February 6th, 2005

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Movies
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Kyle Cooper, Title Sequence Auteur

A couple of years ago, I wrote about my glee that title sequences were dying. Well, they’re still dying. I recently watched some of Garden State with the commentary on, and director/writer Zach Braff (who still seems to be posting to his blog occasionally) noted that he made the opening credits “as short as legally possible”.

That said, one man’s title sequences stand above all the others. I was blown away when I saw Kyle Cooper’s work on Se7en. Those disconcerting, manic titles established the mood for the creepy film that followed. As this Wired article points out, sometimes his titles are the best thing in the movie. That certainly was true of films like Wimbledon or Arlingon Road.

You can see a kind of greatest hits demo reel of Cooper’s work on his company’s site.

Comments: 2 Responses so far

karen
February 6th, 2005
6:31 pm

I like delayed opening credits too. Michel Gondry put the credits for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind about fifteen minutes in, when you’re already wondering what’s happening, and it’s a bit of a surprise, like, “Oh right, we have to do the movie thing now.”

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filmgoerjuan
February 7th, 2005
1:01 am

Although the large majority of opening credit sequences are rather trite, I still think they’re worthwhile for those directors who actually do something interesting with them.

If you aren’t familiar with the credit work of Saul Bass, you should check him out…some stunning examples.

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