Lacking inspiration, might have just found a little…

Week nine and week thirteen (are we even there yet?) have begun to blur into one, long, never-ending verge of a nervous breakdown. Assignments, weekly or otherwise, projects big and small, research papers, interactive presentations, self-evaluations, instructor evaluations, critiques, pass, high pass, low pass, no pass. I am about to pass out. The pressure has been building, and amidst the weight on my shoulders, I feel myself slip on those not-so-stylish shades of apathy. I don a shirt with the words: done is better than perfect. My jeans are tattered, and ill-fitting. I think I might smell too, apparently that is part of my mid-semester look.  I am like some sort of Courtney Love reincarnate, train wreck. Are you following me? I am here, but not present.

Time for reassessment.

So that is what I did. I reassessed. I searched for inspiration and motivation from high to low, and guess what? I found it. Turns out motion typography gives this chick some inspiration. Opening scenes, monologues, song lyrics, I really quite like it all. So I shed my Courtney Love wannabe shell, and slipped back into my favorite gown of creativity and let the inspiration take over.

Saul Bass, you creative bastard, you. The site, Art of the Title, compiled this week’s short on the famous and talented film designer. And while I adore just about all the films featured, I hadn’t a clue they all were at the hand of the same designer. Goodfellas, North by Northwest, Psycho, Grand Prix, Vertigo. I think what we call this is a gold mine of American movie history. And you mean to tell me there was one man acting as a thread holding this blanket of film genius together? Welp, that is right where I found my inspiration. I want to change an industry; leave my mark on something.

Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick– these are men who influenced, changed, defined an era in film making. Never have I turned on these films for their special effects, but rather for the key components that make for good story telling: the dialogue, the acting, the directing, the composition. After watching the montage of title sequences, I recognized the same rawness and attention to detail that makes those films so successful. Color choices, placement of text, and the way the words are revealed all told a part of the story.

The Hitchcock classic, Vertigo sequence fades the title from a woman’s eye followed by the infamous ‘vertigo’ spirals appearing frame-by-frame– in  a moment, don’t we understand the psychological thrill we are about to embark on? Or how about in North by Northwest, as the graph lines fill the screen, creating the Madison Avenue skyscraper front? We begin to infer the film involves a city, but also some thrill or chase in the calculated nature in which the lines intervene? The North by Northwest text appears with the ‘N’ becoming an arrow, alluding to the way in which the characters will travel. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. These choices were not arbitrary, as nothing in film should be. I think this is why I adore this era of film so much. These filmmakers rid themselves of the unnecessary. They didn’t bog themselves down with effects. But rather, these filmmakers created, crafted, and credited their audiences with the ability to understand filmmaking, at its most essential level.

Saul Bass did this through title sequences. Rid himself of fluff, and focused on perfecting the essential. And for this he was essentially incredible. And this is where my inspiration was tucked away, my reassessment took place, and clarity was restored.

Off to rid myself of the fluff, and conquer the world. It is week 12, by the way.

Until next time.