Sweeney Todd Opening Titles

Posted by Justin Cone

todd.jpg

The good people at SumarineChannel are hosting the Sweeney Todd titles. They’ve also put up an interview (on the left-hand side of the page) with title designer Richarad Morrison and design director Shay Hamias (of th1ng).

On working with Tim Burton, Morrison said, “It wasn’t anything straightforwardly agreed. That’s the beauty of working with Tim. We met for a few drinks, discussed the movie, watched some parts of it… and then he just let me come up with anything really.”

Wow. Dream client.

I remember being struck by the titles when I first watched the film a couple weeks ago. The electric red hue of the blood seemed comically cheesy at first, but as I settled into the film’s aesthetic, it made sense. The titles perfectly set the tone for the twisted tale that followed.

UPDATE:There’s an interview with Richard Morrison about this project here.

Credits:
Creative Director: Richard Morrison
Art Director: Shay Hamias
Director of Typography: Dean Wares
Executive Producer: Dominic Buttimore
Editor: Dan Lumb
CGI: Graham Christie, Vernon Victory, Jamshed Soori, Matt Redhead
Production Manager: Mark Farrington
Compositing: Peque Varela, Peter Ardiner, Corinne Ladeinde
Production company: Th1ng

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.
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7 Comments

THA_DON

i like it. nice piece
I am however not a fan of the cut to the fire, i think that could have been done with a decisive camera move. it really interups with the smooth cadence and flow of the camera, and the cut doesnt even interrupt that flow in a nice way.

overall a thumbs up.

zeniamai

I havent watched the film yet.. Atlthough Im quite familiar with sweeney todd… The title sequence does give out the rather twisted feel for a very twisted tale.

There are some parts of the title sequence thats, yes a bit cheesy. I’m not quite into the fire thing as well. But overall I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

berith

Spot on, it truly reflects Burtonesque style. Probably one of the best sequences I have seen in years. Really like the thick blood rain drops at the beginning and London’s Victorian skyline…

Overall, man that sequence really rocks.

Alex Jane

I’ve watched the film, although not a big lover of musicals. I knew it was a musical before going but even with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton I can’t get past the whole random singing thing.The film?…hmmm interesting.

This intro was definitely the best part. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Soph_mad

I loved the dark gothic imagery…well expressing the horror, blood and gore…definately made my stomach churn!

Awesome graphics.

raf6652001

Richard Morrison has given a full video interview on the making of this piece. It is a good watch…interesting to hear what the man himself has got to say!
http://youtube.com/profile?user=TubeTh1ng

Martin Baker

I saw the movie tonight (fantastic BTW). On a big screen and on the computer, the titles struck me as an strange combination of stylised animation with photorealistic CGI.

I love the look established in the first few shots but the blood (red worms?) into the tacky Sweeney Todd title animation and the “too realistic” sewer water at the end spoil the feel of the piece for me.

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