The Very Beginning is the Best Part

     The lights go down, sound comes up, opening credits roll, and then the excitement dies. Well not with every movie but the opening credits to a film are important. If the opening credits of a film reflect the storyline or a character it sets up the story. Remarkable opening credits go further and engage the moviegoer completely into the film in just a matter of minutes. 

     Kyle Cooper has created many remarkable opening credits. The opening credits for Spiderman 2 caught my interest. Not to mention they were one of the best parts of the film. 

     In the opening credits for Spiderman 2 Kyle Cooper introduces the typography motif for the credits in the very beginning of them with the word, Marvel. Marvel appears through the flipping of comic book pages. The word however starts to appear behind the pictures but not in entirety. This happens fast but I noticed that not all of the letters appear at the same time. He did not have letters come in at different times rather he put some parts of the letters behind the flipping pictures. This is seen with the typography after the title of the film is shown. 

     After the title names appear after layers in front of them move to reveal the names. The layers were also on top of each other which gave the 3D effect. Moreover at times a name on one layer was larger than the name on another layer. The layer with the larger name also was closer to the viewer in terms of depth. This added to the 3D effect even more. 

     

     The reveal of the names and the use of layers inspired me significantly. There was a spark that was initiated in my mind. Since the beginning of this project I have tried to think of ways to show a part of my phrase that has the word behind in it. I wanted to show a behind action but didn’t want to be so obvious about it. Cooper gave me the idea to use layers and masks. How he revealed the names in the opening credits was unexpected to me and thus very interesting rather than obvious. 

     Kinetic typography can look engaging but can be simple at the same time. Turning words into images can be entertaining but Kyle Cooper showed with the Spiderman 2 opening credits that movement and layers are enough to intrigue. I have already learned After Effects is based on layers. Now manipulating layers is what I shall base my kinetic typography on.