Sound in my Title Sequence

Title sequences, by their very nature, rely on sound just as much as they rely on image to communicate the intention of the show in a short timeframe, which is why I decided to put some thought into this aspect of the titles early on in the pre-production in order to design around the audio cues and ensure a harmonious audio/visual experience.

The first step I took after coming up with my storyboard was to create an appropriate soundscape which fit the tone of the book I was adapting. For this I needed to isolate a short 30-second snippet of a song with a grim, moody tone, which went through peaks and troughs, roughly following the structure of having a distinctive beginning middle and end. For this I considered a number of songs from a variety of artists. 

Sycamore Trees by Jimmy Scott

As my title sequence was for an adaptation of a book with a distinctly woodland setting I thought about incorporating part of the Twin Peaks soundtrack into my title sequence, with lyrics referencing Sycamore Trees, often nicknamed 'ghost trees' as I thought this might tie in to my story thematically, however I opted not to use it as I found the song to be overly long and not right for the tone.

Spider Monkey by Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man

Another song I considered for my title sequence was Beth Gibbons 'Spider Monkey' as I felt the meandering instrumentals would flow with my title sequence very well. The song also goes through several stages of rising tension which felt would lend an air of excitement to the title sequence. However, while I was a fan of the instrumental and the lyrics did fit the theme of the book to some extent, I found editing it down to a 30-second chunk near impossible and abandoned the idea in favour of 'Danny the Dog' by Massive Attack. 

Danny the Dog by Massive Attack

This song was ideal as it is fairly long with a heavy emphasis on thumping drums and drawn out piano chords which lend a sense of dread, which is something I am hoping to instil. However, due to the slow pace I was forced to edit the song down, condensing the individual instrumental verses into three individual 'acts' signifying the beginning middle and end. I wanted the transition from one verse to another to be like acts of a story, with their own distinct moods which evoked a sense of rising tension to some extent.  Elements of the instrumental I feel reflect aspects of my storyboards as well, for example, the echoing violins in the first half of the track give me personally the sensation of falling, which happens to one of the characters in my title sequence.

What was also important was that I end the title sequence with some sort of musical sting in order to punctuate the title and give it significance, as I found this to be something a lot of title sequences do. For this I narrowed the track down to a single moment at 1:11, which my heavily condensed edited version of the track used for my titles will gradually lead into and end on for the stinger moment.