Kyle Cooper
"A great title sequence sets an expectation…” Sais Kyle Cooper, modern designer of motion picture title sequences. Kyle Cooper has produced over 150 opening title sequences for some of the biggest movies in Hollywood, including (name a few). After graduatuating from Yale University, Cooper joined an advertising agency as a creative director called R/GA. There, Cooper created some of his most renowned pieces such as Se7en, a 1995 American Crime film. He went on to co-found ‘Imaginary Forces’ in 1996, a creative agency branching from R/GA. In 2003, after leaving Imaginary Forces, Cooper founded Prologue, another creative agency where he worked in film title design and production. The opening title sequence for 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird, created by Stephen Frankfurt and Kenneth Branagh’s opening film title for 1989’s Henry have been some of Cooper’s biggest influences. Kyle Cooper’s work is often compared to that of Saul Bass. Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker in the 1950’s through the 1990’s who worked alongside Hollywood’s finest including, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock. Bass has created some of the most famous main titles in Hollywood history such as, Spartacus (1960); Psycho (1960); It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963); and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).
Other opening title sequences of Saul Bass include:
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
West Side Story (1961)
North By Northwest (1959)
Vertigo (1958)
The Big Knife (1955)
Other opening title sequences of Kyle Cooper include:
Se7en (1995)
Braveheart (1995)
Spider-Man (2002)
Iron Man (2008)
Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn –Part 1 (2011)
American Horror Story (2011)
Analysis of ‘Seven’: Kyle Cooper uses fast images and intensive music to set the mood of suspension in the opening title sequence of Se7en. By slowly giving the audience frames of disturbing footage, we are able to piece together an idea of what we are seeing. This lack of revealing too much footage at once is effective in that it makes the audience think, keeping us very engaged. We learn in this opening title sequence that there is a very mentally disturbed man piecing together some sort of disgusting catalogue. Before this, we witness the same man removing his fingertips, signifying that this unidentified man does not want to be found. Cooper sticks to dark and cool colours like red, black and grey to give the sequence an airy aloofness, aimed at taking the audience members inside the mind of this criminal freak. Between each frame, we get a glimpse of who the main actors in the movie are, as well as who directed it, who produced it, who wrote it etc. Cooper effectively never shows of the face of the creepy man, keeping us wondering who he is and what he looks like through the entire sequence.
Analysis of Wimbledon: In this opening title sequence, also created by Kyle Cooper, the music begins in an upbeat manor, with the production company as the first image on the screen. In the background, we hear car and street noises as clouds appear and as each beat is hit in the music, the frame changes to another image of clouds. Next there are several images of large groups of people seen on the screen. The interesting effect Cooper uses here is that the frame cuts to a different image on each beat in the music. Back and forth the frozen images of peoples head going left to right with the beat flash in front of the screen as the opening credits appear. We see the names of the main actors, casting director, tennis consultant, music director, editor, director etc. As an audience, we are kept engaged by the swiftness of the camera frames and by how cool it is that a whole crowd of people is all looking in the same direction all at once.
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