Way Down in the Hole
JA
September 03
Don’t pay heed to temptation
for his hands are so cold.
You gotta help me keep the devil
way down in the hole
– Tom Waits, ‘Way Down in the Hole’
The opening credits of any series are probably not something you’d give much thought to (in fact, you’re probably more likely to click fast forward after a few episodes). Yet watching yet another season of David Simon’s The Wire, it struck me that there is something to be said for the way in which a good opening sequence can really set the scene for all that is to follow.
True Blood’s writhing, sultry evocation of the Deep South immediately comes to mind – blood, scales, swamps, religion, sex and death are all there, coupled with the dirty rhythm of Jace Everett’s ‘Bad Things’ – a perfect preface to a vampire drama without ever actually having to show any. The credits were done by Digital Kitchen (also of Six Feet Under fame). According to the making of on their website, most of the footage was shot in Louisiana, Chicago and Seattle, with the team even going so far as to make their own road-sign inspired fonts for the cast and crew.
Nowadays, credits are just as likely to consist of nothing more than a single grab, as in Lost and Glee (the thinking behind this I suppose is that long credits provide an easy ‘out’ for all us attention-lazy viewers). So the 90 second sequence at the beginning of the The Wire provides something of a counterpoint. As fans will know, this is retouched slightly each season, and overlaid with different versions of Tom Wait’s ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – Blind Boys of Alabama (season one), Waits (season two), the Neville Brothers (season three), DoMaJe (five Baltimore teenagers, season four) and Steve Earle (season five). Incidentally, Earle also plays Walon, Bubbles’ sponsor in the same series.
When quizzed about his favourite rendition, David Simon had this to say:
I like all of them for what they do—each one reflected a season of the show and a tonality that we were trying to convey. If I were going to put one on to listen to it, it would either be the Tom Waits original (from Season 2) or the Blind Boys of Alabama (from Season 1). But if I put one on to express what we’re trying to say about a given season, it would probably be [season four], because it’s 14 year olds singing and it says so much about the main characters this year.
This article by Andrew Dignan in Slant aptly sums up the appeal:
… The Wire’s opening credits are not an ordinary credits sequence, but a series of four short films that distill each season’s themes, goals, and motifs. On most TV dramas the credits sequence is little more than a contractual pecking order with flashy graphics and catchy music—examples of what job-hunting production houses would call a “sizzle reel.” Even the credit sequences on HBO’s other programming, which are always evocative and given a full minute to breathe, usually seem detached from the shows themselves, to the point where they work as stand-alone mood pieces. But The Wire’s four credits sequences don’t fit any of these descriptors; the images are taken out of context from the season’s individual episodes and arranged in a pattern that only makes sense if you watch the show closely.
Further nods must also go to:
Mad Men (despite incorrect used to Lucinda Sans)
and The Sopranos
Our Friends
- Overland
- Alien Onion
- Ampersand Duck
- Andrew McDonald
- A Pair of Ragged Claws
- Arts Victoria
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Ben Eltham
- Bookshow blog
- CAL
- City of Tongues
- Crikey
- darkly wise, rudely great
- David Astle
- Elmo Keep Does Stuff
- The Ember
- Fly the Falcon blog
- Going Down Swinging
- Griffith Review
- Hackpacker
- Harvest
- HEAT
- Island
- Killings blog
- Literary Minded
- Lorraine Crescent
- Lynden Barber
- Mandy Ord
- Marcus Westbury
- Matilda
- Meanland
- Melbourne University Publishing
- Mel Campbell
- The Monthly
- Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
- Oslo Davis
- Paul Callaghan
- Read, Think, Write
- Sleepers Publishing
- Sorrow at Sills Bend
- SPLOG
- Tom Cho
- Virgule
- Wet Ink
- Wheeler Centre
Comments
03 Sep 10 at 10:17
I agree they can make such a big difference to the experienjce – like Deadwood’s opening sequence but thumbs down for HBO’s Rome. Can’t comment without mentioning the amazing Saul Bass and his film titles eg Man With the Golden Arm etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnpJ_KdqZE
...03 Sep 10 at 11:31
The great thing about the Wire intros is ticking off the shorts grabs they use as they appear in the series [when it was revealed it was Stringer Bell pulling down Donette’s zipper in Season 2 we all howled at the revelation of that it was the pair in scene which had been played over and over in the pre-credits]. I love that the broken camera is a constant, and that there’s a quick nod to it at the end of Season 5, when a group of boys through a rock at a police box and the camera doesn’t break.
...03 Sep 10 at 18:29
Yes I remember that scene – was such a great moment when you could put two and two together. Plus gave the credits for the rest of that season new resonance.
...