The opening credits on television are a dying art form.
In the 1990s, opening credits were a glamorous but fleeting experience, introducing the cast in quick succession before the show began. In the 2000s, the dawn of prestige television saw the use of succinct but eye-catching titles to signal a heightened level of creativity. But by the time Patrick Clair entered the industry, something had changed.
“I was lucky enough to break into it when streaming became the dominant force and everyone was competing to prove who could have the best opening credits. So we had some really great years where every major show wanted to have the biggest, longest opening credits,” says the title sequence designer. diversity“Those years are obviously behind us.”
This is partly because streaming services now have a skip intro button, allowing viewers to skip the titles and effectively giving studios permission not to invest in them.
“The ‘Skip Intro’ button simply means that fewer shows will have opening credits now,” says Clair. “But the good thing is that it’s a very conscious decision by a showrunner to have opening credits. If there is one, it’s because they want it to be part of the story.”
Apple TV+ is one of the streamers that has such a button for viewers. But it’s worth noting that the company also produces the opening credits for almost all of its series – a commitment that has paid off. Among the six Emmy nominees for opening credits design this year, Apple secured three spots – “Silo,” “Palm Royale,” and “Lessons in Chemistry.” Other nominees include Netflix’s “Three Body Problem,” Prime Video’s “Fallout,” and FX’s “Shōgun.”
Perhaps even more impressive is Clair, who secured three of the six nominations in the category this year. In addition to being creative director for the main titles of “Silo,” the 15-time nominee also won for “Three Body Problem” and “Fallout.” He says the art form is kept alive when the main titles are a creative accompaniment to the series’ narrative. When designing “Silo” in the beginning, his team worked closely with creator Graham Yost to understand the show’s underground world, where people retreated hundreds of years ago.
“Silo” opening sequence
“We looked in nature for examples of this kind of complex life underground and we looked at ant colonies,” he says. “Ants form really complicated colonies underground that require very complex social relationships, and we looked at how humans have exposed these by filling abandoned ant colonies with metal and creating these very organic but strange and odd sculptures. It allowed us to start thinking about this inside-out world where humanity thrives, rises and falls deep underground.”
The resulting title sequence is designed around the silo’s central nervous system, a spiral staircase that they visually merged with images of spiral columns and DNA strands. They also found photographs of early 20th-century English train stations, showing the blurry hordes of thousands of commuters walking back and forth on the platforms.
“You get the sense that thousands of lives are connected, and that’s what led us to have this river of ghostly people flowing through the silo and seeing all these generations at once and their impact on the world,” says Clair.
These haunting images are intended to stay with the viewer as they take in the show, reminding them of the centuries-old history hidden within the concrete walls of this claustrophobic setting.
This creative synergy with the show’s identity plays a similarly central role in the development of Apple’s other nominated major titles. For “Lessons in Chemistry,” creative directors Hazel Baird and Rob Cawdery were inspired by one of the greatest weapons for progress used by pioneering chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) – her pencil.
Their concept perfectly complements the show’s upbeat theme song, Mildred Bailey’s 1930s song “Wham (Re-Bop-Boom-Bam),” which they were given at the beginning of the creative process. “It helps us a lot rhythmically,” Baird says. “Sometimes you don’t get to the music until the last few weeks, which can be challenging. That was the case with ‘The Morning Show.'”
The ability to keep the music in mind while creating ensured the coexistence of all elements at every step.
“The sequence is essentially a song and dance number,” says Cawdery. “We tried to use the kind of numbers from the 1950s to make sure the sequence fit well into the time period of the show. Knowing the music from the beginning and getting all the pins perfectly synchronized was like choreographing a dance.”
The series is based on Bonnie Garmus’ best-selling novel, meaning fans approached the series with high expectations, which the titles’ creators have met. “Certain pencils represent certain interactions and romantic relationships in their lives, so those movements are associated with a range of emotions,” says Cawdery. “We wanted to reward fans immediately and include others as the series progresses.”
Story-specific designs are also what four-time nominee Ronnie Koff relied on for his “Palm Royale” concept, which uses simple but striking illustrations to highlight the social climbing dramedy’s star-studded cast, led by Kristen Wiig. While some shows minimize actual typography to focus on the visual elements, Koff changed the order of things, he says. “We moved the credits forward and moved all the graphic elements around them,” he says.
“Palm Royale” uses thematically relevant imagery such as pearls, high heels, brightly colored lips and pharmaceuticals, many of which seem random until viewers watch the show. For example, a whale’s tail fin appears seemingly at random until Allison Janney’s character tearfully pours out her heart to a beached whale in Episode 8.
Koff says that in an age where you can “skip intros,” rewarding viewers who stick around until the opening credits can help the art form. “I think one of the ways title sequences come alive – and live on – is to give them a certain sense of humor,” he says. “It’s about mining the story for those ideas and making the audience feel like they haven’t skipped anything.”
