Imagine this—you’re in the movie theater, the lights dim, and the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise starts playing on the big screen. The opening scene sets the stage; then the iconic theme music begins to play through the speakers. Through the clouds, words manifest—the title card—a visual moniker—appears on the screen. The first sequences is complete and, now, the movie has really begun...

For Matt Hartle, partner & executive creative director at Baked, these are the moments on which he’s built his career. From eye-catching movie trailers to stage-setting title cards, Hartle is one of the film & television industry’s go-to artists for opening sequences, motion design, and visual effects (VFX). Blending a classical art background with expertise of the most cutting-edge digital design tools, and an inherent love of storytelling, Hartle’s work helps some of the biggest titles, shows, and production companies in the industry establish their visual identity.

Quietly, Hartle’s artistry pervades modern film. His extensive portfolio includes title card graphics for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Superman, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Last Airbender, Watchmen, Pan, Troy, Hercules, and many more, as well as branded work & logo updates for Lionsgate, MGM, and Paramount. Overall, Hartle lets his work speak for itself, always matching the assignment with an eye-popping, fine-tuned final graphic.

Recently, the Suite Studios team caught up with the Montana-based motion designer, VFX artist, creative director, and writer to learn about his experience in the media industry over the last two decades. Hartle’s artistic focus is wide-spread but remains constant. From early inspirations in drawing and Renaissance painting, to authoring best selling sci-fi novels, and even a few words of advice for aspiring digital artists & creatives, keep reading to hear the latest from one of the film & television industry’s most prolific, unsuspecting figures right here on The Render.

What’s on your desk this week?

We’re working on a big film, just trying to deliver. There are hundreds of shots. We’re working with footage from half a dozen cameras, all different formats. There are shots from anamorphic lenses, spherical, consumer digital cameras, drones, a little bit of everything. They all have different color science, file formats and workflows; and this project is unique because there's Nikon footage, Arri footage, DJI drone footage… the director’s just embracing all of it.

Incredible, so many moving parts…

Absolutely. It's like when you go to a restaurant and there's one highlight item on the menu, but there's a whole team of people that ensure it’s right when it’s plated. It's same way with visual effects. You'll have marquee shots or sequences, and you’ll have dozens of takes of the same scene. Sometimes, the director loves one line from one take, and another line from a different take—blending those together we call fluid morphs—and we make it come together as one continuous shot. Fluid morphs can be as intricate as any task in VFX.

How did you get started in the arts and eventually motion graphics?

I have always been interested in the arts. In my teenage years, I started doing life drawing classes at our local college in Kalispell, Montana. That led me to painting, then I had the opportunity to do a few art history tours in Europe. I went to Italy and got immersed in all of it. That was my inspiration growing up—my whole background was traditional.

But I also always loved computers. At my house growing up, we had one of the first Macintosh computers, and other Apple computers over time, and I was always exploring it. In high school, I actually had a business doing computer graphics, called Magical Arts; I had one of the first cell phones and I would call clients during my study hall, trying to make a business out of this passion of mine.

Do you draw connections between your traditional education & the newer digital arts? 

Especially if you dip into the beginning of the Renaissance look at someone like Brunelleschi—he's the guy that is credited with ‘discovering’ perspective. Of course, perspective was always there, but he’s the one that applied a lexicon to it, creating a method that allowed people to learn from it. That’s the same kind of thing that has been happening with computers for a long time… It's even similar to when Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, he was the one grinding the pigments, preparing the surfaces, and figuring out the compound for the plasters. That's the exact same thing as what we do now. Ultimately, it's about producing a final image, but you have to know all the technology to make it work.

Back when I was in college, Industrial Light & Magic had an internal team called the Rebel Unit, who were doing a bunch of work on the Star Wars movies. On that team, individual artists were handling entire shots—one person would work on the majority of one shot—instead of focusing on just one task, then passing it along to the nest person on the team. That began paving the way… where individual artists have more of a fingerprint on the entire scene.

When did you start focusing on movie trailers & title cards? 

When I was in my last term at ArtCenter College of Art & Design, I had a friend who was working on internal studio development for the first Harry Potter film. This was before it became the phenomena that it is today—so, essentially, Warner Brothers didn’t know what it was and the Producer, David Heyman, needed to get everyone at the studio excited about the project. We were creating development pieces to help the Warner Brothers team better understand the story.

Later, I was teaching at Gnomon and the industry was changing rapidly. Toy Story came out and nobody was sure if hand-drawn animation would fade out completely—it required all these classically trained animators to be re-trained. So they were going to Gnoman, which was crazy because I was about 20-years-old and the lead anitmator for Mulan was in my class. After that, I ended up working at a studio called BLT in Hollywood for eight-plus years, which was initially known for its movie posters, but when the company expanded into A/V work, I ran the motion graphics department. My focus shifted to movie trailers and title sequences.

What's the secret to a captivating title sequence? 

The graphics in a trailer really set the aesthetic for the property. Often times, a film won't even have a visual identity yet… so, you come up with scripted ideas, start working on title design, you have this whole exploration to figure it out. Most of the time you start out with a screenplay or a rough cut of the film, and the team will ask you to develop an aesthetic that’s complimentary to the it—and to avoid clichés. There are all these terms in the industry, things you want shy away from, like if you're doing a fantasy film, they don't want “swords and sandals.” You're always tasked with trying to find a different way of visually enhancing the story.

One interesting caveat is that the studios also usually operate independently from the marketing teams—which is nuts—they’ll double-spend on title sequences. There are some exceptions, like when I worked on the title card for Percy Jackson, they ran the same title card from the trailer in the film. For Troy, though, I did the title card for the trailer and they chose something different for the movie. They used this thin, squiggly line writing, which just felt spineless. It shows how totally divorced the two sides can be. It's odd how the filmmakers have input in so many instances, but a lot of times they don't go back-and-forth with the the advertising teams.

Mainly, though, you're looking for something that's complimentary to the property. That could mean coming up with something that plays seamlessly in the footage, where it’s integrated into the scene; or there's a scene that plays out and they dip to black, you bring a card in, then it goes back into the scene; or it’s meant to add a visual punch to help elevate everything. That last one is the most fun because then you can start really designing—imagining a world in which these elements can exist. But ultimately it's meant to be complimentary to the story and the visuals.

As a visual artist, what initially led you into writing screenplays & books?

I first always wanted to direct. I had one friend—one of the line producers for Jim Cameron, worked on Titanic—and we would talk about the importance of telling stories, so I started by writing screenplays. I wrote a bunch of them, made a few short films, and really enjoyed that process.

The problem with writing a screenplay, though, is that until you actually go out and make the movie, all you've really done is develop a blueprint. If you're a director, you don't want the writer to be directing on the page; if you're an actor, you don't want the writer telling you how to deliver the line; and if you’re a designer, you don’t want anyone telling you what the set should look like. Writing a screenplay, you need to describe the story, but nothing beyond that. In the end, as a visual person, the screenplay was the speed bump to making the pictures.

So, I made some short films and loved the process… but found it difficult to roll it to the next step. So I thought I'd just try writing stories, writing books. It ended up being the most complementary creative process for me. In writing, you are creating the entire world. You're not just jotting down a side note.

How do you find all of your different artistic endeavors mingle in your work?

It’s just all different sides of the same exact thing. The hardest part of any of it is how you communicate what's in your head, put it on a piece of paper, and make it manageable for somebody else to digest later. Writing can help you think visually— when I'm writing, everything that I'm writing, I’m seeing in my head. That visual process helps inform you—you can look at problems and realize what you have to do to get it to work or how to approach it.

What advice would you give to other artists who want to intertwine their inspirations?

Just be open to inspiration. It can come from anywhere—it can be music, literature, a movie, games, interactions with people... It’s really important to take in as much of the world as you can. Almost every limit you're going to encounter as a creative is in your head. We can all run up against a barrier like, “Geez, if I just had a million dollars, I could…” But that's not really the setback. That's what's so exciting about the democratization of technology. The information is everywhere, so there's nothing stopping anybody from creating. There's no barrier between you, creating the thing, and getting it out to an audience.

One other thing I would encourage is that people should absolutely go to school. Being around other people who were as passionate about this stuff as I was; the friendships, relationships, and the exposure to different ways of thinking… that's not going to come through a computer. You have to put yourself in that position—school is key.

What do you see happening next in the world of digital VFX?

The decentralization of post production in filmmaking is a hugely positive thing. Having access to remote workflows gives you access to a whole world of talent. And its reciprocal, it also gives those freelancers an opportunity to access new projects. That’s huge. It's really going to empower productions to find new ways of making movies.

Any parting thoughts for The Render's creative audience? 

Maybe it's a little non sequitur, but I would say: If you’re a creative waiting for inspiration, stop waiting, you just gotta go do it. If you want to be a writer, just write. It’s so succinct but it’s a powerful piece of knowledge. If people want to make films, go and make them. If you want to do visual effects, do it. There's so little stopping you, especially all the barriers that used to exist. Growing up, when I wanted to do stop motion animation, it was all VHS and I didn't have a camera… I borrowed it from school. Full start-stop-play buttons, all that. Now, you can use your iPhone, it's 4K, and there's just no barrier between you and creativity. Lastly, you should just always look at all your work as a sketchbook. No one project is your masterpiece, your Sistine ceiling. It’s all just pages in a sketchbook…

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