| Pablo Ferro | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 15, 1935 Antilla, Oriente Province, Cuba |
| Occupation | Graphic designer, Film title designer |
Pablo Ferro (born January 15, 1935) is a graphic designer and film titles designer.
Born in Antilla, Oriente Province, Cuba, he was raised on a remote farm until emigrating to New York with his family as a teen.
Contents |
Ferro taught himself animation from a book by Preston Blair. In the mid-50s he began freelancing in the New York animation industry for Academy Pictures and Elektra Studios. He found his first solid job with a company that made commercials. It was while working there that he met and befriended former Disney animator William Tytla, who became a mentor. Another co-worker was Stan Lee, the then-future editor of Marvel Comics, with whom he created a series of science fiction adventure comics. In 1961 he became one of the partners to form Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz with animation stylist Fred Mogubgub and comics artist Lew Schwartz, and in 1964 he formed Pablo Ferro Films.
From the unforgettable opening of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove to the revolutionary split-screen montage of the original The Thomas Crown Affair, the Cuban-born filmmaker Pablo Ferro has been putting his indelible stamp on the moving image for over four decades. A pioneer of quick-cut editing, multiple screen images (the first in film and television in 1963) animation, and endowed with an inherent sense of playfulness, Ferro’s influential visual style has enormously enriched film, television, animation, commercials, novels and now children’s books. His innovative collages and use of abstract imagery have consistently challenged the medium, as well as altering conceptions of how (and how much) information is received by viewers.
A self-taught filmmaker, Ferro first rose to prominence with such classic animations as the first color NBC Peacock and the Burlington Mills “stitching” logo, as well as technologically novel visual presentations, including the Singer Pavilion’s film at the 1964 New York World's Fair – the first time film projectors were used to create multiple-screen images.
Hailed by director Jonathan Demme as “the best designer of film titles in the country today”, Woman of Straw, Bullitt, The Russians are Coming…The Russians are Coming, Citizens Band, Philadelphia, Married to the Mob, Beetlejuice, and To Live and Die in L.A. are among the over 100 films that have showcased his creations. Ferro’s distinctive hand-drawn opening segments have appeared in films ranging from Stop Making Sense, American Heart and The Addams Family to Men in Black, and his memorable trailers have helped introduce such epochal films as A Clockwork Orange, Jesus Christ Superstar, O’ Lucky Man and Zardoz into the cultural vernacular.
Pablo worked on several films with his closet friend the late film director Hal Ashby, including Harold and Maude, Bound For Glory, Being There as well as Co-Directing The Rolling Stones, Let’s Spend The Night Together documentary. Ferro worked with Gus Van Sant on To Die For and Good Will Hunting, and has worked with dozens of Academy Award winning Directors. In addition to directing and producing his own feature film, Me, Myself & I (1991) with George Segal and JoBeth Williams, he worked as an actor for Robert Downey Sr. in Greasers Palace (chief cloud in the head) as well as in Hugo Pool as a (salsa dancer).
Ferro has worked as Visual Consultant, Second-unit Director on several films and contributed the famous “Pornographic” Effects to Midnight Cowboy in a special montage within the film. Ferro was Supervising Editor on The Night They Raided Minsky’s, and received a nomination for the first American Video Award (AVA) for his work as Supervising Editor of Michael Jackson’s music video BEAT IT Ferro has produced and directed numerous short films such as The Inflatable Doll.
Pablo Ferro has won over 70 National and International awards over his amazing career, among them numerous CLIO’S, a DGA Excellence in Film Award, and several Lifetime Achievement awards. He has also received nominations from such highly regarded institutions as the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt. In 1999 Pablo was awarded the prestigious DaimlerChrysler Design Award, and in 2000 Pablo was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame.
Pablo’s titles and montage sequences have appeared in 12 Academy Award winning films. Pablo is currently creating a children’s book, a graphic novel and finishing animation on his own documentary to be released in 2012.