Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy — Title Sequence
A title sequence for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, made as my M.F.A. thesis.
My thesis studies how the James Bond title sequences built up meaning over six decades. The challenge here was to recall Bond without copying it, for a film about hunting a mole, not seduction. So I kept Bond’s devices but changed their core to concealed identity: suspects shown only as their code names, a man whose shadow keeps changing, and names hidden under ink bars that pull away one by one.
It began as illustration and was redesigned into symbols — scissors, chess pieces, long shadows and redacted credits — built up from flat shapes, gradients and grain.
Title Sequence Directed by:Howard Yang
Designers:
Bamboo Cao
Jason Lu
Jingjing Sun
Oyze Wu
Sound Designer:
Yoni Cohen
Thesis Committee:
James Gladman
Matthew Van Rys
Michael Betancourt
Breakdown
Stills
Storyboard
Early storyboard.
First direction
Ten style frames from April.
Redesign: from illustration to symbol
Ten style frames from May.
Process board
Pencil thumbnails and graphic frames from the FigJam board.
Character design: quieter, more adult faces
Tinker, Tailor, Sailor and Spy, before and after.
Shot breakdown
The title shot in six stages: flat shapes, details, gradients, grade, color light, texture and grain. Below, the helmet and glasses shots in four.
Redacted credits
No bars, then black bars, then ink texture.
Fire
38 nulls, one on every vertex. May: moves almost every frame. June: 12 fps. October: four drawn poses, on threes.
Walk cycle
Limber rig on the arms, legs keyed on every frame. Both walkers in place.