'The Life and Death of Sophie Stark' is about the troubled indie filmmaker told from the perspective of those who knew her. Using a cinematic close-up is a perfect metaphor to express this story. Spencer Kimble designed the cover for Blue Rider Press in 2015.
An occasional series linking past design thinking with the present, without comment.
Past
1979
Present
2019
Bob Gold 1921 – 2018
Bob Gold's 1942 poster for Casablanca.
Gold was one of America's best known graphic designers for his many movie poster designs over the past 70 years. He clocked up over 2,000 during the 20th and 21st century. He set the graphic style agenda for film industry promotion.
Here is just a small sampling from his hefty output...
Stephen Frankfurt
Stephen Frankfurt was one of the original Madison Avenue advertising Mad Men. His ads were ‘ideas based’, using sharp, witty, well-crafted copy – rarely produced these days. One of the areas that he had a particular talent for was promoting Hollywood movies, and that was where I first heard of him back in 1963 when he created and directed the title sequence for To Kill a Mocking Bird: one of the most beautiful and tender introductions to a film. Had he done nothing else in his career, that single project would have marked him out as special.
Much has been written and discussed about the sequence. For me, it remains one of the most arresting opening title sequences to a film ever, even over the many titles of the mighty Saul Bass. But, interestingly, looking back at his advertising work now, one can see that he used a regular kit of parts to create his own particular signature when it came to advertising films – always a simple idea with a twist and often using closely cropped profiles of a face, as you will see in the following run of some of Frankfurt’s posters.
Above some of the feature film promotion posters that Frankfurt worked on many using recurring large imagery with the addition of a small graphic 'trigger'.
In 1968, Stephen Frankfurt became the president of Young & Rubicam Advertising – the youngest ever to hold the position. Along with the highly innovative agency Doyle, Dane and Burbank, he was at the forefront of conceptual advertising, which transformed television commercials from straightforward sales pitches into sophisticated, concept-driven mini works of art. The approach had a profound influence on the British creative scene.
Above just a sampling of press advertisements overseen by Frankfurt showing his love of simplicity, intelligent copy and beautiful imagery.
Stephen Frankfurt died in 2012 at the age of 80 following a struggle with Alzheimer’s. A sad end to a great career.
You can see the full title sequence from To Kill A Mocking Bird here
And a short film with Stephen Frankfurt explaining how it was achieved here
There is a rather good BBC documentary showing Frankfurt at work and play in the 1960s.
And there is a very good blog piece written by British advertising man Dave Dye.
This is one of my favourite Saul Bass creations. For Otto Preminger's Bonjour Tristesse 1958. And here you'll find a selection of his titles.
Bernard Lodge's Dr Who opening titles 1967
From the moment of the first public performance of cinema, there was a requirement to introduce the ensuing drama via title and dialogue cards...
What went before
From this humble beginning, the design of titles for cinema and later television developed into one of the most exciting and inventive art forms of the 20th century. The following selection of graphic designers excelled in this area at differing stages of the genres development.
The late great Saul Bass is acknowledged as the grand daddy of modern feature film title design. He transformed it from the unimaginative, often static world of cards, ruched satin backgrounds or page turning books, into a dramatic graphic landscape, setting up the viewer for the excitement that was to unfold before them.
Main titles for The Man With The Golden Arm 1955
Main titles for Bonjour Tristesse 1958
Main titles for Anatomy of a Murder 1959
Main titles for Psycho 1960
The effect of his early ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ (1955) changed titles forever. Looking at that sequence now, it is astonishing to think that what took Bass weeks of stop frame rostrum shooting and painstaking editing, can now be done in a matter of hours, if not minutes, on a laptop while drinking a caffe latte . But Bass did it first, and for four decades was at the top of the pile collaborating with the very best directors from Alfred Hitchcock - who had himself, started out as a tile card-lettering artist to Martin Scorsese.
Bernard Lodge's Dr Who opening titles 1967
Meanwhile in the 60s, another designer was making waves in the smaller arena of television. Bernard Lodge was experimenting at the BBC with randomly generated electronic patterns, which, along with theme music composed by Ron Grainer, became the title sequence for ‘Dr Who’.
Superman opening titles R/Greenberg Associates 1978
Back across the pond R/Greenberg Associates long-term title designers were ditching their analogue equipment to put all of their eggs into the digital basket with the resulting title sequences for Superman 1978 and Alien 1979 and a constant stream after that.
Matin Lambie-Nairn's Channel 4 identity 1982
One of the many BBC 2 on-screen idents
In the 80s it was another pioneer of the digital form, Martin Lambie-Nain who startled us with his design for the original Channel 4 multi coloured fragmenting animated logo. He later went on to mastermind the BBC2 suite of characterful logos investing a sense of wit and personality into the world of television identities, which until that point had been rather tame territory.
Se7en title sequence 1995
In the 90’s Kyle Cooper, a fresh face kid out of Greenberg’s kindergarten arrived on the scene to create the biggest impact since Bass, with his highly acclaimed title sequence for Se7en 1995. No one since has come anywhere near to its inventiveness and disturbing dramatic impact.
Tomato's opening titles for Trainspotting 1996
For a short time in the 90s, the London-based creative collective Tomato shone with their unconventional and immediate way of working. They often incorporated abstract imagery, ambient music and distressed type woven into a diet of titles, promos and commercials, which became a style in itself but eventually was submerged into a sea of imitators.
With many software packages available today, the surprise of CGI titles is no more. In this age, it is normal to see type appearing out of a cluster of stars or evaporating into liquid mercury. But for all the intensely skilful use of technology, with its dazzling smoke and mirrors, there is nothing more pleasing that a simple idea, wonderfully executed. And for me Stephen Frankfurt exemplifies this in his design for the classic title sequence for To Kill A Mockingbird 1962...
Simple perfection, the 1962 Stephen Frankfurt titles for To Kill A Mockingbird
Simply shot on a tabletop set up using macro lenses, it has never been surpassed for its sheer beauty, pace and elegance. It perfectly echoes the ethos of the book which celebrates its 50th anniversary this very year. To see those titles and judge for yourself here. And you may like to listen to an interview I recorded with Kyle Cooper a couple of years ago. For that click here.
Continuing my passion for films here is a resent feature that I
wrote for Design Week magazine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
As I watch SpaceX's Dragon 'live' in 2020 arriving at the International Space Station. Here is a blog post from 2009.
Since childhood I have always loved science fiction films, being fascinated by the progress in space exploration and all the hardware that goes with it. This was the comic that I used to read…
– Well, I say read, but I mostly looked at the pictures and copied them using my amazing three-coloured Biro (whose story can be found elsewhere on this blog, if you are into Biros that is).
This was my badge from the Associated-Rediffusion Television Space Club from 1956.
I have put all of the sci-fi films that have impressed me most in chronological order starting with Destination Moon, 1950 directed by Irving Pichel. This was one of the first science fiction films to attempt a high level of accurate technical detail telling the story of the first trip to the moon. And the astronauts wore some natty coloured outfits…
Conquest of Space, 1955. Directed by Byron Haskin. A team of American astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars, but the captain's religious beliefs cause problems…
Forbidden Planet 1956. Directed by Fred M. Wilcox. When Adams and his crew are sent to investigate the silence from a planet inhabited by scientists, he finds all but two have died. Featuring ‘Robbie the Robot’ and the stunning mini-skirted Anne Francis...
2001, 1968 Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Monkeys, monoliths, HAL (the willful onboard computer) ...
and the meaning of life made this film both pretentious and wonderful in equal measures. It created the benchmark for all sci-fi films that followed...
Silent Running, 1972. Directed by Douglas Trumbull. A lone crewmember of a spaceship harbouring Earth's last nature reserves goes ape when he is ordered to jettison his beloved onboard forest return to earth...
Dark Star, 1974 Directed by John Carpenter. The crew of the Dark Star are on a 20-year mission to create a highway in space by destroying planets that are in the way of navigation routes. (remarkably similar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to come four years later as a BBC Radio drama) After a series of mishaps Mother (see HAL in 2001), the ship's computer, can no longer persuade Bomb not to detonate. Even the dead captain is of little help in arguing with Bomb who is bound to do his duty...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977. The mother of all spaceships. A visual spectacle and I wanted to be up there in line with Richard Dreyfuss to leave the earth with those cute little aliens...
Alien, 1979 directed by Ridley Scott. ‘In space no one can hear you scream’ went the by line. But they certainly could hear you in the cinema. I saw this at a cast and crew screening without any knowledge of its content and was completely traumatized for days after...
Blade Runner, 1982. Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker. Scott marked out the territory for the look of the future brilliantly.
Solaris, 2002. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. No not the earlier Tarkovsky version (which I admired) but the stunningly beautiful remake with a sublime soundtrack by Cliff Martinez. A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet with hallucinogenic tendencies…
Sunshine, 2007 Directed by Danny Boyle. A team of astronauts are sent to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years into the future but are sidetracked by a signal from an earlier, believed to be, failed mission...
And I’m pretty sure that the diving suites used in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954, must have inspired the costume designers. Directed by Richard Fleischer…
See what I mean?
Moon, 2009. Directed by Duncan Jones. Astronaut Sam Bell has a bizarre encounter with himself at the end of his three-year stint on the moon, where he, working alongside, yet another HAL like computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth batches of a resource that has helped to alleviate our planet's ailing power problems. This film is a pure delight to any sci-fi movie fans because of the many references to early films of the genre. Pure self-indulgent pleasure...
My one to one RDInsight interview with Kyle Cooper – the wizard of modern day movie titles sequences – is now on the available and revealing it is too. It is one of almost 40 recorded interviews with eminent designers from all disciplines. Here is Kyle.
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