Title Sequence Study in After Effects: Crazy Rich Asians
Project Title: Rich Asian Poor Asian| Software: Adobe After Effects | Length/Duration: 30s | Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (1920 x 1080) | Pixel Aspect: Square Pixels | Frame Rate: 30 fps | Output: H. 264 | Typefaces: Elephant, Mrs Sheppards| Audio: Chopin Nocturnes, Op. 9: №3 in B Major, Allegretto
As part of the demographic for the 2018 Asian-American film, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, I was inspired to create a title sequence based on 2 major themes in the movie, the first being the more obvious dichotomy between class, and the other less obvious focus on women empowerment. Between the abundantly rich antagonist from Singapore and the relatively poor economics professor from America, I wanted to portray their individual characteristics.
The ‘rich’ came from old money and high-class society, ‘poor’ was classified as an American-Asian professor of gaming economics. Like in the film, I wanted to portray the rich as stubborn, with deeply rooted ideologies and pristine etiquette from maintaining years of family tradition. This was demonstrated in my case study through manipulation of the typeface ‘Elephant’ to create a golden jewel effect to express the appearance of luxury and the characteristic of a strong woman of power.
On the opposing perspective, I reflected studied reflections of ‘poor’, based on the bias ‘the rich’ had with the American lifestyle and their criticism of American’s self-centered morals. The protagonist who represented ‘the poor’ was a young game economics professor, so when depicting a typeface to contrast the rich, I did not want to create delusion in believing that ‘poor’ meant uneducated or rough. I chose to use the scrawled cursive typeface ‘Mrs Sheppards’ to showcase the fast-paced nature of American society, as well as the character’s venture to prove her bold femininity. ‘Mrs Sheppards’ in particular worked well when paired with the ‘Elephant’ typeface due to their similar stroke widths and x-heights.
For this motion study, I wanted to portray classism through the perspective of the rich antagonist, reflecting development from her initial bias towards the American protagonist, and her changed outlook near the end of the film. I created dichotomy by having the gold lettering appear to have 3-dimensional complexities and overpowering authority, while the cursive typeface reflects the protagonist’s playful nature and the fact that the antagonist viewed her with 2-dimensional simplicities. At the end of the motion study, I aligned both rich and poor, showcasing the antagonist finally seeing the value in the protagonist’s point of view by visually demonstrating the hard exterior of the gold type soften up its edges.
Process Outline
The above is an initial visual exploration for creating the dichotomy between rich and poor. I used red to represent the rich character as the colour is commonly seen in traditional Asian culture for happiness, beauty, vitality, good luck, success, and good fortune. I also attempted to create an effect of heritage with repeated text. I decided to remove these elements because the themes did not come through to viewers easily and instead took a different approach.
The second explorative version has a more obvious stylization for the rich character, utilizing gold texturing for the typeface and incorporating classical music in the romantic stylistic movement to resemble luxury. I also made better distinction between rich and poor characteristics, allowing more room to explore the protagonist’s playful mannerisms and to showcase the antagonist’s elegant authority. For future changes to this version, I decided to focus on creating more stylistic alterations for the poor character to make the theme more apparent, as well as aligning the music’s rhythm to the visual element.
The final development of this title sequence study fully fleshed out the typography representation of the ‘poor’ protagonist. Unlike in previous versions, I focused on showcasing her unique characteristics in the typeface design rather than dismissing it for the antagonist. This meant demonstrating aspects of American and feminine style through the typographic choice, as well as aligning its visual elements with the already existing gold typeface. Additionally, I chose to alter the corresponding sections based on the new typeface aesthetic. I matched text along-the-line to create more playful scenes between the regal atmosphere created from the golden typeface.
