Designing the Main on End
Creating the Main on End titles for Tales from Black Manor gave us the perfect excuse to revisit the eerie charm of the Black family estate, this time, with a magnifying glass. Freed from the constraints of individual narratives, we dove into the finer details that had always haunted the edges of the frame. The titles became a kind of cinematic scrapbook, tying together the threads of each tale in a single, hauntingly cohesive space.
We highlighted key artifacts from the stories such as Alistair Black’s legendary sword, Suzie’s unsettling collection of dolls, and the chilling study of Mr. Winter. Even the basement, where Ivy’s deranged father was once chained, gets its moment in the spotlight. Each location and prop was chosen to deepen the lore, creating subtle echoes of the characters’ fates and the twisted history of the manor itself.
One of our favorite touches? The gramophone that plays during the Orchestralis title, a sly nod to the film’s music. Throughout the sequence, we wove in visual easter eggs and set pieces that never quite made it into the tales, giving them a final, ghostly breath of life. The Main on End became more than just credits, it became a last, lingering look at a house built on secrets.
We also had the chance to shine a light on the manor’s forgotten corners, those shadowy nooks thick with cobwebs, shelves sagging under the weight of ancient books, and dusty instruments of bizarre experimentation all flickering with candlelight. And in those dark corners, we planted subtle hints of even more members of the Black family with their portraits proudly displayed, each one with a story still untold. Their presence suggests that the Black Manor has more tales to tell…
