CMU School of Drama


Friday, February 19, 2010

How They Made That Awesome HBO '80s Opening Sequence

I Watch Stuff: "Remember that '80s HBO intro where the camera went from a city apartment, through Alec Baldwin's Beetlejuice model, and into space, where the HBO logo was full of lasers? It was pretty great, even when viewed through my home's fuzzy, accidental HBO reception with the knowledge that it would just be followed by another showing of Oh God! You Devil."

2 comments:

SParker said...

Watching the short documentary was actually very entertaining. I was suprised out how a lot of the effects that I would imagine would only be possible with a computer were done with analog means, such as how the letters at the end were actually created. Also, it was fun to see how the starburst effect was just two pieces of artwork. I think that while technology is opening up many new possibilities, it's important to learn other ways of doing things, because as this shows, they may sometimes be easier.

MONJARK said...

I agree with Sarah. Before computers, one certainly had to think more creatively and out of the box. Computers have added simplicity in some regards, and greater challenges in other areas, but still, the old ways are fantastic.

I was more surprised to see how some of the effects I thought were animated were in fact not. The color streaks for example, I was convinced were animated. To learn that fiber and a rotating camera did that, then were overlaid was very interesting. Overall, quite fascinating.