Hailed by many as one of the most memorable recent title sequences; the hand-drawn opening credits for Jason Reitman's second feature Juno. Title designer Gareth Smith of Shadowplay Studio tells us that the printing, hand-tracing, xeroxing, cutting and coloring of over 900 images of Juno "took nearly supernatural patience." Reitman and Smith collaborated before; Shadowplay did the amazing titles for Reitman's debut feature Thank You For Smoking. Title designer Gareth Smith explains the process of creating the title sequence.

Smith: “The Juno opening title sequence was truly a labor of love for all of us at Shadowplay Studio. It took nearly supernatural patience in order to get through the main task involved in the creation of the title sequence: the printing, hand-tracing, xeroxing, cutting and coloring of over 900 images of Juno walking through her neighborhood. But we had a fantastic time working on the project and were glad to be working with our hands instead of the computer.”

Shadowplay Studio worked with director Jason Reitman before on Thank You For Smoking, which remains one of the most watched title sequences on Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. Reitman, who says he's a big fan of opening credits, brought the designers in on the project very shortly after he signed on to direct Juno.

Smith: “When we first met with Jason about it, he played some of the music he was thinking of using in the soundtrack, including Kimya Dawson's songs with the Moldy Peaches. This music, the tone and originality of the screenplay, and the uniqueness of Juno's character, led us down the path toward creating a low-fi, hand-animated title sequence. We wanted to create something that had texture and a little bit of edge, but also imparted the warmth and heart of the screenplay.”

“Jason Reitman also let us know that he wanted the opening title sequence to take place after the first scene of the film - the scene in which Juno is admiring a discarded living room set on a lawn. Because we were able to start the process of designing the title sequence before the film was actually shot, it allowed us to create something that integrated very nicely into the story-line of the film. It seemed natural to show the credits while the audience followed Juno from the opening scene, through her neighborhood, and to the convenience store where she gets her pregnancy test. This decision allowed us to do something a little unusual for an opening title sequence: focus the sequence entirely on the main character of the film. This allowed the audience to really get a sense of, and get immersed in, Juno's unique, quirky point of view of the world.”

“We flew up to Vancouver during the final week of shooting the film, and were able to get some time with Ellen Page and Jason the day after they finished shooting the movie. We shot thousands of photos of Ellen walking on a treadmill with a high-speed camera from a number of angles. Jason had a guitar with him and strummed out some chords to help get her in the right mind-set. We then took these photos back to our studio and edited together a rough animatic which allowed us to figure out the timing and shot selection for the final title sequence. When we had something that everyone was happy with, we began the laborious process of hand-creating the title sequence.”

“Every element that appears in the title sequence was hand-made, including the typography. We used the computer to save us a tremendous amount of time to layer the elements together, but tried as best as possible to adhere to the idea of mimicking the limitations of shooting stop-motion animation from a real-world copy stand.”

“To create the cut-outs of Juno, we printed every frame, outlined Juno, then photo-copied the prints several times to degrade the quality. Each of these frames were then hand-colored and cut out with scissors. This is a process that we've been wanting to try out for quite a while, and this project seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it.”

“Toward the end of production process, we were asked to create the hand-animated season title cards that appear in the film, as well as the end titles, which we created a custom typeface for. After the film was released, we were invited to collaborate on the design of the music soundtrack and contribute drawings and cut-outs for the dvd.”

“Despite the massive amount of time it took to pull this off, we were happy to be working on it every time we picked up a pen or a pair of scissors. Jason Reitman's constant enthusiasm and positive energy inspired us throughout the production process, and we are proud to have been involved with this film.”

more about Gareth Smith

Full credits

Director (film)
Jason Reitman

Title designers
Shadowplay Studio: Gareth Smith & Jenny Lee

Title sequence producer
Ari Sachter-Zeltzer

Music
"All I Want is You" by Barry Louis Polisar

Production Company
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Links

comment on this title

Your comment

All fields are required. Your email address is used for verification only (we won't spam you).

name:
email:
message:
code:	reload (case sensitive)