Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish doing a whole lot of nothing. I didn’t watch a motion picture because there was no time to watch a motion picture, although I’m getting prolific at watching the beginnings of a lot of motion pictures I’ve never seen. I’m a fan, you see, of main titles. Even the most mundane of them hold mysteries. Now what you get is usually the title of the movie and that’s it. Boring. Main titles, if done artistically, can set the tone for an entire movie, can get you ready for what you’re about to experience and the main titles along with the music that usually accompanies, well, it’s a lost art, although occasionally a director comes along who wants a throwback for a period film but those are few and far between and seem to have disappeared altogether in the last few years. If you want perfect examples of how to get a movie off on the right foot, look no further than To Kill a Mockingbird, Seconds, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Psycho (the latter four all by Saul Bass, the king of the artistic main title), the Bond films that Maurice Binder did, The Pink Panther, all brilliant. Then there’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is simplicity itself but perfection. Other great Saul Bass titles have to include Exodus, Anatomy of a Murder, Walk on the Wild Side, The Man With the Golden Arm, and Bonjour Tristesse. The main titles for The Music Man are wonderful. Then we’ve got Casablanca, The Big Sleep, and The Maltese Falcon. I could go on and on. You can see many of them on the Tube of You. I’ve also discovered some cooking/recipe videos on YouTube that are really fun and all the dishes look great but are unfortunately for family dinners, not single people like myself.
Yesterday was okay as yesterdays go. I was fooling around with the design template until five in the morning, so I only got around five hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, had a telephonic call, got the book to proofer two for his final proofing, did some other things that needed doing, had a tri-salad from Art’s Deli with a 50% off coupon, and then it was time to go to our one-hour rehearsal for Doug Haverty’s ten-minute play. I did what I always do – no discussion, no reading of the play, just on our feet and go. I watched them go through it – most of the play is sitting and standing. After I got that part blocked, I do what I do with the books, futz and finesse until I’m happy with it. This was really simple. And I’m also always on the lookout for anything I can get some humor out of and I found a few things. We ran it two more times and it’s already pretty good. The energy for the piece is tricky, but I want the energy sharp and focused. The actors are all very good. After that, I came home, but first did something I’ve only done a couple of times, stopped at the nearby Trader Joe’s. They were out of what I went there for – their chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. Apparently, you have to get there early to get them because people snatch them all up – the ice cream sandwich hoarders. I did get some Trader Joe’s fish sticks and tartar sauce to see what their like, since I wanted to try fish sticks again after all these years. I’ll also make some cocktail sauce in case I don’t like the tartar sauce.
Then I came home, watched the beginning of some movies and some food videos and here we are. You know what’s weird? Here’s what’s weird. I talk in these here notes about food and recipe videos and I suddenly get five e=mails having to do with recipes and food. We live in a VERY scary world.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, maybe even ten, I’ll do whatever needs doing, then we have another one-hour rehearsal, this one at one o’clock. Before I go to the theater, I’ll stop at a Xerox place and pick up some stuff that Doug took there for me. Then we rehearse, after which I’ll go to a nearby jernt for a sandwich, then I’ll come home and enter the final fixes of proofer one. At some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is, well, there isn’t a rest of the week, just the weekend and we’ll see how all that goes. We are rehearsing every day for an hour at various times. Friday night, I attend an opening night.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or eleven, do whatever needs doing, have a rehearsal, eat, enter fixes, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite main titles from the motion pictures? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall have dreams that include main title sequences.