Wild Brain Creates Opening Credits Rat Race
Wild Brain has completed production on the animated opening title sequence for Paramount's upcoming film RAT RACE, directed by Jerry Zucker (AIRPLANE!). Wild Brain director Julia Tortolani provided the title design and animation. The opening title sequence features animated Photo Collage Puppets of the movie's characters. The sequence comes to a climax when four of the characters take the director's credit and run across the desert, through a collaged version of Las Vegas and into the front door of the Venetian Hotel. Inside the hotel the characters play the slot machines and celebrate their winnings while John Cleese leads the viewer into the lobby. As the camera pans out of the casino, the movie seamlessly transforms into live-action, beginning the film. The photo collage technique was done in PhotoShop, using Paramount Studio photos of the cast members. Some digital photography of Wild Brain employees was used as body doubles to complete the action. "Working with a film director like Jerry Zucker was phenomenal. His vision is all about making the work as great as it can be," said Tortolani. "Plus, I love working in the medium of animated photo-collage. I can take something based in photo-reality and articulate it in all sorts of exceptional ways. Jerry provided for a lot of creative freedom with the characters. So we manipulated the digital puppets into all sorts of extreme poses and impossible actions which totally jibes with the slapstick nature of the movie." The film follows the adventure of six ordinary people pitted against each other by a Las Vegas casino tycoon in a wild dash for $2 million.