Carmen Sandiego / Title sequence
I co-directed and art directed Camen Sandiego’s title sequence alongside Eusong Lee for Chromosphere in 2018
Carmen Sandiego was already a famous figure back in the 90s, TV shows and games already turned that franchise into a worldwide success. When offered to do the title sequence for the reboot Netflix TV show, we knew we had to do something special, impactful.
Initial thumbnailing for the title sequence
The initial thoughts behind the title sequence was to create a cinematic, noir, iconic take on a well-known franchise. For me, that meant actually stripping away all color, boldly go to B&W and add Carmen ‘s red garment as the only point of focus . What's more iconic?
The red of her coat and hat appeared to me as an elegant finishing touch on the whole look, anchoring it more into something modern and not just a nostalgic vintage B&W fantasy.
A huge part of the visual approach is due to my interest in photography and my natural affinity for dramatic lighting.
To me, light has this wonderful ability to reshape an architectural landscape and very selectively leaking through buildings, bringing attention to an isolated element – quite the storytelling tool.
I quite like that, and with Carmen, the spy theme was an invitation to create a dramatic take on lighting and make it play out through a wonderful array of locations.
Typically, every frame of the title sequence follows a simple pattern :
B&W, an iconic location, a high contrast, highly constructed almost coercive composition — and Carmen, in red, playing a game of hide-and-seek with the viewer
Fast forward -, we started to pushed our initial thumbnails a bit forward once the initial concepts got approved, yet still working quick and small - here for instance, are some exploration frame for Carmen reveal sequence
Then, it was all about finding the perfect location where Carmen could hide. The landmarks had to be distinctive enough to be read by the viewer in a fast-paced video, varied, and more suggested than obviously shown outright.
The simplicity of the carmen revealed inspired the other frames - It prompted us to lean toward high negative space.
Final backgrounds
Final background by Eastwood Wong
Original thumbnail
Switch to color
Ultimately, the title sequence had to bridge to the TV show’s style. Hence, we realise this switch midway, when Carmen is momentarily ‘found out’ . We then switch to a less subdued mood and go straight into action with Carmen jumping, twirling and playing tricks
Here, an excerpt of the colorscript, showing the switch
Carmen Sandiego / Title Sequence
DESIGN
Eastwood Wong
Sylvia Liu
Elaine Lee
Keiko Murayama
Linda Fong
ANIMATION
Thea Glad
Jonathan Djob Nkondo
Natan Moura
Marlène Beaube
Kat Ruzics
Gervais Merryweather
Lea Justum
Tommy Rodricks
Mehdi Aouichaoui
COMPOSITING
Stéphane Coëdel
Rob Ward
MUSIC
Jared Lee Gosselin
Raquel Castro (Performer)
Ray De La Garza (Consultant)
SPECIAL THANKS
Duane Capizzi
Caroline Fraser
Netflix
DHX
HMH