Lepidopterist & the Search for Perfect Credits

[Above: frame from the Lepidopterist end credits, designed by Jerry Nelson of Attack Studios]

    On Sunday, more than two and a half years after we shot the film (thanks, Pandemic!), I finally saw Lepidopterist on the big screen. I was sat in one of my favourite local cinemas, Derby Quad - hosting the wonderful Paracinema Film Festival - and I was with some of the team who helped me make the film. It looked and sounded fantastic, I was bursting with pride, and it was worth the wait. Streaming platforms have enabled us to get our films to a wider audience, which is great, but nothing beats the big screen experience for me. It's my lifeblood, the reason I do what I do.

  One of the things that looked particularly brilliant was the film's end credits. They were designed exclusively for the extended festival cut of the film by VFX artist Jerry Nelson (from Attack Studios), who originally came on board the project to blur some license plates before revealing his wider skillset. If you haven't caught Lepidopterist at a film festival yet, you can see images from the credits and an insightful breakdown of their design in Jerry's detailed case study. 

  I adore Lepidopterist's credits. They look magical and just so professional! I didn't think I'd have anything like them unless I was lucky enough to get into high-end television one day, or if I finally directed that elusive feature film. The sequence Jerry designed sums up the core themes of Lepidopterist (a soft-focused menagerie of biology and entomology imagery), and it's pretty darn close to film credit perfection, in my opinion.

   These are the slickest credits my team and I have ever had - but it isn't the first time we've put effort into the ending of our films. Post-2010, I've never just had white credits on a black screen (Night Owls came close, save for the subtle super-8 footage of night-time that flanked the credits list). Even when budgets were tight, my DOPs and I always tried to get clever with our credits' imagery.

   One good example of this is the end credits for Growing Shadows: The Poison Ivy Fan Film. The visuals for these were captured right at the end of the shoot, when we had only minutes to spare before the location owners kicked us out; Director of Photography Will Price did a quick dash-and-grab with his camera, and utilised Production Designer Charlotte Ball's gorgeous set build to get a range of luscious background images for our credits.

[Above: frames from the Growing Shadows end credits, captured by Will Price]

  Another favourite early title sequence of mine was the ending of Ashes - although that was definitely a 'don't try this at home' moment! To symbolise the relationship of the lead characters coming to an end, I took all the 'couple photos' from the set dressing, and then Director of Photography Neil Oseman and I burned these photos (along with some other bits), and filmed it on an abandoned railway track (which you can see briefly in this old video diary of mine). Simple as they were, these credits captured the film's visual inspirations of macabre romance and decay.

[Above: frames from the Ashes end credits, captured by Neil Oseman]

   It's hard to know what makes a perfect credit sequence. The best ones seem to capture the main motifs of the film whilst doing their own thing enough to visually stand alone - without, at the same time, overshadowing the film itself.

  I've also learned the hard way what credits shouldn't do, particularly on a short film. They shouldn't be too long (I've seen first-hand how awkward it can be when people get bored of clapping, and the credits keep rolling...). Short films also don't need opening credits, bar a couple of subtle on-screen names; it's not a feature film, you need to cut to the chase straight away.

   In a nutshell, credits shouldn't be an afterthought. Think about them in advance, but don't forget to be clever with your budget; utilise what you have, such as any leftover props and set dressing, and select a great closing music track. And I'll end this blog post with a few examples of my favourite title sequences (most of which, randomly, come from television shows - perhaps they take more risks than the producers of film credits?):

Se7en (1995)

Carnival Row (2019-)

American Gods (2017-2021)

Top of the Lake (2013)

American Horror Story (2011-)

Every series had a wicked title original sequence, all of which give me the heebie jeebies, so it was hard to pick just one:

McQueen (2018)

Unfortunately I can't find a video of these extravagant but trippy chapter headings, so you'll just have to watch the documentary to see them!

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

  Other honourable mentions: Swamp Thing, House, Game of Thrones, The Age of Innocence, Ratched, Juno, Napoleon Dynamite, Jessica Jones, Kingdom Hospital, and Wandavision!

  Did I miss your favourite title sequences? Let me know in the comments below. You can also find out more about what makes great title design in this series on Little White Lies' YouTube channel.

[Above: answering questions at Paracinema Film Festival last Sunday. The photo was supplied to me by ace filmmaker Andrew Rutter.]

  One final note; this is the blog post that I originally intended on releasing in March, before my workload got in the way. I'd planned on sharing it around the time of Lepidopterist's (virtual) premiere at Beeston Film Festival, but in a way I'm glad it's taken me so long to write this post, as the film's festival run is really picking up steam now. As well as the Paracinema screening on Sunday, the film had its American Premiere the same day, at Festival of Cinema NYC. Before then, it took home trophies at The Actors Awards Los Angeles and The Midlands Movies Awards (who have just released this year's winners speeches online). And yesterday, I had an email to say that Lepidopterist has been accepted into a festival that none of my films have ever gotten into before, so stay tuned for news of that screening in the next few weeks!

Sophie