Pre Title Sequences (Background on Kyle Cooper)

Kyle Cooper (Born July 1962) is a modern designer of motion picture title sequences. Kyle Cooper studied graphic design under Paul Rand at Yale University. Early in his professional career, Cooper worked as a creative director at R/GA (an advertising agency with offices in New York and Los Angeles). During this period, Kyle Cooper created the title sequence for the 1995 American crime film Se7en, a seminal work which received critical acclaim and inspired a number of younger designers. According to Kyle Cooper, at the time he made the title sequence for Seven, main title sequences were behind of what was happening in print, music videos and commercials. He wanted to create main titles that were raising the bar creatively.

In 1996, he co-founded Imaginary Forces (a creative agency that came out of the West Coast division of R/GA). "We have spent a long time building and refining a brilliant creative and production team ... Keeping this group together as our own company is truly exciting," commented by Kyle Cooper about the name change. Too involved by the business-side of running a design company the size of Imaginary Forces, Kyle Cooper decided it was time for him to focus more on his creative work, so he left Imaginary Forces.
In 2003, Kyle Cooper founded the creative agency Prologue. Prologue, initially located in Malibu moved to offices in Venice Beach (Los Angeles) in 2008. throughout Kyle Coopers career in modern design of pre title sequences, some of  his work in the field has been often compared to Saul Bass. Kyle Cooper has also directed a feature film, New Port South (2001). Kyle cooper has made many title sequences in his career such as braveheart, the mummy and any more, one of his title squences that he has designed is spider-man which i have looked at and analysed below.

• Bold white lettering with a thick red outline has been used around the outside of the titles to suggest that the colours red and white play a big part in this film, also most of the red and white movie titles have been used on a blue background which also suggests this colour play a part in the film as well.
• The word ‘Marvel’ used at the beginning of the pre title sequence is shown as big and bold and is revealed through a series of pictures through a comic book which suggests to the audience that there is a comic book element to the film.
• The typology is bold and stands out, but there it’s very edgy (very pointy at the end of the lettering) none of the titles throughout are smooth, I think this makes the titles stand out more than they already do.
• Each of the titles as they are shown disperse and fly at the screen once they have been shown, this suggests that there is a flying element about this film.
• The name of the film is shown in the same font as the rest of the titles but to communicate to the audience that it’s the title it has been put in bigger writing and has a white light coming from behind it which suggest that the title ‘spider-man’ is a sign of purity and goodness. From here on in the pre title sequence instead of the letters flying towards the camera, it seems to become more fluid as they now fly in the opposite direction and lead you to the next title, this is more fluid and makes the audience feel like they are flying or travelling through the air this indicates to the audience that the film will feature in the air at some point.
• The sound is very building throughout the pre title sequence, the sort of soundtrack that has been used is very deep and light at the same time and goes up and down throughout the sequence to build tension as if it leads up to something, this gets the audience on the edge of there seat and indicates to the audience that this is what the film maybe like.
• The music is very upbeat in this sequence and makes you feel like you’re on the move all the time, like your non stop on the move and you never stop. This communicates to the audience that this maybe a theme in the film.
• Finally the sound track used sounds like the music used for a superhero when they are about to fly in and clear up the danger or save the day. The music played is the music that you would associate with a superhero. This indicates to the audience that one of the characters or even the main character in the film could be a super hero.

In-conclusion the main idea that Kyle Cooper has tried to indicate towards the audience is that the there is some sort of superhero involved within the film and that the colours red, blue and white are also to do with the film in some way shape or form. Kyle Cooper has indicated this through the typology and sound used in this pre title sequence to try and communicate these themes to the audience. In my opinion Kyle cooper has done the successfully and as you can see when watching the pre title sequence you can feel that it has a superhero waiting to pop out at any moment and burst through the screen as the music builds and builds as more and more titles are shown.

• Red fiery typology straight from the start for the titles suggests there will be plenty of action involved within this film. The font is bold neon red that is in capital letters, it is straight edged and is not smooth, looks to me in my opinion like a hardcore sort of font. The font reminds me of like a dare devil show where a stunt man would get on a motor bike and do a huge jump through the rings of fire and the billboards advertising it, the font that would be on there would remind me of the font seen in this pre title sequence.
• Also the writing looks like a kind of robot writing. Such as if you was to see a film with a robot of some kind in, then the writing that was on them like their name would look like that, in complete block capitals.
• Furthermore the writing is in time with the visuals on the screen, as in it follows what is happening within the shot. It’s always moving in the right place at the right time, it’s not just in the middle of no where. This could suggest to the audience that the ‘iron man’ is always in the right place at the right time.
• The main character is shown within the titles (Robert Downey Jr) the audience are able to establish he is the main character as his name is brighter and stands out the most out of all the titles, except the film title. Also the typology has been placed in a specific position by Kyle Cooper which is over the mask of the robot, this communicates to the audience that he will be the face behind that robot and he will be that man who gets inside the robot as the ‘iron man’.
• For the music heavy drums and electric guitars have been used for the sound track in this pre title sequence to indicate to the audience that this is going to be an explosive action packed film that is going to be upbeat and will never have any flat moments throughout.
• The visuals indicate that the man in the first shot could be the main character. Also in the first shot it looks like he is addressing the media as there are photos being taken of him which could suggest he is well known by the public within the film.
• Finally the shot cutting from him to the making of a robot could suggest that he made this machine and that he why the press and the media is taking photos of him, this is just a suggestion, however we can be sure that the robot in the rest of the pre title sequence has something to do with him.

In-conclusion, Kyle coopers whole aim of this pre title sequence was to communicate the fact that this film (Iron Man) is going to be action packed that and will explode on to your screen when you watch it. Kyle cooper has indicated this through the typology, sound and visuals. He has done this through the typology by the way he has used bold neon bright red writing that is in capital letters in order to stand out and get the audiences attention and communicate to them that this film isn’t for the faint hearted of people. He has also used the connotations within music to indicate to the audience just what sort of film this is, the sound track Kyle Cooper has used is a hardcore piece of music that uses a lot of drums and electric guitars to connote the fact that there is a lot of explosions and hardcore action in this film. Finally the visuals have been used by Kyle Cooper in this pre title sequence mostly to indicate who the main character is in this film and he has shown this in the first shot as we see Robert Downey Jr being interviewed by the press and this then cuts to the making of a robot (Iron Man) which the audience immediately link with the man shown in the first shot which is the main character (Robert Downey Jr).