Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1144162
up sans serif type, and dark, ominous visu- als to set off the show and emphasize the psychological elements. Fong's work on Boardwalk Empire is very centered on a place – at edge of the beach – and a man looking into the future of his soul. Trading the detailed boardwalk set for Buscemi's face and the sadness in his eyes turned out to be a good bargain. Fong and Dougherty work heavily from the image. "If it doesn't look good still," she stated, "it won't look better if it moves." As a director, she's interested in passages, gate- ways, and links. Nucky is a stationary figure on the beach as the waves swirl at his feet and the clouds darken and race around him. His future as a bootlegger comes for him as a few bottles appear in the sea and more and more wash up on the shore and crash against the pier. It's a marvelously commu- nicative piece that tells the audience who Nucky is and that the major conflict is going to be within the man. As the vision recedes, the waves wash back away from Nucky's perfect shoes and he turns and walks into the show, the boardwalk at sunset, and into the 1920s. Letting go of your best-laid plans can sometimes make for something much better, and that was part of Fong's message for the audience at the conference. Another very strong message was to keep working because there is opportunity. Fong told the audience that it's a very good time to be working in short-form content. "It's only going to proliferate," she said. In Los Angeles, among the audience for Motion Plus Design were young, ambitious content creators. They came early for the daylong show and stayed all the way through. The speakers, too, were relatively young and all remarkably generous too, of- fering practical advice and tips; two of them offered online training. Mike Winklemann, who creates content on Beeple, disciplines himself to create a piece every day, which of course he calls "Everydays," and has been doing so for 12 years. He also publishes them (on his site and on Behance) because it forces him to actually see a project through, to try and do the best he can with a project and to own it. Winklemann's "Everydays" also serve as a tool for him to learn his cra and learn new tools. He has made much of his work avail- able as open-source resources, to be freely used and shared. Andrew Kramer is a content creator and trainer. He makes training videos for After Effects that are funny and fun, and sells effects and presets. He also pro- vides detailed and targeted lessons for tools, including After Effects and Cinema 4D. If ever you wondered why people do stuff for free, Winklemann and Kramer came to the conference as gods. Gods get hired. As Fong says, there is plenty of oppor- tunity now, and more to come. There's a good ratio of women working in creating title sequences, animatics, effects, and other short-form work. Of course, as one woman pointed out to me, that's because the work doesn't pay as well, and until recently, has not been very high profile. She has a point, but so do the people working in motion design who find that the field gives them a voice. It's also unique in the way it draws on every component of art: 2D, 3D, typog- raphy, music, sound – in fact, in so many cases, choosing the right music makes all the difference in putting a short form over the top, as did Fong's controversial use of Brian Jonestown Massacre. Think of the contrasting effect of Alabama 3's "Woke Up This Morning" playing over the visual tour of Jersey as Tony Soprano drives from the airport. Or, the Handsome Family's "Far From Any Road," which sets up the visuals on the True Detective titles for the first season. Motion design is giving young directors the opportunity to play with all the toys and put elements together to create a distinct piece of art. n Kathleen Maher (Kathleen@jonpeddie.com) is a contributing editor to CGW as well as a senior an- alyst at Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, CA-based consultancy specializing in graphics and multime- dia, and editor in chief of JPR's "TechWatch." Writer's Note: Until I started writing this piece, I didn't know about the wonderful website The Art of the Title. For anyone interested in learning more, the site is an invaluable resource, and I used it heavily to check names, credits, and history. I'm also grateful to the people at Motion Plus Design for highlighting the work of so many artists who don't get enough of the spotlight. THE DIVERSITY OF KARIN FONG'S WORK AT IMAGINARY FORCES CAN BE SEEN IN THIS TITLE SEQUENCE FROM BLACK SAILS.