Interview With Karin Fong
(March 2011)

The designer of the Daredevil movie title sequence talks about the creation of the braille-inspired credits and some of the other ideas that her Imaginary Forces colleagues came up with.

Kuljit Mithra: A few years back you had done an interview with Watch The Titles and it was here I realized that it was you and your team at Imaginary Forces who had designed the title sequence for the Daredevil movie. How does your company get involved with these kinds of jobs? Is it effectively an audition against other companies, or had FOX already approached you for it?

Karin Fong: How we get involved varies from film to film. In this case, we had designed the Marvel logo so we had a connection with the filmmakers.

Mithra: Oh, I didn't know that Imaginary Forces had made the flipping page effect for the Marvel logo. I seem to recall that Daredevil was the first Marvel movie to use the actual comic character pages in the flip effect... am I remembering that correctly? What had been the first Marvel movie your company was involved with?

Fong: The Marvel logo first appeared in front of Spider-Man.

Mithra: Some of things I remember from that interview were some of the ideas you had beforehand... like his radar and "traveling through DD's ears", or his billy clubs. Do you remember some of those, and were there more? Were these just ideas on paper, or had you created test runs of them?

Fong: We begin the design process with a storyboard phase, and for Daredevil we created several boards, each exploring a different aspect of Daredevil's character. Because he has a special way of seeing through sound, several boards focused on his brand of vision. One board consisted of macro shots, such as footage of a fly landing, which would be ultimately be scored with larger than life sound effects. Another board showed his Hell's Kitchen urban environment through a rippling sound wave motif. I presented the concepts as printed frames when talking with the film's director. From there we discussed the idea he was most excited about and we moved forward into animation tests from there.

Mithra: For these tests... what kind of software are you using? Is it a custom application, or are you using components of existing "off-the-shelf" packages? Did you have to create elements from scratch that had never been done before?

Fong: For Daredevil, we used Adobe After Effects for the compositing and Cinema 4d for the modeling. We built a lot custom artwork from scratch, as well as modified elements from the film.

Mithra: How was the braille and buildings idea conceived and why was it ultimately chosen?

Fong: In our initial conversations, Mark Steven Johnson, the director, expressed that he wanted an idea that was specific to Daredevil -- something that possibly expressed his identity as the blind superhero. In the script there was a one line mention of credits that are in braille. We took this concept further by boarding a sequence in which the braille of each credit builds up on screen until it becomes the skyline of New York, where Daredevil lives. Mark liked this because not only did it speak to Daredevil's trait but also allowed us to illustrate the dark, moody urban environment of the story. As we moved into animation, we tweaked the idea to see the buildings first, and have them mysteriously recede to reveal the names. Our goal always to make something that felt haunting, rather than a wild ride.

Mithra: When movie companies ask you to brainstorm like this, and then eventually give you the go-ahead... how much time do they usually give you for the final product? How long did Daredevil take in comparison?

Fong: The timing changes per production, but in general after the go-ahead, we'll have 8-12 weeks to produce the sequence. I believe the Daredevil schedule was similar to this.

Mithra: When you design these title sequences, do you already have an idea of what type of music will accompany it? How close did you work with Graeme Revell? Or did he score after your design was done?

Fong: It really depends on the sequence. Sometimes we get a piece of music from the beginning and have several meetings with the composer and music supervisor. Others, I've worked on some sequences where I'm asked to make music suggestions, and sometimes these choices make it to the final. Often we pick something we think is close to the style and mood we want, and animate to that, and the composer scores the final . I believe for this film we might have had a conversation with Graeme, and he may have provided temp music, but he scored the final to finished picture.

Mithra: One of the things about the intro was the way the music used "beats" for timing of the elements to reveal out of the braille, and how DD himself might hear several things at once but it doesn't appear to be too chaotic. How did you feel about the final product? Anything you wished you could have added or changed?

Fong: I was happy with the final product as I felt the concept, music, animation and aesthetics all created strong mood that gave a sense of the character. In retrospect, I would have appreciated not having to build the double "DD" of the marketing campaign into the end. It was a last minute attempt to include a logo made familiar by the trailers and teasers, and when I look back I wish I'd either found a way to do that in a way that integrated it more to the piece, or come to the conclusion that we didn't need to have it culminate there. I enjoyed how the pacing and elements unfolded during the majority of the sequence, and the music has a lot to do with that.

----------------------------------------------
(c) Kuljit Mithra 2011
Daredevil:The Man Without Fear
http://www.manwithoutfear.com
----------------------------------------------


Read more interviews!

40th Anniversary
Ben Abernathy
Jesus Aburtov
Richie Acosta
Martin Ahlgren
Alejandro Arbona
Jose Guns Alves
Mahmud Asrar
Dick Ayers
Jonathan Barron
Thomas Baxter
Brian Michael Bendis
Black and White
Haden Blackman
Randy Bowen
Alan Brennert
Chris Brewster
Chris Brewster (2)
Ed Brubaker
Steve Buccellato
Bob Budiansky
Danny Bulanadi
John Byrne
Harry Candelario
Joe Caramagna
Sergio Cariello
Karina Casiano
Don Castro
Bernard Chang
Marco Checchetto
Dan Chichester
Dan Chichester (2)
Holly Cinnamon
Gene Colan
Hector Collazo
Jason Copland
Matt Costello
Alan Cowsill
Charlie Cox
Greg Cox
Paul Crilley
Daredevil '83
Daredevil V3
Matt Deangelis
Keith DeCandido
Tom DeFalco
Roberto De La Torre
Rafael De Latorre
J.M. DeMatteis
Kim DeMulder
Brian Denham
Sunita Deshpande
Will Devokees
Netho Diaz
Jack DiFalco
Carmine Di Giandomenico
Cori Dioquino
Josie DiVincenzo
Chuck Dixon
Scott Dunbier
Kieron Dwyer
B. Earl
Tommy Lee Edwards
Elastic
Elektra Hand Devil
Steve Englehart
Fall From Grace
Tito Faraci
James Felder
Karin Fong
Tim Flattery
Justin F. Gabrie
Christos Gage
Ron Garney
Pat Garrahy
Stefano Gaudiano
Uri Geller
Matt Gerald
Steve Gerber
Eric Michael Gillett
Christopher Golden
Steven Grant
Devin K. Grayson
Peter Halpin
Larry Hama
Cully Hamner
John Patrick Hayden
Jason Henderson
Stephen E. Henderson
Glenn Herdling
David Hine
Matt Hollingsworth
Caleb Howard
Dave Hunt
Alex Huynh
Ray Iannicelli
Alex Irvine & Tomm Coker
Tony Isabella
Richard Isanove
Chris Ivy
John Jennings
Danny Johnson
Mark Steven Johnson
Dan Jurgens
Farid Karami
Joe Kelly
Karl Kesel
Lauren Mary Kim
Daniel Kish
Jim Krueger
Aaron Kuder
Chloë Levine
Ryan K. Lindsay
David Liss
Scott Lobdell
Jeph Loeb
Wes Louie
Tom Lyle
David Mack
Jed MacKay
Clay Mann
J. Mallory-McCree
Jason Martin
Vatche Mavlian &
Brett Matthews

Shane McCarthy &
Martin Redmond

Matthew McCurdy
Scott McDaniel
Luke McDonnell
Manny Mederos
Jon Mefford
Stuart Moore
Richard K. Morgan
Tony Naumovski
Yvonne Navarro
Eddy Newell
Fabian Nicieza
Nikolai Nikolaeff
Ann Nocenti
Cary Nord
Mike Oeming
Ariel Olivetti
Denny O'Neil
John Ostrander
Jimmy Palmiotti
George Papadimatos
Ande Parks
Seth Peck
Khoi Pham
John Pirkis
Joe Quesada
Ben Raab
Bill Reinhold
Graeme Revell
Madeleine Robins
Robert Rodi
Javier Rodriguez
J.G. Roshell
John Rozum
Matt Ryan
Reza Salazar
Tony Salmons
Salgood Sam
Chris Samnee
David Sarrio
#SaveDaredevil
Christie Scheele
Lalit Kumar Sharma
Nandita Shenoy
Peter Shinkoda
Jim Shooter
Bill Sienkiewicz
Thony Silas
Warren Simons
Walt Simonson
Marc Siry
Elsa Sjunneson
Suzanne H. Smart
Kevin Smith
Spoken Comics
Will Stout
Stephen D. Sullivan
Billy Tan
Chris Tardio
Scott Terra
Ben Torres
Tim Tuohy
Josh Turi
Kate Udall
Susan Varon
Ron Wagner
Mark Waid
Lee Weeks
Lee Weeks (2)
Loren Weeks
Zeb Wells
Phil Winslade
Arden Wolfe
Marv Wolfman
Gregory Wright
Paul Young
Chip Zdarsky
Chip Zdarsky (2)
Chip Zdarsky (3)
Chip Zdarsky (4)
Chip Zdarsky (5)
Zachary Zirlin



 
COMICS: Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Annuals | Appearances | Costumes | Digital Comics | Hardcovers | Key Issues | Logos | Origin | Price Guide | Recommended | Reviews | Secret Identity | Sales Data | Titles | Trades | Untold Tales

CREATORS: Cover Artists | Inkers | Pencillers | Writers

MEDIA: Actors | Books | Cartoons | Computer Fun! | Movies | Music | Pictures | Sightings | Sketches | Video Games | Wallpapers

FANS: Fan Art | Fan Costumes | Fan Custom Figures | Fan Fiction | Fan Films | Fan Guitars | Fan Tattoos
 

 

Daredevil (and other related characters appearing) and the distinctive likenesses are Trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc. and are used WITHOUT permission.
Copyright © 2024 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Visit Marvel.com.
www.manwithoutfear.com is owned and operated by Kuljit Mithra. Web site is © Kuljit Mithra 1996-2024.

Keep up to the date with your trusted Daredevil source ManWithoutFear.com on and