![]() "It can set rules and boundaries of what the show is going to unfold, you set a mood and a tone. "A good title sequence is one that completely honors and encapsulates the story-not the designer or the creator," said Williams, likening the psychological effect to that of a curtain rising in a theater. And smaller production houses like Imaginary Forces now have access to digital tools to create big-budget special effects at much lower cost.Ī main title sequence can serve any number of functions, but first and foremost, it primes the audience for the viewing experience. It's not unusual for a pre-release title sequence to rack up a million or more views on YouTube. "People are now using them before the TV shows come out, as marketing tools," said Williams. That type of thinking translated over into other networks."īut it was the emergence of streaming giants like Netflix and Hulu and the explosion in original content that really raised the bar for innovative main title sequences and also expanded how such titles are used. "It was the premium networks, like HBO in the late 1990s, that began to set a higher standard for viewer expectations," Alan Williams, a director with Imaginary Forces, told Ars. HBO had already flirted with an artier approach to opening credits with its Emmy-award winning sequence for Six Feet Under in 2001 (produced by Digital Kitchen) and the main title sequence for The Sopranos. ![]() Along with Prologue ( Star Trek: Discovery, Elementary), it's fair to say that these houses have played a major role in shaping the art form over the last ten years. We made a list of our favorite opening credits over the last decade and quickly noticed that two production houses in particular dominated our selections: Imaginary Forces-which produced the main titles for Counterpart, Stranger Things, and Jessica Jones, among others-and Elastic, the creative minds behind the title sequences for Halt and Catch Fire, Masters of Sex, Game of Thrones, and so forth. (Fair warning: it's way too easy to lose yourself down the rabbit hole on that site.) So much so, in fact, that there is an entire website, The Art of the Title, devoted to this burgeoning art form, featuring in-depth interviews with the creative people behind all those stunning title sequences. The era of peak TV has brought with it a veritable Golden Age of distinctive, innovative main title sequences. After an amazing decade in space, these are humanity’s top achievements.The 2010s were a veritable golden age of opening credits in television.No foolin’-the 2010s were a crazy decade for tech. ![]() Collage by Sean Carroll reader comments 138 with Ars Decade in Review: The 2010s
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