The House on Mango Street Title Sequence (2022)
A title sequence based on a mock TV series adaptation of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
Read below for information on the process!
Process
The first thing I did was look to the source material both visually and conceptually. This included checking out what various book cover designs were so I could maintain the integrity of the author's vision.
I also wanted to incorporate as much imagery from the book as possible, so I went through and highlighted moments that I though encapsulated the look of the neighborhood (clouds, cat house, four skinny trees, red balloon).
As for the architecture of the neighborhood, I got some help from Google maps. Since the book is based on the author's own childhood, I researched to find the house that inspired Sandra Cisnero's writing and took screenshots of street view of houses in the neighborhood.
I illustrated all of the assets and did the cel animation in Photoshop, then brought it into After Effects to composite it all together and add the text and additional motion.
I chose the song No Volvere by Pedro Infante through researching popular Mexican music from the 1950s since that is the era of the book set in a Mexican-American neighborhood. The title translates to "I will not return" and depicts heartbreak very soulfully, which perfectly matches thematically to how Esperanza wants to leave her neighborhood after constantly seeing how it hurts the people that live there.
Since this isn't a real television show (although it almost was!), the names are really just placeholders, but I tried to find people who I thought might be a good fit for this project.
original layout sketch
original style frame 2
handmade type exploration
original style frame 1
Final Frames
