Monday, February 2, 2009

True Blood Behind the scenes : True Blood Opening credits compared to " Wrong Eyed Jesus"

I have read this a number of places on the web over the last few months. I am just infatuated with the opening and have even visited the real places and i think Digital Kitchen did a great job. Some of my many posts about the opening can be found here
I'll just let their response speak for itself.

Dear Enthusiasts -

DK chiming in. Thank you for the mostly kind words, heated dialogue and too h
arsh accusations. The accusations are not at all unfounded insofar as "Wrong Eyed Jesus" was one a myriad of other influences - features, docs, material found online, in print, somewhere in the deep recesses of our collective cobwebbed psyches. That's how creativity works - we put these pieces in the blender, press the eviscerate button and then see what comes out in the pour. Everyone in this forum knows that. So our remaining peace goes something like this:
You're picking on 5 shots. Out of over 65.
The tone of the "True Blood" title - in audio, coloration, dynamics, editorial style, etc - is so obviously different from the WEJ trailer as to make accusations of plagia
rism obviously nitpicking. It's tantamount to claiming the opening of "The Sopranos" is ripped from "Night Court" - look it's New York!
3 of the 5 shots called out are standard southern bayou fare - car in the woods, evangelical church, honky tonk bar.
Chris Cunningham doesn't own nor did he invent undercranked nudes.

On the 5th shot we have to say good catch. There was no specific intent to match the shot from WEJ specifically. We knew we wanted a midnight baptism shot b/c the concept was so perfect for "True Blood" - midnight+baptism+vampires? Holla! It's like bacon+lettuce+tomato. We
researched the midnight baptism subject quite a bit and in this case one of several shots in that scene came out remarkably like the one in WEJ. A subconscious homage? Apparently. Plagiarism? Absolutely not. We're influenced by the work that's come before us. Everyone in this forum is, and sometimes elements share striking similarities because of it. This is fairly described as one of those cases.
Lastly, DK has received
10 of the last 36 Emmy nominations in the Outstanding Main Title category and been nominated therein 6 of the last 7 years. DK's made a name in main titles and beyond based on our originality and execution. We don't need to steal from anybody. Then, now, or ever.
Thanks for paying attention to our work and this thread and feel free to get in touch directly anytime. And by all means please have fun continuing to argue these points but if you do so try to mix in a little more humor. With all the election banter in the air this too serious tone is too much - design should be fun, people!
Dave Skaff
Executive Producer
skaff@d-kitchen.com
http://www.d-kitchen.com/


Discussion can be found here

View One Eyed

View True Blood Opening

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