SIMON CASSELSSimon Cassels is a well known creative director for title sequences. He’s created title sequences such as: Down with love (2003), Bedtime stories (2008), Willy wonka and the choclate factory (2005), Bad boys II (2003) and Pirates of the Carribean: The curse of the black pearl (2003). The list speaks for itself as they are recognised films, some of them have also received awards.

Simon Cassels title sequence: Down with lovehttp://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/0052-Down_With_Love

Down with love is one Cassels greatest title sequences. It is a retro-style animation which is eye catching and interesting as the sequence flows, looks smooth and is enjoyable. The sequence is considered old fashioned as it was made in 2003 and you would tend to see title sequences similar to this many years ago from other title sequence designers such as Saul Bass.

The typography used within this title sequence is curvy

Interview with Cassels about Down with love

"The animation was a mix of After Effects and Maya and traditional hand drawn animation. The final compositing was done in Shake,” explains Cassels. “The boarding of the job was by far the most time consuming and difficult aspect of the process. Once we had that down and cut together, it was just a matter of putting the pieces of the jigsaw together. We had a click track to work the animation from, and we used this to cut the story board, so we had a good indication of timings. We had a lot of lead time, which is unusual in title design, but always leads to the best results. Those student days of leaving everything to the last minute really doesn't work anymore. If I can offer one piece of advice apart from to "wear sunscreen" is: Don't rush anything."

Bedtime storieshttp://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00146-

Bedtime_Stories

Bedtime stories is a very bright, colourful and creative title sequence as it is the opening to a child’s film which means he had to make it appealing to young children. He achieved this by making the title sequence a child’s story book, children can relate to this as they tend to enjoy stories. Throughout the title sequence he had almost created story itself, flicking through the pages of the storybook he showed the audience a story leading up to the film engaging the audience to film because of the astonishing title sequence.

The typography used in this title sequence

“A major source of inspiration in this piece was the work of Thomas Allen, which I'd gotten the opportunity to see firsthand at Photo L.A.,” Cassels explains. “Since then, I became interested in pursuing an animated project that employed a similar design philosophy - one that played with both collage and dimensionalization. So when director Adam Shankman called up saying that he was interested in an opening sequence that involved pop-up books - I was over the moon - this would be a perfect fit to bring this technique to life. I had worked with Adam on the titles for Hairspray and we immediately clicked on a vision of playful kitsch that would both introduce and draw the viewer into a world of fantastical possibility and childhood nostalgia.”