Production & design company Imaginary Forces recently completed main titles and animated content for the new FOX sitcom "Back to You" starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton.
"Back to You," which premiered on September 19th, is the creation of sitcom veterans Steve Levitan ("Just Shoot Me") and "Frasier" writer-producer Christopher Lloyd. In addition to designing and producing the main title sequence, Imaginary Forces also created animated transitions within the show itself.
The opening sequence was spearheaded by Imaginary Forces Director Steve Fuller. It was executive produced for the studio by Maribeth Phillips and produced by Kelley McDermott.
The sitcom features Grammer as an LA news anchor who's recent fall from grace (an off-air rant captured on YouTube) prompts his return to his old news station in Pittsburgh where Heaton, his former co-anchor with whom he had one brief, drunken tryst, remains a local celebrity.
The main titles are executed in an illustrated style reminiscent of film title sequences in the 1960s, and take viewers on a journey from the cityscape into the inner workings of a newsroom. Opening on the Pittsburgh skyline against a burnt yellow sky, the camera moves through 3D space through the various sound stages of the network building. As each character and their newsroom personalities are identified by the highly stylized illustrations, the color transitions from the yellow of a setting sun to the blue and purple of evening.
The client, FOX, was very open to the design interpretation of the main titles. Imaginary Forces, which recently designed the opening sequence for the much-touted series "Mad Men" on AMC, presented the idea of a journey via animation with playful use of camera angles and movement.
"Sitcoms aren't generally known for their opens," explains Fuller. "The show's producers took a new approach - to give it a more sophisticated look, but to also preserve the idea that this is a sitcom. We conveyed this through the typeface, environment, and controlled use of color, which lightened up the mood and put us more into the realm of comedy. Special attention was also paid to repeating and integrating certain icons such as the thunderstorm and clock for cohesiveness in the sequence. It was nice to have this kind of flexibility and openness with the design."
Imaginary Forces worked closely with London-based Illustrator Paul Oakley who's stylized backgrounds meshed nicely with Imaginary Forces' character illustrations. In addition to the main titles, the studio also created 3D illustrations and transitions as part of the pilot.