Susan Bradley Title Designer

In a PBS short Susan Bradley comments on the influence of her honest respect for typography and its use in film title sequences.

Watch Susan Bradley; Title Designer - Pixar on PBS. See more from INTERVIEW.

Susan Bradley's Film Titling Contributions
yup... she is pretty prolific.

(Here is just a short list as seen on her website)
http://www.susan-bradley.com/film.htm


WALL-E Andrew Stanton, Pixar
(Academy Award: 2009 Best Animated Feature)
LA LUNA Enrico Casarosa, Pixar
CARS 2 John Lasseter, Pixar
INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC: Creating the Impossible Leslie Iwerks, Starz
WINSTON CHURCHILL: Walking with Destiny Richard Trank, Moriah Films
TOY STORY 3 Lee Unkrich, Pixar
(Academy Award: 2011 Best Animated Feature/Original Song)
DIRTY OIL Leslie Iwerks, Babelgum Productions
UP Pete Docter, Pixar
(Academy Award: 2010 Best Animated Feature/Best Score)
BURN-E Angus MacLane, Pixar
THE PIXAR STORY Leslie Iwerks, WD Studios Motion Pictures
RATATOUILLE (Production Graphic Design/Title Design) Brad Bird, Pixar
(Academy Award: 2008 Best Animated Feature)
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH Davis Guggenheim, Participant Productions/Paramount
(Academy Award: 2006 Best Feature Doc)
THE MATADOR Richard Shepard/Pierce Brosnan, Irish Dreamtime/Miramax
NUMB3RS (TV: Production Graphics/Efx Animation-SeasonOne)
Ridley & Tony Scott and Brooke Kennedy, CBS
TWO FOR THE MONEY D.J. Caruso, Morgan Creek/Universal
DARK WATER Walter Salles, Touchstone
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES Walter Salles, Focus Features/Universal
(BAFTA: 2005 Best Foreign Feature, 3 Cannes Awards: 2004)
OUT OF TIME Carl Franklin, MGM
MONSTERS, INC. Pete Docter & David Silverman, Pixar
THE FIRST YEAR Davis Guggenheim, The Getty/PBS
FOR THE BIRDS Ralph Eggleston, Pixar 
(Academy Award: 2002 Best Animated Short)
AMERICAN HIGH R.J. Cutler, Fox Television
EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE Mark Dindal & Randy Fullmer, Disney
THE BLUE DINER Jan Egleson & Natatcha Estebanez, Independent
TOY STORY 2 John Lasseter, Pixar
GOSSIP Davis Guggenheim, Warner Bros.
RUNAWAY BRIDE Garry Marshall, Paramount/Touchstone
THE BIG KAHUNA John 
MURDER IN THE FIRST Marc Rocco, Warner Bros.
QUIZ SHOW Robert Redford, Hollywood Pictures
THE LION KING Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff, Disney
REALITY BITES Ben Stiller, Universal
THE THING CALLED LOVE Peter Bogdanovich, Paramount







Ratatouille: 2008 Graphic Design

Susan Bradley has a wealth of experience in title design, graphics and direction in the movie industry. She was manager of Walt Disney Studios’ Title Graphics Department for six years before moving on to design titles for a number of live action films. In 2006 she teamed up with the Pixar gang and was involved in their animated success, Ratatouille.

Susan Bradley was responsible for designing a custom typeface for the Beginning and End credits on Ratatouille.



The hand-drawn cursive in the beginning credits was a variation on some sketches from field studies in Paris.







The serif typography in the end cards was rendered in pencil inspired by a slab serif typeface Rockwell. Then images were scanned and re-painted in photoshop.
The Matador: 2005

Turns out that Bradley couldn’t show any blood in the bullfight footage. The bullfights were beautifully shot in Spain, but they are intense so that was a challenge.

 Producing this over the holidays Bradley found herself locked in the Studio with some eggnog for a week hammering away on this powerful sequence.











Bradley's Influences:

John Lasseter

Harold Adler: who trained Bradley in calligraphy also shared his hand-lettering and production experience with Saul Bass and Hitchcock.

                   

Film Titling Inspiration

Watchmen:

The Watchmen Opening Titles por ypsilon2 no Videolog.tv.

Thank You for Smoking:


The use of vintage packaging to showcase the titles is a great approach. This title sequence resonates with me because of its attention to great graphic design and attention to detail with the transition from one title frame to another.


Dr. Strangelove:


The combination of U.s. Military footage and the long lined hand-rendered text is a great contrast. I love the juxtaposition of innocent orchestral music paired with the footage of flying through the air and re-feuling a bomber. This is a classic for a reason.. it rules.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:


The strong graphic approach and attention to transitions keeps this one at the top of my list. I admire the retro approach to reinforce the influence of film noir on the story and feel the titles really set you up to understand the direction of the film.

Final Pitch for Sarasota Film Festival Intro 2012

THE PALMS | Welcome you to Sarasota : by Kevin Passmore

Sarasota Film Festival project brief:

Project:  Sarasota Film Festival Open Creative Brief                                                                           

Client:  Sarasota Film Festival

Contact:   Tom Hall – Artistic Director    

Date: 9/26/11

The Project Objective  

To create an engaging :30 promo/open for the 2012 Sarasota Film Festival that reflects the best of the Sarasota community that we as an arts organization represent. The animation should increase the interest of the audience to want to come back to see more films, and it should speak directly to sophisticated, art-loving audiences.  The open sets the tone for the viewer’s festival experience. This animation becomes the official identity of the festival for all those attending.  

Our idea is for teams to take the “Why I Love The Movies” theme and to conduct audio interviews of the people of Sarasota, which reveal something special and personal about the individual’s love of film/movies. These interviews, done in a documentary style, will form the concept of the individual trailers.  Each team will use the words spoken in the interviews as the concept for their piece, but teams have the freedom and are encouraged to be as imaginative as possible when animating the interviews. The idea is to have a “documentary” soundtrack, but for the images on the screen to be as fun and imaginative as possible. 

To be clear: Teams will have to identify their own interviewee, and ask their own questions, based on the theme "Why I Love Movies."   They would have to edit their own audio track and animate to their own audio edit. 

The Target Audience  

The Sarasota Film Festival serves two audiences; International and independent film enthusiasts who enjoy both foreign and domestic independent films, and the international film business community, which features directors, producers, actors and distributors who attend the festival each year to present their films to our audiences.   Audiences range from high school and college students 15-25 years old through to active, art-loving seniors, to the filmmakers themselves. All share in the appreciation of intellectually stimulating and creatively expressive filmmaking.  

The Target Emotional Response / Tone  

The tone of the final project should reflect the special feeling of discovery, of something very personal about why we love movies It should reflect the professional quality of the films playing at the festival. 

The Communication Strategy  

The animation will be used in the theater to welcome people to the SFF   It can also be used as a title for a highlight reel for the year.  It will be seen on the big screen in film festivals, on the SFF Website, and possible use for television advertising for the event.

Technical Specifications / Deliverables

Each animation will be 18 seconds in length.  The final animation must be rendered in a 16:9 ratio, at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 lines.

Must include audio track.

Final render as a QT movie.  H264 Compression. 

We would like the animation to be built as part of a :30 trailer/commercial that will run on local television, be placed online, and played in front of each film at the festival. 

In summary and in this order, the animation should follow this format:

:18 second animation

:04 second credit card as follows (including the larger font for SFF motto):

WHY I LOVE THE MOVIES

Created by Team Member 1, Team Member 2, Team Member 3, etc.

Ringling College Of Art and Design, Department of Motion Design

:08 seconds of black

:30 of audio running throughout (interview + Music, or whatever works for your piece)

Hero Audio Clip:

Its time to get this project in front of Artistic Director Tom Hall from the Sarasota Film Festival.

If all goes well ( fingers crossed) this concept may be chosen as one potential direction for an opening sequence at next years 2012 Sarasota Film Festival.

You can view a short PREZI on my concept here:

SFF The Palms Welcome you To Sarasota on Prezi

Some Inspiration:

The O.G. my grandpa C.J. used to say "saw'right" to me  all the time impersonating Señor Wences, I've always thought this puppetry to be hilarious and everytime I hear it, it reminds me of him clenching a pipe between his teeth and the smell of that sweet pipe tobacco. 

As a tribute to this and other great acts of puppetry we are using this type of character  and its inherent construction in a natural and accessible way. Combining Photoshop, After Effects and some Cinema 4D we are able to bring these characters into a new animated and potentially interactive experience.

Board-A-Matic numero Uno: 
This is just to illustrate how the story boards and audio will start to sync up.

Take 1:

Final Boards: