WaMahyaya 3: Title Sequence
Here is the title sequence that we made for WaMahyaya Season 3.
We used a healthy combination of Maya, After Effects, and Fusion.
Director and Designer: Hamzah Jamjoom
Created by: Tim Little and Hamzah Jamjoom
How it was made
VISUALS
The shooting schedule for Season 3 of WaMahyaya was intense. I was writing and directing for over 2 months straight and I had to work at night on this title sequence. The show explores humans’ inner battle between the true self and the Ego. The idea behind this title sequence was to metaphorically capture the struggles with the Ego through surreal images.
I’ve always obsessed over René Magritte and his witty and thought-provoking images. When it was time to storyboard this title sequence, I drew a lot of inspiration from his art. I wanted to play with the idea of distorting our perception of reality and how the Ego might turn everyday events into a devastating nightmare.
The project was a fun challenge and a whirlwind marathon with only 8 days to execute before the first episode aired. I had to bring my old friend and VFX expert Tim Little to help out (http://littlevfx.com). Due to the tight deadline, we ended up using a mixed bag of programs to achieve the desired result for each shot. We took advantage of Blackmagic’s Fusion, Maya, and After Effects.
Here are some stills from our process.
MUSIC
What makes a title sequence memorable is the music. The mood and tone of the whole show is immediately identified through the opening score. For that reason, we started working on the music way before we started filming the actual show.
I worked with music composer Devin Delaney from NoiseFloor, and Sound Designer Bryen Hensley. Devin was God-sent. He immediately connected to the theme and started bouncing off ideas. One of the things we talked about is creating a 3 act structure that had a positive resolution near the end. I was very adamant about keeping the melody simple and recognizable. Devin created numerous demos and we eventually landed on a melody we all liked.
The human voice element was added later in the game. We felt that it was important to represent the inner struggle with some vocals. Abdullah Shukr, a Chicago based singer, came in for 3 hours and gave us a variety of samples to play around with.
The final result was memorizing and moving.