Akira Fitton

Born in Etajima-shi, Hiroshima, Japan and a New York City native, Akira Fitton's career spans design, film-making and film history. While attending the Pratt-Phoenix School of Design, Akira was hired professionally as a cell painter for the animated feature film, "Raggedy Ann and Andy." While at Pratt he minored in Film Production and Screen Writing. After graduating in 1977, Akira joined Sampson and Cranor Advertising where he created ad campaigns for several films, including Firesign Theater's "J-Men Forever." In the 1980s, Akira joined Michael J. Weldon, self-publisher of the weekly newsletter, Psychotronic. Akira regularly contributed his encyclopedic knowledge of film to deliver humorous and educational behind-the-scenes information about genre movies on TV. In 1983, Ballantine published Psychotronic as the book, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, which was reprinted through 2000. In 1989, Psychotronic Video magazine began, for which Akira wrote reviews of DVDs and served as the Art Director. Akira continued his undergraduate education in Film Production at NYU. During that time he was cameraman on a personal project, a video short entitled "Richard Burton Is WW II," which aired on NBC's "Homemade Comedy Special." Akira also created the opening titles and designed the flyer and advertising brochure for the documentary, "To Protect Mother Earth: BrokenTreaty At Battle Mountin 2" (narrated by Robert Redford, directed by Joel L. Freedman). Akira was a guest lecturer for a class on the importance of production design in film, for Parsons School of Design. Akira continues to write scripts and works as a background actor for television and films.