The 12th Victim

2023 • Showtime
Dir. Nicola B. Marsh

Main title sequence for Showtime’s four-part documentary series, The 12th Victim.

This series explores the infamous 1958 Charles Starkweather and Carol Ann Fugate murder case, in which the teenage couple was charged and convicted of brutally killing 11 victims at random.

We were invited to create the main title sequence, along with graphics and archival treatments that appear throughout the series, by our friends at Tremolo Films.

We’re not going to sugar-coat it, this was a difficult title sequence for us to create. We pitched a concept of filming archival footage reflecting on panels of glass, and decided to do it entirely in-camera, without the assistance of CG. For anyone who has worked with glass and reflections, this is not simple feat. It’s difficult to control, difficult to light, and involves being in the dark for hours at a time. Each shot was essentially a real-time improvisation using shards of glass, a rotating platform, and an iMac that displayed the image to be reflected.

We’re ultimately quite happy with the results, as it captures the complexity and multiple points of view of the story.