CATEGORY
Documentary » Title Sequence
CATEGORY DESCRIPTION
A title sequence within a documentary film.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Between the World and Me has cemented itself among the Western canon of must-read books. Coate’s book is a letter to his son about the realities of being black in America. The narrative is both autobiographical and a recapitulation of American history. For the book’s adaptation for television, the creators wanted the main title sequence to be a celebration of black culture. After exploring many directions, Elastic landed on references of paper being ripped, which created a warm, happy feeling, like you could touch it and feel it. Through trial we arrived at a decidedly vibrant, happy, and textured tone, achieved through a stop animation sequence of crumpling torn up paper, collaged with archival footage, watercolors by Molly Crabapple, fragments of paintings by Calida Garcia Rawles, brief appearances of book covers that influenced Coates’ writing career, excerpts from Coates’ work itself, set to Black Thought & Salaam Remi’s “Soundtrack to Confusion”.
CREDITS
Client: One Story Up / HBO
Design Studio: Elastic
Creative Director: Hazel Baird
Art Director: Diego Coutinho
Animators: Rafael Morinaga, Eugene Hyun, Andrew Young
Producer: Michael Ross
Coordinator: Mitchell Fraser
Executive Producer: Luke Colson
Deputy Head of Production: Zach Wakefield
Head of Production: Kate Berry
Managing Director: Jennifer Sofio Hall
Original Illustrations by: Molly Crabapple