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Jamie Caliri directed 2004's most celebrated title sequence: the striking end-titles of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Caliri's dark, yet playful style, seen in his music videos and commercials, seemed a perfect fit for the Baudelaire orphans' story. "I never let go of my ultimate goal. I wanted to make an enchanting, inviting piece that not only held true to the sentiment of the Lemony Snicket books, but also paid tribute to the amazing talent listed in the end credits," says Caliri.

Brent Watts and his company, Axiom Designed Communications, created the merchandising style guide for the movie. They turned to Caliri to help conceive an end title sequence that would tie their merchandising illustrations to the live-action Baudelaire children. Together, Mike Miller of MWP Editorial and Caliri formed the entity MWP/CALIRI Productions to produce the Lemony title animation. Caliri and animators Todd Hemker and Benjamin Goldman set up shop in the small town of Ojai CA. Armed with a handful of Apple G5 towers, and over 35 years of film making experience between them, they brought the end sequence to life.

Although Caliri is better known in the industry as a live-action, Grammy-nominated music video director, animation is in his blood. He studied character animation at Cal Arts, and kick-started his career in the early nineties with a break-through animated theatrical trailer for the L.A. public radio station KCRW. That spot ran in LA for three years. In fact, Caliri ended the Lemony Snicket title sequence with the three orphans lowering themselves down on ropes-a wink to those who remember the triptych of climbing workmen in that KCRW ad.

Once Upon a Gloomy Childhood - By MANOHLA DARGIS Review of "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"

Excerpt:

The books might have been better served with less money and fewer special effects, since neither their delicacy nor their charmingly idiosyncratic digressions are easily transposed from page to screen. A miniaturist like Wes Anderson, who constructs dollhouse worlds of his own, might have been a more appropriate match. The same goes for the visionaries behind the beautifully filigreed credit sequence, which might just be the best bit of animation to originate in a DreamWorks film yet.

FULL ARTICLE

They won't win the Oscar, but in a just world, they might
By Ty Burr & Wesley Morris, Globe Staff

Excerpt:

What was the purest example of visual elegance on the big screen in 2004? If you pushed for the final minutes of the Jim Carrey comedy, you'd get no argument from me. A miniature masterwork of mood, the end credits used paper cutouts, spectral graphics, and Thomas Newman's dancing-skeleton score to conjure up an entire giddy universe of disasters. And talk about unsung: they aren't even credited by name in their own credits.

FULL ARTICLE

OFFICIAL PRODUCTION CREDITS FOR:
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
END TITLE SEQUENCE

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