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Most of the outdoor footage was shot in Louisiana, but the crew also gathered material in Chicago (the church) and Seattle (the bar scenes and writhing bodies). “There are no tried-and-true techniques used on the True Blood opening,” says creative director Matt Mulder. “The way we decided to gather imagery was entirely new to us, and we wanted to celebrate that adventure.” That adventure sometimes included jumping out of their cars the moment they saw something they thought might work, hopeful for a little extra hospitality when that “something” landed on private property. They were pleasantly surprised how often that instinct led to a whole new set of possibilities. “I saw a wrecked school bus in somebody’s yard,” says creative director Rama Allen, “so we knocked on the door and ended up getting approval to shoot all over his property, even inside [the owner’s] home.” Another shot includes a man in a rocking chair, just a good-natured fellow who invited the crew to hang out for beers. They picked up the camera, immortalizing the man in a few brief moments.

“We threw ourselves into this project literally, artistically, and physically,” Allen continues, a number of the crew showing up in the credits themselves. Executive producer Mark Bayshore appears in two shots, one involving a shoving match in a bar, the other a lively dance with one of its female patrons. Bayshore’s sons also appear with berries smothered all over their faces. The two weeping women deep in prayer were played by Digital Kitchen’s office assistant and assistant editor. And the woman who rises from the water during a night baptism is held up by producer Morgan Henry and a line producer.

That hands-on approach also extended itself to other areas, the team’s background in film apparent. “We shot everything from 16mm film to hd video,” Bayshore notes. They bring athleticism to each step of the process. For instance, some of the fonts, based on hand-painted road signs, were created using an X-Acto knife and other tools (eight different typefaces in all). The effect contributes to the duality between rushed urgency and carved permanence, all in keeping with the show’s overarching artistic vision that, as Bayshore says, accentuates the story, not the production. And, remarkably, while no vampires appear in the opening credits — the only nod being a roadside sign that reads, “God Hates Fangs” — the overall feel is nonetheless vampiric: death, morality, excess, escapism, an ever-present underlying fear, and rebirth.

The result is something Newsweek calls the “perfect amuse-bouche,” original chef creations designed to thrill the taste buds and demonstrate a chef’s methodology and approach to cooking. In the case of Digital Kitchen, their expressions of religious fanaticism and sexual energy are the perfect moody concoction. “The show itself,” Mulder says, “is a kind of gumbo of flavors,” presented teasingly. While you couldn’t call the credits understated, they do leave a lot to the imagination. And like a tasty morsel of food, you want to revisit it, uncover each pairing and preparation technique, the conflicting ingredients of religion, sex, innocence, and bloodlust working successfully in tandem rather than in opposition.

One method Digital Kitchen employed a fair bit was jump-cutting, in which frames are removed from shots to produce a purposeful visual skip, while other shot speeds were altered to play the action back at a slower rate, the impact feeling like a loss of control, both in mind and body. In a few instances, the transition effect was achieved through a process called Polaroid transfer technique. Ryan Gagnier designed these sequences. A Polaroid image was taken of the last and first frame on either side of the transition. The emulsion was then boiled away from the Polaroid backing, the image floating off like a membrane, or plastic wrap. That emulsion was filmed during this process, the final image at once raw and ethereal, bubbling up in the temptation of a sticky, tactile bond. “It immediately transports the viewer into the True Blood world,