Young Adult

2011 • Paramount Pictures
Main Title Sequence
Directed by Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman envisioned a title sequence set entirely inside a car cassette deck, as Mavis (Charlize Theron) obsessively rewinds her favorite song. The looped audio and mechanical visuals mirror Mavis’s emotional stagnation—and her cold, calculating nature.

To create the sequence, we sourced and dismantled a variety of used car cassette decks, reconfiguring their parts for our shoot. Working with Director of Photography Brett Juskalian, we captured macro footage of the decks on a remote-controlled platform, allowing for precise, subtle movement that felt tactile and intimate.

For more behind-the-scenes information about this sequence, please check out our making-of page here.

Special thanks: Damon Seeley for figuring out how to make the tape decks work after we dismantled them.