Richard Morrison (born September 1953) is an English designer of film

title sequence A title screen (also called an opening screen or intro) is the method by which films or television show, television programmes present their title and key filmmaking, production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often an op ...

s. He has created over 150 feature film title sequences in a career of more than thirty years. Having studied graphics, photography and film, Morrison's initial career began on the

James Bond film series James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

collaborating with an American graphic designer

Maurice Binder Maurice Binder (December 4, 1918 – April 9, 1991) was an American film title designer best known for his work on 16 James Bond films, including the first, '' Dr. No'' (1962), and for Stanley Donen's films from 1958. Early work Binder was born ...

. He has worked on film openers ever since for film directors including

Franc Roddam Francis George Franc Roddam (born 29 April 1946) is an English film director, businessman, screenwriter, television producer and publisher, best known as the creator of ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' and ''Masterchef'' and as the director of ''Quadrop ...

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

and

Jean-Jacques Annaud Jean-Jacques Annaud (; born 1 October 1943) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed ''Quest for Fire (film), Quest for Fire'' (1981), ''The Name of the Rose (film), The Name of the Rose'' (1986), ''The Bear (1988 film), ...

. His title sequences include films such as ''Batman'', ''

Enemy at the Gates ''Enemy at the Gates'' (''Stalingrad'' in France and ''L'Ennemi aux portes'' in Canada) is a 2001 war film directed, co-written, and produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on William Craig (author), William Craig's 1973 nonfiction book ''Enemy ...

'', ''Gandhi'', ''Brazil'' and ''The Killing Fields''. Describing his work in an interview with ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' (August 2008) Morrison explained: "I look for a nuance, a subliminal energy in a film that I can then work into an idea. A lot of my title sequences don’t give much away, but they give you a flavour. So the viewer thinks - Oh, this is intriguing, show me more…"Osmond, A., 2008. ''Title Recall'', p.84-88. ''

'', August 2008 Morrison has been chairman of Europe's film and animation conference “Pencil to Pixel” since 2002, and in 2009 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Digital Film School of Media Arts and Imaging at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Morrison is currently developing a few film title sequences including

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

's ''Frankenweenie'' and ''Dark Shadows'' as well as

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...

's currently untitled biopic on

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...

Selected film title sequences

* ''Quadrophenia'' (1979) * ''

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

'' (1982) * '' The Killing Fields'' (1984) * ''

A Passage to India ''A Passage to India'' is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of 20th-century English liter ...

'' (1984) * ''

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

'' (1985) * '' Someone to Watch Over Me'' (1987) * ''

A Fish Called Wanda ''A Fish Called Wanda'' is a 1988 heist comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and written by Crichton and John Cleese. It stars Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The film follows a gang of diamond thieves who double- ...

'' (1988) * ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

'' (1989) * '' ''K2'''' (1991) * ''

Event Horizon In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s. In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive c ...

'' (1997) * '' Seven Years in Tibet'' (1997) * '' Spice World'' (1997) * ''

High Fidelity High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) ...

'' (2000) * ''

'' (2001) * '' 9 Dead Gay Guys'' (2002) * ''

Girl with a Pearl Earring ''Girl with a Pearl Earring'' () is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, dated 1665. Going by various names over the centuries, it became known by its present title towards the end of the 20th century because of the e ...

'' (2003) * '' The Dreamers'' (2003) * '' Creep'' (2004) * ''

Seed of Chucky ''Seed of Chucky'' is a 2004 black comedy slasher film. It is the fifth film in the ''Child's Play'' series, following ''Bride of Chucky''. The film was written and directed by Don Mancini in his directorial debut, and stars Jennifer Tilly, R ...

'' (2004) * '' Valiant'' (2005) * '' The Constant Gardener'' (2005) * '' Tideland'' (2005) * ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

'' (2006) * '' The Golden Compass'' (2007) * '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' (2007) * '' Vantage Point'' (2008) * '' Tamara Drewe'' (2010) * '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' (2010) * ''

'' (directed by

; 2012) * '' Lay the Favourite'' (directed by

Stephen Frears Sir Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is a British director and producer of film and television, often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply-drawn characters. He has received numerous a ...

; 2012) * ''

Welcome to the Punch ''Welcome to the Punch'' is a 2013 British action thriller film written and directed by Eran Creevy and starring James McAvoy, Mark Strong, and Andrea Riseborough. The script had been placed on the 2010 Brit List, a film-industry-compiled lis ...

'' (executive produced by

; 2012) * '' The Cold Light of Day'' (directed by Mabrouk El Mechri; 2012) * '' Frankenweenie'' (directed by

; 2012) * ''

Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American Gothic fiction, Gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulatio ...

'' (directed by

; 2012) * ''

Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight ''Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight'' is a 2013 American television film, television drama film about boxer Muhammad Ali's refusal to report for Conscription in the United States, induction into the United States military during the Vietnam War, focu ...

'' (directed by

; 2013) * ''

Half of a Yellow Sun ''Half of a Yellow Sun'' is a 2006 novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It became instantly successful after its publication; in the United States and Nigeria, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''Half of a Y ...

'' (directed by

Biyi Bandele Biyi Bandele (born Biyi Bandele-Thomas; 13 October 1967 – 7 August 2022) was a Nigerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker. He was the author of several novels, beginning with ''The Man Who Came in From the Back of Beyond'' (1991), as well as ...

; 2013) * '' One Direction: This Is Us'' (directed by

Morgan Spurlock Morgan Valentine Spurlock (November 7, 1970 – May 23, 2024) was an American documentary filmmaker, writer, and television producer. He directed 23 films and was the producer of nearly 70 films throughout his career. Spurlock received acclaim f ...

; 2013) * ''

Believe Believe may refer to: *Belief, a psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true, with or without proof for such proposition *Faith, a belief in something which has not been proven Arts, entertainment, and me ...

'' (directed by David Scheinmann; 2013) * '' Day of the Flowers'' (directed by John Roberts; 2013) * '' Dementamania'' (directed by Kit Ryan; 2013) * ''

The Numbers Station ''The Numbers Station'' is a 2013 American action thriller film, starring John Cusack and Malin Åkerman, about a burned-out CIA black ops agent assigned to protect the code operator at a secret American numbers station somewhere in the British ...

'' (directed by

Kasper Barfoed Kasper Barfoed (born 1972) is a Danish film director. Barfoed was born in 1972, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from the University of Copenhagen. Selected filmography (as director) *''The Lost Treasu ...

; 2013) * '' Elsa & Fred'' (directed by

Michael Radford Michael James Radford (born 24 February 1946) is an English film director and screenwriter. He began his career as a documentary director and television comedy writer before transitioning into features in the early 1980s. His best-known credi ...

; 2014) * '' The Two Faces of January'' (directed by Hossein Amini; 2014) * ''

Calvary Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...

'' (directed by

John Michael McDonagh John Michael McDonagh (born 1967) is a British-Irish filmmaker. He wrote and directed '' The Guard'' (2011) and ''Calvary'' (2014), with the former earning him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. Early life John M ...

; 2014) * '' A Long Way Down'' (directed by

Pascal Chaumeil Pascal Chaumeil (9 February 1961 – 27 August 2015) was a French director and screenwriter. He started out as an assistant director in the 1980s, working with directors such as Pierre Tchernia and Luc Besson. He was nominated for two César ...

; 2014)

References

External links

* *
Richard Morrison interview
on Forget the Film, Watch the Titles
Richard Morrison interview
on Art of the Title {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Richard British filmmakers 1953 births Living people Film and television title designers