I don’t know the first TV series that had an amazing intro credits but I can say that HBO’s True Detective made me begin to pay attention. This 2014 Emmy Award winning title speaks to all cinephiles with it’s strong narrative motion picture aesthetic.
This 1 minute and 31 second reel uses creative image layering and masking with 1 - 2 second direction cuts producing beautiful and raw eye candy with a recognition of the actor’s faces. While I am unsure of the exact techniques in producing this video piece, I am sure of the storyboard break down because I took the time to sketch out each transition and here are some of my insights.
Intro Credits like this have to do something difficult—-reveal enough to capture the audience’s curiosity but not so much the you give away the story and cause boredom or predictability. Note: one of the problems with movie trailers these days.
True Detective nails it! The Creative Director Patrick Clair, lead of the studio Antibody is the genius behind this creative sequence is also responsible for other leading Main Titles such as Netflix series The Crown, HBO’s Westworld, and Marvel’s Daredevil.
The psychology behind a title sequence is certainly different than the film episodes or content. After seeing the title sequence a number of times one is cued to skip over the short reels but something in the theme music still beckons us to indulge in the music and scenery from time to time. I assert that it helps us fall in love with the branding of the story. The color and music and imagery help cement the narratives into our heads.
In my storyboarding session, I found the transitions moved fast so I settled on quick sketches. To help this process, I drew out the boxes ahead of time so I could focus on the images themselves. I used a thick marker pen with a juicy nib so I would not worry about my line quality. When I could I dictated movement.
The images of each transition were highly stylized and complex with subtle motion in each frame. The viewer’s eye is busy with the beauty, the motion within, then transition to the next image.
The images are not random. The sequence follows a very organized composition and movement. Images are balanced from left to right, right to left, up to down and down to up in a gorgeous and graceful way.
