Art of the Title

  • Title Sequences
  • Designers + Studios

Blow Out (1981)

Blow Out
No one wants to know about conspiracy any more!
—Jack Terry
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Post
  • More

Twenty-seven seconds. The wind, thumping, a heartbeat, panting, screams, a bang, swerving, a crash, the back and forth of a VU meter registering it all. Twenty-seven seconds is all it takes and all you get before Designer Richard Greenberg's typography engulfs the lot and you're into Blow Out.

John Travolta as Jack Terry, B-movie sound man, is featured in a split-screen sequence, listening to the news as he sorts through noise. His careful process, cutting and labeling reels of sound effects, is juxtaposed with a news broadcast, dividing our attention to establish both the context of the film and the main character. The bright yellow credits carry this introduction forward until coming to a close with Writer–Director Brian De Palma's own name and a door labelled "Personal Effects."

  • Summary
  • Credits

Title Designer RICHARD GREENBERG speaks about his work on Blow Out in this excerpt from the feature article R/Greenberg Associates: A Film Title Retrospective.

What about Blow Out, from 1981? That movie is very connected with the idea of sound and visuals because of Travolta's character.

Richard: That was an interesting one. I had presented lots of stuff to Brian De Palma who was cutting the movie somewhere near our studio. But he didn't like it and I didn't really like it; we weren’t sold on any of the ideas. It suddenly occurred to me that this movie is about sound, so why not go straight at it and do a graphic version of the VU* meter?

I sent Brian something like a straight line with a frame and called him up to explain the idea. He simply said, “Good!” and that's what it became. That's an example of an idea that was very, very hard to find.


* A Volume Unit meter or Standard Volume Indicator is a device displaying a representation of the signal level in audio equipment.

View the credits for this sequence

Main Title and End Credits Designed and Produced by: R/Greenberg Associates, Inc., New York City

Title Illustrator: Chip Miller

Director of Photography: Vilmos Zsigmond

Support Art of the TItle

Related

  • R/Greenberg Associates: A Film Title Retrospective

    R/Greenberg Associates: A Film Title Retrospective

    feature interview

  • Altered States

    Altered States

    summary

  • The Dead Zone

    The Dead Zone

    summary

  • Mission: Impossible

    Mission: Impossible

    summary

  • The Untouchables

    The Untouchables

    summary

  • Alien

    Alien

    summary

Title sequence

  • Production Studio

    R/Greenberg Associates (R/GA)
  • Title Designer

    Richard Greenberg
  • Category

    Film
  • Styles

    1980s, 2D, animation, black and white, graphic, main title, optical, rostrum camera, typographic
Blow Out
  • Film Director

    Brian De Palma
  • Release Date

    July 24, 1981
  • Aspect Ratio

    2.35:1
  • Studio

    Filmways Pictures
  • Country

    USA
  • Language

    English
  • Reviews

    Reviews on Letterboxd
  • IMDb has full details

Article

  • Writer

    Lola Landekic
  • Published

    September 24, 2013

Subscribe to Art of the Title

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS

Support the site

  • About
  • News
  • Titles
  • Features
  • Designers
  • Studios
  • Sponsorship

Art of the Title is made with ❤ in Toronto and is supported by readers like you.

© 2007–2025 Art of the Title, LLC. All rights reserved.
Works appearing on Art of the Title are the property of their respective owners.

  • Gold Sponsor

    NOW OPEN! LET’S TALK

  • Silver Sponsor

    NOW OPEN! LET’S TALK