Title Sequence: Elementary
Elementary‘s title sequence presents us with a Rube Goldberg machine, something both straightforward and convoluted. Like the show itself, the sequence is not all chronological with clear cause-and-effect, but it includes pieces we’re familiar with: mouse wheel, rising bell, pulleys; procedural tropes, situational lying, criminal types, a figure trapped in a cage, etc. The machine includes potential elements of … Continue reading
Theme Songs and Title Sequences: True Blood
True Blood has devolved from a delicious, mystery-driven, Southern Gothic evisceration of societal mores to a lukewarm pool of bloody literalism. When you ditch the metaphorical drugs, religious persecution, and prejudice (obvious though they may have been) for literal manifestations of a vampire goddess, fairy godmothers, and televised vampire-a-thons, you have jumped the alligator. Relatedly, … Continue reading
50 Years of Bond Titles
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Skyfall‘s title sequence referencing Bond titles that came before. This week, Art of the Title came out with a lovely and thorough post about Bond’s design through the years. Enjoy.
Art of the Title: Skyfall
In brief, Skyfall is a strong close to the origin trilogy, which had a phenomenal start and semi-disastrous middle. It’s difficult to compare it to Casino Royale, because they both have different strengths and mighty few weaknesses. A couple scenes in the back half of Skyfall could have been trimmed or cut in the writing process; no … Continue reading
Mel Killingsworth - Film and TV blog 