Tuesday 2 December 2008

Danny Yount





www.dannyyount.com
www.prologue.com

Danny Yount is a self-taught designer who is todays top main title designer for television and film. Yount is seen as the modern day Saul Bass who had a huge influence on his own title sequences. In an interview for the magazine, Computer Arts, Yount describes how Bass influenced him to create the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang title sequence.

"Tell us about your credit sequence for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Did Saul Bass influence the design?", "Very much so, After reading the script, which is based partly on fictitious crime novels of the 60s, I thought it would be best to take the viewer to that time period. Bass titles ruled back then, so it was appropriate. I wanted to keep the titles unpredictable." (www.computerarts.com)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my favorite title sequences because of simplistic and minimalist style to the sequence. I love the subtle camera angles and the way growing elements appear throughout. I also think audio match up with the visuals perfectly that makes the sequence more complete.

Curious George is another title sequence that Danny Yount has created. The style is very similar to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but this one uses much more hand-drawn illustrations which I think works really well. I really like how the camera angle pans across the screen revealing different hand drawn pictures and the artists and directors names from the film.

Danny Yount has created many other title sequences for films such as Spiderman 2 and 3, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Dawn of the Dead and Superman Returns. He also worked for MTV, ESPN and Sci Fi Channel.

Rock n Rolla I must admit is my favorite title sequence by Danny Yount and maybe of all time. The sequence captures the rough and edgy theme of the film in the short sequence that uses a very abstract style. The illustrations that have been used for each character are really influential and I would love to create something similar myself. 

I will continue to look at Danny Yount's over the next year as I approach my final major project. Motion Graphics is a big inspiration for me and I would love the chance to work in this area of design.