Creative Journey

The creative process behind the title sequence spanned almost four months, involving upwards of 30 artists and producers, who worked closely with Kleinman to define the images, style and tone of the sequence. For teams accustomed to creating shorter, snappier commercial spots, the Bond titles are a chance to approach the work in a different way: ‘There’s more scope, for sure’, says Executive Creative Director William Bartlett. ‘On a commercial the work tends to be more buttoned-down, with a greater focus on the technical rather than the creative. There are technical challenges here too, of course, but the emphasis is on the creative exploration’.

The work kicked off in May 2015, after the sequence director Daniel Kleinman received the call-up from Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. Once the script had been read, Kleinman met with Framestore to start concepting visual ideas - the start of an organic, evolutionary process. With six Bond sequences already under his belt, Kleinman knew exactly how to approach the work: ‘I don’t have any preconceived ideas, anything stored up or saved up from other things when I come to the job - it’s important that the ideas and visuals are narratively driven. In most Bond films there’s a theme that runs throughout. That will be the thing that I take and run with, try to find the visual metaphors, and have some fun with the idea of it’.

Framestore’s artists received word of key elements, and started to block out the initial storyboard, with some pre-visualisation work. ‘Generally with Bond titles, the motion and flow of things is key’, says Bartlett. ‘Plotting the sequence out with camera moves and segways really helps, even if only with the use of placeholder images - we start to see it, and get a feel for the piece’. It is, he says, in the words of director Mendes ‘an overture; you reveal some of the themes you’ll see later on, present some in an abstract way, but at the time it’s just an image, something to come back to later. It’s something we think about quite carefully when we’re working’.

Primary elements included the octopus, and a focus on love and relationships, not typical of recent Bonds. Of course, there are the ‘staples’ - girls, guns, the occasional skull - to remind us of the heritage surrounding the film. Bartlett explains, ‘People really want to see the familiar things, but feel they’re seeing them in a new way. It’s a challenge, but it’s fun, and those basic elements are really good elements’.