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Into the Spider-Verse Title Sequence Director: James Ramirez

Release Date: 05/12/2019

Beehives, Greek Wisdom, & Invisible Hands: Pursuing Emergent Optimism with Byron Reese Part I

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Byron Reese is a futurist and an optimist. His new book We Are Agora: How Humanity Functions as a Single Superorganism That Shapes Our World and Our Future is named after the Ancient Greek marketplace and suggests that we might be part of a bigger entity that shapes our ends. Does the book have the insights we need to revitalize a sense of optimism even amidst dystopian times though?

Begin Again, Gattaca, Jerry Maguire and a course-correction quest

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Hello again. The podcast has been on hiatus for a bit. I'm bringing it back in video form at least for a limited season. In this episode, I will discuss why I stopped doing the show, what brought me back, and where I hope to head in context of the films Gattaca, Begin Again, and Jerry Maguire. If you're trying to find your way or just trying to stay the course, perhaps this is for you. Podcast page: Videos I've made for captivating couples, bands, and companies:

Regarding the Bluebird and Taylor Swift

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

In this episode I expand on some ideas that came up in my discussion with Brian A. Loschiavo about his documentary about the Bluebird Cafe, a now iconic music in Nashville. After I did the interview, certain subsequent news stories involving Taylor Swift came out, and they did affect my take on the film. Since Taylor Swift was prominently featured in the Bluebird documentary and discussed in my interview with Brian, I decided to do a supplemental commentary track to expand on my thoughts about her and how she affected my interpretation of the documentary. # Sponsors for this Episode nsavides...

Bluebird, a Music Doc on the Storied Nashville Venue, with Director Brian Loschiavo

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Brian A. Loschiavo, the director-producer-editor of the Bluebird documentary, was first exposed to The Bluebird Cafe through the show Nashville, a series for which he developed supplemental digital content. The now iconic country-music venue that has been instrumental to the careers of so many musicians including Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, and Taylor Swift made enough of an impression on Brian that he set out to create a documentary about the place and the community of singer-songwriters it has nurtured over the years. Bluebird premiered at SXSW 2019 but had a stronger reception at Nashville...

Sheriff of Mars: the Long-Lost Musician Who Inspired Townes Van Zandt

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Premiering at Nashville Film Festival 2019, The Sheriff of Mars is a music documentary that tells the story of Daniel Antopolsky, a country and folk musician who was friends with Townes Van Zandt and who, the film suggests, helped to inspire Townes' now iconic outlaw country song "Pancho and Lefty." Wanting to escape the dark influence of the 1970s outlaw country music scene, Daniel retreated to France where he was discovered by Jason Ressler, the director of Sheriff of Mars. Jason was so captivated by Daniel's music that he became his manager, helping him release his first album at the age of...

Will the Robots Save Us: Byron Reese on AI

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Byron Reese is an acclaimed author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He's spoken at TEDx Austin and SXSW and has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Wired, and The Washington Post. Byron is also the publisher of GigaOm and hosts the Voices in AI podcast. Byron's latest book, The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity, is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read this year, so I brought him on the show to discuss it. I think pessimism is the thing that will get us all killed." - Byron Reese Some of the things we discuss include How artificial...

When a Comedy Documentary Turns Tragic

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

What's Eating Ralphie May won Best of the Fest at Nashville Film Festival and Documentary of the Year at Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival. The film was initially intended to be a weight-loss documentary that followed beloved comedian Ralphie May and his family, but it turned into a raw and intimate portrait of a family dealing with addiction during the last years of Ralphie’s troubled life. At Nashville Film Festival I had the chance to interview comedian and wife of Ralphie, Lahna Turner, and director Cat Rhinehart. Some of the things we discuss include What to do when shooting...

Two Notable Shorts from Nashville Film Festival

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

My podcast coverage of Nashville Film Festival continues in this short-films episode where I interview the directors for two different short films that got my attention at the festival. One has more of a documentary feel while the other one is a more stylized film with elaborate production design, so I paired the two interviews to explore how shorts can come together and the creative possibilities they can offer. The first interview is with Amanda Young, one of the directors behind Every Two Minutes, a compilation of stories relating to human trafficking. The short was done through StoryGive,...

How to Make an Award-Winning Film with a Two Person Crew: The Planters

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Hannah Leder has a variety of acting credits including Deep Impact, Pay it Forward, and Judd Apatow’s Love series. She also has a recurring role on Apple TV+'s The Morning Show. On this podcast episode I interview Hannah about her work on The Planters, a quirky, character-driven comedy that won Best of the Fest, Best Cinematography, and Best Song at Nashville Film Festival. Along with Alexandra Kotcheff, Hannah co-wrote, co-directed, co-starred, and co-shot the film. The Planters ended up taking 127 days to shoot, and Hannah and Alexandra were the only crew members on set. Some of the things...

Nashville Film Festival 2019 Recap: Part III - My Top 5 Picks

NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

This is Part III of my podcast recap of Nashville Film Festival 2019. In it, I share my top five films from Nashville Film Festival and why I picked them. It's a more personal take, so I also share some related things that came up when trying to put together the list. Sponsor for this Episode nsavides productions – I make friendly, engaging videos for earnest people. We got to explore all kinds of places in Houston while making this music video I directed for the chamber-rock band Mystery Loves Company. Not long after the video was released, the band got an opportunity to perform at a...

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse developed a new approach to computer animation so as to translate the comic-book experience for the big screen. Academy voters took notice and awarded the film an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. One of the last things that moviegoers see before leaving the film is the hyperkinetic title sequence animated by visual studio Alma Mater.

The sequence was featured at SXSW 2019 in a compilation of compelling title sequences, and it made enough of an impression that it won SXSW's jury-awarded Excellence in Title Design accolade. As part of my festival coverage of SXSW 2019, I sat down with title sequence co-director James Ramirez to learn more about what went into making the sequence.

Some of the things we discuss include

The different styles of animation that went into the sequence and how they put it together in Cinema 4D
How they worked with the filmmakers behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to supplement the ideas and characters of the film
The way they implemented the half-tone look
What filmmakers should keep in mind when planning for a title sequence

Related Episode

To hear more about how vintage animation styles have influenced computer animation, check out this interview with Limbert Fabian and Brandon Oldenburg, Oscar-winning directors from Moonbot Studios, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Sponsor for this Episode

nsavides productions – I make videos and tell stories. Some of my videos are here.

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Related Things

Alma Mater
Jame's site, friedpixels.com
James on
- Instagram, Twitter
This Art of the Title article provides an in-depth discussion with illustrations about how the title sequence came together.
James gave a shout out to the Deadpool 2 title sequence.
Imaginary Forces, one of the agencies whose work James admires, worked on titles for Stranger Things and Mad Men.
Jack Kirby, an early Spider-Man artist, provided design inspiration for both the film and title sequence of Into the Spider-Verse.
While we didn't get to discuss this in the interview, James also did some motion graphics work on Stranger Than Fiction, a film that has been a big inspiration for me. My interview with Stranger Than Fiction's producer Lindsay Doran is over here.