In part one of our interview with the acclaimed title designer, art director and  filmmaker Kyle Cooper, recorded at the Prologue studios in Venice Beach, California. (6'51" mins.)

In Part 2, Cooper discusses "integrated typography" and three classic main titles that made a big impression on him: The Dead Zone by Wayne Fitzgerald, To Kill A Mockingbird by Stephen Frankfurt and Walk On The Wild Side by Saul Bass.

Kyle Cooper has been credited as the man who single-handedly revitalized the main title sequence as an art form. His groundbreaking title sequence for Se7en (1995) changed the way we look and think about title design today and is arguably the most imitated main title ever made. The Se7en title sequence was hailed by New York Times Magazine as “One of the most important design innovations of the 1990s”.

Cooper founded two internationally recognized film design companies, Imaginary Forces and Prologue Films, both of which are based in Los Angeles and both are influential in their field. His body of work includes over 100 film title sequences. Among the most memorable ones are Mimic, Dawn of the Dead, Donnie Brasco and all three of the Spider-Man movies.

To embed or download this interview: vimeo.com/9400332
Same interview with Spanish subtitles by Víctor Merino: vimeo.com/9906444

Part of a series of five video interviews with main title designers recorded in L.A. in 2009. See also our interviews with Jamie Caliri, Karin Fong, Garson Yu and Danny Yount.

Kyle Cooper's main titles at Forget the Film, Watch the Titles:
Wimbledon
Godzilla: Final Wars
Se7en
at Art of the Title:
The Incredible Hulk
Donnie Brasco
Mimic
The Island of Dr. Moreau

Main title designer Kyle Cooper has been credited as the man who single-handedly revitalized the main title sequence as an art form. His groundbreaking title sequence for Se7en (1995) changed the way we look and think about title design today and is arguably the most imitated main title ever made. The Se7en title sequence was hailed by New York Times Magazine as “One of the most important design innovations of the 1990s”.

more about Kyle Cooper

Full credits

Director
Femke Wolting and Remco Vlaanderen

Editing
Paul de Heer

Graphics
Madelinde Hageman, Raoul Matheron

Voice over
Lotje Sodderland

Created and published by
SubmarineChannel.com

Recorded at
Prologue, Los Angeles, May 2009

Thanks
Kyle Cooper, Prologue

Links

comment on this title

Comments (13):

13 Feb 10 • by: Dave Dietz

i love this website, but who the hell hosts your videos? they are torture to watch ... start, stop, start stop ... GET A MORE ROBUST VIDEO HOSTING SERVICE PLEASE.

14 Feb 10 • by: Remco

Thank you for your kind comments.

16 Feb 10 • by: Bran Dougherty-Johnson

Played fine here, just FYI. Great interview ...

17 Feb 10 • by: jeon ht

thank you WTT :)
happy to watch the Kyle cooper Interview.

17 Feb 10 • by: Nick Sears

Where's part 2??

Give us a "Stay Tuned" or something to hint that it will come later. I'm searching around the site but I'm finding nothing.

btw - Cooper's the man!

17 Feb 10 • by: Barney Johnson

Great interview indeed!

Mmm, kind of looks like this is the last interview, and it seems it is part 1 of 2. So we need to wait a little bit, I suppose?

But this is the wonder that internet is... so your 'Stay Tuned' can be found in that orange icon somewhere on this page (RSS is its name :))

17 Feb 10 • by: Remco

Underneath the video there's text with some info on part 2.

We don't know when Part 2 of the Cooper interview will be online yet. This is related to a feature documentary on title design we're developing. So stay tuned!

19 Feb 10 • by: freelancer

It's funny how directors never give credit or at least a thanks to the people that helped them with their work. Don't get me wrong Kyle Cooper is good, but c'mon, he didn't do the Seven, Mimic, etc. titles by himself. Sure he was Creative Director, but even CD's get help from the people they work with.

20 Feb 10 • by: remco

@freelancer:
Not true. Kyle gives ample credit to all that participated in the Se7en titles in this detailed 'making of' interview:
http://watchthetitles.com/articles/00169-Se7en

21 Feb 10 • by: Douglas Graves

wow. Kyle Cooper is great! He's amazing. thank you for the links for Mimic and Island of Dr Moreau. i had never seen them. I really appreciate the interview and I can't wait to see your completed documentary.

10 Mar 10 • by: Chimpdoctor

Hey great interview. He's a hard man to track down. Whats the background music? Dj Shadow or dust brothers or something, i cant recall.

27 Jul 10 • by: kyle is lame

whatever, kyle is all "me" "me" "me"
he takes ALL credit for talented people who he whips and slave drives.

i do give kyle credit for finding phenomenal talent who will make him look good.

those people are the ones who need to be credited to putting kyle on the mantle that he is on.

28 Jul 10 • by: remco

A completely misinformed comment. During the interview, Kyle actually constantly gave credit to all the people he worked with, be it directors, designers or DP's. Just read the Se7en interview on this site.

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