First Look: Coronation Street’s New 2010 HD Main Title, Retrospective

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First Look: British prime-time soap opera institution, Coronation Street, is getting a much talked about new look. The ITV show is getting a brand new title sequence (first time in eight years) as the show moves to high definition on Monday. Rival EastEnders revamped its title sequence for the first time in ten years last September.

Coronation Street 2010

Corrie Executive Producer Kieran Roberts tells us, “In our new titles Coronation Street remains the star but we see it as part of a busy, modern Manchester through our opening shots. The overall feel is livelier, more intimate and more colourful and they look stunning.”

Manchester’s own HerseyGoldie Films produced the titles (post by Space Digital) on a four week concept to final delivery timetable.

When US soap As the World Turns ends in September 2010, Coronation Street will become the world’s longest running scripted television show.

Coronation Street’s first set of black and white titles was viewers’ first glimpse of the show in 1960. The simple sequence, preceded by the Granada television ident, was very short. For serious Corrie fans and other main title enthusiasts, click keep reading for a short retrospective on the national institution…

Abrams, Fringe Go Retro With Special Title Sequence

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Lots of fans are buzzing about the recent Fringe episode “Peter”, in which we are taken flashback style to 1985. The episode is accompanied by a specially designed title sequence. It is this sort of clever, playful approach to storytelling that makes J.J. one of the most challenging and rewarding clients to work with.

I still remember my first meeting with him in 2004 during an early production meeting for Lost. What struck me was his uncanny ability to juggle the hysteria of being a show runner with his quiet, confident approach to storytelling. Trust me when I say he probably had this concept already percolating in his head. The Tron-style graphics in the special title sequence set the perfect tone.

And with former Brothers & Sisters show runners Monica Breen and Alison Schapker joining J.J. on Fringe, you can expect even more awesome storylines to come. Currently, Abrams is fine tuning the pilot for NBC’s Undercovers, which has him directing his first pilot since the 2004 Lost premiere.

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BBC Sport- Winter Olympics 2010 Animated Film

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The BBC has released an epic animated commercial (:40) to celebrate the upcoming coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

The film was set around a legendary quest, “whereby an Inuit hero has to retrieve a spiritual stone that has been taken by a giant Bear from a mystical totem. In the process of his mission our hero draws on his skills in a series of challenging & physically brutal Olympic style sports to recover the precious ice locked stone, thus restoring light and peace to his dark and troubled world”.

BBC Winter Olympics 2010 film, commissioned by BBC / Red Bee Media, agency: RKCR/Y&R, prod co: Studio AKA

Incidentally, the intricate background shots were based on designs by Jon Klassen, who worked on the movie Coraline.

Academy Awards Graphics & Branding: A Well Deserved Look Back

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So the OSCARS® have come and gone in a blink of an eye. Having worked on a number of award show graphics packages myself, it’s always been slightly disappointing to see these campaigns have such short (if not beautiful) shelf lives. Our title sequences live on a weekly basis, idents seem to pop on the screen every other minute. The hundreds of hours of design, development, conceptual fine-tuning, and passion that goes into these award show packages is truly awe-inspiring.

*If you’ve come for the 2011 OSCARS branding & design feature, simply follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be notified when the full rundown from last night’s award show is complete. Stay tuned!

2007 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

Since the 81st Academy Awards® are now receiving their annual morning-after coffee talk (…so whatcha think of Kate’s speech?), I thought we’d take a quick look back at the last few years of Oscar®, visioned through the team of Kyle Cooper and Prologue who have been responsible for the visual artistry of the Academy Awards® graphics package for the last several years (as well as that stunning Benjamin Button Poster).

2008 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

So without further ado, let’s take a glimpse back at some beautiful Academy Awards® graphics that had their time in the spotlight pass far too quickly.  Btw, if you’ve worked on an awards show graphics package you think should shine again for all of us to see, let me know.

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2006 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2006 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2006 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2007 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2007 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2007 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2008 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2008 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

2008 Academy Awards © Prologue / AMPAS

The Simpsons brand new HD Main Title Open

Last night on FOX, The Simpsons ushered in a new era. After 20 years, The Simpsons had their Sunday night premier in High Definition. And with it came a much bigger development: A brand new main title open and already tens of thousands of comments across the blogosphere debating the implications. And with 2009 main title season pitch presentations already underway, seems like Homer and gang might have provided a quiet reminder of the influence that our title design efforts hold in the public domain.

It is the first significant revamp of the title sequence since 1989.  The open takes advantage of the generous HD panorama and featured an extended couch gag of the Simpsons chasing their couch across the world, as well as into space. While some of the old parts remain (Bart still writes on the chalk board, Lisa still saxes her way out of music class, and Homer still throws radioactive material down his shirt) most of it has changed to catch up on 20-seasons worth of character additions.

Digital Collage Comparison- Click for Full View

The last time the open garnered so much attention was for Sky One’s live-action recreation of the iconic title, directed by Chris Palmer. Attached to the end of the UK sequence was the message “Come home to The Simpsons on Sky One” (which is not end-tagged to the youtube clip below). Because the live-action spot was made in the UK, there are some slight cultural differences including Homer and Marge driving on the left in the right hand side of the car and Chief Wiggum wearing a British police uniform.

With so much hubbub, perhaps we’ll see new main title refreshes on a weekly basis. How’s that for a stimulus plan for the broadcast design industry?

MGFest 2009 Title Open

If you were at MGFest (Motion Graphics Festival) 2009 in Chicago just a few weeks ago, you would’ve seen some opening title work from CD Jason White and his team from Chicago-based LIFT.

Here’s a look if you missed it.

Kath & Kim: Main Title Sequence Comparison (USA vs. Australia)

With NBC recently announcing the decision to cut the US episode order from 22 to 17; the US version of Kath & Kim’s season finale will come sooner than expected: March 12, 2009. With international show translations growing in popularity, naturally some of us will find ourselves re-packaging imported programming. Here are Kath & Kim’s title sequences side by side for your review, which do you prefer?

(Nice to see Scissor Sisters’ Filthy Gorgeous getting some play via the US version)

Kath & Kim US Main Title Open

vs.

Kath & Kim Australian Title Open

R/GA Motion Graphics Historical Reel 1977-2008

Founded in 1977 by the brothers Richard and Robert Greenberg, R/GA, as the company is now known, seems like it’s been around for decades. And well, it has. Their first motion graphics efforts consisted largely of television commercials, but ultimately expanded to producing movie trailers and related promotional materials for such feature films as Superman (1978); All That Jazz (1979); and Altered States (1980); as well as the title sequences and visual bumpers for Xanadu (1980), and Flash Gordon (1980).

R/GA was one of the first companies to assemble, all under one roof, the disparate realms of print advertising, television commercials and motion picture trailers. Among the ground-breaking visual effects projects R/GA has created are sequences for such film as Alien (1979), Predator (1987), Seven (1995), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Zelig (1981). In all, to date, R/GA has developed opticals and visual effects for over 500 feature films, and has produced over 6000 commercials. Now their new Historical Reel is available for showing.

“Spanning 30 years, R/GA’s creative accomplishments tell the story of our evolution from a film production company to a holistic interactive agency built for a digital world. From our roots as a pioneer in computed-assisted filmmaking, to our creation of an integrated digital studio, the new agency model we are building today, we have always been steadfastly committed to innovation.”

You can check out the R/GA Historical Reel 1977-2008, here.