Unit 10:Characteristics and contexts in art & design
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
GoldenEye
James Bond Opening Sequences
James Bond Gunbarrel
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
GoldenEye
In designing the credit sequence for the film, graphic designer Daniel Kleinman was inspired by the cover of the 1953 British first edition of Casino Royale, which featured Ian Fleming's original design of a playing card bordered by eight red hearts dripping with blood. In creating the shadow images of the sequence, Kleinman digitized the footage of Craig and the film's stuntmen on the Inferno visual effects system, at Framestore CFC in London; the actors' silhouettes were incorporated into more than 20 digitally animated scenes depicting intricate and innovative card patterns. Kleinman decided not to use the female silhouettes commonly seen throughout the Bond title sequences, considering that the women did not fit with both the film's spirit and the storyline following Bond falling in love.
GoldenEye was the first Bond film to include CGI. It also updated the iconic gun barrel sequence where Bond turns and shoots by recreating it digitally and following Bond as he walks across the screen. These ideas, including a second gun barrel appearing afterwards with a bullet shooting out of it, were done by music video director Daniel Kleinman.
The opening credits sequence was created by MK12. Having worked on Forster's Stranger than Fiction and The Kite Runner, MK12 spontaneously began developing the sequence early on in production, and had a good idea of its appearance which meant it did not have to be redone when the title singer was changed. MK12 selected various twilight colours to represent Bond's mood and focused on a dot motif based on the gunbarrel shot. MK12 also worked on scenes with graphical user interface, including the electronic table MI6 use, and the Port-au-Prince, Haiti title cards.
Saul Bass
The Man with the Golden Arm
Psycho
Cape Fear
Maurice Binder
The Grass is Greener
Dr No
Licence To Kill
Moodboard
Storyboard
Final
Gun barrel sequence
I chose this title sequence from Saul Bass because it was very unique to its era and included abstract art which was beginning to be popular at the time. It is also one of the first title sequences he designed, and the one that made him famous and launch his career.
This title sequence is one of Saul Bass' best works, as it is for one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous films, Psycho, which is why I decided to research it.
I researched Cape Fear because it is one of Saul Bass' last works and was slightly reminiscent to the James Bond movies, which is what this movie was about. It is also one of his more modern works.
I decided to research Dr No's title sequence as it was the very first James Bond film, so I wanted to see what the original movie's title sequence was like and what Maurice Binder decided to do for it. It is much more simple than modern title sequences, however it still has the James Bond feel that is needed in it despite being the first one
Whilst researching Maurice Binder, I decided to research a movie that wasn't part of the James Bond series to explore Maurice Binder's work outside of James Bond and compare them to each other. This title sequence is really different from the James Bond movies, which shows that Maurice Binder can do many types of title sequences.
I researched Licence to Kill as it was the last James Bond film in which Maurice Binder designed the title sequence, therefore I could use it to compare how the title sequences changed through time by comparing it to the first one that was made. When compared to Dr No, you can see a rise in the complexity as well as the quality of the title sequence, which could also explain the rise in popularity in the Jame Bond movies as they increased in quality with time.
Evaluation
This project's goal was to create a title sequence resembling the James Bond series. My favourite part of this project was editing the videos that we made as it was something new that I hadn't done before. Whilst doing this project I learn many green screen techniques in After effects, such as key light and linear colour key to get rid of the green screen that we had used in the footage. I did encounter some errors with green screening as the green screen we used caused some problems when trying to edit it out. However, I managed to achieve this by adjusting the options of the techniques that I used so that it was gone as much as possible. If I could start over I would make the sequence more complex and modern by creating some models in Maya and including them into the sequence.