Wednesday, February 1

a [short] history of the title sequence






Designed as a possible title sequence for a fictitious documentary, this film shows a history of the title sequence in a nutshell... The names of the title designers all refer to specific characteristics of the revolutionary titles that they designed.

This film refers to elements such as the cut and shifted characters of Saul Bass' Psycho title, the colored circles of Maurice Binder's design for Dr. No and the contemporary designs of Kyle Cooper and Danny Yount.
-via Jurjen Versteeg [fantastic -ed.]
I asked someone yday who they would have in a series of design talks and was introduced to several heavy hitters heretofore unknown to me. To the Boston area residents; who would you pay to hear speak about aspects of design? Photogs, print makers, artists, designers... local types preferably?

In a related mattter, The Somerville Theater is showing 35mm prints of the first 6 Bond films, the first w/e in March. Yes, yes you have seen them before but I bet you have never sat still through the whole thing. Being forced to watch every frame (rather than skip) you see every eyebrow raise... as well as the glory of the famouse title sequences. See the full Binder/Dr. No title sequence below.

Binder described the genesis of the [James Bond title] gun barrel sequence in 1991:

That was something I did in a hurry, because I had to get to a meeting with the producers in twenty minutes. I just happened to have little white, price tag stickers and I thought I'd use them as gun shots across the screen. We'd have James Bond walk through and fire, at which point blood comes down onscreen. That was about a twenty-minute storyboard I did, and they said, "This looks great!"
-via wiki