The Art of the Title
This Opening Sequence of the 2013 television show Hannibal is extremely effective in how it was designed and portrayed.This image from the initial "Rorschach" Ideas Board details on of the key motifs from the 1st Season. Blood is used to portray all of the images we are to see throughout all of the episodes of the season. The stag motif is integrated into the sequence as it is of relevance, but it also intermingled with the cast, to create a blurring of the line between animalism and humanity. The idea of blood did transfer over into the final design, however the use of the stag motif was dropped from the final title sequence. In order to create this final effect - Both Laurence Fishburne and Mads Mikkelson had 3D scans done, to fully create this effect accurately.
The other story boards that involved blood also considered using it to give you images of the characters and key motifs, but was also names "Capillary", as it looks like bursting blood vessels, that are spreading and branching off into the white abyss that surrounds the blood. This also was discarded in the final titles, as well as the use of the main protagonist of the story, Will Graham. Fishburne instead takes his place.
A second title sequence that is effective is Seven, with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.
In an interview with Kyle Cooper, the main title designer, the process to make this title sequence was very experimental. "We started to bounce of ideas... Cut his fingers with a razerblade... cut God out of a dollar bill" Others suggestions included getting an "old camera to shoot all the credits, so they can waterfall and streak and look almost handmade. This does fit in to the general aesthetic of the film... playing into the idea of the scrapbook at the start of the film,
Many different techniques were used to distort the camera and create confusion, by shaking, hitting,closing and turning off the camera, as well as putting glass in front of the lens.
From this, Cooper and Fincher worked with the editor., to splice together these pieces of footage. "If you go through frame-by-frame, they're might be as streak that lands somewhere, but its not the same shot...It was done to look accidental, but the methodology isn't." This is all done, in an ordered way, but creates a picture of the serial killer, and how he goes about doing his job.
~ Kyle Cooper
2010 Blu Ray Commentary
A final title sequence that is effective, is the opening for Westworld.
This title sequence is from the minds of Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy and J.J. Abrams, and with this project they were "extremely ambitious". The opening sequence was given a long time to be produced and created. "It started with a completely blank slate. They shared a lot of material from the show - and this is when there were a lot of different companies in the mix..."
A lot of the design elements in the show echo "The design of the Dark Knight and films like that... harks back to masters like Kubrick. I'm obsessed with circles and squares and symmetry and balance". These ideas feed into the title sequence, with the idea of small symmetrical details coming together to create something utterly human, but also extremely mechanical.
From the outset, the writers threw out ideas that were more emotionally challenging.... "That's when I felt we were let off the leash, in a real way but also in a very collaborative way." This level of freedom meant that the writers could create an intro that explained the mechanized setting, and how it fits within the confines of the "park".
"The iconography of the galloping horse across a Western Landscape" is present, but is done in a way that it is a "grotesque skeletal creature being assembled by robots" This is an image that we are often used to, but it is warped into something we later can no longer recognize, and this trend occurs throughout the series.
~Patrick Clair INTERVIEW 2017
Amy Lynch- Vivian
Abbi Shuttlewood- Kidnapper
Roberta Farrell- Kidnapper
