Framestore CFC take pains over Bond titles

In addition to contributing digital special effects and providing some stunning digital grading effects for the opening section of the latest Bond film, Framestore CFC provided some astonishing visuals for the 'Die Another Day' title sequence, written and performed by Madonna.
Bond film title sequences have become legends in their own right, and this latest addition looks set to join its illustrious predecessors. Like any self-respecting addition, the Die Another Day titles bring a new twist of their own to the genre. The sequence was designed and directed by Daniel Kleinman, while the visual effects were supervised by Framestore CFC's William Bartlett.
The titles follow a tense and action-filled pre-title sequence, in which James Bond infiltrates an enemy camp, is captured, escapes and chases his captors to their deaths, and is finally recaptured. At this point Die Another Day takes the unprecedented step of continuing the story during the titles. It does this by showing us glimpses of Bond undergoing gruelling torture at the hands of his captors. This is seen in the background or otherwise filtered through the sensibility of the title sequence. On one level the titles can be seen as a kind of dream sequence undergone by Bond as he endures his torture.
The title sequence weaves together a number of features that will be familiar to connoisseurs of the Bond movies, including sinuous dancing girls, fire, ice and electrical motifs. This elemental interplay takes off from some of the standard tools in the torturer's kit. We see a red-hot poker transformed into a fiery finger, for example. James Bond's chief tormentor, the Scorpion Girl, uses the poisonous arachnids as tools of her trade, and they appear in the titles as CG creatures, created by Jake Mengers, Simon Stoney and Don Mahmood.
(GB)