Dan Perri Guest Lecture

We had a visit last week by Dan Perri, who is a Hollywood title designer, who was mentored by Saul Bass. SAUL BASS. 

It was a very inspirational talk and some takeaways for me were:

-Look for a mentor, Dan went to Art Goodman and Saul Bass to ask for their mentorship, he took his career into his own hands. 

-Saul Bass offered him a job, and he turned it down because he thought 'If I'm good enough that Saul is offering me a job, then I'm good enough to do it on my own.' I thought that was brilliant, so much confidence, I think this will stick with me for a long time. 

-He was completely immersed in cinema, cinema was his first and last love (apologies to his wife)

-It made me aware of the legal requirements a title designer has to fulfil, certain parties have signed contracts that mean the order and size and time on screen etc, need to be exact.

-It was great to hear why he made titles the way he did, everything was well thought out, and had reason. Something I take for granted when I watch a film, but I'll be analysing more now.

-He went the extra mile for authenticity, for example going to the traffic department to find out the font used for the street signs, so he could use it for 'Taxi Driver' 

-It's not about what you want to do, its about what the film needs and what the director needs. For example, and another excellent research example is for Nashville. For the Nashville titles he originally made slick titles, but the idea was rejected. The feedback being 'Thats not what Nashville is like' and so he researched and produced a more gaudy titles in the style of an advert. It was tacky and loud and in your face, and it suited the brand perfectly. He approached one of the voice over artists who worked on those sorts of adverts to speak over the titles too.

- His process was so wildly creative responding to different briefs in different ways. He was so authentic and had such integrity.