Continuing my passion for films here is a resent feature that I
wrote for Design Week magazine.
Graphic artists, with their visual flair, should have a head start when
it comes to thriving the film industry, you might think. But think again, says
Mike Dempsey, as he casts his eye over the history of designers turned
film-makers
It is a natural desire for graphic
designers to want to see their work move, rather than have it simply frozen on
the printed page. The last decade has made moving graphics a simple process
with the many sophisticated programmes now avaliable But over the years few designers have
graduated to fully fledged film-makers.
You would have thought
that the god of film title design, Saul Bass, would have moved naturally into features. In fact, he only directed one, Phase
IV (1974)...
often referred to as an overlooked masterpiece. But the truth is
it's not. It's visually driven, as you would expect, but that's about it. Bob
Gill - of the 1960s trail-blazing graphics trio Fletcher Forbes Gill - turned
his hand at directing resulting in Double Exposure of Holly (1976), a rather
dubious and forgettable porn film.
So being a graphic
designer doesn't necessarily make a good film director. Unless, that is, you
happen to be Ridley Scott, arguably Britain's most successful director...
Ridley Scott's debut feature The Duelists 1977
He
originally studied graphic designat the
Royal College of Art in London. Another veteran designer, Arnold Schwartzman,
won an Oscar for best feature documentary in 1981 with Genocide.
Interestingly, Bass's
natural heir, Kyle Cooper, who had such great success with his groundbreaking
title sequence for the eerie thriller Seven (1995), was quickly approached to
direct the resulting New Port South (2001)
a very disappointing entry. Cooper
admitted that his move to the director's chair was far too early in his career.
He returned to designing titles, where he has remained ever since.
One-time graphic
designer Lucy Blakstad directed the most sublime documentary, Lido (1996),
which centered on the life of a swimming pool during a summer season. Her
designer's eye was present in every frame, but with the added nose for real
human interest.
More recently, another clutch of graphic
designers have turned their hand to the silver screen. Ex Newell and Sorrell,
Body Shop and Fitch designer Elise Valmorbida was nominated for the Michael
Powell Award for Best New British Feature for Saxon (2007)...
which she produced.
Meanwhile, the highly inventive typographical designer Oliver Harrison has
taken the complexity and inventiveness of his dark type fantasies and has woven
them into his feature debut, Badinage which has taken fives years so far and still in production...
On the set of Badinage
Past D&AD President
Garrick Hamm of Williams Murray Hamm directed a 12-minute short, Lucky Numbers
(2008)...
which is doing the festival circuit, and has just started
post-production on his second short film, The Man Who Married Himself,
photographed by Michael Seresin (Profile, DW 27 August). And James Bull of
Moving Brands has directed his own-penned short drama, Scotch Corner...
Photo by Alex Lake
in
post-production as I write. In true 21st-century communication style, Bull has
been blogging, Twittering and Flickering with the addition of a video dairy
chronicling his directing debut.
Daniel Barber - who cut
his teeth as a graphic designer at Lambie-Nairn and was responsible for the
award-winning BBC2 idents - went on to direct commercials. Using his graphic
sensibilities he built up a solid body of work leading to the formation of his own
production company, Knucklehead. Like many commercials directors, he pulled
money together to make a short, The Tonto Woman (2006)...
which netted an Oscar
nomination in 2007 and led to his first full-length feature, Harry Brown
(2009)..
starring Michael Caine, in cinemas now. The economics of making a film
has fallen dramatically since the onset of the digital age. The surprising
success of Once (2006) cost a mere $175 000 (£105 000). Despite its
shortcomings in production values and performances, it was a charming and
compelling story.
The key to a successful
entry into the world of features is via the many film festivals - Cannes and
Sundance being highly influential. You might think that the graphic designer's
visual sophistication is the key to a successful film, but it's not.
The vital ingredient is
the script, followed by believable performances. Get those two things right and
you could shoot it with the most primitive digital camera. If it stands up on
that level it can only get better.
This has been borne out
with the Dogme 95 school of film-making, where the normal sophistication of
production - such as quality sound, lighting, editing, sets and music - are
abandoned in favour of story and performance. A perfect example is The King is
Alive (2000), directed by Kristian Levring.
If you are fortunate
enough to get your film actually made, the big stumbling block is getting it
seen. In addition to film festivals, the Internet is becoming a method of
attracting attention. But, ultimately, it is the distribution and publicity
spend that will determine a general release. Sadly, many films that start out
as a dream end up on a dusty shelf, never to be seen.
Perhaps that static,
beautifully crafted piece of typography on the printed page is not so bad after
all. But then again, there was a young designer in the 1920s who hand-lettered
caption cards for silent movies.
His name was Alfred
Hitchcock...
Mike Dempsey © Copyright Centaur Publications
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