WE ARE THE WALKING DEAD

Sr. Art Direction / Design / Animation / Execution

In the Summer of 2010, we were given the task of creating an opening title sequence for Frank Darabont's "The Walking Dead." I Immediately began reading the comics with childlike fascination, looking for ideas and themes for the show. We had already presented the first round of animations and boards, but it was too bloody, so we ditched it. On the second or fifth round, Danny Yount and Henry Hobson made some great boards and we needed to merge the two thoughts together in a motion test. Danny was on vacation in Kansas and shot some incredibly dark and poignant images, and Henry's frames of the larger scale desolation helped show the scope of the global catastrophe. We had a tight budget, both monetarily and temporally, so it was decided to go multiplane. Some earlier tests looked pretty fake, so I thought of a daguerreotype grime parallax with some simple warping to the edges to create the illusion of depth, but not too campy. Plus, we had some footage from the show that was usable for the larger scenes. In one shot, I had to remove Rick and his trusty steed. That was done in Boujou and c4d. The rest was in After Effects and Final Cut. After having read the first 10 or 12 books, I knew what certain characters' fates would be, but I wanted to be discreet about it. (Plus we had no idea what was going to happen in the show) That's why you see Lori fade to the shadows and Shane is in a broken picture frame. Rick was the gritty savior at the time, so he was framed brighter. In the Alt version, Henry and I posed as formerly living deputies honorably posted on the blood splattered wall. Also, the upside down American Flag was rejected, but I really thought it was a great symbol of the destruction of the world as we know it. And yes, it's legal to do that, as a sign of epic distress. Henry made a clever end logo with the zombie, but it eventually became the font we all now recognize. The texture was re-re-re-photocopied crumpled paper. The music is by We Fell to Earth, an amazing band that Kevin Lau found, which I promptly stole and used for this. At least you can see how parts of the original idea survived and how the rest evolved...while we all de-volved in ways...trying to survive this apocalypse. ©2010 Prologue Films.

Produced while at Prologue Films. Alternate version. Executed by Jesse J. Jones, Jr. / Sr. Creative Director: Kyle Cooper, Danny Yount; Creative Director: Henry Hobson; Senior Art Director / Editor / Compositor: Jesse J. Jones, Jr.; Art Director / Designer: Ash Thorp; Editor: Phil Jackson. Producer: Reno Robertson; Select Photos by Danny Yount. All Rights Reserved. ©2010 Prologue Films, AMC.

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