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Titles effect for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"


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Okay, I've wondering about this for a long time, and thought someone here could enlighten me:

 

How the heck did they do those amazing title effects for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?" I can't wrap my head around how those magnificent "brush in" dissolves were accomplished, especially in an era predating digital effects and post-production software.

 

If anyone can crack this nut for me, I'd be grateful!

 

Best,

 

BR

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Listen: Even if you could accomplish it, the companies that did it have been out of business almost ten YEARS now.

 

 

Howard Anderson Company may be still in business, but not doing opticals. (They did all the SFX on the original Star Trek).

 

Pacific Title GONE.

 

 

Unless you do it DIY (no offense, but you can't compete with past opticals studios who employed several dozen skilled employees), it is almost impossible to get even BASIC titles these days.

 

 

 

Just a reality check for you. I had an opportunity to project all the trailers I've collected at my favorite theatre this past week and I MISS contact-printed movies. But the infrastructure is basically falling apart right now, or being scrapped, obsoleted.

 

Things that wouldn't be acceptable even three years ago are becoming mainstream. Maybe I shouldn't have seen "Shutter Island" after having an opportunity to see my mint-condition trailer of "Thin Red Line". I don't care if the titles don't dance up and down or do crazy loop-de-loops, they were BETTER quality moves and titles then than now.

 

 

But that was then. This is now. :-/

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Uhhhhhhhhhhh, did I miss something here, or did you mean to respond to a different thread?

 

I don't want to recreate the effect, I'm just wondering how they did it, since that title sequence is one of my favs, and it's always puzzled me how that was done...

 

 

BR

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  • 6 months later...

Beside the use of refracting material like rippled glass, slit-scan techniques have been used too to transform titles.

 

There is an article “Animation Mechanisms” in American Cinematographer, Jan 1971, written by filmmaker John Whitney (1917-1995) on his custom built slit-scan/time-exposure machine. In the article it says that slit scan was used to create moving titles for the Doris Day movie THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT.

 

About John Whitney

 

John Whitney's short films can be found on YouTube, he used slit scan techniques for CATALOG (1961):

 

 

Classic hand-drawn animation was also used frequently to transform lettering. In combination with high-contrast mattes and optical printing, very complex patterns and levels could be created.

Edited by Christian Appelt
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Brian, after looking at the TGTBATU title sequence, here are my thoughts. For easy access, I'll refer to time codes in this YouTube clip:

 

Credits TGTBATU

 

1. Lettering is hand drawn and animated for transformation. (00:50)

 

2. Silhouette figure is also simple animation. (00:04)

 

3. Photo stills were printed to high contrast to give them that stencil look. (00:38)

 

4. Pencil brush effect (like 00:15 & )was filmed (I assume black color on white paper) and printed to high contrast, resulting in a travelling matte and counter-matte strip of film. By combining these hicon masking with the background (photo) stuff, the photo becomes visible where color is applied by the brush.

 

5. Color splash effect (0:58) was done either by shooting through a glass pane on which color was dropped or simply on paper. Masks were create don hicon, same technique as in 4.)

 

6. "Snow" or "moving grain" (0:25) created by single frame animating sand or other grainy material, creating matte/counter matte again.

 

The striking effect is created by the way these rather simple printing and animation table techniques are combined, color changes and transparency give it more depth.

 

This is just a basic explanation, I have no idea how many films or what kind of printer was used, but hicon masking and optical printing was they way to do this in the 1960s.

 

Just my $0.02...

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Good ol fashioned animation techniques.

 

best

 

Tim

 

Brian, after looking at the TGTBATU title sequence, here are my thoughts. For easy access, I'll refer to time codes in this YouTube clip:

 

Credits TGTBATU

 

1. Lettering is hand drawn and animated for transformation. (00:50)

 

2. Silhouette figure is also simple animation. (00:04)

 

3. Photo stills were printed to high contrast to give them that stencil look. (00:38)

 

4. Pencil brush effect (like 00:15 & )was filmed (I assume black color on white paper) and printed to high contrast, resulting in a travelling matte and counter-matte strip of film. By combining these hicon masking with the background (photo) stuff, the photo becomes visible where color is applied by the brush.

 

5. Color splash effect (0:58) was done either by shooting through a glass pane on which color was dropped or simply on paper. Masks were create don hicon, same technique as in 4.)

 

6. "Snow" or "moving grain" (0:25) created by single frame animating sand or other grainy material, creating matte/counter matte again.

 

The striking effect is created by the way these rather simple printing and animation table techniques are combined, color changes and transparency give it more depth.

 

This is just a basic explanation, I have no idea how many films or what kind of printer was used, but hicon masking and optical printing was they way to do this in the 1960s.

 

Just my $0.02...

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  • 8 months later...

For those of us in NY:

 

Though it may now seem antiquated to some, if you want to learn how to create these types of effects with 16mm, you can learn the JK Optical Printer at

Millenium Film Workshops in NYC. I took the course and enjoyed it:

 

http://www.millenniumfilm.org/optical_printing.html

 

 

 

Good ol fashioned animation techniques.

 

best

 

Tim

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