Juno’s Opening Credit Sequence
When I first saw Juno at the Toronto Film Festival in September, one of the things I made mention of was the super-cool rotoscoped color-pencil animated opening sequence done by Shadowplay Studios.
Shadowplay has put the sequence online, which can now be watched below. I love this style so much, I wish that the marketing guys at Fox Searchlight had used it more in the marketing materials (ie the theatrical poster). But what do I know?
I just saw the film on the big screen tonight for the third time, and boy does this film play incredibly well in front of an audience. The almost packed theater in a suburb outside-Boston, laughed at every joke, and even clapped for the film when the credits hit.
Director Jason Reitman talks about the opening credit sequence in a blog post from August:
They were created by Shadowplay Studios, the same team who did the bad-ass opening titles for Thank You For Smoking. I met them back in 2000 when we both had short films playing the festival circuit. Their short, “This Guy Is Falling”, was a really impressive have live action/half animation piece they did in college.
When they did Smoking, the titles were rendered on a series of computers in one of their mother’s living rooms. Now they got a fancy place in an art deco building on Wilshire.
The Juno opening titles are out of control. I don’t want to give away too much, but the whole process was really labor intensive. The Shadowplayers would have parties in which friends and family would help construct the whole thing. Can’t wait for you all to see it and then I can explain how it was done…
Juno is now playing on 1,000 screens, and is expected to expand wider across the U.S. in the coming weeks.
Fergie and Josh’s Waverly Dinner Date
Fergie and Josh’s Waverly Dinner Date
The Waverly Inn was the place to be for celebrity sightings last night. Not only were Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony in the house, but cutie couple Fergie and her fiancé Josh Duhamel also stopped in for a bite to eat.
As she walked past the paparazzi, the “Big Girls Don’t Cry” singer flashed her engagement ring bling, clearly very proud of her betrothal present.
And it sounds like “Sex and the City: The Movie” will be packed full of more goodness than we had originally thought. That’s right, Fergie is recording what will be the song for the film’s opening sequence.
Director Michael Patrick King told press, “It’s called ‘Labels & Love.’ It’s an entirely new song with lyrics, but it has the ‘Sex and the City’ theme as the DNA - on steroids.”
Juno Movie Poster
Update: The good people at Fox Searchlight has sent me a higher resolution version of this poster, which they have also assured me is ONLY a Toronto Film Festival Teaser Poster. So expect a Theatrical teaser poster in the next month or so.
While I was in Canada, I was able to snag this cool teaser poster for Jason Reitman’s Juno. I haven’t seen it online yet, so I thought I’d share. It looks very much like the background on the film’s official website. I really hope that they come up with something better for the theatrical one-sheet. I think they should make a poster in the same style of the super-cool Shadowplay Studios rotoscoped color-pencil animated opening sequence (brief snapshot seen above).
Check out the Juno poster after the jump.
10 Minutes of Live Free or Die Hard
20th Century Fox Japan has released 10 minutes of Live Free or Die Hard to help wet your appetite. The footage contains almost the entire opening sequence of the movie. The first clip begins with the fox logo. We are witness to the reverse engineering that leads to America getting “hacked”. The second clip, which appears to only be a scene or two later, features the entrance of John McClane (Bruce Willis) who runs into a bunch of action while on an assignment to bring in a computer hacker (Justin Long) for questioning. While the first clip was a little disappointing (too much of the fake movie technology stuff), once Willis entered the screen I was hooked. What do you guys think?
Check out the new video at Yahoo Movies Japan: Medium Quality or High Quality.