Here at Motionographer Towers, we’ve decided to kick off a mini-series of what we consider to be truly beautiful title sequences. Rather than limiting ourselves to something that is strictly motion graphics or design related, we are focusing on the overall imagery. Naturally, this is all completely subjective, and one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure.
Anyway, without further ado, I present for your collective consideration, the title sequence to The Fall. I often think that slow motion is becoming a bit over-used, but that’s far from the case here. When in the right hands, it can turn chaos into tranquility.
Under the watchful eye of Tarsem Singh, Stefan G. Bucher also added subtle art deco typography that truly compliments the stunning cinematography.
Jamie Caliri can always be counted on to imbue a project with hand-made charm and incredible attention to detail. Ever since seeing the 2006 “Dragon” for United Airlines, I’ve been enchanted by his unique approach to storytelling.
His latest project comes through LA-based DUCK for Showtime’s new series about a single mother with multiple personality disorder, The United States of Tara. Using cut-out illustrations from Alex Juhasz, the sequence presents a series of layered vignettes populated by the show’s star. Says Caliri:
They wanted a pop-up book look. We decided to try to make as many real pop-up pages as possible and only cheat when we needed. I think it ended up being a fun mix of pop-up and animation.
Alex Juhausz really nailed a great Americana/comic book feel with his illustrations and Anthony Scott brought his usual sensitivity to the animation. The team really pulled together on this one and I think it shows. We had fun.
The United States of Tara is co-executive produced by Diablo Cody (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno) and Steven Spielberg.
Waaay back in July 2008, we posted a Quickie on Javan Ivey’s beautiful “My Paper Mind” video, produced using a self-devised method called “Stratastencil” (inspired by the Stratacut technique, but with an additive process instead). After watching Javan’s piece, I remember thinking, “It would be nice if somebody took this a little further and made a full spot out of this wicked technique.”
Ingeniously crafted, the spot—to quote one of our authors—”ticks all the right boxes”: innovative concept, great art direction, wicked animation and transitions, awesome typographic work and a smashing soundtrack to wrap it all up nicely. They even did a full 3D version, how nice!
We caught up with Ghost Robot to find out a bit more about the whole process, here’s what they said:
Both Javan Ivey’s and Jen Stark’s work were major influences on the project, though neither were involved directly with its making. Other points of influence in terms of the animation were the Cassius video for the song “The Sound Of Violence” and pretty much any 80’s movie set in the future for typography.
In terms of our process:
Working with after effects animators and a more traditional cell animator we began by designing the piece digitally. We created a 2D digital animation
with an alpha channel where the cut out space would eventually be. From there we ran the animation through a simulator in after effects which allowed us to approximate what the full animation would look like once cut and layered.
When satisfied with the effect of the digital simulation we then took the 2D digital animation (as an image sequence) to our digital print house where we printed onto 12″x18″ sheets of paper from a massive liquid toner Indigo printer. Each of the 1,336 images were then all cut by hand and photographed on a rig that allowed us to see upto 20 frames at a time.
Photography wise we shot with two identical DSLR cameras. To achieve the proper 3D effect while shooting such a small subject we had to find a way to accommodate a very small inner ocular distance (distance between each of the 2 film planes). Shooting with the cameras side by side would have been impossible as it would have required the bodies and lenses to occupy the same physical space. To fix this we used an angled one way mirror one camera shooting from atop, into the mirror and one camera shooting from behind, through the mirror. These cameras were controlled with through a computer which allowed us to keep all settings on the cameras identical.
These stills were then compiled in after effects and color corrected for the final.
The music is a mash-up a DJ friend of ours made for us: The first half is Phish with Galactic featuring Boots Riley and the second half is combination of Of Montreal and Santogold.
After talking to Ghost Robot, we were curious to see what Javan had to say about such beautiful homage:
This is precisely what I mean every time I say “I’d like to see someone try.” Because I do, I love to see what someone else does with it. They’ve taken the idea and applied manpower and a budget to it, and I’m absolutely floored. It looks great. I mean, I’m kinda bummed I wasn’t invited to the party, but I really enjoy seeing what they’ve done.
Great to see sharing being encouraged and celebrated here.
Credits
director: ELLIOT JOKELSON
exec. Producer: MARK DE PACE
exec. Producer: ZACHARY MORTENSEN
producer: MATTHEW ACHTERBERG
art director: ANDREW HAMILTON
lead animator: JASMINA MATHIEU
assistant animator: MIKE HEALY
assistant animator: KELLY GOELLER
music: MICHAEL SALTZMAN
sound design: ROBIN SHORE
color correction: JEROME THELIA
paper printing: B SQUARED
production coordinator: STINE MOISEN
sterographic assistant: TREVOR TWEETON
stereographic consultant: GREG DINKINS
paper consultant: STEVE VARVARO
paper consultant: ANGEL THOMPSON-GEORGES
rig fabricator: RYAN CHERESNICK
production assistant: ALICE MILLAR
fabrication intern: NADIRAH ZAKARIYA, EMMA BEEBE, NATALIA MOLINA, KATIE LOVE, ZACHARIAH DURR, EMILY SEARLE, JUDGE FINKLEA HANG XU, LENA HAWKINS, BRENDA MALIVINI, BASIL WHATLEY, LAILA LOT, JOY SUNJOOFT, BRACEY SMITH, EMMA MEAD, CRYSTAL FARSHCHI, DAN OLAVARRIA, CHRYSTIE COLE, TIERNEY COLE, LISETTE JOHNSON
Way back in 2007, we posted a Quickie for Head Gear Animation’s fantastic 5-second spots for the Dairy Farmers of Canada and agency Due North. Well, Head Gear’s added to their collection since then, and it’s definitely worth taking a few seconds (literally) to enjoy them.
Each spot—or “dot”—is a tightly packed joke told in a dizzying array of styles by Head Gear’s directors. David Gee (Writer) and Shawn Wells (Art Director) of Due North did a bang-up job writing these nuggets. Some of my favorites:
…but really, check out as many as you can. Oh, and in case you’re wondering who aced the sound design for the spots, that was Head Gear, too. Nice going!
Aardman director Steve Harding-Hill mixed 3D and 2D animation with a great sense of comedic timing to nudge Britons off the couch and into the great outdoors—or at least to the nearest park.
Working with agency M&C Saatchi for UK’s Department of Health, “Change4Life” tells the story of makind’s epic journey to obesity with tongue lodged firmly in cheek, using laughter instead of lectures to educate and motivate viewers.
The hybrid animation style is as playful as the palette, and Harding-Hill did a great job casting the faceless stars of the spot as lovable little creations.
Like many “stop-motion” spots of late, “Change4Life” used CG to create the illusion of good ol’ analogue clay. It’s expertly done here, and I suspect we’ll only see more of it in the future.
Says Harding-Hill:
We wanted things to be stop motion like, not too slick and stylized. We ended up making photocopies of our drawings, sticking them to polyboard, and shooting them with still cameras. Our backgrounds were created like theater sets, flat and layered up.
The black lines were crucial to the overall graphic sensibility and also made it possible for us to do some 2D animation and mix things up a bit.
The companion website features the same characters and lists practical tips for living a healthier lifestyle.
The Chips Ahoy Cookie Campaign has long been based on creative kookiness and comedic timing. Who best to execute this vision?
Look no further than Nathan Love, where you’ll find a hodgepodge of toys, pornified coloring books, melted baby dolls and gilded pipes (the plumbing kind, of course). A true blend of creative chaos and total genius.
Marching to the beat of their own drum, and charged with replicating Oz and the classic cookie character, Nathan perfectly synthesizes the old stop motion campaign with new advances of 3D animation, kicking personality and style up a notch, while maintaining the hand crafted look and feel.
And the animation? It’s Nathan Love, duh. Keeping with the classic, Cookie enters the house of Auntie Em as a bounding mess of emotions- an effortless task for Nathaners.
Some of you will scoff at the swap from stop-mo to CG. Fear nothing, friends. Cookie is in good hands, for the gang at Nathan is the real deal, a conglomerate of crafty artists and well, talented storytellers.
Stay tuned for Cookie part two, blazing the motion trails very soon.
CLIENT
Client: Kraft
AGENCY
Agency: DraftFCB
EVP Head of Production: Paddy Giordano
Producer: Michelle Carman
SVP / Managing Director: Patricia Messeroux
EVP Executive Creative Director: Sandy Greenberg
EVP Executive Creative Director: Terri Meyer
SVP / Creative Director: Gerald Cuesta
SVP / Creative Director: Howard Ronay
Senior Business Manager: Jennifer Rubin
Account Supervisor: Kelly Megel
Assistant Account Executive: April Blackmon
Music Producer: Gregory Grene
DIRECTOR
Director: Nathan Love
Executive Producer: Mike Harry
Producer: Derrick Huang
Creative Directors: Joe & Kate Burrascano
Character Design / Storyboards: Brad Johansen
Editing / After Effects Lead: Chase Massingill
After Effects: Mike Milyavsky
Animation Leads: Jeff Lopez, Dan Vislocky
Animators: Kevin Phelps, Ryan Moran, David Han
Character TD’s: Sean Kealey, Ylli Orana
Lighting & Rendering Lead: Mats Andersson
Texture / Lighting / Composite Artists: Sylvia Apostal, Denis Kozyrev, Anca Risca
Modeling: Tony Jung, B.F. Tsang, Luis E Perez
FX: Mothana Hussein
Pipeline TD’s: Sarah Elizabeth Clemens, Jesse Clemens, Jessica Monteiro
Scratch-Track Foley Artists: Nicholas “the Biggant” Dratch, Michael Impollonia, Chase Massingill, Fayna Sanchez, Kate Burrascano
SOUND
Voice-Over Talent Chip: Max Casella
AVO: Paul Spencer
Witch (Oz): Harriet Carmichael
Reporter (Rocky): Brad Abelle
Adrian (Rocky): Talia Shire
Music Composer: Mark Isham
Sound Lounge: Tom Jucarone
Manic: Producer- Becca Smith
Flame Artist: Johnny Starace
Pirate Toronto: Engineer- Chris Tate
This raw lo-fi offering from Asif Mian, gives us a break from the commercial world for a brief moment so that we might be either shocked or just bust up laughing. (Both are good in this case)
On this two-minute ride, we follow a bizarre and possibly drunken clown on his random and comical journey—packed with a message for the kids. The film was a part of RE:UP magazine’s Easy 10 short film series, sponsored by Scion.
Asif created a look and story quite different from his highly polished music video for Woodhands, yet he still worked in his stop motion antics and bizarre in-camera effects. He also scored the piece, adding an extra layer of quirkiness.
Asif has recently signed with 1st Ave Machine, so stay tuned to see what lies ahead.
“Get Yo KLOWWWN”
Created and Written by Asif Mian
KLOWWWN character: Luke Meginsky
Director: Asif Mian
Director of Photography: Zak Mulligan
Art Director: Asif Mian
Editor: Asif Mian and Colin Travers
Post Production: Evaq Studio
Original Music: CX KiDTRONiK
Music Score Arrangment: Asif Mian
Producer: Josh Hassin
Produced by: 1st Ave Machine
Curated by RE:UP Magazine
Sponsored by Scion
Quick note: Barcelona studio DVEIN (a Motionographer favorite) will create the opening titles for F5. They will present the titles at a special session, during which they will share their process and creative vision for the project.
DVEIN’s intense passion for visual culture is evident in everything they do, and I am thrilled for them to participate in this way.
Read about DVEIN and all the other speakers on the F5 Speakers page.
Illustrator Siggi Eggertsson was born in a small town off the North Coast of Iceland, but has moved on to work with the likes of Karlssonwilker in New York and Big Active in London.
PJ Richardson and Anthony Liu have been really busy since they opened the Laundry Mat back in 2006. To show off the freshness they updated their site and refreshed the reel. Their new work includes brands like Nike, Wrigley’s, Zune, and Absolut. They have also been involved in numerous music videos including John Legend, The Cool Kids, and my personal favorite The Blood Arm video.
For myself, and I am sure many others, PJ has always been one of the most inspirational talents in our industry. He has consistently made it a point to follow the mantra of “whatever you think is right, do the opposite.” This modus operandi has put them in the elite niche of cutting edge up and comers.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A. during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
