01

INTRODUCTION

Black Widow (2021) takes a deep dive into the shadowed backstory of Natasha Romanoff. In collaboration with Marvel Studios and director Cate Shortland, we created a unique and powerful opening title sequence –– explaining and discovering the missing years in Black Widow's history.

Marvel Studios' Black Widow Opening Title Sequence

02

SETTING THE TONE

Based on the film's narrative, we wanted the storytelling to be raw and authentic, a sequence that could feel right at home in a documentary. Our team compiled old photographs, created documents, and directed live action footage to chronical Natasha’s past in the Widow program. Everything we created had to have the proper layer of patina applied to it from matte photo grain to VHS footage, evocative of the specific time period.

Marvel Studios' Black Widow Opening Title Sequence Behind The Scenes

03

On Set

To thread an impactful visual connection between the title sequence and the film, a small team from Perception joined the filmmakers on set to capture vignettes and key moments in the characters’ lives. It also allowed us to work closely with director Cate Shortland to ensure that her vision for the film carried through in the materials we were capturing specifically for the title sequence.

04

Faking Authenticity

There was a tremendous attention to detail when creating or degrading our materials to ensure that we were being authentic to the time period of Natasha’s life and this film. While we shot the location footage at high resolution - 8k - we utilized a series of custom digital and analog methods to match the aesthetics of 8mm film, 90's digital video, and VHS. In the visual effects world, it’s always a nice breath of fresh air to shoot things with a VHS camera or project images on a CRT TV to get some genuine and surprising results.