Dan Perri
Art
🎂 1945-08-11
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.
Cast credits(3)
Art (248)
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
1984
Title Designer
2007
Title Designer
1973
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
2018
Title Designer
2002
Title Designer
2022
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1993
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1994
Main Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
2002
Title Designer
1990
Title Designer
1995
Title Designer
2004
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1993
Title Designer
1989
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1982
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
1992
Title Designer
1995
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
1985
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
2009
Title Designer
1993
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1982
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
1998
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
1996
Title Designer
1992
Title Designer
1970
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1993
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1977
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2006
Title Designer
1998
Title Designer
1976
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1988
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1987
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1984
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1988
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1995
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1984
Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
2007
Title Designer
1984
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1990
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1985
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1990
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1986
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1996
Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
1983
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
2002
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1985
Title Designer
2001
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1990
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1974
Title Designer
2006
Main Title Designer
2005
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1989
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
2023
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1986
Main Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
2020
Title Designer
1981
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
2017
Title Designer
2007
Title Designer
1983
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
2007
Title Designer
1988
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1981
Title Designer
1998
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1972
Title Designer
1971
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1991
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
2011
Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
1996
Title Designer
2001
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1992
Title Designer
1974
Title Designer
2001
Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1983
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1990
Title Designer
1996
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
1990
Title Designer
2003
Title Designer
1995
Title Designer
1973
Title Designer
1992
Title Designer
1983
Title Designer
1982
Title Designer
1993
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1990
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1978
Title Designer
1973
Title Designer
2001
Title Designer
1974
Title Designer
1970
Title Designer
1974
Title Designer
1988
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1987
Title Designer
1998
Title Designer
1989
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
1972
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
1971
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1980
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1979
Title Designer
1985
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1981
Title Designer
1981
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
2007
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1972
Title Designer
1990
Title Designer
1983
Title Designer
1973
Title Designer
1977
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
2002
Title Designer
1991
Title Designer
1987
Title Designer
2021
Main Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1995
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
2019
Title Designer
1994
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1992
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
2002
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
2016
Title Designer
1985
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
2000
Main Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1998
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1998
Title Designer
1978
Title Designer
1992
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
2005
Title Designer
1985
Title Designer
2011
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
1972
Title Designer
1985
Title Designer
1996
Title Designer
1991
Title Designer
2019
Title Designer
1995
Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
1981
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1991
Title Designer
1979
Title Designer
1996
Title Designer
1980
Title Designer
1998
Title Designer
1997
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
2002
Title Designer
1986
Title Designer
1988
Title Designer
2015
Title Designer
1972
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
2004
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
2007
Title Designer
1976
Title Designer
2017
Title Designer
1973
Title Designer
1982
Main Title Designer
1999
Main Title Designer
1999
Title Designer
1984
Title Designer
1975
Title Designer
2010
Title Designer
1984
