Projectionist - Pull Curtain Before Titles. An essay about the emotional power of movie title sequences

PROJECTIONISTS - PULL CURTAIN BEFORE TITLES:
How film credit designers access emotion through narrative

Contents

Abstract                                                                         

Introduction                                                                  

Invention of Total Cinema                                           

A New Hope                                                                  

Computer Aided Design est arrivé                             

Conclusion                                                                     

Bibliography                                                                  

Abstract
This paper shows how title sequence storytelling evolved during a century of cinema. It demonstrates the various approaches that can be harnessed to elicit emotional responses to sound and vision. It reviewed what are considered very important phases in the production of title sequence form. Analysed here are Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 film ‘Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed’, Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Lodger: A Story of London in the Fog’ from 1927. The titles designed by Saul Bass and also Orson Welles’ ‘Touch of Evil’ from the 1950’s then finally the work of Kyle Cooper, Daniel Kleinman and Tom Kan. The examples referenced can be said to contribute to the ‘graphic world’ we live in. Title sequences work on multiple levels the best seamlessly combine artistic expression filtered through commercial expediencies. They work on audiences’ expectations and provide a visual explanation of what is to follow. Through the research presented it has been shown that the future path of this industry is known and unknown all at once. It is possible that once again the cinema curtains will remain closed until action of the main film starts.
Key words: Film credit designers, Motion graphics, Narrative, Saul Bass, Title sequences

Introduction
Prologue – a speech, preface, or brief scene preceding the main action or plot of a film. A title sequence is like a prologue to a movie. It sets you up for the emotional content to follow and it makes you excited. Ones prior experience informs how your imagination is stimulated. Technologies are advancing rapidly and people now have unprecedented access to information and interactivity. This situation has had a massive influence on how they ‘read’ and ‘engage’ with visual information. What do they feel when they encounter this pixilated world? ‘Man on the eve of Revolution, that is to say, alone, still blind, on the point of having his eyes opened to the revolutionary light by the ‘natural’ excess of his wretchedness.’ (Barthes, 2009, p.36). A vital part of storytelling defined by using graphic design to elicit emotional empathy in the audience as a prerequisite to connect them with the films main content. ‘The pull toward emotional involvement is counterbalanced by elements in the work that promote distance, disinterestedness, impartiality. Emotional involvement is always, to a greater or lesser degree, postponed’ (Sontag, 1987, p.177). Storytelling craft is powerfully expressed through motion, sound and vision. I will demonstrate that continued developments in moving image output will only continue to affect us if it remembers to reflect our feelings.

Invention of Total Cinema
A well-designed title sequence signals the producer/ directors’ artistic autonomy. The craft of title design has been influenced by multiple changes not least the arrival of a visually sophisticated audience and design graduates who were happy to blur the boundaries between print and moving image.

As Emily king states in her MA thesis:
Possibly the most important long-term impact of the relationship between graphic design and film has been the blurring of the border between the graphic and the filmic. The influence of what Bernard Lodge (the designer of Dr Who TV credits) described as “the graphic designers’ eye” became strongly evident in the films of the late 1960s and remains so in those of the early 1990s. (King, 2004).

For practical and legal reasons each title designer is confronted with the conventions imposed by the films producers and distributors. The integration of this required content is a challenge to the most inventive thinkers to continue to create interest in a predictable list. ‘Art generally, thrives on limitations. When those limitations change, that same work ethic should direct us to expand our efforts to the new outer reaches of the possible.’ (McCloud, 2009). When there are no justifiable financial reasons for including a sophisticated and memorable titles sequence (films are announced to the public, advertised through the trailer and coming attractions and marketed in interviews and the scrutiny of the mass media) it’s for building the reputation of a movie its ‘coolness.’ As technology gets better and cheaper it becomes increasingly attractive to people. The availability of larger, high resolution screens means people will begin to access the infinite canvas.

Scott McCloud states on his blog:
‘On an expanded canvas, he or she can add or subtract "beats" until the sequence feels right, just as a film editor might do. But in print, the size of the page and restrictions on page count make the length of a given sequence the first consideration, instead of a by-product of good pacing as it should be.’ (McCloud, 2009)

Some artists are going to find ways to exploit the interface for narrative and experimental purposes. Already the mainstream media outlets see this as a 'natural' way of imparting information e.g. news journalism it's not just about writing anymore it is straying further into the world of entertainments. This being the case they will need to stay relevant to real people. ‘The only way the infinite canvas approach can ever come of age is if the readers' needs come first.’ (McCloud, 2009).
To find out how we got here we need to analyse some humble beginnings.

Richard Matarazzo states in his MA thesis:
The earliest credit sequences were for silent films. Presented on title cards and containing printed material that were photographed and later incorporated into the movie. These cards also included the dialogue and set the time, place and action for the scenes. As the movie industry evolved, so did the titles. After the implementation of sound, titles began to function as a transition: taking on the responsibility of displaying the movie's title, the name of the director and establishing the hierarchy of actors. In the 1950s, titles began to move beyond realistic communication and evolved into complete narratives establishing the mood and visual character of the film. (Matarazzo).

Emily King also agrees with Matarazzo’s MA thesis:
‘The first titlers hired by the film industry almost certainly were trained sign-writers because from the start film credits were set out in templates derived from nineteenth century hand-lettered signs. These formats were so dominant that they were adhered to even in memos between members of a movie’s production team regarding credit.’ (King, 2004).

‘Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed’ 1926 Lotte Reiniger
27 seconds
Title card showing black silhouette cut outs. Credits hand-rendered arabesque text changes while the illustrated frame of oriental ornamentation remains static. Manual pigmentation has been employed to add lemon yellow. The title sequence suggests a gentle or lyrical film is to follow. Orchestral music is light building to a cymbal crash at its climax. We are not introduced to the characters. Imagery is unified but does not create tension. Visual style is the same as the rest of the film. This is a unique film from this German experimental animator. We feel that excitement must follow.

‘The Lodger: A Story of London in the Fog’ 1927 E. McKnight Kauffer & Ivor Montagu
31 seconds
Intention is to suggest a German Expressionist atmosphere. The sequence begins with an image showing an illustration of a hat-wearing figure (who might be The Avenger character) picked out in a triangular window and films title, the window closes over the image of the hat-wearing figure screen goes black, then we are shown a list of the technical makers then a short cast list. Sequence ends with triangular window opening on the illustration of the hat-wearing man again. Film hand coloured indigo and cadmium yellow. We jump cut straight into the plot with a live action close-up shot of a woman screaming. The title sequence suggests we are about to see something mysterious or a crime story. The Typeface is the primitive looking Neuland design in 1923 by German Rudolf Koch. Sequence designed by an eminent graphic designer of the period who also receives a credit during the title sequence. Hitchcock began his film career as a titles and inter-titles designer and went on to work with the highly influential Saul Bass in the 1950’s.

A New Hope
Bass has the ability to grasp the very essence of a film and present it in such a way that in an opening sequence lasting just a few minutes he could convey the atmosphere and premise of the film to come. ‘My position was that the film begins with the first frame and that the film should be doing a job at that point.’ (Bass J. & Kirkham P., 2011, p.106). Under his influence the title sequence became an extension of the film, as well as an art form in its own right, with the capacity to symbolise and summarise what the audience was about to experience. Creating a title sequence a designer or director must include some essential factors that drive the emotional and psychological dimensions of the visual appearance, Narrative – what are you being told or not told, the enigmas; Characters; Production Values – High end or low budget; Genre = Retro or Progressive. The origin of this applied art with a service function implies non-authorship.

David Peters, designer and media historian of Design Films argues:
“A new seriousness about the role of titles followed from the hostile and prolonged Hollywood strike of 1946 that led, among other things, to the founding of Scenic and Title Artists Local 816,” & “These specialists declared themselves to be artists and not just laborers.” (Titles Throughout Time, online article Creative Planet Network.com).

The examples of title sequences in this essay transcend the mere functional and approach high art.

Discussing ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ Alice Rawsthorn suggests:
It wasn’t the first movie with striking titles. Back in 1936, the names of the cast of the M.G.M. musical “The Great Ziegfeld” were literally spelled out in lights. In Britain during the 1940s and 1950s, Emeric Pressburger crafted equally elaborate sequences for the films he made with Michael Powell. Their 1945 movie, “I Know Where I’m Going,” opens with a mini-biopic of a girl growing up with the credits appearing on props: chalked on to a school blackboard, or painted on a truck. (Rawsthorn, 2012).

‘The Man With the Golden Arm’ 1955, ‘Vertigo’ 1958, ‘Anatomy of A Murder’ 1959 and ‘North By Northwest’ 1959 Saul Bass
80 seconds, 193 seconds, 85 seconds and 126 seconds
This is the era in which the discipline of film title design was actually born. In all four cases the sequences are designed to promote the director of each film at the start and at the finish. We are being made to anticipate a thrilling ride from the tone of each score. In ‘Vertigo’ we see a main character in the other three films there are no principle characters are shown. Colour palettes range from Black & grey to red, green and blue. White typography hand-rendered sans serif faces used ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ & ‘Anatomy of A Murder.’ In the case of ‘Vertigo’ Clarendon Outline Regular serif face is employed. For ‘North By Northwest’ Franklin Gothic Condensed is used for the kinetic typography in the sequence. All films use music that was originally scored to fit these title sequences. Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann and Duke Ellington wrote these scores. Bernstein and Ellington have created Jazz scores to indicate the modern qualities of each film. Herrmann was trying to place us into the world of the film without reference to trends.

Film canisters for ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’ had a note stuck to them that read: PROJECTIONISTS – PULL CURTAIN BEFORE TITLES. Otto Preminger wanted his audience to see The Man with the Golden Arm’s titles as an integral part of the film. Preminger the independent director of ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’ and ‘Anatomy of A Murder’ was also Saul Bass’ father-in-law this relationship helped the creativity of both men.

‘Touch of Evil’ 1958 Director Orson Welles
214 seconds
Famous single take title sequence filming live action tracking shot from a crane using Black and white cinematography. The camera sweeps around the night time streets first following a car caring a man and a woman that has had a bomb planted in it then tracking a couple out for an evening stroll (these are the stars of the film). No one is aware of what is to come. We as the viewer share in Welles’ Godlike POV. Time is running out. This long take ends with a cut to the car burning after the explosion has occurred. We have in this sequence established the location, purpose and direction of the film. Natural street sounds picking up dialogue and musicians playing in bars and cantinas. This is a masterful shot Welles is at his best. It sets the tone for the movie to follow we are shaken out of our complacency. In the Re-edit version released in 1998 the sound in the sequence is diegetic only. In the original release version the cast and main crew credits are shown over the sequence and non-diegetic sound is added in the form of Henry Mancini’s swing/jazz score. (On the original release print the title, main cast and crew are listed in white over the filmed scene and the swing music of Henry Mancini is to dominant.

Computer Aided Design est arrivé
‘The introduction of Adobe After Effects in 1993 had a profound effect on the creation of title sequences, allowing designers to create and composite titles on their desktop computers.’ (Titles Throughout Time, online article Creative Planet Network.com)

Emily King goes on to say:
To take the title sequences out of their context within film, treating them purely as examples of moving graphics, would be to miss their point. Equally, to dismiss them as packaging, as film historians have tended to do, is to ignore both the importance of the opening sequence to the body of the film and its potential to throw analytical light on what it precedes. Recognise that proper analyses of the role of graphic design in film demands a catholic approach and an eclectic methodology. Movies are most characteristically wholes constructed of many diverse parts. (King, 2004).

‘Se7en’ 1995 Kyle Cooper/ R/Greenberg Associates
121 seconds
Seminal piece of design that credits cast and crew but also acts as a prologue showing thoughts and deeds of the unseen and un-credited nemesis ‘John Doe’. We are in the world of a mad man coloured sepia, grey, red and white and we may not come out. Filmed collage and juxtapositions of filmed images overlaid by deconstructed typographic credits Final image shows director’s name against a black background. Typographic style is used in the first shot of the actual film. Heavy rock music that has a driving forward motion. It helps set the tone and grime of the visual design. Nine Inch Nails track ‘Closer’ remixed by Trent Reznor. Showed that motion pictures were now incorporating the output of graphic design studios into film language for marketing products. The technological democratization of high-end software is beginning to be exploited. Cooper's titles for ‘Se7en’ transformed the written word into a performer. “We did a full alphabet by hand and then we filmed the credits…we did all sorts of experiments with the camera while filming” adding, “The types are like actors to me. They have their own characteristics.” (Solana G. & Boneu A., 2007, p.257)

Julia May quotes from ‘The New York Times Magazine:
“he almost single-handedly revitalized the entire film titling industry” the scratchy, jittery acid-bathed glimpse of a twisted serial killer making his grisly preparations shocked audiences and drive clients to the door, but it also typecast Cooper as a sort of evil genius with a penchant for dark subject matter.’ (May, 2010)

‘Casino Royale’ 2006 Daniel Kleinman
186 seconds
This sequence starts 215 seconds into the film after the prologue. It shows Bond with a gun that he fires. Then men are engaged in fighting and shooting at one another the background reminds one of gambling and playing card graphics in black, red, yellow ochre, yellow, blue and white. The fallen in the sequence either morph into playing cards or hearts, spades etc. In some cases the fallen bleed and this blood rhythmically becomes part of the stylized back- drop. We are to expect thrills and spills with lashings of ‘real’ violence. Final image shows Daniel Craig’s face in close up with director’s name to the left (associating the director with the brand). Craig’s face is covered in black using a technique reminiscent of Saul Bass. Title song commissioned for this film (as is customary for James Bond movie) ‘Remember my Name’ sung by Chris Cornell. Animation with special live action effects within the animation. Daniel Craig and Eva Green the main characters are referenced here.
Kleinman is paying homage to the sequence legends Maurice Binder and Robert Brownjohn as a James Bond reboot it states where the filmmakers are going with this character. What they are leaving behind (sexist imagery maybe) and what they are keeping (guns and violence). It seeks to validate Daniel Craig as Bond

‘Enter The Void’ 2009 Tom Kan
137 seconds
Words flash across the middle of the screening a progression of quick and flashing cuts. The type represents the main character acting in the film and aspects of the crew. There are references to a variety of font styles and the colours across a wide spectrum used are meant to suggest the neon signs of Tokyo. The energy of the imagery becomes more and more intense as the sequence continues. The type is shown in three languages French, English and Japanese this relates to the production team on the film. Our perception has been challenged by the flashing fast cuts the jumble of written language the colours suggest an unusual experience to come. We are not introduced to the cast and crew but we given indication of their characters through the choice of type style adopted for each one of them. It has a quieter first credit sequence the music become more insistent in the second credit sequence. Track used is ‘Freak’ by Intelligent Dance Music group LFO. Our senses are over stimulated and assaulted. Sets the tone for the film to come. Puts typography back at the heart of title sequence design.

So do Film Study analysis and Design Historians continue to miss the point?

“To watch a main title out of it’s context, without being a captive audience without having bought the popcorn and being in the theatre, ready to see the movie is a little unfair. I think a main title has to be really good to exist in this context separate from the movie itself.” According to Kyle Cooper he goes on to state “…I think the reason it got everybody's attention was less about the graphical language and more about the idea.” (Matarazzo).

‘The title sequence has come to rival commercials and music videos as the leading indicator of contemporary visual style. Claiming it as art-form. Described as dense and multi-layered constantly more challenging than the film that follows it.’ (Matarazzo). A good example of this is ‘Watchmen’ (2009) credits designed by yU+co. However fashionable trends in design and the direct lifting it inspires can promote overkill.

In an essay called "The Cult of the Scratchy," Jessica Helfand characterizes the state of contemporary film titles:
‘Scratchiness is a kind of celebration of the non-committal. It thrives on jumpy cuts and skewed perspectives as if the goal was anything but to stand still. This urge comes from a knee-jerk response to all things digital, borne out of a fear of projecting the unquestionably static history of your profession onto this seemingly new kinetic world. Such tactics speak of a level of cultural anxiety that has perhaps found its visual incarnation in the twitchy qualities of scratchiness.’ (Helfand, 2001, pp. 98-100).

A natural extension of moving typography into the main film was explored in Reuben Fleischer’s ‘Zombieland’ (2009) perhaps inspired by the work of ‘Kazakh director, Timur Bekmambetov, for his Russian blockbusters, “Night Watch” and “Day Watch.” [He] has also reinvented the forgotten medium of subtitles. Rather than lurking at the bottom of the screen, they reflect the action by gliding on and off screen at different angles, exploding in puffs of smoke and melting into liquescent pools.’ (Rawsthorn, 2012).
This new thinking might counter the trend for main titles to be relegated to the end of the film.

Conclusion
The desire to engage or entertain the gathering audience in the auditorium when coupled with the designer or artists eye for sensitive and meaningful image sequences raises not only the quality of the story but also gives us pause to reflect on the significance of what I call the ‘introduction etiquette’ of cinema. The communication of complex ideas to a diverse but visually sophisticated audience is still paramount. I have shown here that even after 100 years of cinema we still need our emotions catered for. There is a note of caution; apart from showing the logos of the film companies and production companies at the start of a movie there is now a trend for placing title sequences at the end. Could we return to the days when the curtain remained closed until the action of the main movie begins?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barthes, R. (2009) Mythologies. London: Vintage Books.

Bass, J. & Kirkham, P. (2011) Saul Bass a life in film & design. London: Laurence King.

Bellantoni, J. & Woolman, M. (2001) Type in motion: innovations in digital 

graphics. 2nd ed. London: Thames and Hudson.

Block, B. (2008) The visual story – creating the visual structure of film, TV and digital media. Oxford: Focal Press.

Curran, S. (2001) Motion graphics: graphic design for broadcast and film. Gloucester: Rockport Publishers, Inc.

Glebas, F. (2009) Directing the story – professional storytelling and storytelling techniques for live action and animation. Oxford: Focal Press.

Halas, J. (1981) Graphics in motion. Munich: Novum Press.

Helfand, J. (2001) Screen: essays on graphic design, new media, and visual culture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

King, E. (2004) Taking credit: film title sequences, 1955-1965. [Internet]. MA thesis - unpublished. RCA. Available from: <http://www.typotheque.com/articles/taking_credit_film_title_sequences_1955-1965_1_contents> [Accessed 1 November 2012].

McCloud, S. (2009). The infinite canvas. Scott McCloud Journal 1 February. [Internet blog]. Available from: [Accessed 30 June 2012].

Madden, M. (2005) 99 ways to tell a story: exercises in style. London: Penguin Books.

Man with a movie camera. (1929) Directed by Dziga Vertov. London: British Film Institute. [Video: DVD].

Matarazzo, R. The film title industry – silent films, Saul Bass, Kyle Cooper and beyond. [Internet]. Unpublished MA thesis. IMA 505. Available from: <http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/paievoli/finals/505Sp_03/Prj2/MataP2.htm> [Accessed 1 November 2012].

May, J. (2010) The art of film title design throughout cinema history. [Internet]. Smashing Magazine. Available from: <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/> [Accessed 1 November 2012].

Rawsthorn, A. (2012) Making an art out of credit rolls. [Internet]. New York Times. Available from: <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/arts/01iht-design1.html> [Accessed 2 November 2012].

Solana, G. & Boneu, A. (2007) Uncredited – graphic design and opening titles in movies. Amsterdam: BIS Publishing.

Sontag, S. (1987) Against interpretation. London: Vintage Books.

The story of film an odyssey. (2012) Directed by Mark Cousins. London: Network Releasing. [Video: DVD].

Titles Throughout Time. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed 15 November 2012].

Visions of light – the art of cinematography. (1992) Directed by Arnold Glassman. London: British Film Institute. [Video: DVD].

Vogler, C. (1999) The writer's journey: mythic structure for writers. 2nd ed. London: Pan Books

Woolman, M. (2005) Type in motion 2. London: Thames and Hudson.

100 DATES the newspaper - MA Show Final edition now going to press

100 DATES by Narcissus Productions on Newspaper Club

Reading Suggestions: Graphic Novels Part 4

Here are some more of my suggestions for Graphic Novels and comix to read and reflect upon.

The Martian Chronicles (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux)
written by Ray Bradbury and drawn by Dennis Calero. Man goes to Mars and finds out more about humanity by studying the Martians.


Everything We Miss (NoBrow Press)
Luke Pearson's wonderful fable of life, love and hidden majesty. This man will be a legend one day, trust me on this. NoBrow go from strength to strength. The shipment of this book came across Europe but was hijacked by some desperate men. The truck was eventually found and all the books were safe (is there a black market for mass produced books?).


Epileptic (Jonathan Cape)
David B.s biographic tale of family life and the challenge to find a cure for his older brothers epilepsy. Stunning drawings and a masterful imagination capture childhood's darkest fears and the creative spark that is on fire in all of us (if we but allow it to surface). I waited a while to tackle this book and now I can't put it down.


Cages (Dark Horse Books)
Cages is a ten-issue comic book limited series by Dave McKean between 1990 and 1996, later collected as a single volume. The book's plot is fairly rudimentary: a painter, a writer and a musician who live in the same apartment building find their lives intersecting. A storytellers storyteller McKean pushes the narrative in visual terms experimenting all the time. You must read this book before you die.


Celluloid (Fantagraphic Books)
Dave McKean's latest offering. Bringing to bear the astonishing range of illustrative and storytelling skills that have served him so well on his collaborations with Neil Gaiman and such solo projects as the (recently re-released) epic graphic novel Cages, Dave McKean forges into new territory with this unique work of erotica. It's all a little bit naughty.


Vignettes of Ystov (Jonathan Cape)
William Goldsmith has created a marvelous fictional Eastern European city and shows us the lives of its strange inhabitants. The characters are all focussed on their personal desires and needs. The pacing is excellent and efficient. The drawing style rough and ready but highly expressive. A simple joy to read and steal ideas from.


Criminal 'Last of the Innocent' 4 issues (Marvel/ Icon)
My mans Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips keep doing it from page 1 to the last. Multi-layered storytelling that confronts nostalgia head on. I can't wait to read the final issue and then re-read the whole story. Ed and Sean keep keeping on, I love you guys for real! Big shout going out to Val Staples for his colours.

I'll be back with some more suggestions soon.

Karl

Reading Suggestions: Graphic Novels Part 3

Here are a few books I've been exploring lately

‎'Castro' the graphic novel by Reinhard Kleist (Self Made Hero) is a visual dash through time showing that from the 1940's to this very day the people of Cuba have been caught up in the agenda of those that despise or hate them and those that love them like a domineering parent. Viva Cuba!


‎'Abstract CO MI CS' edited by Andrei Molotiu (Fantagraphics Books). This book shows how abstraction combined with comic panels is storytelling, examples of work by Crumb, Gary Panter and Kochalka. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it to a certain someone!


‎'Black Paths' by French dude David B. (Self Made Hero) is worth a good long look. The complex fight scenes are crafted tapestries of violence. Set in a post WWI Italian city run by a mad war poet you'll be enchanted and confounded at the same time. I got mine from GOSH!

And finally 'The Alcoholic' (Vertigo). Written by Jonathan Ames; Art by Dean Haspiel. A touching and troubling story of one man's inability to cope with his true emotions and needs. It will surprise and shock but feels very true. Stay on the wagon if you can. Watch out for Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky!

Reading Suggestions: Graphic Novels Part 2

Check out Chris Ware's latest release 'LINT.' It's not fabric.

Check out No Brow's 'A Graphic Cosmogony.' It's about creation stupid.

Check out 'Heart of Darkness' Graphic Novel adapted by David Zane Mairowitz and containing UAL Alumnus Catherine Anyango top drawings. My heart is getting back some of its darkness. Thank God for that!

And finally 'At The Mountains of Madness' words by H P Lovecraft pictures by I.N.J. Culbard. Scary stuff.

Karl

Reading Suggestions: Plays Part 1

Alan Bennett's History Boys

Anton Chekov's The Seagull

Michael Frayn's Democracy

Eve Lewis' Ficky Stingers

Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman

William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Titus Andronicus, Othello, Julius Caesar and Hamlet
Tragedy and Comedy and the perfect plot structures abound in the work of this truly marvelous playwright

Oscar Widle's The Importance of Being Earnest

Reading Suggestions Biography Part 1

If you woke up and fond that the world wants to take away your humanity, what would you do?

Autobiography Malcolm X - By Any Means Necessary 1994 Scholastic ISBN-10: 0590481096

Andrew Helfer and Andrew Burke's Malcolm X, A Graphic Biography 2006 Hill and Wang ISBN-10: 0809095041

Sue Coe's X (The Life and Times of Malcolm X) 1986 The New Press

Reading Suggestions: Factual Part 1

C.L.R. James' The Black Jacobins. Republished 1963

The book examines the Haitian (San Domingo) Revolution of 1791-1803. Throughout the book, James takes an original look at revolution by analyzing revolutionary potential and progress according to economic and class distinctions, rather than racial distinctions


Darrel Ree's How to be an Illustrator. Published 2008

This book explains how to avoid the pitfalls that can ruin a career, with advice on crucial first impressions, how to create a portfolio and approach clients, how to negotiate contracts, and how to handle, deliver and bill the first job. It discusses setting up a studio, maintaining a steady flow of work and managing time and money, and provides information on successful self-promotion, self-publishing and the pros and cons of agents


Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Published 2007

A serious, readable, provocative, canon-smashing book of comics criticism by the leading critic in the field.
Suddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured art form, filling bookshelves with brilliant, innovative work and shaping the ideas and images of the rest of contemporary culture. In Reading Comics, critic Douglas Wolk shows us why this is and how it came to be.

Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics — from Alan Moore to Alison Bechdel to Dave Sim to Chris Ware — and introduces a critical theory that explains where each fits into the pantheon of art. Reading Comics is accessible to the hardcore fan and the curious newcomer; it is the first book for people who want to know not just what comics are worth reading, but also the ways to think and talk and argue about them.


Lawrence Zeegan's Digital Illustration: A Master Class in Creative Image-making. Published 2005


Lawrence Zeegan's Secrets of Digital Illustration: A Master Class in Commercial Image-Making. Published 2007


London A - Z


Mike Davis' City of Quartz. Published 1990

The book is a Marxist historical, economic, and cultural dissection of Los Angeles, its residents and their lifestyles and their interactions with real estate developers. Davis contrasts the campaigners for 'slow growth' with the needs of minorities living on the margins and the never ending growth of Los Angeles with environmental considerations. Given its origin as a Ph.D. dissertation, the book is well-annotated.

Davis' unique approach to authoring City of Quartz can be considered a chief factor in the book's widespread appeal, and the very large influence it has had on urban studies since its authorship.


Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe's Miles, the Autobiography. Published 1990

This book holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he has encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others.

The man who has given us some of the most exciting music of the past few decades has now given us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.


Patricia J. Williams 1997 Reith Lecture 'Seeing A Colour-Blind Future'. Published 1998

In these five eloquent and passionate pieces (which she gave as the prestigious Reith Lectures for the BBC) Patricia J. Williams asks how we might achieve a world where "color doesn't matter"--where whiteness is not equated with normalcy and blackness with exoticism and danger. Drawing on her own experience, Williams delineates the great divide between "the poles of other people's imagination and the nice calm center of oneself where dignity resides," and discusses how it might be bridged as a first step toward resolving racism. Williams offers us a new starting point--"a sensible and sustained consideration"--from which we might begin to deal honestly with the legacy and current realities of our prejudices.


Paul Gravett's Graphic Novels: Everything you need to know. Published 2005

Once stereotyped as the preserve of improbably dressed superhumans with world-saving tendencies, in recent years graphic novels have become one of today’s most exciting art forms, taking on the world we live in and reflecting it back to us in a thousand different ways. All of human experience is here, from teenage girlfriends alienated in suburbia to a desperate housewife’s search for passion, brought to life with insight, imagination and page-turning narrative. This is the perfect companion to the world of graphic novels, whether you’re a novice uncertain where to start or an enthusiast eager to discover more. In a series of interlinked chapters, Paul Gravett introduces the masterpieces of the medium and helps readers explore its treasures, from the rich, mysterious textures of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman to Marjane Satrapi’s vivid memories of her Iranian childhood in Persepolis.


Roger Sabin's Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art. Published 1996

Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels is the first fully documented study to explore the graphic qualities of the comic book, and the development of the genre into a sophisticated and culturally revealing popular art form. The book traces the history of the comic from early cartoon-like woodcuts through to the graphic strips of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Organized thematically, it explores the various genres of the comic book, including humour, adventure, girls' comics, underground and alternative. The careers of the creators of the best-known characters -- from Superman and Tintin to Tank Girl -- are revealed, as are the stories behind much-loved comics such as The Beano and The Incredible Hulk. The most recent artists are also illustrated and discussed, including Harvey Kurtzman (Mad), Chris Donald (Viz), Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira).

Reading Suggestions: Novels Part 1

Anton Shammas Arabesques
The Middle East is a complex place. This story is told in a lyrical fashion and unfolds a human tragedy that continues to this very day. Great paperback cover illustration by Karl Andy Foster also (1989)


Don DeLillo's Underworld
This long book rewards your effort. This book is for baseball fans and subterranean dwellers


Emile Zola's Germinal, La Bete Humaine, L'Assommoir and La Debacle
These earthy naturalistic novels engage with the social forces that shaped France in the late 19 Century. Zola was murdered for his views so grab one of these novels to see if he deserved it


Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
The only crime novel worth reading. Sorry Ian Rankin, P.D. James and Elmore Leonard


George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin
Tale of Barbados becoming a nation and how every small boy deserves favour


Ishmael Reed's Reckless Eyeballing 1986 and Mumbo Jumbo
Reed confronts the hypocrisy's of modern USA. Everyone is subject to his microscopic probing


Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time
To not sleep perchance to think


Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Coming Through Slaughter, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and In the Skin of A Lion
These novels show the authors intelligence and the emotional costs of writing about real people and events


Mikhael Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
This book made me believe in God again. This belief only lasted 2 months however been an agnostic ever since


Miquel Cervantes Don Quixote
Study this book and you will be able to write anything you like with conviction. The most wonderful invention of fiction


Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Barack Obama might be in the White House but most African Americans are still invisible


Richard Wright's Native Son
The three act play Fear, Flight and Fate tell the story of another son of Chicago who got electrocuted not elected


Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker
The vernacular language in this novel I have used everyday since December 1985. Apocalypse then


Steve Hall's Raw Shark Texts
Writing as a puzzle and modern use of type and layout on the pages bring you the novel of the future. Text led by Image is here to stay

Reading Suggestions: Graphic Novels Part 1

Chester Brown's Louis Riel - Drawn & Quarterly ISBN: 1896597637

Clear writing and fine line cartooning in this story of Canadian
politics and the brutalities of colonialism


Darwyn Cooke and Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter - IDW Publishing

Hard boiled fiction that takes no prisoners. Cooke's drawings are
produced without compromise and his ability to tell the story without
words is peerless


Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece's Incognegro - Vertigo

Passing for a whiteman in the deep South is filled with danger.
The investigative reporter at the heart of this story makes the
ultimate sacrifice to take on the Supremacists


Woodrow Phoenix's Rumble Strip - Myriad Editions ISBN: 9780954930998

If you get in your motor vehicle and drive it without remembering it's a
potential deadly weapon then you are part of the problem. Phoenix tells
it like it is and his graphic black and white images will haunt you long
after you put this novel down. Recommended for all drivers


I. N. J. Culbard and Ian Edginton's Dorian Gray and The Hound of the Baskervilles - SelfMadeHero

Victorian England is evoked in these stark and dynamic retellings of grand fiction. In foggy London town dastardly deeds are afoot

Reading Suggestions: Films Part 1

Apocalyse Now Redux 2001 (The horror, the horror and Sound Design)

A Prophet 2009 (The real Shawshank Redemption)

A Single Man 2009 (Cinematography, New Wave style revisited and Colin Firth's Grooming)

Gilda 1946 (Noir played in an understated manner)

Memento 2000 (Narrative Structure)

Point Blank 1967 (Energy and New Wave Narrative style)

Rear Window 1954 (Set Design, Editing and Costume Design)

Rosemary's Baby 1968 (Editing, Score, Mise en Scene and Psychology)

Star Trek 2009 (Excellent re-branding of classic Sci-Fi)

The Killers 1946 (Narrative and the most wicked Femme Fatale ever)

The Tenant 1976 (Editing, Mise en Scene and Psychology)

Twelve Angry Men 1957 (Narrative, Editing Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb's performances)

UP 2009 (Narrative, Nostalgia and Sentiment without Schmaltz)

Reading Suggestions: Graphic Design Industry Magazines

3X3 Magazine www.3x3mag.com/

Charles Hively's mission to see illustration recognised as powerful visual medium. Lots of good advice on freelance practice and insights into designers thinking methods. International perspective.

Here's what they say about themselves "3x3, the first magazine devoted entirely to the art of contemporary illustration. Three times a year we take an in-depth look at art and environment of three illustrators. We explore their influences. How they work with clients. How they got their first big break. Each article is written by a fellow illustrator who knows exactly what our audience wants to hear. From the U.S. to Europe, Asia, or wherever, we’ll stay tuned to what’s going on the world of illustration. We’ll feature four or more new talents in every issue, they might be right out of school or are just now beginning to make a name for themselves or illustrators we find that have a truly unique take on the art of illustration. Plus we’ll showcase the recent work of as many as sixteen of the best illustrators in every issue. Selection will be by invitation only. And we’ll even offer signed original artwork or prints for sale. All in all it’ll be eighty pages of the best illustration has to offer, including guest articles by artist reps Vicki Morgan and Gail Gaynin, a feature on a living artist who has made and impact on the industry, an in-depth look at a recent advertising campaign that has successfully used illustration and an ongoing feature where we ask our featured artists the same twenty questions. 3x3 will be published three times each year: Fall/Winter, Spring and Summer.

Our Mission
Our mission is to spotlight the best international artists working today and encourage a new focus on the use of illustration by the advertising and design communities."


AOI's Varoom Magazine www.varoom-mag.com/

The promotion of Illustration as a subject for serious intellectual study.

Here's what they say about themselves "What unites haute couture and political posters? Uptown luxury department store window-dressing and downtown graffiti art? Retail packaging and computer games?

The 21st Century has chosen illustration to be its defining art form, and Varoom is the perfect platform. The award-winning contemporary illustration magazine, relaunchs this summer with a fantastic new design and expanded editorial content.

Varoom will continue to report and comment on the contemporary ‘illustrated’ image in modern society, featuring interviews with illustrators, image-makers and designers and revealing critical articles on different aspects of contemporary illustration by leading commentators.

Varoom tracks the very latest in the world of illustration, discovering the new styles, exploring the world of illustrators and the people who commission them, digging deep into the big social, political and cultural ideas expressed in current illustration. Showing the most exciting, provocative, moment-defining work, and revealling the creative and human stories
behind it.

Varoom is edited by journalist, copywriter and writer John O’Reilly and art directed and designed by highly-regarded design team Studio Fernando Gutiérrez."


Centaur Publishing's Creative Review www.creativereview.co.uk/

30 years of mostly bigging up the advertising industry but they do showcase illustration, typography and product design.
Here's what they say about themselves "Creative Review magazine was launched in London in 1980. We now have subscribers in over 80 countries and readers online in over 120.
The aim of Creative Review is to inspire, inform and stimulate debate among our readers in graphic design, advertising, digital media, illustration, photography and all other fields of visual communication worldwide. We do this in a number of ways.
At the heart of what we do remains the printed, monthly magazine. In addition, the website extends our content to embrace filmed reports and interviews (in the CRTV section), the CR Blog and Feed, our showcase section which allows registered users of the site to upload their work to appear alongside projects chosen by CR editorial staff.
We run three juried awards schemes – The Annual, the Photography Annual and our latest, the Illustration Annual.
To assist the next generation of creative practitioners, we run Creative Futures, our annual showcase of new talent. We have been staging Creative Futures for nearly 20 years, in which time it has given valuable support to the careers of some of today's leading names.
Click is our conference for those working in digital advertising. It has rapidly established itself as a leader in its field attracting the top names in the industry as speakers and participants. This year, Click will run in three cities – Singapore, New York and London.
Monograph is Creative Review's exclusive monthly publication for magazine subscribers. Each month, this 20 page, A5 booklet features a personal project or collection of inspirational images or objects. In 2008, Monograph earned a silver at the 87th Art Directors Club Awards in New York."


Eye The international Review of Graphic Design www.eyemagazine.com/home.php

Suggested Works to help you with Sequence

Egri L. 2007 The Art of Dramatic Writing Wildside Press
ISBN: 978-1434495433

An indispensable guide to understanding drama and how it relates to human motives and motivation, this is a valuable book in the development of both scripts, and novels. Egri has a real grasp of premise, character and conflict and is quite good at showing how to use them to great effect in the construction of drama.

Seger L. 1990 Creating Unforgettable Characters Holt Paperbacks
ISBN: 978-0805011715

This book is dedicated almost entirely to the perfection of character and the development of a unique voice for each character in a script. Whether it’s used as a starting point in the development of a script, or to punch up the characters in a rewrite draft, Seger’s classic text is a highly respected treatise on developing fully dimensional characters.


Talon D.S. 2002 Panel Discussions: Design in Sequential Art Storytelling Two Morrows Publishing
ISBN-10: 1893905144 ISBN-13: 978-1893905146

The struggle to tell a comics story visually requires more than a cool-looking image; it takes years of experience and a thorough understanding of the art form's visual vocabulary. Assembled in Panel Discussions is the combined knowledge of more than a dozen of the industry's top storytellers, covering all aspects of the design of comics, from pacing, story flow, and word balloon placement, to using color to convey emotion, spotting blacks, and how gutters between panels affect the story! Learn from the best, as Will Eisner, Scott Hampton, Mike Wieringo, Walter Simonson, Mike Mignola, Mark Schultz, David Mazzucchelli, Dick Giordano, Brian Stelfreeze, Mike Carlin, Chris Moeller, Mark Chiarello, and others share hard-learned lessons about the design of comics, complete with hundreds of illustrated examples. When should you tilt or overlap a panel? How can sound effects enhance the story, and when do they distract from it? What are the best ways to divide up the page to convey motion, time, action, or quiet?

Suggested Works to help you with Narrative

Ball D. 1983 Backwards & Forwards Southern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 978-0809311101

Ostensibly written as a “technical manual for reading plays” (stage plays), this slim volume is a no nonsense guide to understanding dramatic structure and building drama into storylines and plots. A thorough understanding of the concepts in this book will aid writers in crafting a story with direction and dramatic punch.


Caputo T. 2002 Visual Storytelling: The Art and Technique Watson-Guptill
ISBN-10: 0823003175 ISBN-13: 978-0823003174

Visual media artists-comic book artists, film and video storyboarders and animators, and creators of interactive games-must express purely with pictures everything that the writer can't communicate in words. As a result, truly effective visual storytelling must be compelling, dynamic-and have the appearance of reality. In Visual Storytelling, veteran comic book publisher Tony Caputo demonstrates everything the aspiring visual media artist needs to know in order to master sequential art. In Part 1, artists will discover, through clear illustrations and pictures, each stage of the production process, including plotting, writing, penciling and lettering, inking, coloring, and painting. Part 2 shows, step by step, the basics of figure drawing and anatomy, and basic light and dark techniques. Finally, Part 3 details the basics of page composition, layout, and design as well as the art of creating incredible comic book covers and splash pages. Filled with fascinating illustrations by such legendary artists as Mat Nastos, Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Wally Wood, Andrew Loomis, Scott McCloud, Terry Moore and Jeff Smith, Visual Storytelling also features a ready-to-use guide that helps chart progress and skills in visual storytelling media.

Madden M. 2005 99 Ways to Tell a Story – Exercises in Style Chamberlain Brothers

A series of engrossing one-page comics that tells the same story in a variety of ways. Inspired by Raymond Queneau’s 1947 work of the same title, a mainstay of creative writing courses, Madden’s project demonstrates the expansive range of possibilities available to all storytellers. The series has found a broad audience and widespread critical praise on the Internet, where Madden’s website, www.exercisesinstyle.com, has developed a cult following.


Walker G. A. 2007 Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels Firefly Books Ltd

Presents a collection of wordless graphic novels that cover the themes of social unrest and the plight of the downtrodden worker and are illustrated with wood cuts and lino-engraving.


Wolk D. 2007 Reading Comics – How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean Da Capo Press

This is the first serious, readable, provocative, canon-smashing book of comic criticism by the leading critic in the field. Suddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured art form, filling bookshelves with brilliant, innovative work and shaping the ideas and images of the rest of contemporary culture. In "Reading Comics", critic Douglas Wolk shows us why this is and how it came to be. Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics and introduces a critical theory that explains where each fits into the pantheon of art. "Reading Comics" is accessible to the hardcore fan and the curious newcomer; it is the first book for people who want to know not just what comics are worth reading, but also the ways to think and talk and argue about them. Illustrators included in "Reading Comics" include: David B; Chester Brown; Steve Ditko; Will Eisner; Frank Miller; Gilbert Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez; Craig Thompson; James Kochalka; Hope Larson; Carla Speed McNeil; Alan Moore; Grant Morrison; Dave Sim; Jim Starlin; Kevin Huizenga; Charles Burns; Art Spiegelman; Chris Ware; and, Alison Bechdel.

Suggested Works to help you with Storytelling

Berona D. A. 2008 Wordless Books – The first Graphic Novels HNA Books

This is an important collection of black and white woodcut art that documents the influential precursors to the modern graphics of today. “Wordless books" were stories from the early part of the twentieth century told in black and white woodcuts, imaginatively written without any text. They are the precursor to today's graphic novels. Scholar David A. Berona examines the history of these books and the art and influence of pioneers like Masereel, Lynd Ward, Otto Nuckel, William Gropper, Milt Gross and Laurence Hyde among others. The images are powerful and iconic and as relevant to the world of today as they were when they were created. Berona places these works in the context of their time and in the context of ours, creating a scholarly work of importance and significance in the burgeoning field of comics and comics history.


Campbell J. 2008 The Hero With A thousand Faces New World Library
ISBN: 978-1577315933

A classic book on mythology and the “hero”, Campbell’s work is valuable in understanding the archetypes of character in storytelling. This book is not specifically about screenwriting, but it is a valuable arrow in the quiver of every narrative writer.


Phoenix W. 2008 Rumble Strip Myriad Editions

Rumble Strip surprises, challenges, asks us questions that badly need answers and makes us think about things we may prefer to ignore. Woodrow Phoenix’s dry, sometimes painfully mordant wit, backed up by accident statistics, personal observations and case histories, offers a trenchant analysis of the problems of road users everywhere and the risks we all take every day. With sharp, densely inked graphics, he immerses us in the narrative as if we are driving those cars or walking along those streets. He personalises the experience of the commuter, the driver, the pedestrian, and the accident victim...because any one of them could be us.

Film Run Lola Run 1998 Writer/ Director Tom Tykwer

Film Waltz with Bashir 2008 Writer/ Director Ari Folman