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When it came to crafting the main titles for HBO’s sumptuous new turn-of-the-century drama, The Gilded Age, Elastic had its work cut out for it to make the sequence as beautiful as the show itself.
The scene starts, like the series, on a train. In the show’s opening scenes, Miss Marian Brook (Lousia Jacobson) must make her way to New York to live with her old-money aunts after the untimely death of her father, who was estranged from his sisters. When her purse is stolen at the train station, she makes the acquaintance of an ambitious young Black woman, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), who lends Marian the money for a ticket. Peggy, who has had excellent schooling in Philadelphia, ends up being hired to work as secretary to Louisa’s aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski, in scene-stealing mode).
From there, the series unspools to tell the story of George (Morgan Spector) and Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), a very wealthy but relatively newly monied couple whom the old-timers are working hard to keep out of New York’s snooty social scene.
The main title’s driving score was composed by brothers Rupert and Harry Gregson-Williams, each of whom are Emmy nominees with plenty of film work behind them.
The Gilded Age just completed its first season on HBO with the season finale on Monday, March 21.
CREDITS
Client: HBO
Design Studio: Elastic
Creative Director: Lisa Bolan
CG Leads: Kirk Shintani
3D Artists: Joe Paniagua, Jose Limon, Mike Dupree
Designers: Huy Dang, Kaya Thomas, Carlo Sa, Min Shi, Tnaya Witmer, Lynn Kim, Laura Reedy
2D Animators: Trix Taylor, Zack Citro
3D Animators: Gryun Kim, Taehoon Park, Lusine Arakelyan, Ugur Baltepe, Aziz Dosmetov
Flame Artist: Adam Flynn
Editor: Jessica Ledoux
Comp Lead/Tech Director: Andrew Young
Coordinator: Angela Shin
Producer: HJ Kim
Additional Production Support: Sheima Hassanlou
Deputy Head of Production: Zach Wakefield
Executive Producer: Luke Colson
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Kate Berry
Managing Director: Jennifer Sofio Hall