Since the invention of the cinematograph, simple title cards were used to top and tail silent film presentations in order to identify both the film and the production company involved, and to act as a signal that the film had started and then finished. The arrival of sound did little to alter the convention except that the sequence was usually accompanied by a musical prelude.
Title designs took off in the late 1950's, and since then film title sequences have often been a showcase for contemporary design and illustration. Shamus Culhane, the veteran animator and author of Animation From Script to Screen, dates the cartoon title back to Michael Todd's 1956 classic, Around the World in 80 Days. Other late '50s and early '60s pics from 007 adventures to romps to The Parent Trap, followed that lead. This movement extended to such a degree that it seems the cartoon symbol of The Pink Panther series is quite inseparable from our remembering of the movies themselves. As a matter of fact, the proliferation of cartoon titles is probably a result of animation's general resurgence in main stream cinema and TV serials and commercials.
Bob Kurtz is one of the typical faces in designing and producing credits. Bob Kurtz, founder of the Burbank-based animation studio Kurtz & Friends, writes, designs, and directs entertainment films and television commercials. Recently completed was a segment for Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. Other recent projects include the Crocodile anti-smoking film and print campaign for the California Department of Health Services and interactive games for Disney. Kurtz also created How Things Work, the 3-screen, 3-D multi-media film for Sony’s San Francisco Metreon complex.
Kurtz is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Emmy for the PBS special Roman City, the Peabody Award for the Lily Tomlin special Edith Ann’s Christmas, the Annie Award for Lifetime Achievement, and over 250 international awards. His films are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles and the ASIFA Archive, Germany. Kurtz was Adweek’s animator of the year and also recognized as Japan’s Artist of the Year. He has also directed, produced and co-designed animated sequences for HBO’s George Carlin Special.
Along Bob Kurtz's works, some animations will be screened in this section because of the importance of their credits.
A selection of Bob Kurtz's Works
26' / USA
Wedding Espresso
Director: Sandra Ensby
6' / UK / 2002
Zero Degree
Director: Omid Khosh-Nazar
8' / Iran / 2005
Kamov
Director: Magdalena Lupi, Drasko Ivezic, Anna Seric
8'/ 2003/Croatia
The Cage
Director: Vahid Nasirian
16' / Iran / 2007
Traveller of Horizon
Director: Hamid Bahrami
7' / Iran / 2006
This Way Up
Director: Smith & Foulkes
8'50" / UK / 2007
Lavatory- Lovestory
Director: Konstantin Bronzit
9'30" / Russia / 2006
