Getting a call to continue work on a show’s second season never felt—or tasted—as good as it did for the breakout show “Sweetbitter” on STARZ. Working with longtime collaborators and model citizens Stu Zicherman and David Woods has always been a joy, but the space they gave us to go nuts on this job was icing on the cake.
Our original hope for the series was to create a unique main title sequence for each episode, and in season 2 that idea bore fruit. The conceit was to create short vignettes of back-of-house life without shying away from the ugliness and human error therein. We chose to go for a very literal, diegetic window into that world. We handed some brilliant food industry veterans a bunch of knives and together made a feast for the eyes.
While the majority of the filming was done on an Alexa Mini by the very talented William Kitchings, the chocolate sequence and part of the steak sequence were actually shot on our Creative Director’s iPhone using a macro lens. These were initially meant to be proof of concept pieces, but the network liked them so much that they made it all the way to the screen!
Our main title sequence for season 1 was more surreal and calm, centering on the subtlety of the human palate. The book the series is based on, written by Stephanie Danler, is famous for its lush and lyrical prose. The reader can almost taste and smell the wines, foods, and dive bar bathrooms explored in the story. We wanted to mimic that experience in our title card by employing vivd, abstract imagery to attempt to visualize intense flavors and scents. Here are some initial style frames exploring that idea.
What really helped us crack the code was some beautiful macro footage of red wine swirling in a glass, shot by the production, which we used as a base for our vision.
Along the way we built some eclectic variations on the main title itself.