happens inside

narrator’s brain is central to the narrative. This implication through the opening title is not

only the concept for the story but also a device, which allows an attentive audience to guess

the plot.

The dream machine in the film Inception is the most distinct device and plot of a

story that is all about traveling and controlling someone’s dream. My title sequence

illustrating implication uses the “dream machine” as its focus: I show the operation manual

11 Erik Dussere. Out of the Past, into the Supermarket: Consuming Film Noir. Vol. 60. : University of California Press, 2006.

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for this device. (Fig. 8) My sequence takes the audience inside the book by opening to the

cover page with the title, “dream machine customization manual.” The illustrations of the

dream machine working are animated to show working on a human body, while running the

credits. With the transition between each part, each title card is separated using a different

color scheme. As the camera moves inside the book where many parts are working by

themselves or in combination, it’s almost as if you’re starting a trip in your own dream, just

like the story of this film. My design is based on a blueprint visual, but the color scheme

changes as the sequence shows different parts of the machine. It not only separates each

component, but it also shows different pieces in motion, as if the title sequence moving from

one level of dream to another. Keeping the atmosphere within a limited tonal range suggests

that all levels of dreams in the story are not that different, and that you might not be able to

recognize which is which, or even between reality and dream as the story looks like. At the

end of my sequence, the camera leads you from the machine to a human head through his

hand linked with the machine, and his heart for controlling the body physically. This shows

how these parts are work together and how the machine connects on the body. Visualizing the

dream machine can implicate that the story is related to the dream and it is about controlling

your dream by the dream machine.

Implication is a common strategy for title sequences because filmmakers might not

want the audience to know too much about the story before it starts. Giving away an

excessive amount about the drama could lose audience’s interest. Thus, implication is an

appropriate method to induce curiosity and a connection with the story.

Some filmmakers avoid making title sequences, and sometimes, title sequences are

minimized, with few credits inserted into the opening scenes. Filmmakers might be

concerned that inappropriate title sequences could “ruin” their story, or they might worry that

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only the main title sequence is left in the audience’s mind when they come out of the movie

theater. Careful construction of a title sequence can avoid these problems and alleviate such

worries.

Advanced technologies are enabling more creative imageries than people used to

produce. Computers are fast enough today that CGI techniques have already caught up with

the photo-realism people have been imagining in films. There is no excuse not to express

what you imagine. This awe inspiring technical capacity forces film title sequence designers

to approach more effective design solutions, ones related to the story of the film, so that they

can help filmmakers deliver the message through the story.

From Saul Bass to Kyle Cooper, film title designers have been changing and

improving their techniques with the progress of technology. However, historically

exceptional title sequences provide great role models, despite being made using old

techniques. Some required elements for title sequences are unchangeable: title sequences are

responsible for engaging their audiences with some visual and conceptual device, helping

them understand, and establishing the mood for them before the film starts or summarize the

story after the end. It demonstrates that methods and ways could change but not the

fundamental principle that title sequences are engaged in storytelling. In this sense, these

approaches to film title sequences: tonalization, integration, and implication, can apply to all

historical periods, genres, and techniques of films. Title sequences should function much as

wrapping paper does in containing precious presents in the world.

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Work Sited

Fig. 1. Venn Diagram of Main Title Sequence

Fig. 2. Maurice Binder, the title of Dr. No, 1962

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Fig. 3. Kyle Cooper, the title of The Incredible Hulk, 2008

Fig. 4. Makela, the title of Fight Club, 1999

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Fig. 5. Christopher Nolan, Inception, 2010

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Fig. 6. Kyuyong Lee, The Totem, 2011

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Fig. 7. Kyuyong Lee, How to Steal the Thought, 2011

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Fig. 8. Kyuyong Lee, Dream Machine Manual, 2011

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Bibliography

Krasner, Jon. Motion graphic design. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc., 2008, 26

Drate, Spencer, David h. Robbins, and Judith Salavetz. Motion by Design. : Laurence King,

2006, 21

Haskins, Pamela. ""Saul, Can You Make Me a Title?": Interview with Saul Bass." Film

Quarterly (1996): 12-13.

Merewether, Janet. http://gogirlproductions.com.au/about.html ( August 2010).

Merewether, Janet. "The Beginning Before The Beginning." Metro Magazine: Media &

Education Magazine, 2005, 108.

IMDb.com, Inc, “FAQ for Inception”, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/faq (2010).

Murch, Walter. introduction to Applied History and Sesthetics: Motion graphic design by Jon

Krasner. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc., 2008, 21.

Dussere, Erik. Out of the Past, into the Supermarket: Consuming Film Noir. Vol. 60. :

University of California Press, 2006.

Yu, Garson. introduction to Opening credits: Motion by Design by Spencer Drate, David H.

Robbins, and Judith Salavetz. : Laurence King, 2006, 21

Robbins, David. introduction to Introduction: Motion by Design by Spencer Drate, David H.

Robbins, and Judith Salavetz.: Laurence King, 2006, 9

Kyle Cooper. "Forget the film watch the titles." Submarinechannel.

http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00184-Kyle_Cooper_interview_pt_2_2.