My 6 Favourite Opening Sequences (Intros) from TV Series

With the Golden Age of Television happening as we speak and TV series giving “the shivers” to movie studios, it was only normal that the traditional Opening Sequence would get a total make-over. 

The Opening Sequence should be a great combination of imagery, music and symbols (clues) of what the show is about, without revealing its plot. It should grab the viewer’s attention and make him/her stop using the remote at least for a couple of minutes.

What follows is my 6 favourite Opening Sequences from TV series that I love and recommend.

But first, the Criteria:

- Look/Feel - how does the intro reflect the tone of the show. I looked here at editing (fast paced images, or slow-mo), music, colours and the overall pace.

- Symbols - how much does the intro reveal about the nature of the show, using symbols and metaphors (some that will be explained to those who watch the series)

- Is longer than 30 seconds

- Is NOT a sitcom, miniseries or variety show  (such as Friends, Band of Brothers, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live or The Daily Show)

Rating:

10 - what you see is what you get

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1 - what was that? commercial break?

Here goes ! (Don't worry, NO SPOILERS ahead)

Masters of Sex - my all time favourite, a quick, fast-paced clip, over a relaxing but energising jingle. Every second of this intro symbolises what the show is all about, while touching on the time period it relates to (6oies America). Simply brilliant. 10/10

Game of Thrones - Like a God’s watchful eye, this intro puts the viewer in his perspective, travelling from one location to another, and a new one every time the story takes you there. The fact that all locations are made out of bits-and-pieces that come together nicely,  reveals the true rule of the game: put the pieces together (for personal benefit) and you survive. And the music? Sublime. 9/10

Boardwalk Empire - a simple and great way of reflecting what this show is all about (alcohol trade in the Prohibition Era), the genius behind this intro lays in the symbolism of the floating bottles. You’ll have to watch it to get it. 9/10.

True Blood - another great intro, filled with symbols and great editing. The flow of the images literally contradicts each other and critiques the society the story takes place in. Some disturbing images, but nothing too revealing, makes it a good representation of the series. 8/10

The Newsroom (season 2) - this is a show about what the mass media is (or should be) and the intro sets the mood just for that. Takes you from the morning coffee, the early meetings, the day’s main events and the evening news. All of of this over a cheerful song that could very well be the opening for the actual news broadcasts. Great stuff. 8/10.

Six Feet Under - following the dark-comical tone of this show (about a dysfunctional family that runs a funeral home), this intro presents macabre images over a funny, mysterious song. The show deals with people’s tragedies in a satirical way. Perfect match. 8/10.

Other shows considered: House of Cards, Homeland, Sopranos, Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black, True Detective, Carnivale, Rome, Weeds, Sons of Anarchy, Vikings, Battlestar Galactica

The Dark Knight Rises - the trilogy ends

What are heroes? What are the Hollywood heroes?

Don’t get me wrong, in the likes of Batman or Ironman, we’re not talking about super-heroes.

No.

They are heroes. Heroes with dilemmas, problems, internal struggles and emotions. Closer to real heroes than ever. And if Hollywood gets that, they will get the box-office results that they dream off when on holiday in the Bahamas.

The Dark Knight Rises completes the trilogy of the Batman series. And it does so in a very powerful and emotional way. It stays true to the very nature of Batman, a hero burdened with the thirst for revenge, without the ability to focus it’s rage.

8 years after the Joker’s fateful impact on Gotham’s quintessential livelihood, the hero is no longer a hero. He’s been cast out and blamed by the society he’s swore to protect, and with his disappearance there has been peace.

The ‘retirement’ has taken a toll on the hero himself, Bruce Wayne. With plenty of time on his hands, he went on drilling his own mental health, with doubt of his own path and guilt for the loss of his most beloved Rachel. Not even his butler, Alfred, can bring him back to his normal self, not necessarily as the masked hero, but at least as the eccentric billionaire.

But as the story progresses, and a new evil rises, there is a sense of ‘a storm coming’ and the good guys lose their confidence and reliability that got them through the tough times. The commissioner is no longer needed, the greedy shareholders are forcing Wayne Enterprises into bankruptcy and a new enemy lurks in the shadows, one that uses the brute Bane to fulfill a long forgotten prophecy.

Besides the Bat’s much-needed re-birth, the strong supportive characters are almost stealing the show. The commissioner Gordon has been living a lie for the past years, and lost everything. The thief Selena has been purring her way through the rich people’s safes and jewelry while looking for an identity. The warlord Bane has exposed Gotham’s fatal flaw and took advantage of it, fueled by a vision of a simple and obeying society. And Alfred, in his respectful age, finds himself without a family to serve.

It all builds up so much against the forces of good, that it makes you think, ‘how are they gonna pull this one out? Something’s got to give. There has to be a sacrifice!’

And indeed, sacrifices are made in the epic conclusion.

But don’t despair, dear fans, this is not the conclusion of Batman as the hero, but of Batman the trilogy.

Favorite quotes:
Selina: You think this can last? There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us’
Dr./Judge Crane: ‘Death... By exile!’

Favorite scene:
Bane’s taking of Gotham.

Black Swan

When you watch a ballet performance or a theater play or anything that involves live performances you expect the character’s emotions to transpire to the audience. In theater this is done mainly by actors, in ballet this is done by the dancer’s performance and the choreography.
Darren Aronofsky does with Black Swan what a live performance does to the audience.
The story is simple: Nina, a young ballet dancer at New York’s Lincoln Center is cast as the lead in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and she has to play both the white and the black swan. The execution of this contradiction seems impossible at first, but Nina artfully overcomes it with the cost of her own sanity.
The real story, the one that pulsates in our minds, is how much Nina is going to choose to sacrifice of her life in order to bring this duplicity on stage. We know she has sacrificed a lot by the way she lives. The apartment feels like a cage, a cell almost, you can almost touch the austerity, the claustrophobic feel. And her mother, a former ballet dancer, has turned her room into a shrine for Nina, one of the most thrilling sites ever.
At work, things have the same feel. In the repetition room black is predominant, the other dancers are dressed in black and the autocratic ruler of the house, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), a beastly character well known for his affairs with other dancers is fully aware of his power and of art’s fragility.
Just like ballet, the movie is a perfect union between actors and choreography. In charge of the choreography, Aronofsky masterfully shapes each scene to lure the audience and play with it’s senses. The unsettling soundtrack (created by Clint Mansell) expands on Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake themes, the character’s close-ups enhance the emotion, the movement of the camera stuns the viewer and sets him in the spotlight on stage.
As a whole, Black Swan is like a live performance that has been practiced to exhaustion and has rendered perfection. It’s a movie that is haunting and takes pride in being a form of art. Just like ballet.

The Social Network

The Social Network is about a kid that while inventing the greatest tool to socialize in the world, he is also the loneliest guy on the planet. The movie's background story is the creation of the Facebook phenomenon, but the main subject is Mark Zuckerberg's ahead-of-time thinking. His views on everything look and sound different but are completely rational.

What he's not good at is, you guessed it, socializing. He is connecting everybody, even if they don't want it, but cannot manage to connect himself. He falls into all the corporate tricks, makes all the wrong friends and drags his best friend with him into the pit.

Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad guy (he says so himself in the movie). He's just a genius of our time and sometimes, if not most of the times, that's bad. He's created an almost indispensable tool of socializing, and inevitably has positioned himself where he is almost untouchable and not in an Al Capone kind a way. His friends are all Facebook friends. Which basically translates what Facebook realy is (and not only Facebook but mostly all other online social networks). A platform that lets each individual share what he wants. That doesn't mean it's necessarily true. Saying hello on Facebook and "Like"-ing it is not the same with saying hello face-to-face, smiling or shaking hands.

True friendship is based on true emotion. And that's what Facebook is missing.

In terms of cinematic experience, this is an Oscar-worthy. From directing to actors, even visuals, music, everything is on the spot, carefuly crafted.

You won't be sorry for the two hours spent in the dark.

Hollywood is desperate !

You can hear the producers screaming: What's the next big hit !!!

I mean, it's obvious. Less and less money go into original ideas because no-one is willing to take any risks. That mean that producers, agents and hollywood execs have no idea what genre/idea/subject will flood theaters with fans of the big white screen.

All of them put their money in safe, secure investments like franchises (the neverending graphic novel adaptations), sequels (Twilight, Shrek, Harry Potter two parts!) and remakes (Karate Kid, The Crazies, Clash of the Titans the list goes on and on)

Others are still looking for the next Paranormal Activity (which usually happens each 10 years) and ofcourse, there's a sequel or two in place which will probably  bomb at the box office.

In the meantime the trend-setters invest in gems like Inception, Splice, Monsters or know how to guess what the public wants (making Salt after the russian spies were captured in USA - now isn't that a funny coincidence?).

Even better for movie-fans, big directors and actors go into developing TV projects since the public is tired of feeling cheated when exiting the cinemas (what did I pay for? why did I waste my time? - all those movie-fanatic existential questions)

Good thing for the coming Oscar season. Maybe we'll get a taste of what good quality movies used to be. Before it's too late.

iPhone's Marketing Power

Was coming out of Phones4u with my new iPhone 3GS in my backpack and felt like having some coffee.

I knew Starbucks had wi-fi so I stopped at one nearby. After waiting at the long queue and getting my grande cappucinno, I went upstairs with the obvious intention to get the iPhone out of the box.

But, as it turned out, the whole process is not just any process.

I've found an empty table somewhere in the middle of the sitting area and maybe five or six other tables were occupied. Added some more sugar into my cup, shake well and took a sip.

I opened my backpack and took out The iPhone Box. All wraped up and brand new. Now, I'm not exagerating here, but since I was the newest coffee-lover arrived in the room, usually the rest of the patrons scan u before u become just another coffee drinker.

But when I took out the box and went looking for the sign where to start un-wrapping, the rest of the patrons turned to watch me.

Suddenly I was in the center of attention. I was on stage. I felt a little weird but I carried on. I took off the plastic wrap and slowly opened the box (slowly because that's how it opens, not that I wanted to). And there it was. The iPhone. Looking sleek and shiny as I was expecting it to look. I wondered at the piece of technology in my hands, my eyes glimmered with satisfaction and some form of fullfilment. Then I went on to see what else is inside.

And that's when my audience got back to their usual.

Now, I know I was not the only person having an iPhone in that room and I know it's not the best smart-phone out there. But everybody in the room recognized the device and seing it in the box, the actual users remembered their "moment of discovery", when they first opened the box. And they wanted to see me live that moment right there, at a table in Starbucks, having a capucinno.

They knew that I was gonna live a moment to remember, as they are all remembering their moment of discovery.

Now, that's what I call a product that creates customer experiences.

Un Prophete

In regia lui Jaques Audiard, Un Prophete este filmul frantuzesc comparabil cu Nasul, si daca varianta americana se intinde pe trei parti, Un prophete face acelasi lucru in doua ore si jumatate.

Povestea arabului Malik (Tahar Rahim) inchis intr-o puscarie alaturi de cei mai periculosi mafioti si transformarea sa dintr-un un infractor intr-un mafiot nemilos este transpusa fara prea multe dialoguri, ci mai mult prin jocul actoricesc.

Malik se afla intr-o situatie relativ simpla. Don-ul napolitan Cesar Luciani (numele nu este o simpla coincidenta) il forteaza sa ucida un martor incarcerat in aceeasi puscarie ce trebuie sa supravietuiasca pentru a putea depune marturie. Fiind singurul care are acces la aripa arabilor si “curtat” de catre martor, Malik are de ales: il ucide sau este ucis.

Intr-o scena de intensitate maxima, Malik il ucide, si devine protejatul don-ului. Dar nu se opreste aici. El este eliberat cateva zile pe saptamana, pe cautiune, timp in care duce la bun sfarsit misiuni pentru don, urcand rapid pe scara ierarhica. Transformarea sa este brutala, realitatea cruda din puscarie schimbandu-l in esenta, metamorfozandu-se psihic dintr-un delicvent marunt intr-un mafiot necrutator.

Pe un ton putin mistic, Malik mafiotul isi conduce viata si ia deciziile in urma unor viziuni bizare (dar pline de simbolistica) sau aparitii hipnotizante ale victimelor sale, iar rezultatele sunt pe masura. Ingeniozitatea planurilor sale il duc pana in varf pe scara ierarhica si puterea sa crescanda se oglindeste in comportamentul respectuos al celorlalti.

Stilul filmului este realist si brutal, scenele violente fiind la limita dintre antrenant si suportabil. Cu o tema ce putini au crezut ca mai poate fi abordata cu succes, si mai ales in acest fel, Un Prophete depaseste cu mult asteptarile si isi revendica bine-meritatul loc printre clasici.

Replica favorita:

Malik: “Listen, we’ll kill them but they can’t see it coming”