The Kingdom Main Titles

Posted by Justin Cone

The movie’s getting lukewarm reviews, but the opening credits for The Kingdom function as an effective prologue to the film.

kingdom.jpg

I hate to beat a dead horse, but this is yet another example of what I call “visual essays.” It’s all about re-contextualizing historical data in a dramatic light by leveraging the power of motion graphics. The result is a compelling argument, something that can be debated point by point, even as it entertains and informs its audience.

I can’t figure out who’s responsible for this work, though. This thread on mograph points to PCI, but I’m not sure who they are. Any clues would be appreciated.

UPDATE: Courtesy of Douglas in the comments, we got a link to PIC, the studio responsible for the credits.

Thanks to Jordan Lloyd for the tip on this post!

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.
More by Justin >

11 Comments

gugy

very nice. Cool opening.

Morey

Nothing utterly groundbreaking, but as a fine tool to keep me captivated during what is otherwise a very simplistic and kinda boring narrative, I think it’s pretty successful.

jeffrey

Hey Justin will you be discussing the importance of the western european accent in said visual essays at offf? regardless, i look forward to it.

yttrium

if only all worldly topics could be given so much attention through exciting illustrations.

BrentRyanGreen

Saw the movie last night! Love the opening! Great work

pauloblob

So guys i watched the movie yesterday… The title sequence was pretty cool. I want to share that people sited next to me in the theater were all saying how cool the opening sequence was. its good to hear non mographers commenting about the tittle sequence. We are used to see a lot of cool tittle sequences in sci-fi movies but this kind of work shows how mograph could be used as great tool for other movies.
Great work! and the movie is also good.

Lilian

Its been a long long time since title sequences receive such love and attention. Better still, not as a standalone pretty piece of flesh, but integral and crucial to the actual film. Fantastic…PIC has done a great job. By the way has anyone checked out their END title sequences for Bourne Ultimatum? (Correct me if i’m wrong but I’m quite sure they’re responsible for that too).

prologuemedia

These were some nicely done titles. Really setup the movie well.

I also loved the bourne end titles. I watched the film 3 times this summer and while I really enjoy the film I would hang out for the end titles every time until the whole thing was over.

mrpeter

that was very – very good.

fanatstic sound – great imagery – great flow.

it works well as a stand alone – very few main titles can say that.

Hudson

This is fine work by the PIC agency. But as I watched this title sequence, I kept thinking that the motion graphics reminded me strongly of someone else’s work.

After much googling and searching of my bookmarks, I finally remembered the source I felt they were cribbing from: Knife Party’s (much more radical) “New American Century” video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vEOml_P4xY

I recognize that (a) there are significant differences, most particularly the absence of video in Knife Party’s motion graphics, and (b) that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Some may object to the politics of the above-linked clip, but it’s worth checking out for their powerful aesthetic, at minimum.

Knife Party website:

https://www.knife-party.net

Comments are closed.