FYC Emmy Main Title Design

by Nathaniel R

The opening titles for "Voir" are gorgeous, aren't they?

The "Skip Intro" / "Skip Credits" button on various streaming services is why we can't have nice things. The art of credit sequences can really set the tone for a series and skipping it is impatient at best and rude at worst. The website "Art of the Title", which extolls the virtues of such things, is not technically shuttered (we reached out to see!) but it hasn't had any new articles in 11 months. All of which leads us to hope sincerely that Emmy voters choose well enough that at least a few people here and there are reminded of wonderful this tiny niche sidebar of entertainment can be. Emmy voters always have plenty of worthy options in this category. This year there are 162 programs vying for 7 nomination slots if we counted correctly.

Here are six programs off the top of our heads that we hope they're considering with voting ending today...

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Tweetweek: Punctuated Titles (and other brief distractions)

Let's start with our old pal Joe, who is brilliant at Twitter asking a very good question:

Thinking about "Tick, Tick... Boom!" and whether any other movies pass the "three types of punctuation in the title" test.

— Joe Reid (@joereid) November 4, 2021

Turns out it's pretty rare. Even super long movie titles usually only use one or, maximum, two. But here are a handful that do...

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FYC Outstanding Main Title Design

by Nathaniel R

Will Hollywood get nominated for its storytelling symbolic use of the iconic sign?

142 shows will be competing for the nominations in main title design. You know, those parts of a show that Netflix lets you ignore with the "Skip Intro" button. It is our humble opinion that the title design is part of the show and should never be skipped. It sets the mood like, say, and overture would for a musical. One of the reasons we like this Emmy category is that shows don't tend to stay eligible year after year after year. Generally it's only the first season though shows which significantly alter their opening imagery can compete again -- i was surprised to see Succession in the list again.

Which main title designs did you love this year? Here are 15 random intros from those 142 that could find their names called...

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"The Irishman" isn't "The Irishman"

by Cláudio Alves

Martin Scorsese's latest magnum opus is an epic in most senses of the word. It's one of the master's most dense exercises, using biography as a vehicle to explore the great social transformations of post-war American Society. The Irishman is a portrait of Death as an ever-encroaching certainty, a treatise on the painful passage of time and a theatre of memory where the spiritedness of youth is curdled by the self-image of the old men who revisit it. 

That's heavy stuff but here's something lighter: As the film's very credits show, this gargantuan feat of cinema isn't called The Irishman at all…

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The winning films from SXSW and SLO Festivals

Austin's SXSW extravaganza (it's not just films there but music and comedy festivals simultaneously) and San Luis Obispo's 25th anniversary film festivals are both a wrap. And with festival wraps come jury and audience prizes! While each year's mainstream gold rush culminating in the Oscars sometimes get snarky reactions in terms of all the back-patting of already über successful people, festival prizes are different. They can be career-making or at least significantly augmenting moments for indie filmmakers, who don't have the benefit of millions in P&A budgets or A list careers to bolster public interest. Awards are often the way artists can begin to forge a creative career. So keep an eye out on these titles and people in case they work their way around to you.

SXSW WINNERS

Saint Frances

NARRATIVE, AUDIENCE AWARDS
• Main Slate: Saint Frances (Alex Thompson) This dramedy is about a young woman who takes a job as a nanny shortly after having an abortion.
• "Headliners": Longshot (Jonathan Levine) New comedy starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen
• "Spotlight": The Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz) <-- Abe reviewed this one for us. Shia Labeouf stars...

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