DUNCAN ELMS - CREATIVE DIRECTOR

NBA Finals 2026, Opener

Basketball’s biggest stage deserves a grand entrance. Working with ESPN, we built a homage to NBA history, travelling inside the Larry O’Brien trophy and out into a pantheon of the game’s greatest moments.

A different opener ran every night of the series, each with its own theme but built from the same beats. Every game had its own ‘Bullet Time’, freezing an iconic play and orbiting the camera through the moment, and its own ‘Game of Gods’, recreating historic plays from different eras on a single court for the ultimate matchup.

The challenge was the archive. Decades of footage in wildly different formats, curated to each night’s theme and combined so every opener felt like one piece.

For the main title sequence to Netflix’s ‘The Dinosaurs’ we leaned into monumental scale, merging apex predators into the landscape so they read as part of the geology itself.

What first looks like a mountain crag or a valley floor resolves into the spine and silhouette of a giant. They didn’t just inhabit the planet, they defined it.

Opening Title Sequence for the Camp Mograph Conference Australia.

Given an open brief, I put together a team of some of the worlds best motion designers and we all collaborated to craft this ode to Motion, Creativity and Nature.

Title Sequence for 'All The Light We Cannot See', the miniseries based on Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller on Netflix. The story surrounds a blind girl in a small French town in ww2 invaded by the Nazi's. The sequence studies and reveals the wooden model built to help her visualize the town.

Title sequence for 'Life On Our Planet' on Netflix. The series showcases life's extraordinary journey to conquer, adapt and survive on Earth across billions of years.

A unique six-part PBS documentary series about our futures and how we can reimagine them. It was refreshing to work on a series that showcases so many people making strides in their fields to create a brighter future for us all.

Title Sequence for 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone. Created by Taylor Sheridan, the series portrays an era of open spaces and constant dangers. We crafted the Titles using tin-type portraits of the cast and footage we treated to live within the same aesthetic. It was a beautiful medium to work within, bringing to life all the imperfections and organic textures of the photographs.

A love letter to the golden age of the ’90s summer blockbuster. When Jon Bokenkamp came to us for the titles, the brief was clear: make it feel like a big espionage thriller. Pure escapism.

We leaned into that nostalgia and built an action sequence that mixes show footage, VFX, 2D design and the Alaskan landscape.

'Slay the Dragon' is a documentary film about the use of Gerrymandering in US elections. We created the Main Title and in documentary graphics.

slaythedragonfilm.com/

We used a tactile, layered design approach that combines vintage illustrations and designs from medicinal, biographical, organic, and art nouveau styles and combines them into a sequence inspired by the Wallpaper in the First Street House. Within the canvas we see glimpses of the Mayfair family tree, subtly revealing names from the lineage of the witches. We also see hints of the different witches, represented via ornate illustrations layered into the designs.

The show runners wanted to do something that stood out from the traditional graphics style of true crime documentaries, so we went with a vintage illustrative look that spoke to the era. Working with a pared back aesthetic with lots of negative space and a minimalist color palette, we showcased iconic imagery relating to Lennon, Mark Chapman and the story surrounding the murder.

Main Title work for Tit Mouse and AMC plus's first animated series, Pantheon. As our lives become increasingly digital, are we getting closer to the day when we can upload our consciousness?

Title sequence for AMC’s Dark Winds. Spiritual and natural forces together with the earthy textures and colors of the South West were used to create compositions and imagery invoking the themes of the show.

Main Title Sequence for 1923, an epic Western drama, the sequel to 1883, streaming on Paramount+. The show takes the viewer to exciting and diverse settings and subjects, including The West, Africa and WW1, so it was important to create an epic feel, something that complemented 1883 but was also a fresh interpretation of the style and a reflection of the photographic technology of the time.

The topics of explorations on Cosmos Season 2, are vast, exploring and examining natural phenomenon on earth as well as in space. We wanted to create a sequence that paid homage to this by showcasing the wonders of the universe via the diverse range of imagery that can be found within it. To capture this diversity, the Elastic and Cosmos teams worked together with a curated list of international artists with varying aesthetics and techniques. The aim was to create a cohesive set of imagery from various styles that flowed together to create a cinematic journey.

Thanks to the Cosmos team and everyone who contributed work to this project.

Following on from our work on 1883 and 1923, this is our title sequence for Lawman: Bass Reeves on Paramount +. The incredible story of the first African American Lawman West of the Mississippi.

A fantastic brief came into Elastic from Remedy Entertainment for a dark, mysterious thriller with unexplained phenomena. With themes of brutalism, transformation, and contrast.

A terrifying alien force has infiltrated the 'oldest house', the headquarters of a secretive US government agency and the player needs to take back Control.

We focus on the secret rooms and files of the bureau, and the birth and evolution of the alien force named 'the hiss' visualized through practical elements created by Susi Sie.

remedygames.com/games/control/

Main Title for AMC's 'James Cameron's Story Of Science Fiction'. Created with the talented team at Elastic.tv

The concept was Inspired by the set lighting used for the in show interviews. The series had 6 episodes with the themes, Alien life, Time Travel, Space Exploration, Dark Futures, Intelligent Machines and Monsters. We created compositions that related to these themes and could be combined to tell the Story of Science Fiction.

This docuseries takes a look at stories of scandal and corruption in business, exposing acts of corporate greed and corruption.

Created with the very capable team at Elastic.tv

See the alternate sequence here - vimeo.com/264171029

Title sequence for Amazon's, 'Lore Season 2'.

A voyeuristic gaze through a smoldering forest used to showcase visual motifs from the show.

Title Sequence for AMC's, 'Eli Roth's History of Horror'.

The sequence is a stylized recreation of famous and iconic horror scenes and imagery.

An exercise in minimalism. Director Matt Reeves wanted a Main Title that would compliment the opening of the film and contrast with most Super Hero Movie openings. So we crafted The Batman Main Title using only the ingredients of film grain, light, lens blur and a hint of camera movement.