Working with Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster for a third time on opening credit sequences, Kansas City-based studio MK12 went for a sunset, retro look. Courtesy of MK12. All images and footage courtesy of Eon Prods.

Kansas City-based motion graphics company, MK12, which previously created the opening credit sequences for Marc Forster's The Kite Runner and Stranger than Fiction, was also tapped by the director to work on the 22nd James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. In addition to creating the latest twist on the franchise's celebrated title sequence, MK12 also designed the crucial motion graphics for MI6, the evocative title card for the Port-Au-Prince, Haiti location and the graphics for the famous gun barrel sequence.

VFXWorld spoke with three members of this nine-person artist collective: Tim Fisher and Ben Radatz (two co-founders) and Shaun Hamontree. They discussed the challenges of the title sequence, which, this time out, boasts retro graphics, a silhouetted Daniel Craig firing a Walther PPK and a slo-mo bullet traveling with a trail of dust into the desert, lots of curvaceous sand dunes and the reintroduction of the discretely naked ladies.

Bill Desowitz: Let's begin with how you artistically approached the Quantum title sequence.

Tim Fisher: Originally, we were brought in to work on all the motion graphics for the film. We were in London for preproduction for that and we spent time working on a couple of pitches that we showed and talked with EON and Marc throughout the course of production. So it was an organic way of starting the conversation. There was no specific brief, constraints, thoughts. It was about taking the information and opening up a dialogue with the producers and Marc, and getting the download of their mindset and what their thoughts were conceptually about the character and the story.

Bond's slo-mo bullet travels through the desert, passing by lots of curvaceous sand dunes and the reintroduction of the discretely naked ladies, missing from Casino Royale's title sequence. 

BD: The title sequence conveys several images associated with the franchise and with Daniel Craig's conflicted emotional state here.

Shaun Hamontree: Our contributions to the title sequence were actually our narrative to the outlining story, and adding our own bit of story and aesthetic. You're dealing with locales that have their own unique aesthetic that are great elements for us to use.

Ben Radatz: I think the one thing that was fortunate for us was that the locations they chose in the film, intentionally or not, were very parallel to Bond's mental state: his soul searching, thinking about his role and the future of becoming an agent, if that's what he really wants to do.

BD: Right, Marc said the desert symbolized Bond at his most desolate. And Daniel said that his "quantum of solace" was discovering his place in the world and learning to trust his allies.

TF: One of the key features is taking these large thematic elements from the film and being as subversive as you can and not take away the entire thing within the first two minutes. And taking larger themes and squashing them down as the base foundations for what they tell within the story.

BR: I think also that the interesting thing about past Bond title sequences is that a lot of them are actual microcosms for the film itself. So we were trying to be mindful of that as well but not be too obvious or give away the plot of the movie.

TF: At the same time, it's playing a bit of homage to the previous designers: [Maurice] Binder, [Robert] Brownjohn and [Daniel] Kleinman. To make it fit within the great canon.