• The Client Deon Taylor Enterprises
  • Release Date 2008
  • What We Did theatrical main title
  • Filed In

THE HUSTLE

Director Deon Taylor collaborated with The Ether to design the Opening Main Title Sequence for “The Hustle.”

The Main Title Sequence uses deconstructed currency as a graphic metaphor to highlight ‘the hustle’ that the characters of the film go through in order to pay back money owed. Macro imagery of bills are used as textural backplates, graphic borders and even stacks of fanned out bills, in combination with stop motion stills of Character IDs. All these elements are interspersed in 3D space as the camera travels seamlessly from one card to another. The comedic quality of the animation is reinforced with the “flopping” type animation used as a mirror for the flip flopping that the characters themselves are going through as they decide their fate.

The Ether stepped outside the box creating a false open where we see the first two cards of the Title Sequence before crash cutting to the David Alan Grier’s monologue – cracking up the audience – before transitioning back into the main title sequence on a music swell enhanced with the sound of a cash register ringing.