The art of the title sequence
The title sequence for Catch Me If You Can, in particular, is one of my favourites, and here are a few others worthy of a mention.
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Thank You For Smoking (2005)
Typographica did a little font spotting for that.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Casino Royale (2006)
North by Northwest (1959)
“The final credit (for the director) appears as a portly man (Hitch in his trademark cameo) races in attempt to catch a bus, only to see the doors shut in his face.”
Full description on notcoming.com
Gotta love those Hitchcock cameos.
Se7en (1995) — suggested by Luke
United States of Tara (2008) — suggested by Antonea
Lord of War (2005) — suggested by Anaska
More title sequence inspiration
Do you have a favourite opening sequence?
Related posts
60 appreciated comments on “The art of the title sequence”
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The intro to Catch Me If You Can is very well thought out and executed.
My favourite intro to a film as got to be the laid back cool of Dazed and Confused. The Ford pulling into the car-park in the summer sunshine as Aerosmith plays, I wish I went to that school.
I can’t believe you didn’t include the credits for Se7en, arguably the best mix of music and imagery that perfectly match the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY
Casino Royale certainly touches on this, but haven’t Bond films always had a snappy title sequence?
The Catch Me If You Can intro is a very big nod to Saul bass, who was responsible for many famous intros as “The Man With The Golden Gun”
I remember seeing an interview with him stating that “every good designer should be able to draw”. I’m not much of a drawer myself, so my question to you David is this:
Is it important to be a good drawer when designing logos ?
The Catch Me If You Can one is also my favourite… even our cinema ‘Greater Union’ has an opening intro that includes 50 movie titles in that style but not as good in my opinion.
I like the credits in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, but they are actually at the end of the movie. Casino Royale also brilliant.
Good choice with ‘Catch me if you can’, got it on DVD a few years back and was fascinated by the opening titles.
Catch Me If You Can’s opening sequence has always been one of my favorites.
Showtime has just recently finished the first season of their new series ‘United States of Tara.’ I really love the opening sequence to this show. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlBBkKyM_g) They also used real pop-up art as well as animation and 3d here and there. DUCK Studios did it. (The people who did Madagascar 2′s opening title sequence)
Watched Catch Me If You Can again just last night! My wife and I raved over the title sequence. The typography, style, and animation are brilliant. It’s the most clever part of a really clever film. The title sequence tells the story so perfectly.
Especially smart is the word “Me” in the title vanishing as a cloud. Genius!
Another sequence to add to the discussion would have to be Fight Club. It’s a great tone-setter.
Nice Catch with the last one there. Forgot about that.
Reminds me of one of my favourites:
Darn. the above comment should link to Panic Room
I’ve always like the Catch Me If You Can one too. My all-time favourite one, though, is the title sequence form Fight Club…
Loved Catch me if you can titles from the first moment I saw them, oddly also loved all the closeups of him producing the forged cheques in the film too! And anything Saul Bass does is always worthy of a mention!
Ah, Aerosmith. Brings back some memories, Abbas.
Luke, you’re right, Se7en is another. I’ve updated to include it. Cheers.
Julia, as a collective, I’d say they do, and I’ll forever associate the figure turning inside a circle with Bond.
lars, good question. I don’t think it’s important to be a good drawer, but for me, it’s important to at least draw. I can record ideas a lot faster when I’m not restricted by technology, and it’s the speed at which ideas can be generated that will often lead to better results when working to deadlines.
Jacob, the intro compilation sounds interesting. Is that played before certain films start?
Tomas, I’ve heard a few people mention Lemony Snicket, but I’ve yet to see it. Is the film any good? I’m always on the look-out for a decent movie.
Antonea, wonderful opening sequence. Thanks for linking to it, and I’ll definitely check out DUCK Studios.
Danny, it’s better that Catch Me If You Can is a great film. Hanks is one of my favourites.
Todd, Andrew, too much time has passed since I saw Fight Club, I’ll have to jog my memory.
Liz, I guess you tried embedding? I think only the admin can embed videos in comments, but you’re welcome to paste a link.
Closing credits of Ratatouille are quite nice as well. Especially considering it’s an animated film.
Of course, it is subjective. But I am a little unhappy to see that my favorite — ‘Lord of War’ — is not featured here. It depicts the start and finish of the life of a bullet. Till I see this sequence, my favorite one was ‘North by Northwest.’
This blog post gives a sneak peak about the production details of ‘Lord of War’s title sequence.
http://maxdiamond.blogspot.com/2007/06/lord-of-war-title-sequence.html
I always liked the sequence for “Spider-Man”.
Another credit intro sequence I always liked was the one for the Guy Richie film “Snatch”.
Lemony Snicket and Hallam Foe are both lovely.
The Bond film intros are fantastic. Although, it sucks when you see a really amazing movie intro, and then critics completely rip it apart. They could at least say, “that graphic designer did one heck of an intro.” ;-) just sayin’…
The original Jason Bourne movie with the Moby intro and closing is fairly well-done as well.
Catch Me If You Can is very remarkable, one of my favourites.
There are also the opening of Eurotrip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhodii_JD2I&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lokonarede.com%2F%3Fp%3D270&feature=player_embedded and the opening of The Pink Panther (from 1964): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlzHIGxnSnE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lokonarede.com%2F%3Fp%3D270&feature=player_embedded. Last but not least, the opening of Juno is very interesting (although is not avaliable at Youtube anymore due to violation of rights.)
I love the opener to Napoleon Dynamite – very low budget, but also very clever!
You can view it here
These are all fantastic credit sequences! Each one sets the tone of the film. It’s great that you included Seven. Check out the opening credits of any David Fincher film and you will see great opening credtis. My favorite is Fight Club. Watching the camera float through the brain, out a sweat gland and up the barrel of gun. Now THAT sets the tone of that film.
Also Fincher films with opening sequences worthy of note is Panic Room, the before mentioned North By Northwest certainly is in its DNA with floating text in the cit y.
I love this stuff, Catch Me If You Can is probably my favorite movie solely based on the opening credits.
Great stuff and keep up the blogging!
Casino Royale was a very good one. Always a fan of the bond intros.
Agree with Anaska, Lord of War is brilliant. Also went to see Watchmen recently and quite liked it, with Bob Dylan singing.
An all time favorite of mine is Bullitt. Hard to describe if you haven’t seen it (but you have, right? Right??), but the basic idea is that the credits play over the beginning scene of the movie. Cuts between edits in the scene is done by starting the next scene inside the letters of the title/name on screen, and then expanding the title/name out to fill the screen. And the music is way cool.
Saul Bass is awesome, a legend. Following in his footsteps is Kyle Cooper, a legend in the making, if not already. Check out Imaginary Forces, his company, they did some of the titles you have displayed here.
Nice collection.
Casino Royale is brilliant. Nice post. Thanks.
Every film shown at Greater Union features that ad I was talking about.
Anaska, Fernanda, Deirdre,
I’ve updated the post to include opening credits for Lord of War, Snatch, and The Pink Panther. Excellent suggestions. Juno’s a good movie. I enjoyed watching it, but don’t think I’ve seen Eurotrip.
Alex,
The animation in Ratatouille was great, from what I remember, so I’d like to see those closing credits again.
Toby, I’ll see if I can find the Bourne intro. Thanks to both you, and to Kirsten for the suggestion and link.
Devlin,
Fight Club’s another film I like. I’ll search for the titles now.
Lee,
You’re the first person I’ve seen mention Watchmen. I never read any of the comics, so can’t compare, but did it live up to expectations? On the other side of the coin, I saw a trailor for Where the Wild Things Are. It’ll probably be more for kids, being based on a children’s book and all, but it caught my eye — to come out later this year.
Jens,
Bullitt’s on my list to ‘watch again’. It’s been so long, I can’t really remember much of it (or maybe that’s just my poor memory).
James,
I’ll definitely look up Imaginary Forces. Cheers.
This is a great post for inspiration for every one who works with motion graphics, like me (soon), nowadays almost all the films have a great title sequence, even the studios outsourcing this kind of work to specialized agencies, like that they have for sure a great openning sequence.
My favorites:
Tekkon kinkurîto (Tekkonkinkreet), Number 23, Fight club, Lord of War, Snatch, Gattaca , The Incredibles, Kunfu Panda and more….
Ha! Can we discuss the end credits too?
I really, really liked what Pixar did in the closing title sequence of ‘Monsters, Inc.’ What do you think?
I don’t know if you know about it, but all of these sequences can be viewed at much higher quality along with many other great titles at http://www.artofthetitle.com/
Excellent opening sequences – I love the catch me if you can one and casino royale ones. Love the casino royale soundtrack too.
Thanks for sharing this, really inspiring!
Just watched Lord of War last night, great title sequence, title sequences that tell a miniture story in their own right like the Catch me if you can and Lord of war i think are definatley more impactful than ones that dont!
Oh I love title sequences, my favorite recently is Casino Royale, gorgeous.
I’d love to design a title sequence one day ….stares wistfully into space and dreams away :)
A couple I’ve not seen there, Luis. Cheers.
Anaska,
Do you have a link to it? Pixar’s movies are great, but I’ve not watched that one. Toy Story’s an all-time favourite.
Neil,
Yep, that’s the first resource I link to at the foot of my post.
One day, Amanda. One day.
Thanks everyone.
David, check this ‘Monsters, Inc. Bloopers’ in YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG2T7upUVAk
These are shown along with the closing credits in the movie. PIXAR did a whole five minutes of amazing and funny animation!
I saw this site a while ago, and its very inspiring seeing all the different titles from the films, one of the best parts of going to the movies besides the previews haha.
11 videos?
I realize that it’s your blog and you can rightly do what you want but wouldn’t one video a day with what you like and disliked about each one have created more discussion? It would at least have been educational for a visual illiterate like me.
Thanks for that, Anaska.
Andrew,
There were originally less than half the number. I added a few more following reader suggestions, and yes, I think your idea would’ve created more discussion. Thanks for the thought.
The Catch Me If You Can intro is well made and reminds me a little of some 1960´s themes like the Pink Panther. A more violent but still very well made opening scene is David lynch´s “Wild at heart”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASNY-QPRugQ (beware! its quite violent).
I love the title sequences to some of Pedro Almodovar’s films notably Volver, All About My Mother and Flower of My Secret… Simple but Chic with a certain iconic flavour. The film posters are pretty cool too…
Although someone mentioned the closing credits already, I adored the opening sequence of Pixar’s Monster’s Inc. It was the first movie that really had an opening that grabbed me visually. I bought the dvd pretty much because of it!
Pedra do Reino (Stone of the Kingdom) is very cool. . It reminds me of the title sequence to the HBO series Carnivale. It’s almost like an illuminated manuscript come to life.
how about a classic – 101 Dalmations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TKBuO7EHQg
I really enjoyed this post. I think “Catch me if you Can” is so great not only for the opening credits but the fantastic score! Thanks!
DELICATESSEN.
Certainly one of the greatest title sequences of all time and all in camera. Truly outstanding. I also really love Soul Bass’ work on The Age of Innocence.
For TV we can’t go past MAD MEN’s beautiful 50′s advertising design opening credits and DEADWOOD’s in camera showcase. As in all cases, the only thing more important that the titles themselves is the accompanying music.
Great article! I always really liked the title to Catch Me If You Can too! I’ve always been a movie buff, and I think that it’s helping me with my BS in Web Design and Development program. While it’s not the best idea for websites to use fancy or flashy introductions (for SEO purposes), there are definitely some interesting and creative ways to trap visitors attention! Thanks for pointing this out to everyone, I enjoyed the comments above and Stumbled the blog- I’ll definitely be back for more!
The Kingdom, by Peter Berg and Starring Jamie Foxx, won all kinds of kudos for it’s opening credits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKppKRnM7cU&feature=player_embedded It’s a phenomenal synopsis of Saudi Arabia’s entry into the world of nations and America’s role in the region — all done with real footage, audio and stats.
For me, Catch me if you nails it! I think is sublime, not just for being so well thought and executed as someone mentioned earlier, but also for capturing the spirit of the film so perfectly and instantly as it does…
I love Catch me if you can title sequence. Theres something about it that I really like. It just works very well.
Has anyone seen ‘Hollow man’ titles?
It depicts the biological or sort of cellular transformation with various combinations. Very crisp and accurate in terms of subject.
Hi,
Eurotrip as a very intresting title sequence aswell. Just incase any of you have missed that out.
Its always intresting to see a very 2D title sequence. Specially if that can be maintained throughout the narrative pattern of the film ( although i know thats not always possible ).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCRF_XP7c6c
Charade also had a very intresting title sequence, and considering the time frame when it was made, the title sequence is quiet ahead of its time.
I loved the color and the feel of pulp comics.
here is the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjGDjwxRwpI
Catch Me If You Can sequence is my favorite of the bunch, love how the typography communicates on multiple levels.
please check out the opening of American Psycho. That sequence us a great use of not only type but color
Uhhhh, Fight Club!
I have to say that House on Haunted Hill is one of the best I think. Its just so dark and awesome!!!
http://youtu.be/djVjGGpabpk