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Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds : a celebration

Alfred Hitchcock once admitted that he was in constant conflict with his audience. "When a new Hitchcock film appears, the public and critics sit back at the start and say to themselves, 'Let's see him scare me.' My job is to get them up on the edge of their seats, and to keep them there. It gets more difficult all the time because one must find new ways to surprise an audience. Any time a viewer of one of my films can say to himself, 'I knew that was coming,' I've lost him.
In The Birds, Hitchcock perhaps went to the greatest lengths of his career to avoid those "cliches." His Technicolor film version of Daphne du Maurier's novella (then widely accepted as one of the greatest horror stories by a living author), scripted by Evan Hunter, showed thousands of birds making organized attacks on mankind--evil was presented as an environmental fact of life.
The director also reportedly drew inspiration from a 1961 incident in which seabirds attacked the terrified residents of Monterey Bay. Recent research has shown that the birds were suffering the effects of ingesting contaminated plankton, but in 1961, the then-inexplicable "revolt of the birds" helped Hitchcock devise the simple but horrifying "what if" premise.

In the key role of Melanie Daniels, Hitchcock cast Tippi Hedren, a model he spotted in a TV commercial. The blonde beauty rose to the challenge, working all but one-half day of the film's 75-day schedule. Acting opposite leading man Rod Taylor and stage actress Jessica Tandy (playing Taylor's mother), Hedren took sides in the bird war on mankind--but not until after she had been fomally introduced to her "co-stars."
"For a solid week," said Hedren, "we were in large cages with the birds. And five prop men threw birds at us for seven long days. They didn't exactly bite us, but they couldn't get out of our way. In order to stand it, I shut off something mentally and said to myself, 'You can do this.' It was awful." Hedren, besieged by birds for days on end while filming the terrifying attic attack scene, suffered a breakdown during production.
Perhaps the most important player on Hitchcock's team was animal trainer Ray Berwick. "I don't think (Hitchcock) knew what he was getting into," Berwick said. "He quickly had to give up any idea of using mechanical birds if he wanted realism. No book or ornithologist could give us guidance on the control of flocks of wild birds."
"I got used to [the birds] rather quickly," claimed Jessica Tandy, "simply by looking upon them as other actors. Although I must say, I was beginning to wonder in some of those scenes toward the end. I've never had another actor bite me before."
After Hitchcock completed principal photography, two separate units continued their special effects work. Ub Iwerks, on loan from Walt Disney Studios, begna intricate laboratory work while the shooting of special effects was done by another unit. To publicize The Birds, Hitchcok, his wife Alma and Hedren went to New York to begin and advance promotional tour. Joined there by Berwick, they took part in a one-hour segment of the Today show devoted to The Birds. Hitchcock also addressed an overflow crowd of top Washington journalists at a luncheon meeting of the National Press Club.
Then, The Birds was selected to inaugurate the 1963 Cannes Film Festival with a gala showing. "The Birds Is Coming!" was the key phrase of all advertising. Critics raved and audiences flocked to see Hitchcock's most expensive film to date--perhaps enticed by Hitchcock's claim that his depiction of an assault upon the human race "could be the most terrifying motion picture I have ever made." A masterpiece of thrills and sophisticated, subtle humor, The Birds became one of 1963's top grossers and yet another feather in the cap of the Master of Suspense.
"It is merely an exercise in imagination," Hitchcock claimed, "done necessarily with complete realism. We had no extensive bird data to go on, except the basic idea provided by du Maurier in her story. I like to think that our birds are merely getting back at the human race for centuries of being hunted and shot . . . This horror story offers a unique challenge to delight me. It will give audiences the entertaining taste of fear and the knot in the stomach they expect from me.

NoL007 : out now

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the presence of God

W A R R I O R S O F T H E N E T

I WILL SURVIVE

in memory: Deborah Kerr 1921-2007

Collapsing in an Elegant Way : out now

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Sleuth (1972)

Sleuth 2007

Blade Runner 25th anniversary

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie Blade Runner. The film's neo-noir production is cited as having influenced building design. Some argue that its dystopic setting of Los Angeles in 2019 is not far removed from life on the streets of downtown Los Angeles today.

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE - 40th Anniversary

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since the fifth James Bond epic, You Only Live Twice opened on theater screens around the world. To commemorate the occasion, Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall (authors of the best-selling book The Essential James Bond) along with Bond author and CR columnist Raymond Benson, have provided reflections on the legacy of the film. These articles can be found on the 007 web site www.mi6.co.uk.

Ahead of the film's opening, the publicity campaign for You Only Live Twice was facing opposition with the unofficial spoof version of Casino Royale also opening the same year. United Artists ensured Bond was on top with a stunning billboard that spanned an entire block in New York City above the Astor and Victoria theatres in December 1966.

Shortly before its release, two television specials were broadcast to hype Sean Connery's fifth outing as 007. BBC 1 in the UK aired a special edition of "Whicker's World" with a behind-the-scenes look at the film, and NBC in the USA broadcast "Welcome To Japan, Mr Bond", a special featuring skits by M, Q and Moneypenny. Both can now be found on the Ultimate Edition DVD.

On the night of June 12th 1967, the World premiere of You Only Live Twice took place at the Odeon Cinema in London's Leicester Square, sponsored by the Variety Club of Great Britain in aid of the YMCA and Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

As with previous Bond premieres and blockbusters of the time, the crowds began to gather outside the Odeon early in preparation for the big event hoping to get a glimpse of the stars that would be attending. What made the premiere of You Only Live Twice all that more special was the appearance of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip. The event would be their first James Bond premiere and paved the way to future attendances.

Amongst the many cast and crew members, Sean Connery and wife Diana Cilento were the star attraction, especially as it was Connery's first British 007 premiere since From Russia With Love. Connery looked very un-Bond-like as he sported a bushy moustache and did not don his usual toupee.

Along with the usual press entourage were household names such as Jerry Lewis, Phil Silvers and Dick Van Dyke, as well as members of the production crew such as screenwriter Roald Dahl and producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.

Guy Hamilton, who had previously directed "Goldfinger", was also in attendance.

You Only Live Twice broke the opening day record at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, and instantly became the number one film in the USA when it opened the following day. It took a total of over $600,000 in Balitmore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia over its first weekend, and scooped almost $7m across 161 venues nationwide in its first three weeks.

for the love of God

-Damien Hirst-

Hold your breath

Mr Creosote

Just the Beginning: The Art of Film Titles

Indeed, naturally I think that a film should have a beginning, middle, and an end—but not necessarily in that order.

Jean Luc Goddard

The main-title sequence—the opening credits—can be the most important moment in a film. Other than trailers and marketing elements, they are the first images the audience sees when the lights go down. These quick segments (all about two to three minutes) form a contract: outlining the filmmaker's intentions and setting up the expectations of those watching. Saul Bass, a graphic artist in the film industry said, "making a main-title was like making a poster—you're condensing the event into this one concept, this one metaphor…a backstory that needs to be told or a character that needs to be introduced."

The pioneering work of Bass in the fifties and sixties and its revitalization by Kyle Cooper and Imaginary Forces in the nineties, have elevated the opening credits to an art form. The title sequence has come to rival commercials and music videos as the leading indicator of contemporary visual style: dense and multi-layered—invariably more challenging than the film that follows it. This essay will examine two sets of titles that revolutionized the film industry: Saul Bass's North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960), and Kyle Cooper's designs for Seven (1995) and Mimic (1997). Separated by more than 35 years, these credits blend similar methods and techniques to achieve new sensibilities and affect.

The earliest credit sequences were for silent films. They were presented on title cards—cards 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 cinema 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 pragmatic communication and evolved into complete narratives—establishing the mood and visual character of the film.

Saul Bass was the industry's pioneer. His methodology embraced the modernist tenet of reduction and enforced an acute attention to pace, rhythm and detail. Bass's most remarkable work came through his early collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock. 2 Bass was a graphic artist and creative consultant for three of Hitchcock's masterpieces: Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). In each of these movies Bass designed the title sequence creating a smaller film within the entire work.

Bass was instrumental in redefining the visual language of film. His graphic compositions in movement, coupled with the musical score, function as a prologue to the movie; setting the tone, establishing the mood and foreshadowing the action. His titles are not simply identification tags, but pieces that are integral to the work as a whole. When his opening sequence appears, the movie truly begins.

Occasionally, a new idea changes the course of thinking within a profession. Since Saul Bass's death in 1996, there is one designer and one key film that have seized the public's attention: Kyle Cooper and his opening credits for Seven. Cooper was one of the first designers to apply trends in print, advertising and record industry graphics to the conservative film industry. The title work with which Cooper is associated created a sensation because it revitalized an area that had become a routine after-thought in motion pictures. Except for Bass, there were no role models or tradition Cooper could look to. 5 Reflecting on Seven, Cooper said, "…I think the reason it got everybody's attention was less about the graphical language and more about the idea."

Kyle Cooper studied at Yale under Paul Rand. He was drawn to Rand's graphic design; particularly the way he suggested motion in stasis. Cooper knew he wanted to design movie titles, but Rand discouraged him from doing his dissertation on the subject. Instead he suggested that he study Soviet cinema masters like Sergei Eisenstein. According to Cooper, "Rand said, 'If you want to major in title design, go and read [Eisenstein's] Film Form and [The] Film Sense…'." Cooper was so intrigued by Eisenstein's art of combining and juxtaposing images, he wrote his thesis on the subject.

After receiving his MFA in graphic design, Cooper headed to New York and started working on main titles with Robert and Richard Greenberg (R/Greenberg Associates). For ten years, he toiled in relative anonymity on some 70 projects. At R/GA he helped create stunning openers for blockbuster films like True Lies, and Twister. But Cooper was striving for a breakthrough. In 1995 he got his chance: Seven.

Cooper's work after Seven is intricate, densely layered and relies heavily on computer-manipulated imagery. After its breakthrough, he worked with R/GA to create the opening for John Frankenheimer's otherwise forgettable interpretation of H.G. Welles's novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. During the project, Cooper, Chip Houghton and Peter Frankfurt were working out of R/GA's Los Angeles office. In 1997, they decided to strike out on their own and founded Imaginary Forces. "We left," said Houghton, "because we wanted to run a company the way we wanted to run it, to decide what project we wanted to work on, how we wanted to work on them."

Motion design in opening credits is not a revolutionary process. Saul Bass pioneered the work, but Kyle Cooper incorporated the computer to reconcile traditional and modern techniques. In doing so, he revitalized film industry titles and redefined their visual style.

Main titles are often the last thing on a director's mind, and for producers they are generally something to get out of the way as cheaply as possible. As postproduction costs become less and less, the technology needed to produce these sequences is becoming more widespread and accessible. A second tier of designers—those replicating style—have started to emerge.

Pam Ann - Cabin Service

Pam Ann - Flight Attendant 2

THE RYTHM OF LIFE

s t r i p p e d

Stripped
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2007 : a year of 13 full moons

Full Moon dates 2007
2007 Jan 3 13:59 Wed
2007 Feb 2 05:47 Fri
2007 Mar 3 23:18 Sat
2007 Apr 2 17:16 Mon
2007 May 2 10:11 Wed
2007 Jun 1 01:05 Fri
2007 Jun 30 13:50 Sat
2007 Jul 30 00:48 Mon
2007 Aug 28 10:35 Tue
2007 Sep 26 19:46 Wed
2007 Oct 26 04:53 Fri
2007 Nov 24 14:31 Sat
2007 Dec 24 01:17 Mon

January: Wolf Moon
February: Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Opening Buds Moon
March: Maple Sugar Moon,Worm Moon
April: Frog Moon,Pink Moon,Planter's Moon
May: Flower Moon,Budding Moon
June: Strawberry Moon
July: Blood Moon,Buck Moon
August: Moon of the Green Corn,Sturgeon Moon
September: Harvest Moon
October: Hunter's Moon,Moon of Falling Leaves
November: Beaver Moon
December: Cold Moon