January 20, 2011
I know it makes me weird, but I particularly enjoy it when film producers take the time and spend the money to make their title sequences interesting. It’s like an added bonus if the opening and closing credits are fun to watch. Credit sequences have the tall order of conveying a lot of tedious information in a way that keeps your attention, so in many ways, they can teach us something about presenting.
Below are some of my favorite title sequences, and a word or two about what lessons we might learn from them about presentation design.
All of the images below are taken from the terrific site, The Art of the Title Sequence. Click on any of the images to visit the site,read more about the sequences, and even watch some of them.
Stranger Than Fiction
Aside from this being one of my all-time favorite movies, I also love both the beginning and ending titles. The first shows us how Harold, a depressed IRS agent, views the world: primarily in numbers. The later is a whimsical sort of photo developer’s lightbox of images from the film. The two together subtly illustrate the transformation of Harold’s life from one of cold, lifeless counting to one filled with emotion, color, and art. You can use a similar change in the look of your slides to physically illustrate the change you want the audience to make over the course of your presentation.
Wall-E
I love Pixar for many reasons, but one of them is certainly their love and devotion to good credit sequences. From the “outtakes” they created for Toy Story 2, to the beautiful, painted vignettes from Ratatouille, they always manage to make their credits something special. But of all of them, I think Wall-E is my favorite. The visuals actually continue the story of the movie, telling what happens to the human race after they return to earth. Aside from just showing us how beautiful visual aids can be, you can see how slides could actually be like comics that advance the “story” of the presentation. You don’t want them to tell the story completely on their own and eliminate the need for a presenter, but sometimes you can make a point more profoundly by showing rather than telling.
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
The ultimate in low-budget title sequences, the beginning of this film should teach us that you don’t need big budgets to achieve an entertaining (and memorable) effect.
The Untouchables
The concept here is very simple. The camera simply pans past the shadows cast by the letters of the film’s title. We don’t realize what we’re seeing for several minutes, but it’s entertaining nonetheless. A similar effect can be found in the beginning of Tim Burton’s Batman, in which the camera moves around and through a carving of the Bat-symbol. The concept here for presenting is to make each slide part of a larger whole picture, as in this presentation by Duarte, or perhaps using a tool like Prezi.
Catch Me If You Can & The Incredibles
Both of these illustrate just how much can be done using simple shapes, vibrant colors, and typography. Try experimenting with combining shapes in PowerPoint or Keynote to achieve similar effects.
There are, of course, tons of other great title sequences. These are just a few. What are some of your favorites and what kind of ideas do they inspire in you?
