Dan Perri
Known For: Art
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: August 11, 1945 (79 years old)
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, U.S.
Daniel Richard Perri (born August 11, 1945) is an American film and television title sequence designer. He has worked in film title design since the 1970s, and has been responsible for the main titles of several notable films including The Exorcist (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Star Wars (1977), Raging Bull (1980), Airplane! (1980),[1] and Suspiria (2018). Perri made contact with the film graphics designer Saul Bass and began to pester him for work at his studio on Sunset Boulevard. Eventually, Perri found work with Bass through his illustrator, Art Goodman. During his service in the US Navy, Perri served on the USS Repose and designed an on-board newspaper, entitled The Repose Reprise. After serving in the Navy, Perri went to work with Cinefx alongside Phill Norman, Wayne Fitzgerald Don Record, and a former school friend, Steve Smith. After a year, both Perri and Smith quit and went on to form their independent design studio, Perri & Smith. The pair worked together from 1969 to 1973, mostly on small, low-budget television features, but their credits also included films such as Electra Glide in Blue and several of Gene Corman's blaxploitation films. The designers were often exploited and clients sometimes failed to pay, and eventually, the business folded. Perri's big break came in 1973 when he was commissioned by Billy Friedkin to produce the main titles for The Exorcist, his first solo project. With a blockbuster film in his portfolio, Perri was now able to attract more work and soon found himself working on high-profile titles. For Nashville (1975), Robert Altman commissioned a main title sequence and a logo to be used in marketing. Perri produced an unusual, kitschy sequence inspired by low-budget K-Tel Records television commercials, complete with a loud, brash voiceover by Johnny Grant. In 1976, Martin Scorsese brought Perri in to design the titles for Taxi Driver. Perri took second unit footage and color-treated the film through a process of film copying and slit-scan, resulting in a highly stylized graphic sequence that evoked the "underbelly" of New York City through lurid colors, glowing neon signs distorted nocturnal images and deep black levels, accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's jazz soundtrack. Possibly Perri's best-known title sequence project came about in 1976 when his friend James Nelson was working on post-production for a new space fantasy film, Star Wars. Nelson recommended Perri to director George Lucas, who invited Perri to Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm's post-production operation at Van Nuys, California. Lucas briefed Perri to take inspiration from old 1930s cinema serials such as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers that had inspired Lucas to write much of his Star Wars story. After struggling to come up with a concept that Lucas liked, Perri eventually developed a concept for presenting a textual introduction based on the opening credits of the 1939 Cecil B. DeMille film, Union Pacific, in which the credits are shown distorted by a sharp perspective and rolling along a railroad track towards a distant vanishing point. Lucas approved of the idea and Perri produced sketches and prototype mechanical artwork, supported by storyboard artwork drawn by the production artist Alex Tavoularis. This gave birth to the now-familiar opening crawl sequence that appears in the Star Wars films.
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Main Title Designer
She's All That
Main Title Designer
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'
Main Title Designer
The Road to 'Dracula'
Main Title Designer
She's Alive! Creating 'The Bride of Frankenstein'
Title Designer
Varsity Blues
Title Designer
East Is East
Title Designer
Thick as Thieves
Title Designer
In Too Deep
Title Designer
Vendetta
Title Designer
Freak City
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
Title Designer
Fresh Horses
Title Designer
The Beat
Title Designer
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Title Designer
Mystic Pizza
Title Designer
The Seventh Sign
Title Designer
Everybody's All-American
Title Designer
Talk Radio
Title Designer
1969
Title Designer
Miracle Mile
Title Designer
Tequila Sunrise
Title Designer
Midnight Run
Title Designer
Bull Durham
Title Designer
A Time of Destiny
Title Designer
Vibes
1987
Second Unit Director
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Title Designer
Chuck Berry - Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
Title Designer
Raising Arizona
Title Designer
Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise
Title Designer
Leonard Part 6
Title Designer
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Title Designer
In the Mood
Title Designer
Wall Street
Title Designer
The Allnighter
Title Designer
La Bamba
1986
Title Designer
Wise Guys
Title Designer
Nine 1/2 Weeks
Title Designer
The Color of Money
Title Designer
Where the River Runs Black
Title Designer
Willy/Milly
Title Designer
Quicksilver
Title Designer
Tough Guys
Title Designer
Quiet Cool
Title Designer
Streets of Gold
Title Designer
Platoon
Title Designer
Dream Lover
Title Designer
Deadly Friend
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
Title Designer
Raging Bull
Title Designer
The Long Riders
Title Designer
My Bodyguard
Title Designer
Blood Beach
Title Designer
Airplane!
Title Designer
Times Square
Title Designer
The Stunt Man
Title Designer
The Idolmaker
Title Designer
First Family
Title Designer
American Gigolo
Title Designer
Caddyshack
Title Designer
Why Would I Lie?
1979
Title Designer
Promises in the Dark
Title Designer
The Warriors
Title Designer
Norma Rae
Title Designer
Dreamer
Title Designer
Players
Title Designer
The Double McGuffin
Title Designer
Hanover Street
Title Designer
An American Christmas Carol
Title Designer
Bloodline
Title Designer
Americathon
Title Designer
Going in Style
1978
Main Title Designer
Girlfriends
Title Designer
FM
Title Designer
House Calls
Title Designer
F.I.S.T.
Title Designer
The Betsy
Title Designer
Blue Collar
Title Designer
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Title Designer
Coming Home
Title Designer
The Last Waltz
Title Designer
Girlfriends
Title Designer
Stony Island
Title Designer
Days of Heaven
1977
1976
1975
Title Designer
The Four Deuces
Title Designer
Lepke
Title Designer
Once Is Not Enough
Title Designer
The Day of the Locust
Title Designer
Nashville
Title Designer
Mr. Sycamore
Title Designer
The Legend of Bigfoot
Title Designer
Russian Roulette
Title Designer
Las Vegas Lady
Title Designer
Lucky Lady
Title Designer
King Arthur, the Young Warlord
Title Designer
The Hiding Place
Title Designer
Love Among the Ruins
