How TV Opening Titles Got to Be So Damn Good

[Narrator] You've probably heard that we're living

in the golden age of television.

Or maybe it's the platinum age.

The ionstonium age?

Whatever, the point is TV is way better than it used to be.

(screaming)

And you could say the same thing for TV title sequences,

the video introductions to each show.

They used to be afterthoughts,

a bunch of B-roll clips and actors staring into the camera.

But now, they're artistic statements of their own.

They can be bittersweet, or energetic,

or funny,

or sad.

In the streaming era, when we watch our favorite programs

anywhere and at anytime,

titles help get us in the right mood,

even if we're in the middle of our morning commute.

[Patrick] You know, the main title sequence

functions a little bit like an airlock

between everyday life and the state you go into

when you come back to watch a show.

[Narrator] That's Patrick Clair,

creative director of Elastic, an LA productions studio.

He was the force behind title sequences

like AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and HBO's Westworld.

He says the revolution in title sequences

kicked in in the mid-90's,

when new software programs like Adobe's Creative Suite

unlocked the potential of a new generation

of designers.

At the same time, we started watching TV differently.

Before then, most TV shows were episodic.

Viewers checked in from time to time,

but they didn't have to watch every episode.

Credits helped introduce new viewers

who were just tuning in for the first time.

Sometimes they'd go so far as to explain

the show's entire premise.

♫ The tale of a fateful trip

♫ That started this tropic port

♫ Aboard this tiny ship

[Narrator] By the 1990's,

some shows were breaking that mold.

One early standout was the title sequence

for the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,

which was more like a music video than a title sequence.

In fact, it was directed by the same guy

who directed the Fresh Prince's video

for Parents Just Don't Understand,

and you can see how similar they are.

But that was just early rumblings

of the revolution that would really hit a few years later.

♫ Woke up this morning

♫ Got yourself a gun

When you watched that,

I mean, everybody kind of took a step back

and was like, wait a minute.

What's happening?

[Narrator] That's Lola Landekic and Will Perkins,

who run a website called The Art Of The Title.

They point out that this sequence does the opposite

of what most titles do.

It hides way more than it reveals.

Tony's the only character,

and you never really see him.

The editing and the cinematography cuts Tony up.

You don't see him full figure.

You see the cigar, you see his eyes,

you see his hands on the wheel.

You don't get a full picture of him until the very end

when he gets out.

Who is this guy?

Yeah.

And that's the show, right?

[Narrator] With The Sopranos,

HBO ushered in a new wave of prestige television,

and its title sequences were equally ambitious.

Instead of the usual 30 seconds,

they were allowed to run for 60 or even 90 seconds.

Designers were encouraged to discover new techniques

like placing two dimensional drawings in 3D space.

Or using found footage in new ways

to create a kind of tome poem.

Those examples inspired Patrick Clair,

when he designed what would become

one of the most famous title sequences of the modern era,

True Detective.

The basic idea came from Claire's first call

with the show runner and director.

[Patrick] In the show, they were using

the broken, polluted landscapes to talk about

the broken, poisoned people that were in the narrative,

and these kinds of, these people had been exploited

and destroyed by what had happened to them.

And so that just seemed in very little terms to be,

well, I guess we'll just make broken portraits

out of broken landscapes.

[Narrator] The show runners already had a song

they wanted to use, so Clair started putting together

books full of images that spoke to this feeling

of brokenness.

One main source was a book called Petrochemical America,

by photographer Richard Misrachs.

His team also figured out a way

to take footage from the show

and slow it down to one tenth speed,

which lent it a dream-like quality.

And he ended the sequence in flames,

another idea that was inspired by his conversation

with the shows creators.

[Patrick] These are characters

who are facing a personal apocalypse,

and that to me just opened the door

so we're now able to go into this world

of literally this Biblical apocalypse.

[Narrator] True Detective was hugely influential.

Maybe a little too influential.

But there's a lot more than just

moody HBO dramas out there.

We're seeing all kinds of different networks and shows

take on ambitious title sequences.

We're seeing titles that focus on type,

like Stranger Things and Mr. Robot.

We're seeing post-modern title sequences

that play with the conventions of internet videos

or musical comedy.

We've seen remixes and guest artists.

(bell ringing)

And we've even seen title sequences

without any shows attached.

♫ A pinch of salt and laughter too

[Narrator] If you think about it,

TV titles are kinda like what music videos used to be,

a design medium that started as a kind of advertisement,

but became its own form of artistic expression.

And just as MTV became a breeding ground

for a generation of artists,

the people who are making today's TV title sequences

may be tomorrow's film directors, visual artists,

or show runners themselves.