Process Puffery

PBS asked me write a brief on the creative process of the Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides title design to attach to an awards submission.

They wanted it in first person singular, which I find a little difficult when talking about production.  They also needed it under 100 words.  This is my first draft, it's a little longer:

Early in the production of “Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides” -even before the film had a title -director Gail Levin asked me to start thinking about design and graphics.

Design in a film like this should be unseen, the subject is the star and the graphics should reflect the character and not make too strong a statement on its own. I immediately gravitated towards Jeff's drawings. First attempts felt too practiced, too separate from the subject. This led to asking Jeff to paint on screen.

Again, the idea is for the craft to be invisible so the focus can be on Jeff and his creative process. I advised Gail on the best way to shoot -the materials, the colors, the lengths and angles of the shots and she gave Jeff the space to create his painting.

Having already anticipated that we would animate this finished art into the film title, not even knowing what he would come up with, when he produced a horse, we felt that this would make a great motif to carry throughout the picture -carrying his on screen roles from the rustic “Last Picture Show” through “True Grit”.

The title would link through music into open credit sequence. This presented a different set of obstacles. Beyond assigning production credits, we had to introduce the elements of Jeff the documentary would explore -actor, photographer, family man. Using the approach to his photography which we had already developed we used his pictures as graphic transitional elements amongst quick cuts of his acting roles and red carpet footage which served as a bed for a simple but soft type design.

Show Open

Spent much of the weekend watching Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent.

Not surprisingly, it's a brilliant piece of work. On the level of Twin Peaks or The Decalogue or The Singing Detective in terms of made for TV greatness.

Even the opening is astounding and bears multiple viewings.



The animation itself is simple. It's use and reuse, that's another thing.

I love, in particular, the double exposure of the animation over itself during the character zoom.

The series doesn't have the emotional kick of Paprika or Tokyo Godfathers, the storytelling and intellectual arc may exceed everything else in Satoshi Kon's too small body of work.

Caroline

For several years The Ink Tank had good gig with CBS Entertainment doing animation for the NBC broadcast "Caroline in the City".

The first season had regular opens of full animation.

The title card (created for the pilot) was animated by Ed Smith after designs by Bonnie Timmons.  The remaining full opens were animated by Kris van Alphen.  He had been recommended by Paul Dreissen.  For most of the run he animated from his home in Belgium.

We'd get the scripts from Los Angeles, send the boards to Europe and receive animation drawings via DHL back in New York.

After the first season, it became clear that a new opening in full drawn animation wasn't the most cost effective production policy.

The producers cut back to animated establishing shots.  These were usually building exteriors with bits of animation, walks mostly or passing cars.  That animation was largely done by Igor Mitrovic.   This went on for maybe 4 or 5 more years under the direct supervision of Nina Crews, then Shawn Atkins. 

Carol Burnett Titles

WNET re-ran the American Masters Carol Burnett episode this weekend.

I can only vaguely recall the show, it's long run ended when I was only a few years old and it didn't have a vibrant run in syndication.

The animated opening did stick with me, though.



Cursory googling is no help on production credits.  I'll hazard a guess that it was John Wilson who did the Sonny and Cher animation (and the open titles to "Grease").



I'm a great fan of this era of animation.  I love the loose but detailed designed and the idiosyncratic animation.  Budgets were obviously tight but the tricks developed by UPA and John Hubley, amongst others, to stretch resources while maintaining strong character work.

Twilight Zone

My father wasn't a political guy at all, but he said if Rod Serling ran for President not only would he have voted for the man, it's likely the rest of America would follow suit.  Everything Serling said was so convincing.

He didn't know that Serling was also a war hero and likely overlooked the sharply political nature of many of his scripts.  It's just that Serling was so convincing.

I'm a little surprised that I never tried smoking, Rod Serling made it look so cool.

Above: opening to The Twilight Zone pilot

The best thing about New Year's Day is the Twilight Zone marathon on SyFy -the best thing after the Mummers Parade, anyway.


above: season one opening

The first season credits were produced by UPA under the direction of Sam Clayburger.

these were modified for Season two

Serling wrote around 2/3rds of the scripts.  90 or so.

and a new take for Season 3

Half-a-century later, it stands as some of the best writing and filmmaking for television.

the final two years shared the same titles

Monday Morning Movie Trailer

Watched "A Clockwork Orange" again recently.

Actually, before I watched the film, I watched Pablo Ferro's trailer for the film.




I watch that trailer and think "Pure Pablo" (he, of course, did the opening to "Dr. Strangelove" as well).

Sometimes I'll dismiss a work out of hand if they ape Pablo Ferro's signature type design. 

Unfair, yes, but none have yet to do it better.

But then, I think on the one of the greatest film trailers of all time:




And the relationship between the two is clear. Very different films, very different trailers -but still so similar in their vision and "sales technique".

Monday Morning Movie Titles

It's not exactly macabre, maybe more fitting for All Saints Day -as screenwriter Paul Bartel should be known as the patron saint of slightly off-kilter independent film: the title sequence to "Mortuary Academy".

Paul Bartel -author of gems like "Death Race", "Cannonball", "Private Parts" and "Eating Raoul" -had a childhood dream to be an animator.  He even worked the summer at UPA when he was barely a teenager.

There's a fun cartoonishness to his films.  I wonder how his sensibility would have translated to Bakshi-inspired 1970s animation.





First time through watching these titles, I thought they were a lot of fun. The Beach Boys help. After learning they were produced by Klasky-Csupo they lost a little charm. The low-fi, punk vibe looses some luster in the hands of seasoned pros. This was, however, almost a decade prior (1988) to Rugrats so attitudes should be properly adjusted.

Sunday Drive

Men in Black II was on cable television the other night.

Not a strong film, but those Pablo Ferro titles give me chills whenever I see them. How does that simple white line have such iconic power? Is it just Dr. Strangelove recall?

Saul Bass Titles For John Frankenheimer's "Seconds"

There's little left to say about Saul Bass.  He's one of the few graphic artists in film who's work has been well documented -not to the smothering extent of the Disney big shots but more than say, Pablo Ferro or Jim Tyer.

Every word of praise is deserved.  He was an unparalleled talent.

If I had to make a short list of filmmakers to study under, Saul Bass would be near the top.

These are frame grabs from "Seconds".  I've grabbed approximately one every 30 video frames.  It reads left to right, then down.

Click to enlarge any page.

 

Extreme close ups distort from one to the next.  I'm guessing this was done with an optical printer, but must have been in camera.

 

 

The sculpting of the face (in live action) is graphic shorthand for the narrative of the film.

  

The title sequence, in essence, tells us what the movie is without coming right out and saying it.

  

The process used in this sequence is the perfect choice for poetically presenting the theme of the film.

  

The film is a "psychological thriller", but this sequence is the only truly spine-tingling part. 

 

Director credit.  Resolve on scene one.

A little bit of brilliance.