The Reaping tells the story of a small town in the heart of the 'Bible Belt' in Louisiana where strange natural phenomena start to occur, similar to the ten biblical plagues. The title sequence is built around extreme close-ups of frogs, locusts, flies and blood – images that reflect the nature of the plagues.

The mysterious threat that the movie's protagonists are faced with can't be readily explained by science. Danny Yount's main title reflects the main character's scientific approach and her initial scepticism towards the mysterious phenomena she is investigating. By using extreme close-ups of insects combined with a haunting score and an unsettling editing style pioneered by Kyle Cooper in his main title for Se7en, Yount taps into an instinctive human response called fear of the unknown, thus setting the tone for the film perfectly.

I asked Danny Yount why he composed a sequence almost entirely of close-ups. “Budget,” says Yount. “I had little to work with and only two weeks to do it, so I took the route of macro photography. I brought in a small 8-megapixel camera and a microscope that my son owned. I found a fly in the windowsill, some leaves and got some basic kitchen items - salt, pepper, some seasoning and a frog... Sounds a bit like witches brew, I know,” Yount says, laughing. “I shot a series of stills in an evening and gave them to a few good animators here at Prologue who created the real magic with the frog and the leaves and the fly, while I edited and composited. The frog was not harmed and lives at my home, croaking very loudly every time we use the vacuum cleaner.”

The score differs from the score used with the version of these titles found on Yount's personal homepage.
“In the version on my web portfolio I used an old track by Amon Tobin. It had the right mood and served as an example for the composer. In the final print Warner Bros decided to go with a more sound design driven piece that I thought worked equally as well.”

As a self-taught designer, Danny Yount learned everything he knows the hard way. It was the work of Kyle Cooper that lead him in the direction of main title design.

"It wasn't until I heard about what Kyle Cooper was doing with Imaginary Forces that I was able to get a clear sense of what I wanted to do," Danny told Desktop in an interview, "From that point on I made it my goal to design main titles. To me it was like gravity – it seemed to be the most logical thing to do. I spent a year building a reel and refining my skills."

more about Danny Yount

Full credits

Director (film)
Stephen Hopkins

Concept, Design, Photography, Editing
Danny Yount, Prologue

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