January 7, 2024 • 19 mins
We spotlight movie title sequences that continue to kick around our hippocampuses long after the end credits have rolled.
SHOW NOTES
Get visuals, links and show notes from this episode at speakinghuman.com or at MOMApodcast.com.
#Movies #Marketing #Credits #StarWars #CatchMeIfYouCan #ScottPilgrim #Watchmen #Podcast
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
SHOW NOTES
Get visuals, links and show notes from this episode at speakinghuman.com or at MOMApodcast.com.
#Movies #Marketing #Credits #StarWars #CatchMeIfYouCan #ScottPilgrim #Watchmen #Podcast
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
In a world where movies rely onmarketing more than ever to connect with audiences,
one podcast aims to make sense ofit all. This is movies and
marketing. Next Saturday Night, where'ssending you that to the future? Go
ahead, make my day? Howabout now you're crazy Dutch past. What
(00:27):
we've got here is failure you milgate? Take them? Look around? Where's
a cross all about? We mightbe as well with them. I am
an FBI agent. So recently,Patrick, we talked about the best TV
(00:48):
opening credits on our sister podcast,Speaking Human. Now, obviously this isn't
a show about TV, this isthe show about movies. But that podcast
got us thinking. You know,opening credits on TV become pretty interesting.
In recent years, movie opening creditshave been pretty interesting, I would say
(01:10):
for decades. Would you agree withthat? Yeah, I think we talked
about this a little bit. What'sinteresting about movies is that it used to
be you always had a title sequenceat the beginning, and now it's a
little bit more rare that you seea traditional title sequence. At some point
along the way, they went fromlike text on screen and now sometimes they
don't even roll credits at all.Yeah, it's an interesting thing I remember
(01:34):
when I saw Enter the Dragon recently, which was made in the seventies.
Long almost what you would see isthe end credits now played up front of
the movie, and then the creditsat the end of the movie were like
thirty seconds long, just something realshort, and then it was over,
so almost like the inverse of whatwe get today. And then Yeah,
(01:55):
I think of Raising Arizona as theexample I think of the most when I
think of this, kind of likepre Roll, where it was a movie
where movies started stretching out how longthey could go before they even play a
little bit of opening credits, wherethat was like never done before. I
think around probably like seventies eighties,somewhere around there, people started to play
(02:16):
with the opening credits a little more, and even going back a little further,
you know, into the fifties andstuff, people started to get a
little more artful with the opening creditssequence a little bit. If you look
at like Hitchcock movies and things likethat, Yeah, only having the credits
show up as text on screen waskind of just boring. I think messing
(02:37):
with that formula it was probably somethingpretty exciting for the audience because you got
something more. I was thinking aboutSaturday Night Fever the beginning of that.
You know, they come in withmusic, starts playing from the beg's and
then you see John Travolta walking.That's a very iconic title sequence, and
that was in the seventies, becauseI think that's where the shift started to
(02:58):
happen, was the seventies. Yeah, and that's a good point. I
don't know at what point the technologygot there where they could actually superimpose,
you know, the credits over theimages. I'm sure at some point that
was not an option. Yeah,but I don't know how early that was.
I mean, that seems like that'sbeen around for a while. I
don't know, though, at whatpoints you know that they're like, well,
(03:22):
we can't do that, or wecan't do that in certain ways,
or we can't like edit scenes togetherand put these words over the images like
we see that done now in somany creative ways. Yeah, and we're
going to talk about a few ofthose today. That's, you know,
in case you're wondering what are theseguys talking about today, We're talking about
some of the great title sequences overthe years. We think whilst what we
(03:43):
think are some of the great titlesequences. We're going to share a few
of those. Before we get there, let's talk about the purpose of the
title sequence. Yeah, I've cameacross this. I thought it was interesting
to quote Dan Peri or Dan Perry, I don't really know how you pronounced
his name. He was the typographerwho is responsible for the opening crawl of
the Star Wars title sequence, andduring an interview with Adam Woodward from a
(04:06):
magazine publication, he said that agood title conveys a message while relating to
the most important elements of the storyor lead character. And you know,
title sequences in movies set that tone. They give the vibe of the movie.
They give some sort of message thatsort of ties into what's going to
happen in the movie. Some ofthem do it really well, and some
(04:28):
of them you could swap them betweenmovies and you would never know the difference,
right, You'd be like, Oh, all that was was a pretty
much blank slate and they just threwit up. Others take time and craft
and care how it relates to themovie and the storyline, and those are
the really really good ones in myopinion. Anyway. Yeah, No,
I think I'm with you on thatone. I like when it sets the
tone, sets the stage for whatyou're going to see. It kind of
(04:50):
throws you into the world, youknow. Even that being said, we're
kind of talking smack a little biton traditional credit. I do even think
there's a place for, you know, just black screen with a traditional credit,
just giving you kind of the titlethere. I think that fits with
a certain type of movie, butyou know, it should kind of tell
you what are you going to seehere? Are you going to be on
the edge of your seat? Orshould you get ready to weep? Should
(05:11):
you prepare to laugh. David Fincher, who we might talk about more here,
the director behind Fight Club and PanicRoom just Release The Killer on Netflix,
is kind of a master of thecredit sequence. Yeah. I saw
an interview where he said, oftentimesmovies are marketed poorly, and opening credits
are an opportunity to sort of resetexpectations and get people in the right frame
(05:32):
of mind. I think that's agood way to think about them. Putting
the audience in the right frame ofmind is critical. Like you said,
set the expectations, and then thoseexpectations allow you to have a good experience
or a bad experience. Yeah,that's a good point. Yeah. So
today, if you haven't listened tothe other episode, which you may not
have, we're going to each sharejust like in our Speaking Human podcast,
(05:56):
where you're going to share two notable, memorable or favorite movie opening credit sequences
of our own. You know,I'll say this upfront. These are a
couple of our picks. There areprobably and would you agree with me,
there's one hundred that could be onthis list because there's so many good ones.
No, I totally agree with that. I think you got to limit
it in some ways else. Youknow, these lists they just go on
(06:18):
forever. Yeah, I'll share withyou an awesome resource that I came across
Art of the title. It's awebsite like Speaking Human does with marketing and
pop culture. They have the wholewebsite is just video after video of the
title sequences of movies. Check itout. I mean, they're like the
Speaking Human of title sequences. Yeah. Absolutely, good share, good resource.
(06:43):
So before I share it, letme take you back in time.
Patrick. So, around the yeartwenty ten, twenty eleven, somewhere around
that you might remember this, Iwanted to add a blog to my website
and I called you up for somedigital and design assistance, as I often
do, and when you asked whataesthetic I was going for, I referenced
(07:05):
the catch me. If you cancredit sequence as a source of inspiration,
Yeah, that should give you someidea of how this credit sequence has lived
in my head since I saw thetwo thousand and two Steven Spielberg movie.
What's great about this credit sequence?Very saw Bass inspired. If you don't
(07:25):
know who Saw Bass is, He'sa graphic designer, very famous for his
movie posters and movie title sequences.In fact, largely credited for making movie
credit sequences part of the cinematic experiencerather than just these static things like we
talked about before. But he didkind of these very innovative, stylish design
(07:47):
sequences, sometimes cleverly animated. Thisis very much to catch me if you
can, very much in that mode. Uses this great coloration. What really
grabbed me the first time around whenI saw it with sort of this black
and light blue coloration together and justvery much moving, this animation just moving,
(08:09):
reflecting the film's cat and mouse theme. We got this playful jazzy music
reflecting the film's tone, which isthis dramatic but it's also witty, it's
charming. You know, it's kindof a fun movie that it just keeps
moving the whole time, and you'reseeing kind of this little chase sequence play
out through this animation with this jazzyscore playing almost like capturing the movie through
(08:33):
something that's not actually showing you what'shappening in the movie, but it's just
giving you a feel for it throughthis stylish animation. The John Williams score
key to this, really complimenting theanimation here too. What do you think
of the catch me if you canopening title sequence? Patrick, I love
these types because this is very graphicdesigner. It plays with typography, a
(08:56):
lot of moving lines, moving lines, moving shapes. If the music score
can be really really effective in drawingyou in that being said, I felt
like it was super necessary. Iwanted to make sure that I didn't not
include something just because it was superpopular. So my first pick is Star
(09:16):
Wars from nineteen seventy seven. Thisone is super iconic. Ye, you
don't even have to play it inyour mind. I'm sure you can actually
see the crawl of narrative going backin space. When you can picture something
even when it's not in front ofyou. I think, even if you
haven't seen the movies themselves, whichI have met people who have never seen
Star Wars, I'm sure you knowexactly what I'm talking about. When I
(09:39):
say the title sequence and seeing thetext fall back into space, it sets
the tone for the movie. Evenwhen you didn't know what this movie was.
It had a very cinematic, veryorchestrated the method in which they were
presenting the storyline. The other partabout this was a fun fact about it.
The inspiration behind the title sequence itselfwas George Lucas has come out and
(10:03):
it has stated this in the pastthat the crawl was inspired by the opening
crawls used in the beginning of theepisodes of the original Flash Gordon in Buck
Rogers film series, which was alsosome of his inspiration to write the Star
Wars saga. So I thought thatwas pretty interesting because I did not know
that before. Man, I don'tknow this is a good choice because I
(10:24):
don't know if there's any movie thatannounces itself like the beginning of Star Wars
where you just hear that music andthe title comes up. Yeah, it's
just like immediately you're standing at attention, and you have to be watching and
reading and paying attention. The otherthing that I think is super interesting is
just the angle of the crawl andhow it comes across the screen. I
(10:48):
wonder if they worked on like,let's try different angles and see like placement
in different ways to position this toget it just right. Yeah. Actually,
the typographer, the Dan guy,said it was only when and he
saw the nineteen thirty nine dramatic WesternUnion Pacific about building of the railroad across
the American West, that he settledon the idea of an opening shot looking
(11:11):
down the tracks. So that washis sort of inspiration behind that, and
in this case became one of themost iconic title sequences of all time.
I would say, Yeah, andhow much more futuristic or how much more
fitting with space is that than ifwe would have just had that crawl going
straight up and down right right ina galaxy far far away, right into
(11:33):
deep space. Yeah. Yeah,it's an amazing I mean, if we're
ranking them, really, that shouldprobably be number one of all time.
Yeah. And you said, there'snot a lot of those that do that
quite like Star Wars. Probably theonly one that's close to that is I
can think of in my lifetime wouldprobably be Superman, you know, because
of the musical score. Yeah,right, the original Superman movies with Christopher
(11:56):
Reeves, you know, and thenthat Superman sort of flashing in. And
it's not the same as Star Wars, but it's very similar in nature as
to what Star Wars does there,Star Wars Superman, Catch me if you
can. I think that's all themusic of John Williams. Yeah, A
critical part of the title sequences amusical score. Right. I know we're
(12:18):
talking about visual things on screen,but it can't go unstated that the sound
is so important. Yeah. Well, on that note, let me for
my second pick take us in acompletely different direction musically, a movie I
really like two thousand and nine's Watchmanmovie from Zach Snyder. This is the
(12:39):
adaptation of the legendary nineteen eighties DCproperty submersive at almost every turn in the
best ways. That being said,I think by far the best part of
the movie is the opening credits,which sum up the rise and fall of
superheroes in the world of the movie. Do you remember this sequence? Patrick?
(13:01):
Oh? Yeah, because that wasactually on my original list, and
then you killed it. I did, but I do love this one.
It's a long one, showing usmoments from different years and decades in ultra
high frame rate slow motion to thesoundtrack of Bob Dylan's The Times They Are
a change in We get a senseof an entire other movie worth of backstory,
(13:26):
all the while seeing the names ofactors, producers, writers stylistically integrated
over the action. To be fair, this sequence is so essential and detailed
it's almost unfair to compare it toother credit sequences. But it's also such
an amazing use of credits. Forthat very reason, when I talk about
(13:48):
something being like a mini movie,this is a great example of it.
I mean, it's like an entiregraphic novel wedged into the beginning of the
movie that tells you really critical informationyou need to know before you go into
what happens after. The credit sequence. This key backstory. Without it,
if you didn't have it, youcouldn't understand anything. I think this might
(14:11):
be my favorite credit sequence of alltime. It gives you backstory. Like
you said, it also shows youthat this superhero world that you're about to
be shown is a little darker thanwhat you're used to. Oh yeah,
yeah, maybe even a little morepolitical, and it is typographically very beautiful
(14:31):
and visually brings you into the movie. Yeah, not what you're expecting,
throws you off balance right from theget go. No, I liked that
one a lot. Mine, muchlike yours, is very long title sequence
Scott Pilgrim versus the World, Yesfrom twenty ten. It basically starts off
like you're thrown into the beginning ofthe movie. But then what happens is
(14:54):
that they haven't started the actual titlesequence yet, and the BA and that
they have begins to play sex Bobombsex bo bomb, Yeah, and then
the credit sequence comes on screen asif it's the music being played. They're
very like punk rock, screaming,very guitar riffs, drums, and this
(15:16):
blend of music being shown on screenwith typography that's being jolted around on screen.
Typography is pulsating on screen, youknow, so it's given this vibe
of punk rock and then they kindof zooms back out into the reality of
the movie again. It's really nicethe way that they integrated the two things
together. You know, they kindof jump you into the movie. You're
(15:37):
learning a little bit about them,and then they start playing the music boom
and the title sequence comes up andthen they draw you right back into the
movie, gives you a flavor ofwhat you're about to witness on screen.
Yeah, I love this one.This one was one of my honorable mentions.
So bright, so fast, it'slike almost like an art show.
I don't know how they made thisexactly, so many like flashing images.
(16:00):
It looks like the the film's almostlike scratched up or something. You get
it's hard even to explain the differentcolors and shapes and you know, you
get like stars and lines and stuff. It's almost like scratched up. And
it just comes at you so quicklywith the names on there, and I
like even the way Scott Pilgrim thename comes up, you know, it's
(16:22):
kind of like lightning bolts and verystylishly done and you know, very fast.
And once they start doing that wholecredit sequence, you're like, Okay,
this is this is kind of themode we're in. This is where
we're at for this movie, andit definitely comes at you fast. Edgar
Wright, you could tell just puta lot of style into that, very
much in line with the movie itselftoo, where there's you know, animation
(16:45):
will often pop up or there's thesedifferent comic book aspects are integrated throughout the
movie. It's very much pulled fromthe source material, which was a comic
book graphic novel. Right, soyou get a lot of that. Yeah,
that's another a great one. Youdidn't do too bad today. You
actually pick some winners. I tried. I tried, you know, So,
(17:07):
any movies we talked about today thatpeople should watch if they have it,
what do you think is the bigone? I'm gonna say Watchman is
the one, Like I would probablywant to revisit the most. I haven't
watched that in a while, soI'd be interested to take that for a
spin again. Can't go wrong withScott Pilgrim though. I could watch that
every day. Yeah, there's somethingabout that movie. Even watching the title
sequence again just for this, Iwas like, so, I just want
(17:30):
to watch this movie again because it'sso good. It's quirky and fun,
and it fast paced. It's fastpaced. They injected the gaming into the
movie itself. It's like part ofthe movie, you know. Yeah,
it's got great sound effects, greatjokes, great cast. Yeah, it's
just a that's a great movie.Michael Sarah at his peak. Yeah,
Chris Evans is in there, andwhat's her face that you like? And
(17:53):
A Kendrick the pitch perfect person.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do
like her. Did I mention thatbefore? Anna Kendrick? Oh yeah,
I think when we talked about shewas in that commercial. Oh you're like,
I love Anna Hendrick. Yeah,I enjoy hair. It was like
a little bit of the uh MichellePfiffer, you know, I had Michelle
(18:14):
Pfiffer evertime. It's also got BrieLarson Captain Marvel. She's in there,
Yeah, Bree Larson. Who's theother uh oh, the main girl in
there. It's the one I likethe best, the girl with the blue
hair. She was in Death Proof, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Yeah, that's
her, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. What'sher IMDb? It looked like, oh,
Cloverfield Oh yeah, ten Cloverfield Lane. That's right. Yeah, I
(18:38):
really liked that one. Oh yeah, she was in the Thing twenty eleven.
That's right, Yeah, she was. I forgot about that altogether.
I did see that recently. Soyou watched the Thing remake recently? Yeah?
It was I don't know if itwas on television or something. I
will say it wasn't the worst.It's one of those unnecessary remakes. Yeah,
(19:02):
I mean, I think that's agenerally good list. That's it for
this episode of Movies and Marketing.Until next time, let's fade to black.
I'll be back. He's not comingback.
In a world where movies rely onmarketing more than ever to connect with audiences,
one podcast aims to make sense ofit all. This is movies and
marketing. Next Saturday Night, where'ssending you that to the future? Go
ahead, make my day? Howabout now you're crazy Dutch past. What
(00:27):
we've got here is failure you milgate? Take them? Look around? Where's
a cross all about? We mightbe as well with them. I am
an FBI agent. So recently,Patrick, we talked about the best TV
(00:48):
opening credits on our sister podcast,Speaking Human. Now, obviously this isn't
a show about TV, this isthe show about movies. But that podcast
got us thinking. You know,opening credits on TV become pretty interesting.
In recent years, movie opening creditshave been pretty interesting, I would say
(01:10):
for decades. Would you agree withthat? Yeah, I think we talked
about this a little bit. What'sinteresting about movies is that it used to
be you always had a title sequenceat the beginning, and now it's a
little bit more rare that you seea traditional title sequence. At some point
along the way, they went fromlike text on screen and now sometimes they
don't even roll credits at all.Yeah, it's an interesting thing I remember
(01:34):
when I saw Enter the Dragon recently, which was made in the seventies.
Long almost what you would see isthe end credits now played up front of
the movie, and then the creditsat the end of the movie were like
thirty seconds long, just something realshort, and then it was over,
so almost like the inverse of whatwe get today. And then Yeah,
(01:55):
I think of Raising Arizona as theexample I think of the most when I
think of this, kind of likepre Roll, where it was a movie
where movies started stretching out how longthey could go before they even play a
little bit of opening credits, wherethat was like never done before. I
think around probably like seventies eighties,somewhere around there, people started to play
(02:16):
with the opening credits a little more, and even going back a little further,
you know, into the fifties andstuff, people started to get a
little more artful with the opening creditssequence a little bit. If you look
at like Hitchcock movies and things likethat, Yeah, only having the credits
show up as text on screen waskind of just boring. I think messing
(02:37):
with that formula it was probably somethingpretty exciting for the audience because you got
something more. I was thinking aboutSaturday Night Fever the beginning of that.
You know, they come in withmusic, starts playing from the beg's and
then you see John Travolta walking.That's a very iconic title sequence, and
that was in the seventies, becauseI think that's where the shift started to
(02:58):
happen, was the seventies. Yeah, and that's a good point. I
don't know at what point the technologygot there where they could actually superimpose,
you know, the credits over theimages. I'm sure at some point that
was not an option. Yeah,but I don't know how early that was.
I mean, that seems like that'sbeen around for a while. I
don't know, though, at whatpoints you know that they're like, well,
(03:22):
we can't do that, or wecan't do that in certain ways,
or we can't like edit scenes togetherand put these words over the images like
we see that done now in somany creative ways. Yeah, and we're
going to talk about a few ofthose today. That's, you know,
in case you're wondering what are theseguys talking about today, We're talking about
some of the great title sequences overthe years. We think whilst what we
(03:43):
think are some of the great titlesequences. We're going to share a few
of those. Before we get there, let's talk about the purpose of the
title sequence. Yeah, I've cameacross this. I thought it was interesting
to quote Dan Peri or Dan Perry, I don't really know how you pronounced
his name. He was the typographerwho is responsible for the opening crawl of
the Star Wars title sequence, andduring an interview with Adam Woodward from a
(04:06):
magazine publication, he said that agood title conveys a message while relating to
the most important elements of the storyor lead character. And you know,
title sequences in movies set that tone. They give the vibe of the movie.
They give some sort of message thatsort of ties into what's going to
happen in the movie. Some ofthem do it really well, and some
(04:28):
of them you could swap them betweenmovies and you would never know the difference,
right, You'd be like, Oh, all that was was a pretty
much blank slate and they just threwit up. Others take time and craft
and care how it relates to themovie and the storyline, and those are
the really really good ones in myopinion. Anyway. Yeah, No,
I think I'm with you on thatone. I like when it sets the
tone, sets the stage for whatyou're going to see. It kind of
(04:50):
throws you into the world, youknow. Even that being said, we're
kind of talking smack a little biton traditional credit. I do even think
there's a place for, you know, just black screen with a traditional credit,
just giving you kind of the titlethere. I think that fits with
a certain type of movie, butyou know, it should kind of tell
you what are you going to seehere? Are you going to be on
the edge of your seat? Orshould you get ready to weep? Should
(05:11):
you prepare to laugh. David Fincher, who we might talk about more here,
the director behind Fight Club and PanicRoom just Release The Killer on Netflix,
is kind of a master of thecredit sequence. Yeah. I saw
an interview where he said, oftentimesmovies are marketed poorly, and opening credits
are an opportunity to sort of resetexpectations and get people in the right frame
(05:32):
of mind. I think that's agood way to think about them. Putting
the audience in the right frame ofmind is critical. Like you said,
set the expectations, and then thoseexpectations allow you to have a good experience
or a bad experience. Yeah,that's a good point. Yeah. So
today, if you haven't listened tothe other episode, which you may not
have, we're going to each sharejust like in our Speaking Human podcast,
(05:56):
where you're going to share two notable, memorable or favorite movie opening credit sequences
of our own. You know,I'll say this upfront. These are a
couple of our picks. There areprobably and would you agree with me,
there's one hundred that could be onthis list because there's so many good ones.
No, I totally agree with that. I think you got to limit
it in some ways else. Youknow, these lists they just go on
(06:18):
forever. Yeah, I'll share withyou an awesome resource that I came across
Art of the title. It's awebsite like Speaking Human does with marketing and
pop culture. They have the wholewebsite is just video after video of the
title sequences of movies. Check itout. I mean, they're like the
Speaking Human of title sequences. Yeah. Absolutely, good share, good resource.
(06:43):
So before I share it, letme take you back in time.
Patrick. So, around the yeartwenty ten, twenty eleven, somewhere around
that you might remember this, Iwanted to add a blog to my website
and I called you up for somedigital and design assistance, as I often
do, and when you asked whataesthetic I was going for, I referenced
(07:05):
the catch me. If you cancredit sequence as a source of inspiration,
Yeah, that should give you someidea of how this credit sequence has lived
in my head since I saw thetwo thousand and two Steven Spielberg movie.
What's great about this credit sequence?Very saw Bass inspired. If you don't
(07:25):
know who Saw Bass is, He'sa graphic designer, very famous for his
movie posters and movie title sequences.In fact, largely credited for making movie
credit sequences part of the cinematic experiencerather than just these static things like we
talked about before. But he didkind of these very innovative, stylish design
(07:47):
sequences, sometimes cleverly animated. Thisis very much to catch me if you
can, very much in that mode. Uses this great coloration. What really
grabbed me the first time around whenI saw it with sort of this black
and light blue coloration together and justvery much moving, this animation just moving,
(08:09):
reflecting the film's cat and mouse theme. We got this playful jazzy music
reflecting the film's tone, which isthis dramatic but it's also witty, it's
charming. You know, it's kindof a fun movie that it just keeps
moving the whole time, and you'reseeing kind of this little chase sequence play
out through this animation with this jazzyscore playing almost like capturing the movie through
(08:33):
something that's not actually showing you what'shappening in the movie, but it's just
giving you a feel for it throughthis stylish animation. The John Williams score
key to this, really complimenting theanimation here too. What do you think
of the catch me if you canopening title sequence? Patrick, I love
these types because this is very graphicdesigner. It plays with typography, a
(08:56):
lot of moving lines, moving lines, moving shapes. If the music score
can be really really effective in drawingyou in that being said, I felt
like it was super necessary. Iwanted to make sure that I didn't not
include something just because it was superpopular. So my first pick is Star
(09:16):
Wars from nineteen seventy seven. Thisone is super iconic. Ye, you
don't even have to play it inyour mind. I'm sure you can actually
see the crawl of narrative going backin space. When you can picture something
even when it's not in front ofyou. I think, even if you
haven't seen the movies themselves, whichI have met people who have never seen
Star Wars, I'm sure you knowexactly what I'm talking about. When I
(09:39):
say the title sequence and seeing thetext fall back into space, it sets
the tone for the movie. Evenwhen you didn't know what this movie was.
It had a very cinematic, veryorchestrated the method in which they were
presenting the storyline. The other partabout this was a fun fact about it.
The inspiration behind the title sequence itselfwas George Lucas has come out and
(10:03):
it has stated this in the pastthat the crawl was inspired by the opening
crawls used in the beginning of theepisodes of the original Flash Gordon in Buck
Rogers film series, which was alsosome of his inspiration to write the Star
Wars saga. So I thought thatwas pretty interesting because I did not know
that before. Man, I don'tknow this is a good choice because I
(10:24):
don't know if there's any movie thatannounces itself like the beginning of Star Wars
where you just hear that music andthe title comes up. Yeah, it's
just like immediately you're standing at attention, and you have to be watching and
reading and paying attention. The otherthing that I think is super interesting is
just the angle of the crawl andhow it comes across the screen. I
(10:48):
wonder if they worked on like,let's try different angles and see like placement
in different ways to position this toget it just right. Yeah. Actually,
the typographer, the Dan guy,said it was only when and he
saw the nineteen thirty nine dramatic WesternUnion Pacific about building of the railroad across
the American West, that he settledon the idea of an opening shot looking
(11:11):
down the tracks. So that washis sort of inspiration behind that, and
in this case became one of themost iconic title sequences of all time.
I would say, Yeah, andhow much more futuristic or how much more
fitting with space is that than ifwe would have just had that crawl going
straight up and down right right ina galaxy far far away, right into
(11:33):
deep space. Yeah. Yeah,it's an amazing I mean, if we're
ranking them, really, that shouldprobably be number one of all time.
Yeah. And you said, there'snot a lot of those that do that
quite like Star Wars. Probably theonly one that's close to that is I
can think of in my lifetime wouldprobably be Superman, you know, because
of the musical score. Yeah,right, the original Superman movies with Christopher
(11:56):
Reeves, you know, and thenthat Superman sort of flashing in. And
it's not the same as Star Wars, but it's very similar in nature as
to what Star Wars does there,Star Wars Superman, Catch me if you
can. I think that's all themusic of John Williams. Yeah, A
critical part of the title sequences amusical score. Right. I know we're
(12:18):
talking about visual things on screen,but it can't go unstated that the sound
is so important. Yeah. Well, on that note, let me for
my second pick take us in acompletely different direction musically, a movie I
really like two thousand and nine's Watchmanmovie from Zach Snyder. This is the
(12:39):
adaptation of the legendary nineteen eighties DCproperty submersive at almost every turn in the
best ways. That being said,I think by far the best part of
the movie is the opening credits,which sum up the rise and fall of
superheroes in the world of the movie. Do you remember this sequence? Patrick?
(13:01):
Oh? Yeah, because that wasactually on my original list, and
then you killed it. I did, but I do love this one.
It's a long one, showing usmoments from different years and decades in ultra
high frame rate slow motion to thesoundtrack of Bob Dylan's The Times They Are
a change in We get a senseof an entire other movie worth of backstory,
(13:26):
all the while seeing the names ofactors, producers, writers stylistically integrated
over the action. To be fair, this sequence is so essential and detailed
it's almost unfair to compare it toother credit sequences. But it's also such
an amazing use of credits. Forthat very reason, when I talk about
(13:48):
something being like a mini movie,this is a great example of it.
I mean, it's like an entiregraphic novel wedged into the beginning of the
movie that tells you really critical informationyou need to know before you go into
what happens after. The credit sequence. This key backstory. Without it,
if you didn't have it, youcouldn't understand anything. I think this might
(14:11):
be my favorite credit sequence of alltime. It gives you backstory. Like
you said, it also shows youthat this superhero world that you're about to
be shown is a little darker thanwhat you're used to. Oh yeah,
yeah, maybe even a little morepolitical, and it is typographically very beautiful
(14:31):
and visually brings you into the movie. Yeah, not what you're expecting,
throws you off balance right from theget go. No, I liked that
one a lot. Mine, muchlike yours, is very long title sequence
Scott Pilgrim versus the World, Yesfrom twenty ten. It basically starts off
like you're thrown into the beginning ofthe movie. But then what happens is
(14:54):
that they haven't started the actual titlesequence yet, and the BA and that
they have begins to play sex Bobombsex bo bomb, Yeah, and then
the credit sequence comes on screen asif it's the music being played. They're
very like punk rock, screaming,very guitar riffs, drums, and this
(15:16):
blend of music being shown on screenwith typography that's being jolted around on screen.
Typography is pulsating on screen, youknow, so it's given this vibe
of punk rock and then they kindof zooms back out into the reality of
the movie again. It's really nicethe way that they integrated the two things
together. You know, they kindof jump you into the movie. You're
(15:37):
learning a little bit about them,and then they start playing the music boom
and the title sequence comes up andthen they draw you right back into the
movie, gives you a flavor ofwhat you're about to witness on screen.
Yeah, I love this one.This one was one of my honorable mentions.
So bright, so fast, it'slike almost like an art show.
I don't know how they made thisexactly, so many like flashing images.
(16:00):
It looks like the the film's almostlike scratched up or something. You get
it's hard even to explain the differentcolors and shapes and you know, you
get like stars and lines and stuff. It's almost like scratched up. And
it just comes at you so quicklywith the names on there, and I
like even the way Scott Pilgrim thename comes up, you know, it's
(16:22):
kind of like lightning bolts and verystylishly done and you know, very fast.
And once they start doing that wholecredit sequence, you're like, Okay,
this is this is kind of themode we're in. This is where
we're at for this movie, andit definitely comes at you fast. Edgar
Wright, you could tell just puta lot of style into that, very
much in line with the movie itselftoo, where there's you know, animation
(16:45):
will often pop up or there's thesedifferent comic book aspects are integrated throughout the
movie. It's very much pulled fromthe source material, which was a comic
book graphic novel. Right, soyou get a lot of that. Yeah,
that's another a great one. Youdidn't do too bad today. You
actually pick some winners. I tried. I tried, you know, So,
(17:07):
any movies we talked about today thatpeople should watch if they have it,
what do you think is the bigone? I'm gonna say Watchman is
the one, Like I would probablywant to revisit the most. I haven't
watched that in a while, soI'd be interested to take that for a
spin again. Can't go wrong withScott Pilgrim though. I could watch that
every day. Yeah, there's somethingabout that movie. Even watching the title
sequence again just for this, Iwas like, so, I just want
(17:30):
to watch this movie again because it'sso good. It's quirky and fun,
and it fast paced. It's fastpaced. They injected the gaming into the
movie itself. It's like part ofthe movie, you know. Yeah,
it's got great sound effects, greatjokes, great cast. Yeah, it's
just a that's a great movie.Michael Sarah at his peak. Yeah,
Chris Evans is in there, andwhat's her face that you like? And
(17:53):
A Kendrick the pitch perfect person.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do
like her. Did I mention thatbefore? Anna Kendrick? Oh yeah,
I think when we talked about shewas in that commercial. Oh you're like,
I love Anna Hendrick. Yeah,I enjoy hair. It was like
a little bit of the uh MichellePfiffer, you know, I had Michelle
(18:14):
Pfiffer evertime. It's also got BrieLarson Captain Marvel. She's in there,
Yeah, Bree Larson. Who's theother uh oh, the main girl in
there. It's the one I likethe best, the girl with the blue
hair. She was in Death Proof, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Yeah, that's
her, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. What'sher IMDb? It looked like, oh,
Cloverfield Oh yeah, ten Cloverfield Lane. That's right. Yeah, I
(18:38):
really liked that one. Oh yeah, she was in the Thing twenty eleven.
That's right, Yeah, she was. I forgot about that altogether.
I did see that recently. Soyou watched the Thing remake recently? Yeah?
It was I don't know if itwas on television or something. I
will say it wasn't the worst.It's one of those unnecessary remakes. Yeah,
(19:02):
I mean, I think that's agenerally good list. That's it for
this episode of Movies and Marketing.Until next time, let's fade to black.
I'll be back. He's not comingback.
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