Framestore CFC Gives ‘Casino Royale’ Digital Mastergrade And Title Sequence

The latest James Bond adventure ‘Casino Royale' directed by Martin Campbell and produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson opened in the UK and the US recently.
Framestore CFC not only collaborated on Casino Royale's stunning title sequence, working with director Daniel Kleinman, but also provided the film's full digital mastergrade.


Kleinman decided that a back to basics approach was best: "I wanted to simplify the look, give it a harder feel than the hi-tech ultra-glam with which the titles have become identified. Graphic design seemed a good way to go in this direction."
Kleinman brought his ideas and sketches to William Bartlett, Head of Inferno at Framestore CFC Commercials, and frequent Supervisor of Kleinman's commercials. The two had also worked together on three previous Bond title sequences.
"The previous film, Die Another Day (2002), was almost the apotheosis of the old style," said Bartlett, "we'd taken it pretty much as far as it would go - the glossiness, the focus pulls, the fiery transitions - and I was delighted to be taking a new approach. Danny took the essences of the casino world - playing cards, roulette wheels, and the patterns on money itself - as his lead design elements.
"We wanted to include fight sequences as part of the visuals, but we didn't want to wander into censorship territory with the violence. By using an animation-like technique - rotoscoping - over real footage of fights, we could create something that looked fantastic, but which also acted as a cushion or protective layer to the violence.
"Another reason we liked this so much was that we realised that you could have really quite crude - almost abstract - shapes that, because the movement was so real, were still intelligible," said Bartlett.
The look of the rotoscoped actors also tied in well with the work of another key influence on the titles - legendary designer Saul Bass. "If you look at Bass's work on titles such as The Man With The Golden Arm or Vertigo," Bartlett elaborates, "The shapes he used were pretty rudimentary - basically paper cut-outs. By applying computer technology to this basic material, we could create something that was simultaneously retro and ultra-modern."


Joining Bartlett in the Inferno suite was Framestore Design's Adam Parry, who both contributed ideas to the creative pool, and worked on their implementation. Bartlett and Parry would come up with suggestions and forward them to Kleinman, who would select ones he liked for further development.

Work was, naturally, cut to the film's title song, 'You Know My Name', by Chris Cornell. To avoid potential confusion, rather than doing an edit in PAL and then converting it, the whole thing was cut in Flame and the team worked at 24 frames throughout.
(SP/CD)