If, like me, you were spellbound by each season's opening credits for "The Wire," you must see the short film analyses of them by critics Andrew Dignan, Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz at Moving Image Source (published by the Museum of the Moving Image). Using the actual footage, along with still frames and zooms (aka "the Ken Burns effect"), these short films examine the credits in critical detail, treating them as short movies unto themselves. Which is exactly what they are. Each season of "The Wire" introduced a new opening montage (cut to various recordings of Tom Waits' "Way Down in the Hole") to set the scene. (Also see the Opening Shot essay for "The Wire.")
Some of these "Wire" images were re-used from one year to the next, but for the most part these were designed specifically to introduce a particular series of episodes -- all of which, of course, take place in Baltimore. The first season focused on drug dealing operations in the projects; the second on waterfront and union corruption; the third returning to the drug-dealing organization of the first season, with an emphasis on city politics; the fourth centering on the public school system; and the fifth looking at the media, and the newsroom of the Baltimore Sun daily newspaper. ("Way Down in the Hole" is performed by the Blind Boys of Alamama in season one; Tom Waits -- the original version from "Frank's Wild Years" -- in season two; the Neville Brothers in season three; a group of Baltimore teenagers known as DoMaJe in season four; and Steve Earle, who also joined the cast, in season five.)
The critical examinations are based on an article Dignan wrote for The House Next Door, one of my very favorite sites, founded by Matt Seitz.
I've written about credits sequences here before, including an analysis of an "Dexter" and an appreciation of the visual path markers that lead us through the woods and into David Lynch's "Twin Peaks."
It seems that most movies don't even bother with a mood-setting, or even expository, opening credits piece anymore, preferring to plunge into the action and then running the (contractually determined) credits in reverse at the end of the picture, they can be essential to setting up the movie. I prefer the original credits for Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," for example, where they appear over the famous virtuoso long take scored to Henry Mancini's music. That wasn't what Welles wanted, according to some notes he sent to Universal, but I think it works better. And no matter what you think of the rest of David Fincher's "Se7en," the credits are essential to setting up the queasy, nightmarish tone of the film. (And let's not forget the famous Saul Bass designs for Alfred Hitchcock -- "Vertigo," "North By Northwest," "Psycho" -- and many others.)
Television shows have largely done away with the catchy (sometimes cheesy) opening songs that used to accompany most sitcoms: ".Gilligan's Island," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Addams Family, "The Brady Bunch," "Welcome Back Kotter," "Happy Days," "Good Times," "The Facts of Life," "Cheers" -- many of which set the tone, or simply spelled out the premise of the show, in a singalong way every week.
Now most shows feature a short musical theme and very little end-credits music because they're usually run at quadruple speed in the upper right corner and drowned out by promos for something else on the network. Hour-long dramas like "Lost" or "Heroes" have opening credits that are really just logos accompanied by a single sound or chord.
"The Wire" is a show (like "Twin Peaks" or "The Sopranos," "Deadwood" or "Dexter") in whichthe music and montage are essential to bringing the viewer into the world of the show. Like a clearing of the mind as you go into meditation, these familiar (mantra-like) rituals help us leave our conscious surroundings behind and enter a different (but eventually quite familiar) imaginative terrain.
I'm still only up to the third season of "The Wire," and I've watched it only on DVD, but I never once felt like fast-forwarding through the credits no matter how many times I saw it, even if I watched several episodes in one evening. That's essential to the ritual. (Especially now that I've got a 55" HDTV opposite my man chair, I feel the need to observe moviegoing rituals as much as possible, which includes turning off the lights, cranking up the "total sound" [see William Daniels in "The President's Analyst"], and watching all the credits, before and after, if only for the music. I love the closing credits music for "Heroes" and "In Treatment" -- which, particularly in the latter, help me come out of the show and return to my reality.)
What makes a credits sequence work for you -- television or movies -- and why?
The first that came to mind is "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" with it's great animation sequences and ennio morricone's iconic score.
After thinking a little more I considered how Woody Allen always has the same white font over black, usually with a selection of jazz music playing. It sets the right mood. It get's me mentally prepared to enter into his world.
One last one. I've always enjoyed the opening to "Bringing Out the Dead". Whatever you may think of the movie as a whole, playing Van Morrison's "T.B. Sheets" over blasts of ambulance sirens in a starkly contrasted slick NYC cityscape sends a chill down my spine.
Professor Emerson. I think I'm going to call you that from now on. You sound like one of my old college end of semester quizzes.
Anyway. I'm into the second season of "The Wire". 4 Episodes in. The credit sequence is phenomenal. Something that I've always found interesting, and I'm not sure how they run the production of the show itself, but moments pop up in the credit images that fall well into the series itself. They must get pretty well into the series before Ed Burns chooses the shots to be used. But it's not only the credit it's the quote. The quote is key for setting the tone of the episode.
"Se7en" sprang to mind immediately. I think it was the first time I ever noticed the credit sequence as a film viewer and was in turn affected by it. Then there's also the credits for "Panic Room" which feel like they shoot out of the screen at you...the man knows how to use text! (Also referring to the wonderful use of text throughout "Fight Club" and "Zodiac".)
Tim Burton did a fab job with the opening credits for "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and though the movie was horrendous "Planet of the Apes" (more Elfman's score). But he really, really annoyed the hell out of me with the opening credits for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Sweeney Todd", with their rubbery digital effects.
The opening credits for the "Superman" movies, the first one and the most recent one were really quite amazing -- cutting through space with John Williams score -- the words zooming at you. Effective.
In each of these instances they work because of the way music is used and the choice of fonts (cause I know you love those).
Those spring to mind immediately.
"The Wire" is just brilliant all the way round.
I love watching credit sequences on shows like The Wire, where they were given the same effort as the rest of the story. In fact, the main titles I find myself skipping are those like Lost or Heroes where the producers didn't seem to care as much. Apparently the Lost title was a temp design for the original pilot, and they just kept the main idea--although I think they gussied up the font and sound for broadcast.
Some other television title sequences I always sit through are those from Friday Night Lights and Battlestar Galactica, both fluid montages designed to set the tone and bring us into the world (small-town Texas or a postapocalyptic space odyssey).
As for movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has one of the more memorable title credits in recent years. Superbad used a similar idea, but with the tremendous dance stylings of Michael Cera to start us off.
One of the main draws of a title sequence for me is music, and musical tastes are difficult to explain--why is the zither so entrancing in the credits for The Third Man? But mostly I'm looking for something appropriate to the work: minimalist for a Woody Allen movie where the focus is on his script, something inexplicably terrifying for Inland Empire, or the silhouette of a cowboy uproariously dancing against a full moon for The American Astronaut.
Jim,
This is slightly off topic, but since (I believe) the last we heard of your relationship with THE WIRE was in that opening shots essay, I was curious about you feelings on the show as a whole?
Did you finish all 5 seasons? What did you think?
Jim,
You mention Deadwood, The Sopranos, and of course, The Wire, which are all HBO shows. Thinking on most of their shows, the majority of them simply open with a credits sequence -- unlike most network shows that first put a snippet of the episode to "draw you in" (The Office, 30 Rock, Lost).
Despite what you may think of these HBO shows, there's no denying that the credit sequences to all of the ones you mentioned, as well as the likes of Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, and Big Love, use their pre-episode credit sequences to suck the viewer in, whether by the visuals or (mostly) by the music. As a result, bypassing any of those sequences and watching an episode straight on makes one feel almost unprepared.
On television, I really love the opening credits for DEADWOOD. Though the images in this montage don't contain any of the characters, or really any of the town, it really gets me in the mood to watch the show. Every time I hear the haunting first notes to David Schwartz's theme, I am just really ready to launch myself in, head-first. (His scores in general are really nice, particularly for ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT).
I'm really glad someone else brought up BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, if for no other reason than I find that film amazing and horrendously undervalued. Egregiously, even, one might say.
I'm also a fan of the Saul Bass titles, Jim, and that brings me to one of the most striking title sequence I've seen in the past few years on one of the most mediocre horror films: VACANCY. This movie was far from good, but the opening titles alone made me like the movie at least a half step up on the rating scale all by themselves...
Every part of a movie should work for the movie and not be a compromise. If an opening credit sequence can establish a mood, then it should be used, but if the right mood is better established without it, then it should be tossed aside.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" begins with several minutes of Indy and his lackeys going into the jungle. Without the titles playing over the sequence, the audience might get restless after a while. But if the sequence were shorter, the right mood might not be established.
On the other hand, "Miami Vice" (2006) begins with what a reviewer at FilmFreakCentral.net calls "THE movie moment of the year:" no title, no credits, just a jump cut into the middle of a scene. Some viewers thought a reel was missing. We know immediately that the movie is set in a jagged, existential world.
What I don't like is a movie that doesn't know what to do with opening credits but can't get out of them. Either we get a scene or a bunch of pictures we don't need, just to have something playing behind the credits, or we get a scene we do need with some credits messing them up.
In watching 'Mad Men' lately, catching up as it were, I first noticed something about the opening credits I hadn't seen anywhere else before. The names went by very, very quickly. Faster than I had ever seen opening credits list the names of the cast/crew/etc. It is almost too fast to catch, as if it is almost meant to be subliminal, like some advertising I suppose. I guess thats the connection!
Those are some excellent openers for a list that could go on for a good long time.
Especially agreed on Twin Peaks...Lynch and Badalamenti have a very intuitive way of inviting one into a film - and in the case of Lynch it is (as he says in his book) partially due to his more than 30 years of meditation experience (I do believe you were at the INLAND EMPIRE premiere where he spoke briefly but quite eloquently on the subject). I'll just mention one other favorite, the Fire Walk With Me opening. Incredibly slow pull out to reveal that the shuddering blue images that look like lines of energy we've been watching is snow on a TV screen. The music is quietly but deeeply mournful - this isn't going to be a happy story. The climax is a gut-twisting thud as the TV is smashed in, followed by piteous, terrified screams and a quick fade to black. We're beyond the TV show here, and all bets are off.
In a similar vein, the opening credits of Six Feet Under are some of my favorites ever, beginning with a shot of two people's hands clasped and then suddenly (in a brilliantly done bit of slo-mo) pulled apart and away from each other, a spot-on representation of the feeling of suddenly losing someone you love. The images that follow, coupled with Thomas Newman's perfectly quirky theme, perfectly evoke the fascination/fear that the subject of mortality so often brings up.
Can't explain why I feel similarly about the opening credits of the new Battlestar Galactica, as it's just a quick recap of the show's basic premise, but they chose an excellent, elegiac piece of music to go behind it, and it's another one I never skip by.
In a completely different vein, the opening of Preston Sturges "The Palm Beach Story" brings a huge grin to my face just thinking about it. A frantic, near-surreal story in itself, involving Joel McCrea, a pair of Claudette Colberts, and a maid that faints three times (you probably would too), it's not even vaguely referenced until the end of the movie, and they barely explain it even then. A perfect setup for what's to follow.
End-all-be-all for me would have to be Vertigo.
I remember almost having a panic attack from the openings of both 12 Monkeys and Se7en, and I've been impressed with the opening credits of both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd as well.
As far as tv openings, I really like the openings for Carnivale and Six Feet Under, but my favorites - which you've already mentioned - are Twin Peaks and The Wire.
As a huge Tom Waits fan, I got excited every season to hear the new version of "Way Down in the Hole". Covers of Tom Waits are always a dangerous deal (Starlett Johansson!?), and every version was both fresh and pointed. It's probably tied with Badalamenti's Twin Peaks score for my favorite theme music for a show.
Well, those two and the score for Avatar, truth be told.
The last movie I remember seeing where the opening credits really did something for me was "Catch me if you Can". The stylized animated sequence (reminiscent of the Pink Panther films) and the John Williams score (channeling Henry Mancini's best) set the perfect tone and situated me in the film's era.
One of my favourite current TV opening sequences is for 30 Rock. The theme is an insanely catchy one in the spirit of 60's sitcoms or current animated series like the Simpsons.
While only lasting only 10, maybe 15 seconds, it manages to introduce all the main players. The background features colour shots of the famous building, while the players are all in what looks like purposely degraded black and white. It's an interesting contrast. Each person is introduced by a shot from the series that features them, usually with a confused expression or a ridiculous smirk. Or both.
Combine these elements, and the credits have completely supplied you all you need to know about how to watch the show. Reality is not a concern (hence the black and white), all the characters are outsized, the show will move at a fast past and is essentially a live action cartoon.
This sets the mood even though it does take place after the traditional sitcom cold opening. I think it does a great job of handling a credit sequence in the current style condensed format while also having some traditional elements.
Another acclaimed television show with an interesting opening credit sequence is "Mad men." It strikes me as, partly, a pastiche of the brilliant title pieces by Saul Bass, using them to set the mood for an era many of us have only experienced through movies like those Bass worked on, while also exploiting the themes, particularly from the Hitchcock titles (identity, obsession, male-female relationships) to introduce these broader themes to the show itself. It would make an interesting analysis.
I think the opening credit's job is first to set an appropriate tone, then to introduce themes. I could watch spaghetti western openings all day without even seeing the movies.
One of my favorite opening credits sequences, actually, is from Commando. Pretty much the entire first act of the film takes place before the credits have finished rolling, allowing us to jump right into the action.
Phillip: I always thought I sounded more like a shrink (or maybe a bartender) than a professor. I should have said: "So, what do you like? How does that make you FEEL?"
Deadwood. Dr. Strangelove. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Inland Empire. The Terminator. Miami Vice (for having the balls to go without one -- THEATRICAL VERSION ONLY). Cronenberg's Crash. Dead Ringers. Do the Right Thing. 25th Hour. GoodFellas. Fight Club (of course).
I'm totally with Phillip on Panic Room too. It reminded me a LOT of North By Northwest. Which might forgive me a little for liking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd...
Lost Highway. The credits alone get my adrenaline racing more than the entirety of most movies.
I recall thinking the opening credits for The Fugitive was quite interesting also. But my favorite credit sequences tend to be minimalist or non existent.
I like the way you put it - rituals for entering and exiting a show's world. I love title sequences, although I've never met a opening theme song that I haven't eventually gotten sick of. I love the artistic opportunities that are present in the opening and closing.
Dexter's opening is the best example I've seen, and the Twin Peaks song is forever burned in my brain. But there's also something to be said for the minimalist gestures of Lost's opening and closing titles. In no way do I think they were created carelessly, as one of the commenters suggested.
Lost's opening Doppler whine quickly evokes a simultaneous feeling of lull and dread, which encapsulates the show perfectly. It starts out feeling lonely, but at the tail end are faint, eerie beeping sounds that suggest technology/signals/communication. (The cold opening is unavoidable, Lost is all about in media res, there's no beginnings or ends because no perspective of time is favored) A lot can be drawn out of that one quick sound.
And the closing "thock" sound is this awesome primal noise, like one ancient rock clashing with another. I've wondered a lot about how they produced that short sound. (Maybe it is just one rock hitting another). It supplies a feeling of closure for the episode because of the nature of the sound - as if a shaman cracks two rocks to signify the ending of tribal council.
The Lost gestures are more like markers than rituals, but I think they achieve the same purpose in a different way. They're like beautiful palette cleansers.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer." If that music, those quick cuts and garish images didn't quicken your heartrate and propel you instantly into the rockin', jokey, somber mood of the show, you'd already had the blood sucked from you. Though I will never forgive Joss Wedon for FINALLY including Amber Benson as Tara in the opening credits. . .on the same episode where he killed her off. That was a massive high followed by a cruelly devastating blow.
Two great examples of what I can only call the self-aware credit style (I can't think of a better term right now, but I'm sure there is one): Mon Oncle, which begins with all its credits appearing on large signs in the midst of a construction site, in place of where it would usually say "Soon to Be Built on this Site, etc." Quick fade and then back in on the title of the film scrawled in white chalk on a beat-up brick wall. A nice illustration of the film's theme of old and new bumping up against each other.
In contrast, the credits in I Know Where I'm Going!, which appear on blackboards, the sides of vehicles and other places in a series of scenes that follow the main character as she grows up, don't really seem to tie into the main themes of the picture much at all...they seem more like P&P just thought they'd kill two birds with one stone in a very clever and fun way, which they fully accomplished.
Cool, cool stuff. My favorite opening credit music has got to be from "Curb Your Enthusiasm." It's operatic circus music, and, like I'd imagine all the best credits do, it seems to animate and determine the tone of the show, more than vice versa.
Of course, to make room for commercials, most network shows can't afford anything beyond the most basic musical sting/intro, though animated shows do seem to buck this trend (maybe because they don't shoot coverage?)
Real quick-like: JFK and Almost Famous.
I did like Larry David's comment on the Curb music, that it was intended to signify that one isn't supposed to take anything that follows too seriously.
My favorite opening credit sequence belongs to an Anime series called Paranoia Agent. In the opening we see every character we are going to meet over the course of the show standing completly still over various backgrounds that give you clues to the characters personality while they are also laughing their heads off. What is particularly striking about this opening, besides the crazy song, is that it is the one of the only times that we will see these characters smile.
After that it's Twin Peaks and then Mystery Science Theatre 3000 if only because the cheapness of the opening gets you prepared for the awful movie that is about to be pulverized.
The greatest opening sequence to any show I can think of would be for The Simpsons. The music is absolutely iconic and the entire mythos of the series is jam-packed into a seemingly continuous shot of Springfield and its residents. It is easily the most visually exciting opening sequence that I can recall and is one that breeds instant familiarity with the constructs and norms of the show. The regular scroll and its amusing variations (new phrases on the chalkboard and the family-seating-event) are symptomatic of the show's common characteristics - fast-paced story-telling, physical humour, clever writing, cultural references and absolute dedication to the idea of "minor details". The more I think of The Simpsons opening sequence, the more amazing it seems to me.
As for movies, there are lots of great opening credits (Jim, perhaps you need to complement the opening shots project with an opening credits project). I think the animation for Psycho's credits are pretty memorable, as is Hermann's music.
Also good is the self-aware credits of Pulp Fiction - disrupting the song at it's midpoint was revealing of the movie's nonlinear structure, as well as indicative of Tarantino's inclination towards pastiche. I recall also enjoying the "simple" long-shot opening to Jackie Brown and it's excellent and relevant musical accompaniment (Bobby Womack's Across 110th Street).
An irreverent choice that sticks out in my mind right now is the protracted opening of The Departed, which culminates in the title card being blasted on the screen well into the film.
I agree that the Curb Your Enthusiasm score is one of the most appropriate and annoying-yet-appealing sounds for any show.
As a blast to my past, I remember always being riveted by the opening sequence to the first few seasons of Batman: The Animated Series.
Battlestar Galactica's music is outstanding, especially the opening credits. That musical sequences starts out slow with female vocals that sound like they come from an older time, which really elevates the religious themes in the show - so much of their journey is based ancient writings. For visuals, we are shown sweeping shots of Caprica, before it is destroyed. That music is abruptly interrupted by a male vocal, yelling an airy "HUH!" and the the music changes to a more militant (and definitively masculine) sounding music with a hard-edge and booming drum line. The imagery changes to that of war and destruction and then into rapidly changing shots of the upcoming episode, giving you sense of constant escalation. The music ends abruptly, filling you with the notion that it's all heading towrds a drastic breaking point. The shows broad themes (at a high level, conflict between opposing viewpoints; human vs. Cylon, religion vs. science, military rule vs. government, destiny vs. free will, one god or many, and many forms of class warfare) are introduced in this opening sequence and the music is freaking brilliant.
To whoever mentioned "Do the Right Thing": Bingo. That sequence has such amazing energy that, what could have been an incredibly silly dance, is nothing of the sort. It's instead vibrant and charged.
I'd nominate "I'm Not There" as having the best credit sequence I've seen in a number of years. A fantastic sequence that introduces you to the film's elliptical and occasionally disorienting style set to one of my favorite Dylan songs. The credits assuaged any fears I had about the film floundering. The credits informed me that Haynes created the picture I hoped and imagined he would. I can't think of any other credit sequences that have accomplished that feat.
I also think that I love the credits to both "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" and "Bonjour Tristesse," but I may be incorrectly remembering them. (It's been a while since I've watched either.)
Veddy nice summary, haggi, to which I'd only add that many of the conflicts you mention have even more than two sides (one god vs. many vs. none at all vs. collective spirit vs. we-could-go-on-with-this-all-day for instance) and that it's not only the conflict but the way in which that conflict (and the interaction that inevitable results) reveals the many ways in which supposedly immutable dichotomies are actually false...that all sides can't exist without the others.
The first opening that came to mind for me was, of all things, from an anime -- Cowboy Bebop. I'm not that big of an anime guy in general, but Bebop has been one of my favorite series ever since I first saw it a few years ago -- and whenever I've re-watched it, I've never skipped the opening (it doesn't hurt that the opening song, "Tank!," is one of the best of a uniformly incredible soundtrack). If anyone feels so inclined, you can check it out on YouTube right here, and really, it's worth it for the music alone (if you're a jazz guy, at least).
(Side note: I just read earlier today that Keanu Reeves is rumored to star in a live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Just the thought of that is enough to make me want to cry.)
Another of my favorite openers: Spider-Man 2. Admittedly, Spider-Man 2 is probably my favorite movie ever (Roger Ebert's Great Movies essay for Saturday Night Fever explains why surprisingly well). The opening is just a recap of the first movie done with gorgeously drawn illustrations, but I still recall, when first watching it, thinking how perfectly it jump started the new film. (I also recall thinking how disappointing Spider-Man 3's far-less-inspired opening was in comparison... which is about right for that mess of a movie).
And one last mention: Generation Kill, David Simon's latest (and so far, breathtaking) project for HBO. It takes the more modern "Title and Sound" opening, and adds a genius twist -- no music, just (presumably) real, random military radio chatter (for instance, two soldiers having a static-y conversation about whether there's enemy movement in a far-away growth of shrubbery). It creates a shockingly eerie effect.
Kris - Say it isn't so! After I posted about Catch Me I later thought of the opening of Cowboy Bebop, especially the song Tank! It totally rocks. I used to have that as the start up on my computer.
But Keanu Reeves...that's just wrong.
What I especially noticed about The Wire is how the images take on new, clearer meaning as each series goes on and more of the threads have come together. I was also impressed with the cutting and the combination of rotation and other movements among different shots.
I agree with Eric's comments on LOST's short and minimal opening titles.
It's worth noting that, given the networks' tendencies to put more and more ads into shows, the LOST crew would be cutting into their storytelling time if anything lengthier was created. Still, I'm a fan of the short punctuation that the opening and closing titles provide, and appreciate the minimalist design.
The Heroes design, on the other hand, is short too, but fairly obvious and typical—a bit like the show.