Young Adult

2011 • Paramount Pictures
Dir. Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman wanted this title sequence to take place inside a car cassette deck as Mavis (Charlize Theron) rewinds the song over and over to her favorite part. The repetition and inner workings of the tape deck allude to both Mavis’s inability to move forward as well as the mechanical, calculating nature of her personality.

To create the sequence we tracked down used car cassette decks to dismantle, reconfigure and photograph.

With our Director of Photography Brett Juskalian, we did macro photography of the cassette decks. The decks were placed on a remote control platform, allowing us to create beautiful and subtle motion.

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.

Other Jason Reitman Films:
Thank You For Smoking • Juno • Up In the Air • Labor Day • Men, Women & Children • The Front Runner