It’s boom time for on-demand TV series, driven largely by the expansion of Netflix into original content. (Apple have just confirmed they are getting into the act too).

As TV series such as Walking Dead, The Night Manager and Game of Thrones become ever more sprawling, the sequence at the start has become vital. It clues in the viewer to the essence of the mood and tone of what they are about to see.

The world’s best exponent of title sequence is Elastic.tv, the Edinburgh production house who made the titles for HBO’s WestWorld among others. That sequence has now been viewed by over 12m people.

Obviously, if you work in motion graphics, a TV sequence can be a game-changing event. So the opportunity to work on the title sequence of Netflix’s Stranger Things was the brief of the year. So what went wrong?

The music works, fitting the nostalgic 80’s theme and the builds suspense, but what happened to the visuals? Were they restricted to using 1980’s production techniques? Were they restricted on time and budget… possibly.

It’s got to be less than a weeks work, surely.

Fortunately the series is amazing and no doubt people will love the intro, based on how great the program is. However for us the intro is a flop, it would be more fitting visuals for a cheap 80s porn VHS.

Thumbs down from us!

Credits :

www.imaginaryforces.com
Client: Netflix
Executive Creative Director: Peter Frankfurt
Creative Director: Michelle Dougherty
Executive Producer: Ben Apley
Head of Production: Tina Starkweather
Producer: Dunja Vitriolic
Designers: Arisu Kashiwagi, My Tran, Eric Demeusy
Lead Animator: Eric Demeusy
Compositor: Eric Demeusy
Flame Artist: Eric Mason
See more at: https://www.imaginaryforces.com/work/netflix-stranger-things-main-title#sthash.UB6CdSqv.dpuf