In January, viewers of Cinemax’s Banshee were given a surprise that went beyond the gritty crime drama’s usual twists and turns and explosive bouts of violence. Episode 2 of Season 3, “Snakes and Whatnot,” began not with the show’s usual hard-hitting main title sequence, but with an open that literally ushered them down a ramp toward something new and different.

That fluid, seamless stitching of GoPro camerawork and computer graphics was a radical stylistic departure from the show’s regular main titles, which were designed by Tin Punch Media and look like this:

Originally implemented as an integral part of Banshee’s narrative DNA, and not just a call-to-arms intended to get the viewer excited about what they’re about to watch, that original sequence exhibits unprecedented levels of storytelling and interactivity. The Polaroids depicted in it, for instance, change with every episode to reflect the journey and back story of each of the 13 main characters. It’s a level of detail executed across now-dozens of title sequences over three seasons that would be enough to satiate even the most rabid Banshee lover’s need for deeper engagement. But the show did not stop there. That safe dial that appears at the start of each sequence spins and stops on a different combination of numbers each time – numbers that are both connected to the given episode’s story (affixing quantities of murders, years spent in jail and reams of other pertinent information) and that also unlock additional supplemental details when inputted into the show’s interactive hub, welcometobanshee.com.

Which is all a long-winded way of saying that a radical main titles departure is not unexpected for a show like Banshee. If anything, said Banshee showrunner Greg Yaitanes, “our brand is highly entertaining unexpected storytelling” into which the departure titles for Season 3, Episode 2 “fit in quite well because it’s unexpected to start an episode with a new title sequence.

“What [wouldn’t have] fit,” Yaitanes continued, “would have been a single shot that was incredibly macro in its approach with an enormous amount of CGI heavy lifting to accomplish that in a very slick manner. That [wouldn’t have] fit our brand. I’ve always pushed for very grounded camera work. We don’t do helicopter shots or angles… Banshee is emotionally grounded heightened reality storytelling.”

The departure title sequence for episode “Snakes and Whatnot” was originally conceived by show creator Jonathan Tropper, who envisioned it as a way to express the third-season arc of Amish-girl-turned-aspiring-drug-kingpin Rebecca Bowman.

“She was going to learn the business of her uncle and they wanted the second episode to open with sort of an education for her,” said Loni Peristere, who directed the episode and whose visual effects company Zoic Studios executed the seamless stitching of GoPro camerawork and computer graphics that would become the sequence. “Where she would understand the process of making ecstasy from inception to distribution.”

The main inspiration for the sequence came from the opening credits to the 2005 film Lord of War, which traces the production of a bullet from a puddle of metal in a factory to its intended purpose as a weapon of death.

Glossy and noticeably fluid from its usage of CGI, the vibe of the Lord of War opening was all wrong for the Banshee brand, but Peristere had an idea to dirty it up a bit by using light flares and other effects to make it “almost feel like [the viewer is] on ecstasy,” he said. “Like we’re rolling and colors and light and focus are not really controlled. So even though we’re on this slick journey there would be a flawed sense to it that would key you into the nature of Banshee, almost like you’re having a trip. That feeling of being on drugs where your pupils don’t react to light real great.”

Still, Yaitanes didn’t want to use the sequence as part of the episode, but after mulling it over he decided it could fit perfectly as a departure title sequence while also pulling in story elements to function as a full-on show open. In that way, he told Brief, “it allowed us to supercharge the boundaries, and allowed this [sequence] to exist within the world without it feeling a bit off for people.”

And so, with Zoic VFX supervisor Dave Funston heading up storyboarding and pre-visualization, Peristere began directing the journey of a pill. His team built the drug lab set seen in the sequence on location in Charlotte, North Carolina, and used the GoPro cameras to shoot macro-live-action footage with actors from the pill’s point of view.

At key transitions, CGI was implemented to get otherwise impossible angles and transitions. In the opening to the sequence, for instance, the camera spirals back from the interior of a beaker, where we began by floating in liquid. The liquid part of the shot was generated using 3D fluid dynamics, with the camera continuing to pull and twist back until the camera rights itself amidst the other beakers and live action could take over.

Likewise, footage of the pill being stamped into its skull shape was created using computer graphics. From there, we’re dumped down a ramp onto a conveyor belt, where live action footage of workers blends seamlessly with CGI of the pills, creating an impossible perspective looking directly up and out from the belt.

Once the stitching of CG and live action was complete, Zoic doctored the sequence to make it grainier and faded. Doing so helped with the feeling of a drug trip while also hearkening back to the look and feel of Polaroids that had become an iconic part of the titles. To that end, Zoic worked with Tin Punch Media to continue incorporating new, story-enhancing Polaroids, but splicing them in a way that matched the different flow of the sequence.

The end result, which finishes on the faces of Rebecca Bowman and her drug lord uncle, Kai Proctor, is a hypnotically concise way to preface the unsavory journey those two key characters are about to take together.

“I’m always a fan of throwing in a little extra gift for the fans to enjoy,” said Yaitanes, “to remind everybody that we’re thinking about things and our primary goal is to entertain them.”

Credits:
Title Concept: Jonathan Tropper, Greg Yaitanes, Loni Peristere
Title Design: Jason Yaitanes, Tin Punch Media
VFX Supervisor: Dave Funston
Compositing Supervisor: Tyler Nathan
Compositing Lead: Wes Kandel
3D Artist: Scott Rosekrans
2D Artist: Dayna Mauer
Producer: Laura Livingstone
Chelsea Miller: Coordinator

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