What do you see?
I watched the Clear History title sequence that involved taking the viewer around a screen designed to look like a modern Mac interface. The viewer is shown multiple aspects of the hypothetic user’s data storage system, including file management. The actors, producers, director, etc. are shown as options in a drop-down menu or as names of file folders so that the sequence shows basic click-through functionality. There is a futuristic looking car in a 3d modeling program. The sequence ends with the user clearing the browsing history.
Why do you like what you see?
Personally, I thought that while the sequence fits the movie’s content well, that it was quite lazy. I have seen some truly great title sequence design in movies (the one that comes to mind is Se7en), and this one fell short for me coming from a purely design perspective. I understand that it has its place but I don’t feel that enough was done. Maybe that was an aesthetic that the designer was going for, a simple look; in fact, that would actually make a lot of sense considering that the title sequence is supposed to be set up on a Mac. I still don’t like it, but I appreciate its place in the industry.
What makes the design and animation effective at conveying the spirit of the film or at hinting at its content?
The menu items and the images that were shown effectively explain to the viewers what the movie is about. From the title sequence we know a few things: the interface is modern and familiar, placing us on Earth in a contemporary time period and setting. Computers are involved in some way, so are futuristic cars. Because the title sequence ends on the “Clear History” button, we can assume that the deletion of information is also involved in some way.