After what seemed like days on the bus we arrived and Ollie, Chris and I shot off to get a a coffee and a feed. We then braved the elements to walk down the strand,
through Covent Garden and into Soho taking pictures of any type we thought could be useful. As we all went the same way we all have very similar pictures I imagine. It was strange being back in Soho after so many years working there...bit less stressful this time around :-)Not sure what 3 subjects I'm going to use for the Vernacular Type brief yet, so I literally shot everything that didn't move...numbers, letters, signs, billboards, posters, stickers. I should have a really good base to start from now.
Kyle Cooper
To say this talk was inspirational would be the understatement of the course so far. Kyle Cooper has produced title credits for many huge blockbuster films and is often compared to a modern day Saul Bass (more about him later). Although he tries to distant himself f
rom this, both have produced ground breaking historical steps in film/Graphic design and it is inevitable.He started with a speech from Henry V that seemed a little strange at first (although well remembered!) but he kept referencing lines from this piece to explain his thought process and inspiration when working on a title sequence or any new piece of work.
He refers to the term "Muse Of Fire", meaning this great inspiration to do something so well. That a title sequence needs to be a metaphor for the film using typographic wordplay. It needs to define the title of the film, although how much depends on each director. He showed examples from several films including Spiderman 3, Gattaca and Se7en. For the titles in seven he told us how he ran around his own home in search for ideas which included cutting the word "God" form a dollar bill, to represent that the serial killer thinks he is God by judging all others. The hair being pushed into the envelope is hair, he claims, from his own bathroom plug hole!
One of the most simple I thought was the titles for Wimbledon. Such an instant, simple idea, executed so well. What happens at a Tennis Match? Well, the crowd move their heads in time with the ball, giving a left-right-left motion, played upon by Cooper as if the crowd are in fact looking at the names of the title sequence popping up.
Dawn of The Dead was also fantastic. He used hand rendered graphics, painted in blood red, onto black cards and sprayed with acetone to make the effect of melting. This was sandwiched between 8-10 frames of footage that would show carnage as the Dead attacked the living, also using footage of Wars, Muslims praying...all set to a soundtrack of Johnny Cash singing "The Man Comes Around" the lyrics of which marry perfectly to the action.
A round of questions at the end was brief, with Cooper explaining about he doesn't always get to choose the music that goes with the film and that he doesn't see himself carrying on Bass's work, he's doing his own thing and was never really exposed to Bass by his Mentor at Yale Paul Rand, but is proud to be thought of in the same group as Bass.
Kyle Cooper founded companies:
http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
http://www.prologue.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment