Like a spider on a thead, a capital 'A' lowers down to just about the middle of the screen to form part of the first credit of the sequence, 'Paramount'. More 'spiders' follow. The nervously flickering green and blue lights in the background are the pixels of a monitor, filmed in close-up.

“The first shot of the film was on a monitor. So we proposed the idea of looking closely at the monitor as a device that would reveal titles,” explains title director Michael Riley. “By simply looking closely at the monitor, we found many colors interacting with each other organically as they refracted across the pixels on the screen. The light makes beautiful rainbows and other colors. We tried our best to capture that.”

Combine those images with the atmospheric background sound and the wiretapped conversation between a woman named Tracy and “Just Jim” and you've got just about all the ingredients you need to set the audience up for the mystery thriller that is Along Came a Spider.

Michael Riley is the creative director of Shine, a creative design studio in LA. He has been directing and designing film and television main title sequences, theatrical trailers, television commercials and corporate identity packages since 1991. He has designed main title sequences for Traitor, Signs, Mad Money, and television title sequences for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Blade: The Series, Criminal Minds, Karen Sisco, Ally McBeal, Saturday Night Live, and many more. "I was very happy to work for DreamWorks on Kung Fu Panda. Maybe Gattaca, for Andrew Niccol; Band of Brothers for Steven Spielberg; or Standoff for Fox; or 21st Century for The United Nations," Riley answered, when asked what title sequences he is most proud of.

more about Michael Riley

Full credits

Director (film)
Lee Tamahori

Title designer/director
Michael Riley/Imaginary Forces

Animator/designers
Matt Tragesser and David Clayton

Editor
Tony Fulgum

Producer
Gina Galvan

Executive producer
Peter Frankfurt

Production company (titles)
Imaginary Forces

Production companies (film)
Paramount Pictures, David Brown Productions, Phase 1 Productions, in association with Revelations Entertainment

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