Juno + the opening titles
| January 01, 2008

In my opinion, the movie Juno has it all: compelling story, great actors, enjoyable soundtrack, good design for their marketing campaign, and a unique opening title sequence design.

Shadowplay (design + content studio) created the hand-made film opening titles. They also designed the “Season” chapter transitions, end titles,trailer graphics and artwork for the soundtrack. The illustrations are by Jenny Lee. The credit for the music heard behind the opening titles goes to Barry Louis Polisar.

Shadowplay Studio was founded by two UCLA Design graduates, Ari Sachter-Zeltzer and Gareth Smith. For anyone owning Steven Heller and Louise Fili’s Stylepedia, Shadowplay’s 2006 movie title design for Thank You for Smoking is highlighted in the “Pastiche” section on page 239.

In an interesting article relating to last year’s Toronto Film Festival, Jason Reitman talks a little bit about the process of creating opening credits.

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Its exciting to see Ellen Page nominated for an Oscar, as Juno was her first breakout role. She is running up against steep competition with Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard and Laura Linney.

Jason Reitman is nominated for his first Academy Award. He is running against Julian Schnabel, Tony Gilroy, the Coen Brothers, and Paul Thomas Anderson, for Best Directing.

Juno is the only comedy nominated for the Best Picture this year, challenged by Atonenent, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood.

Though the category of “Comedy” is highly subjective, here is the list of the only other films, designated as a comedy, to win the Oscar for Best Picture:

1934: It Happened One Night
1938: You Can't Take It With You
1944: Going My Way
1960: The Apartment**
1963: Tom Jones
1973: The Sting
1977: Annie Hall
1983: Terms of Endearment**
1989: Driving Miss Daisy**
1998: Shakespeare in Love**
1999: American Beauty**

**(the Academy designated these films as Comedies, but I’m not sure I agree with this choice of genre)

Diablo Cody receives her first Academy Award nomination in the category for Writing (Original Screenplay).

Link:  the Juno opening title design

Tags:  animation, film, illustration, movie, typography

Topic: Film