Pablo Ferro
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
With Abe Liss, Ferro animated the first NBC peacock in color and black & white.
While working on "The Thomas Crown Affair", Ferro created a sequence of quick cuts as one unit. Norman Jewison thought the sequence "beautiful" but too long for the film. Hal Ashby said "don't cut it out ... cut it up!" which led to the split screen images seen in the film.
Biography
Not all of our most important filmmakers are the most well-known. Hailed as a genius by Stanley Kubrick and described by Jonathan Demme as "the best designer of film titles in the country today," Pablo Ferro has distinguished himself in film for more than three decades as a director, editor and producer specializing in graphic design, special effects, sequences and main titles, trailers and print campaigns. A significant influence on the "look" of the 1960s, he may have had an even more decisive impact on the world of advertising. In addition to creating and designing some of the more striking TV and print ads of the decade (one highlight was creating the corporate logo for Burlington Mills with fast-moving multicolored stitching animation for a classic commercial campaign), Ferro helped bring the "hard-sell" visual razzmatazz of cutting-edge advertising techniques to Hollywood films that strove to reflect the changing social scene. Often pointed and satirical, much of his best film work has been in association with directors once allied, to varying degrees, with so-called countercultural values such as Kubrick ("Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" 1964; "A Clockwork Orange" 1972), Demme ("Citizen's Band" 1977; "Last Embrace" 1979; "Swing Shift" 1983; "Stop Making Sense" 1984; "Married to the Mob" 1988; "Philadelphia" 1993), Hal Ashby ("Harold and Maude" 1971; "Bound for Glory" 1976; "Being There" 1979; "Second Hand Hearts" 1981; "Looking to Get Out" 1982; "Let's Spend the Night Together" 1983) and William Friedkin ("The Night They Raided Minsky's" 1969; "To Live and Die in L.A." 1985; "C.A.T. Squad" NBC 1986; "The Guardian" 1989).
Ferro may be best known as an early master of quick-cutting and for using multiple images within the frame. In his commercials and title sequences, he would create a continuous flow of imagery that drew upon a wide range of graphic materials from various media. The goal was to sell a product, a movie or an idea by visualizing abstract concepts with a thought-provoking mixture of animation, live-action, clips from newsreels, still photographs and original art work. His style of montage seemed strangely apt for the dawn of the age of media overload; Ferro found the poetry in the potential cacophony of too much information. With a strong foundation in animation, Ferro was a filmmaker in his own right. He produced and helmed a number of experimental shorts, pioneered the use of video for narrative storytelling and did second unit work for a number of his assignments. Despite a decided fondness for high-tech, another Ferro trademark is his elongated hand-drawn lettering--such as in the title sequence of Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove"--which emphasized the all-too-human hand of the artist in the filmmaking process.
Raised on a remote farm in Cuba, Ferro emigrated to NYC with his parents as a teen. In 1953, as a high school student, he began teaching himself animation techniques from a book by Preston Blair (a frequent collaborator with celebrated animation director Tex Avery at MGM) with which he and two Brooklynite friends, Phil Kimmelman and Dante Barbetta, joined to build their own animation boards and stand for their own modest animation studio. The teens were able to shoot artwork with a 16mm Bell and Howell camera that photographed single frames. The young Ferro expanded his interest in the cinema working as an usher in a 42nd Street theater that screened foreign films.
Ferro sharpened his graphic sense working with Stan Lee (the future editor of Marvel Comics) at Atlas comics where, as a penciller, he churned out a reasonable series of EC-inspired horror, sci-fi and adventure stories before segueing into animation. He landed his first job at a studio that produced black-and-white commercials. There he got firsthand training from a legendary animator, former Disney veteran William Tytla, who was best known for animating the devil in "The Night on Bald Mountain" sequence of "Fantasia" (1940). Ferro learned his lessons well, graduated to animation director and toiled at various NYC-based animation houses.
In 1961, Ferro formed the influential and much honored film production company Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz, serving as president, writer, producer and director. The firm was dreamed up over a spaghetti dinner in which Ferro, Fred Mogubgub and Louis Schwartz decided that they could make commercials that were adventurous, experimental--and effective. A notable early assignment had them creating the illusion of children's drawings in motion. Writing in THE NEW YORK TIMES (July 8, 1962), Donald J Gormley observed: "Among other things, the firm's animators are trying out something seen often before--kindergarten drawing in motion--in which they manage a little better than the competition to conceal the underlying sophisticated hand. More promising is their use of typography, where printed words take their form from an attractive jumbling of a modern and archaic type faces and varied sizes. Words are fragmented and syllables are made to pop on and off the screen, zoom and retreat, spin weirdly and fly off to unexpected corners. There is a sort of abstraction here, not at all as disturbing to the eye as it might sound."
Indeed, the secret of Ferro's success may be his shrewd assessment of just how much information we are able to process as viewers. In 1962, Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz were hired to create an eye-catching intro for NYC's Channel 13, then WNDT, the city's first educational channel. They had previously made a 20-second opening sequence for Channel 18 in Hartford (CT) which utilized 450 separate still photographs to create a staccato illusion of continuous motion. For Channel 13, Ferro et al. decided to encompass and compress the entire range of the station's programming in a continuous flow of imagery running three minutes and 26 seconds that would precede each programming day. Audiences and industry insiders took notice. Director-choreographer Jerome Robbins was one impressed viewer. He hired Ferro and Mogubgub to provide filmed sequences for the curtain raiser and entr'acte of his 1962 Broadway production of Arthur Kopit's "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad."
Ferro traveled to London to make commercials for both US and British TV. There he was hired by Kubrick to create an unique teaser trailer campaign for his new picture as well as a memorable titles sequence. The film was "Dr. Strangelove."
The press release trumpeted: "Utilizing a system of quick cuts in all three creative areas of the trailers--film, sound and dialogue--the teaser trailer for "Dr. Strangelove" used 40 different scene changes and eight different voices during the one-and-a-half minutes duration of the theater teaser. Other versions of the trailer include a three-minute theater reel, a 60-second TV trailer, three 20-second TV teasers and two versions at different lengths for British TV. . . . The trailers create an excitement generated by a frame-by-frame presentation of pictures, words, sound and dialogue. The effect creates a temptation to see the trailer again in order to understand the technique, which is geared to generate excitement." Furthermore, Ferro has been credited with conceiving the outrageously suggestive opening title sequence of the film which depicted two military planes refueling in flight to the musical accompaniment of "Try a Little Tenderness." It proved a classic film opening and an auspicious start for a brilliant film career.
Forming Pablo Ferro Films, the ascendant filmmaker alternated between commercials and movie work. One highlight was "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) for which Ferro, for the first time in any 35mm motion picture, created and edited special multiple screen effects sequences notably featuring 66 images in one frame for a polo sequence. He also provided main titles, trailer and TV spots. Ferro also worked in TV, creating the main title sequence for the hit NBC sitcom "Family Ties" and serving as supervising editor on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" music video. Other distinguished credits include "The Addams Family" (1991) and its sequel "Addams Family Values" (1993), both directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" (1995), Carl Franklin's "Devil in a Blue Dress" (1995) and Tom Hanks' directorial debut "That Thing You Do!" (1996). In 1997 Ferro had a stellar year, creating the title designs and sequences for the Oscar-winning films "Men in Black" (helmed by Sonnenfeld), "L.A. Confidential" (directed by Curtis Harrington), "As Good As It Gets" (produced and directed by James L. Brooks) and Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting." His more recent credits include the remake of "Doctor Dolittle" and "Hope Floats" (both 1998) and the HBO biopic "Winchell" (also 1998).
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Cinematography (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Art Director (Feature Film)
Costume-Wardrobe (Feature Film)
Visual Effects (Feature Film)
Art Department (Feature Film)
Film Production - Main (Feature Film)
Title Design (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Title Design (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1935
Born in Cuba
1953
As a high school student, learned animation from a book by MGM animator Preston Blair
1955
Worked as an animator and animation director
1961
Formed the influential and award-winning film production company Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz; served as president, writer, producer and director
1961
With associate Fred Mogubgub, hired by stage director Jerome Robbins to create a film sequence for the Broadway show "Oh Dad Poor Dad Ma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad" which utlized and illustrated the title in their distinctive mixed media style
1962
Won notoriety in the advertising industry for pioneering use of multiple image screens and quick cut techniques (graphics combined with live-action and animation), first use was for station opening for TV station in Hartford CT
1962
Fred Mogubgub left the firm in October to open his own studio; the name Mohammed was chosen to replace his name as the result of a publicly held contest; firm renamed Ferro, Mohammed & Schwartz
1963
Traveled to London, England; conceived and directed American and British TV commericals; caught the attention of ascendant filmmaker Stanley Kubrick
1963
Feature debut, Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"; created main title sequence with "mating" airplanes accompanied by the song "Try A Little Tenderness" and huge hand-drawn letters; also assembled trailer and TV spots; teaser trailer used 40 different scene changes and eight different voices during a one-and-a-half minute spot; other versions included a three-minute theater reel, three 20-second TV teasers and two versions at different lengths for British TV
1964
Returned to NYC; left Ferro, Mohammed and Schwartz to form Pablo Ferro Films, an award-winning commercial production company
1964
Made a commercial for Beech-Nut Fruit Sours featuring an early use of split-screen techniques for commercials; screen segmented into six units yet worked as an integral whole to tell "story"
1964
Conceptualized, created, directed and edited a film showing all facets of the Singer Corporation for the Singer Pavilion at the 1964 NYC World's Fair; two film projectors were used in sync and each film used 12 separate images creating a multiple screen effect; reputedly the first time multiple screen images were created using only film projectors
1964
Created the famous corporate logo for Burlington Mills which utilized fast-moving multicolored "stitching" animation
1965
Focused on producing commercials
1966
Created main title sequence and print campaign for "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming"; first collaboration with director Norman Jewison; created trailer and TV spots for "A Fine Madness"
1967
Focused on producing commercials
1968
Created and edited the special multiple screen effects sequences including 66 images in one frame for the polo sequence in "The Thomas Crown Affair"; reputedly a first for 35mm feature; first collaboration with Hal Ashby, who served as supervising film editor as well as associate producer
1968
Created the main title sequence for "Bullitt"
1969
Developed a process by which TV tape techniques could be used to produce motion pictures with a Sony videotape camera and half-inch videotape to record sound and images; his first film made in this process was a 15-minute short entitled "Pretend You're Dead and Come With Me" made on a budget of less than $1000; video shot entirely on location on Manhattan Bridge with available light hand-held with a crew of two
1969
Produced, directed and edited a short film entitled "The Lawyer" scripted by Julian Barry
1969
Began collaboration with director William Friedkin on "The Night They Raided Minsky's"; served as visual consultant, 2nd unit director and editor; supervised re-edit of film; created special effects; created main title sequence
1969
Did the main title sequence, 2nd unit directing and editing and the bedroom TV scene of John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy"
1971
Beginning of long collaboration with director Hal Ashby, "Harold and Maude"; designed main titles and created special trailer; included a scene in trailer wherein the film's stars, Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon, kiss; upset Paramount production chief Bob Evans who fired Ferro and forced Ashby to remove the scene from the film
1972
Created trailer and TV spots for Kubrick's controversial feature, "A Clockwork Orange"
1972
Feature acting debut as Chief Cloud in the Head, an Indian with severe back problems, in Robert Downey's "Greaser's Palace"
1972
Hired by Atlantic Records to assemble a film saluting their artists; made "The Original Jive", an ambitious, free-form film collage mixing documentary footage with Hollywood film clips and surreal bits from the films of Luis Bunuel and Jean Cocteau; Atlantic disliked the film and cut the financing after only thirty minutes had been completed; fragment screened in 1988 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts
1973
Created trailer and TV spots for Lindsay Anderson's "O Lucky Man"; created trailer for Jewison's "Jesus Christ Superstar"
1974
Created trailers and TV spots for John Boorman's "Zardoz"
1975
Created trailers and TV spots for Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" and Lina Wertmuller's "Swept Away..."
1976
Designed main titles for Ashby's "Bound for Glory"; as Depablo Depablo, directed featurette on "The Making of 'Bound for Glory'"; as Depablo Depablo, served as graphic consultant on Downey's "Jive (Complement to the World)" (also created main titles and acted as "Co-pilot in Spaceship")
1977
First collaboration with director Jonathan Demme, created main title sequence for "Citizen's Band"
1979
Provided main title design, trailer, TV spots, radio spots and print campaign for Ashby's "Being There"; created main title sequence for Demme's "Last Embrace"
1980
Created re-release print campaign for Ashby's "Being There"
1981
Provided main title design, trailer, TV spots and print campaign for Ashby's "Second Hand Hearts"
1982
Provided main title design, trailer, TV spots and several print campaigns for Ashby's "Looking to Get Out"
1983
Credited as "creative associate" on "Let's Spend the Night Together", the Hal Ashby-directed concert film of the Rolling Stones, but actually co-directed (DGA requirements kept him from officially having that title), supervised editing; created montage sequences using time-lapse photography
1983
Served as supervising editor on "Beat It", the landmark Michael Jackson video; Ferro was nominated for Best Editing by the American Video Awards
1983
Acted in Robert Downey's "America"; portrayed Hector Frantico; created main title design for Demme's "Swing Shift"
1984
Reprised the hand-drawn lettering look of "Dr. Strangelove" for the main titles of "Stop Making Sense", the Demme-directed concert film of the Talking Heads; also created the trailer and music video
1985
Created the main title sequence for the popular NBC family sitcom "Family Ties"; created the main title sequence and theatrical trailer for Friedkin's "To Live and Die in L.A."
1987
Provided special trailer end title shoot and theatrical trailer for "Prince of Darkness"; first colloboration with writer-director John Carpenter
1987
Created special effects sequences and main titles for William Friedkin's "Rampage"
1988
Created "filler" programming--quick cuts of historical film sequences set to outlandish music and sound effects--for the 15th annual Saturn Awards show presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
1990
Created the main title sequence and montage sequences for Sam Raimi's "Darkman"
1992
Directed and produced "Me, Myself and I", a romantic comedy starring George Segal and JoBeth Williams; from a screenplay by Julian Barry that he had commissioned some 20 years earlier
1993
Director Demme successfully appealed to the Directors Guild of America requesting a waiver that would allow Ferro's credit to appear in the opening titles of "Philadelphia"
1995
Provided acclaimed opening title sequence montage of tabloid headlines for Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" after test audiences expressed confusion about the plot
1996
Was graphic consultant and created main title design and special visual effects for Michael Cimino's "Sunchaser"
1997
Had small role as a dancer and designed the title sequence for Robert Downey's "Hugo Pool"
1997
Created main title designs for the Oscar-winning films "Men in Black" (directed by Sonnenfeld), "L.A. Confidential" (helmed by Curtis Harrington), James L Brooks' "As Good As It Gets", and "Good Will Hunting", directed by Van Sant
1998
Fashioned title design and sequence and montage for "Krippendorf's Tribe" (helmed by Todd Holland) "Hope Floats" (directed by Forest Whitaker), "Beloved" (directed by Jonathan Demme) and the remakes of "Doctor Dolittle" and "Psycho", directed respectively by Betty Thomas and Gus Van Sant
1998
Formed Depablo Productions (dba Pablo Ferro & Associates)
1998
Honored with a tribute by the Directors Guild of America, hosted by Michael Cimino (October 9)
1998
Returned to the small screen with the title design and sequence and montage for the HBO biopic "Winchell", directed by Paul Mazursky
1999
Designed the main title sequence for the baseball-themed Kevin Costner vehicle "For Love of the Game", helmed by Sam Raimi as well as the title sequence for "Agnes Browne", directed by Anjelica Huston
2000
Served as titles consultant on "Shadow Hours"
Videos
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
With Abe Liss, Ferro animated the first NBC peacock in color and black & white.
While working on "The Thomas Crown Affair", Ferro created a sequence of quick cuts as one unit. Norman Jewison thought the sequence "beautiful" but too long for the film. Hal Ashby said "don't cut it out ... cut it up!" which led to the split screen images seen in the film.
One of writer-director Michael Cimino's first jobs was working as an assistant to Ferro at the Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz film production company.
"[... Pablo Ferro's "The Original] Jive" is a potent piece of guerilla filmmaking. In 1972, Atlantic Records hired Ferro--a Hollywood credits and coming attractions director--to make a documentary paying tribute to their acts. ... But rather than assemble a straight-forward collection of performance clips, Ferro made a politically-charged film collage. Its unabashed subversiveness is immediately apparent when Ferro opens by intercutting shots of V.J. Day parades with those of a Ku Klux Klan march.^CThis same politically-charged juxtaposition of image against image or image against music continues. Ferro even eschews a glossy view of music repeatedly matching frivolous pop song to shots of a junkie shooting up from Cocteau's "Blood of the Poet".Atlantic pulled the plug on "Jive" after seeing Ferro's first half-hour. Watching it years later, you can still almost hear Atlantic execs' jaws dropping." --From "MFA Plays Monterey with Jimi and Otis" by Paul Sherman
"'Citizen's Band' opens with one of the most stunning title sequences on record. Designed by artist Pablo Ferro, the beautiful close-up photography of the inner and outer workings of the CB Radio (accompanied by a soundtrack which scores the ratchet-jawing typical of the jargon heard over the airwaves), captures the bizzare appeal of this futuristic gadget ..." --From "The Human Connection Heart of Family Film" by Leigh Charlton, L.A. Free Press, May 20, 1977.
"Pablo Ferro's titles get the film off to an outstanding start ... " --From review of "Citizen's Band" in Variety, April 20, 1977.
"The film ["Citizen's Band"] is strictly small-time and shopworn, but Pablo Ferro's gaudy, glowing radio-tube collage is the best credit sequence I've seen in a long time. (We constant movie-goers take our little pleasures where find them!" --From review of "Citizen's Band" by Peter Rainer in Mademoiselle, August 1977.
"Pablo Ferro's sly opening credits for "To Die For" serve as both prologue and summary of the movie to follow, offering up a jumble of tabloid headlines and TV coverage of the Nicole Kidman character's upcoming crimes. The sequence was added after initial screenings of the film indicated that viewers were puzzled by the plot." --From "Title Wave" by Marc Caro in The Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1995.
"Pablo Ferro ... is riding the current titles wave."'What usually happens is somebody comes up with a good title and everybody loves it, and everyone starts doing it until it wears out and then they go back to something simple,' Ferro says." --critic Marc Caro in The Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1995.
"Hard-boiled fiction is a been-around genre about done-that individuals, so the pleasant air of newness and excitement that "Devil in a Blue Dress" gives off isn't due to its familiar find-the-girl plot. Rather it's the film's glowing visual qualities. Starting with the mood-setting credit sequence--a slow pan over a gorgeous Archibald motley Jr. painting of "Bronzeville at Night" while a T-Bone Walker blues plays on the soundtrack--this is a film in smooth control of its ways and means." --From review of "Devil in a Blue Dress" by Kenneth Turan in Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1995.
The guest list for the October 1998 DGA tribute included collaborators and friends such as Jack Shea, Todd Holland, Robert Dawson and Toni Basil.
Magazine profiles of Ferro include: Latin Heat (November/December 1998), Playboy (December 1998, by Leonard Maltin), DGA Magazine (January 1999) and, more recently, Eye Magazine and Animation 101.
