Catch Me If You Can by Kuntzel and Deygas
Scanning through the amazing amount of resources, I found many motion graphics I thought were good - such as the Sundance and Shark Week commercial spots by Digital Kitchen and the Jailbirds by Frank Chimero. But the one that was chosen wasn’t in any of the given websites. While searching though a bunch of movie title sequences on Prologue, I decided find others movie titles that I remembered being amazed by when first watching it. I decided to go with Catch Me If You Can because it was the only movie I bought just for the title sequence.
The piece is centered on the film’s storyline but narrates it by only using simple shapes and figures while revealing the key plot points that will occur during hero’s journey. The style is really similar to Saul Bass’ work, a graphic designer who specialized in film title sequences. The title sequence is both a literal and abstract piece. It’s literal in a sense that it is telling the story, in two and a half minutes, from the beginning to end with out changing or manipulating the sequence. But it’s abstracting the way we view the story by using simple graphics and only one or two prominent colours in each scene.
The qualities of this piece that I enjoy are:
- The bubbly and fluid jazz-styled 60’s music that sets the mood of the whole film as it makes you feel the chase and tension between the two characters.
- The simple colouring and design of each setting which makes the piece clear and attracts the viewers attention
- The wittiness of the piece such as arrows in the airport scene that point to Frank (DiCaprio’s Character) while he’s running away
- The continuous movement throughout the whole piece.
- The overall drawing technique used which matched the whole 1960’s era which is when the story takes place
- The way the typography intertwines with the animation
- The overall feeling of suspense and anxiety while watching the piece
Overall it’s a well thought out piece. It gave the viewers a glimpse of what was about to unfold in the movie without tell them how the movie is going to end, which is what I think a good title sequence, should do.
