Fan-made opening credits for upcoming WALKING DEAD TV show

Daniel Kanemoto's fan-made credits for the upcoming Walking Dead TV show (based on the relentless, marvellous long-running comic) is terrifically clever stuff, clearly the output of a trufan of the first water.

THE WALKING DEAD "Opening Titles" (Thanks, RJ!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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kib

Be sure to check out his “Articles of War” on his Vimeo page. 12 minutes of excellent story-telling and great animation. Wow, what a producer this guy is.
Greg323

Well done. *Very* slick. Best case, AMC actually uses it. Worst case, someone there will look at this and say “Who is this guy? We need to use him for something else..”

Either way it’s a win..
Anonymous

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION IF YOU’D LIKE AMC TO USE THESE FOR THE REAL CREDITS!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/danielkanemotowalkingdeadcredits/
Daniel M. Kanemoto

I can’t believe I got Boing-Boing-ed. This is turning into one hell of a weekend.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone, and Tony, I had such a blast animating your artwork — having great source material is a big part of what makes this medium so much fun to work in.

And yes, I’m open for business. My home on the web is http://www.exmortisfilms.com.
- William George
  
  Very well done. My hat’s off to you.
michael holloway

I thought I had George A Romero’s whole ‘living dead’ thing sussed, but a new explanation for the popularity of the series and related off shoots has become apparent to me.

What I used to think:

The walking dead are a metaphor for all those ‘happy’ people who don’t have a clue. A life lived in oblivion is a happy life it is true; but some of us are unable to stick with that group, the stuff we can see fucks that up. So the zombies are the brain eating lowest common denominator, the blood sucking, brain eating banality of a life lived uncritically.

The new metric:

We, the critical thinkers, are the brain eating zombies – out for revenge on the ‘happy’ people who’s pathetic lives have become the ‘normal’ in a society that equates consumption with happiness – even though what they’re eating is the core of a once great society.

Another way.

The brain eating zombies are characters that look human enough that sociopaths can satisfy their instinct to murder by watching these media.

There, that pretty well sums it for me but, I still don’t get it – even though I have laughed once or twice.

mh
Anonymous

bravo!
crankypage

I’ve watched them five times. Brilliant. You’ve boxed the production into a corner now – whatever they have commissioned likely won’t be as good. Maybe somebody will edit your credits onto the inevitable torrents that will appear the day after each episode airs.
Donald Petersen

Sure enough, the credits they ended up using, while perfectly adequate, aren’t nearly as good as these. The show’s a hoot, though.
thekinginyellow

well done 2.5d done well. good job!
Tony Moore

This seriously blew my total mind.
- an0nymous
  
  Say, uh, Tony… you aren’t ..*that* Tony Moore are you?
  - devophill
    
    He totally is that Tony Moore!
    - an0nymous
      
      Damn, man, I would totally buy him a beer if I were able. Huge fan.
Anonymous

Oh hell yeah!
Anonymous

That is the bees knees. Like that is probably too good for them to pass up. Daniel’s creativity will be rewarded regardless. Kudos and props for days.
Anonymous

What sort of software does one use to make this stuff?

That is, what would I have to learn to do it?
malthusan

That’s freakin’ amazing! I doubt anything they come up with “officially” will be as good.
elfspice

O M F G

awesome work… i think you could definitely say that is up there with the best tv opening credits that have ever been made. really interesting credits is kinda rare in the video production industry but some movies and tv shows have intro’s that almost eclipse the actual production itself in terms of facilitating compulsive viewing. imho they should use this, pay that artist and maybe give him a bonus if he can make it top the seemingly impossible to exceed awesomeness of it.
codydjango

wow this is a show i could get behind
Anonymous

Wow, that was actually pretty amazing.

Asopting this as their official opening would be positive media attention as well.
devophill

No words to describe it. They should’ve sent a poet.
- Daniel M. Kanemoto
  
  One of my favorite quotes, from one of my favorite movies. You have no idea how much I appreciate the support.
pKp

Seriously awesome. They need to hire this guy, STAT.
Anonymous

Very cool!! Love it. You’ve even improved the song by limiting it to that verse.
elfspice

just remembered what the most notable intro sequence for anything i can bring to mind is – james bond movies… this is of that calibre.
Anonymous

oddly, i originally saw this amazing work when the link was tweeted by cory’s twin damon lindelof.
Anonymous

It is really good. It will not be used.

It shows the comics. The people who invested in the TV show want TV, they paid of the comics guys for the right,s now they want to promote the TV stuff. Also as they are in TV they have to look down on comics as low distribution stuff. Even if the TV people acknowledge the creativity of the comics they place themselves up high and comics down low.

It does not show actors faces, there are going to be contracts wrapped up in showing their faces as the actors depend on being noticed.
- Anonymous
  
  But not many people know any of the actors. Looks at the Wire opening credits. No on in the cast is shown in the wire opening credits. What about Mad Men, an AMC show that shares the same network as walking dead. You don’t see anyone in the Mad Men credits. It’s almost in the same style too, The standard for TV is changing. It’s getting smarter and more clever. What would help is for the audience to keep an open mind on how the media is presented.
- Anonymous
  
  Don’t be that guy.
- Blue
  
  Also as they are in TV they have to look down on comics as low distribution stuff. – Anon
  
  Hmmm …. movies don’t ‘look down’ on comics (in fact it seems they revel in them) so I don’t quite see why a TV series based on a comic would look down on them.
  
  But what I really signed in to say was:
  
  USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT! USE IT!
  
  (Maybe modified so the characters look like their TV counterparts (Egg!) but …. I mean … use it!
- Donald Petersen
  
  It does not show actors faces, there are going to be contracts wrapped up in showing their faces as the actors depend on being noticed.
  
  You may be forgetting other recent (and current) main title sequences that used eye-catching visuals without utilizing images of the actors. Deadwood, Mad Men, the first couple seasons of Will & Grace, countless others.
  
  The decision to utilize a particular main title sequence is up to the producers, with clearance by the studio and network. If the producers liked this version enough and were able to clear the artwork, they’d pay for it and use it. It’s certainly professional enough to rank among the very best submissions I’ve seen by a great many companies that specialize in creating main titles.
Nom_de_Guerre

AMC would be smart to make an effort to buy it…
Hummy

That is freaking awesome!
social_maladroit

This is seriously good stuff. The animation is fantastic, and the music and the animation work together very well. Great job.
Bionicrat2

Holy zombies! This dude WILL get work from this, you can bet, thanks to both the talent of the work but also this little bit of getting his name out there. Whether or not the WD’s prod. co. or AMC hire him, some other place will.

So good!
- Bionicrat2
  
  Also he does seem to do TV graphics and animation (including opening titles) for a living…so it’s not exactly like some college kid waiting for a break:
  
  http://vimeo.com/danielkanemoto/videos/sort:date
  
  Still he deserves to get a cool gig after this!
Hexjumper

Are you shitting me? That has to be the opening credits to the show. Give the guys who did the ones you were going to use a nice little monetary send-off and use those instead. I mean, my _God_ that’s nice work.

-Darren MacLennan
richlb

Very similar to the fantastic closing credits to the otherwise forgetful 2009 film Land of the Lost. I suggest you check those closing credits out.
pAULbOWEN

I’d add to Donald Petersen’s list the credit sequences of The Wire and The Sopranos, of both of which this reminded me, in different ways. Super work.
superduper

At first I wasn’t too convinced. But then two more seconds passed and I was like, yeahhhhhhhhh.

I’m sure they’re going to do a much more vague, possibly a bit tame and lame opener like on True Blood. Maybe. The Mad Men opening is great so there’s a chance.

Either way, I’m rootin for it. If only because it’d make a great story on wikipedia, the greatest internet novel of our time.
Anonymous

Remarkable! Well done Daniel. Wishing a long and successful future.
Also check out the ORIGINAL titles for the TRUE BLOOD showâ€¦ hard to imagine them now given True Bloodâ€™s iconic and memorable openingâ€¦ thank goodness they changed these out before airing the showâ€¦
http://www.remotepatrolled.com/2010/07/original-casting-true-bloods-tara/