“The Godfather of Harlem main title is an homage to the contemporaneous collages created during 1960s Harlem by African-American artist, Romare Bearden (1911-1988). He is best known for his photomontage compositions made from torn images of popular magazines and assembled into visually powerful statements on African-American life. We felt his art was appropriate to the show because it shared themes and portrayals of social inequality and the African-American experience that the show similarly explores. The tactile and tangible textures of collage as well as its ability to present and juxtapose different subjects from multiple sources within a single composition was highly influential to the main title design. “The cutting, fragmenting, and reconstruction involved in creating a collage provides apt metaphors for the trauma and violence of war and political oppression, the evisceration of the states quo, and the piecing together of new societal forms” (Rachael DeLue).”
Credits:
Client: EPIX & ABC Signature
Studio: Digital Kitchen | Los Angeles
Creative Director: Mason Nicoll
Art Director/Designer/Lead Animator: Peter Pak
Animators: Cisco Torres & Giovana Pham
Producer: Jake Hibler & Michael Cates
Executive Producer: Cynthia Biamon
Music: Swizz Beatz track “Just in Case,” featuring Rick Ross and DMX
Category: 2D, Animation, Archive, Black & White, collage, drama, Gritty, Historical, Photography, stills, Stop-frame, Titles