Foreword by Martin Scorsese
Saul Bass. Before I ever met him, before we worked together, he was a legend in my eyes. His designs for film titles and company logos and records albums and posters, define an era. In essence, they found and distilled the poetry of the modern, industrialised world. They gave us a series of crystallised images of who and where we were and of the future ahead of us. They were images you could dream on. They still are. [1]
SAUL BASS - Early Life
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| Saul Bass |
Saul Bass was born in May 8, 1920 in New York City. He studied at the Art Student's League in Manhattan until attending classes at Brooklyn College.
He began his time in Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design the movie poster for his film Carmen Jones (1954). Preminger was so impressed with Bass’s work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well.
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| Carmen Jones poster by Saul Bass (1954) |
This was when Bass first saw the opportunity to create something more than a title sequence, but to create something which would ultimately enhance the experience of the audience and tell the beginning of the story within the opening credits. Bass was one of the first to realise upon the storytelling potential of the opening and closing credits of a film. [2]
TITLE SEQUENCES
"I have felt for sometime that the audiences involvement with the film should really begin with the very first frame." [4]
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| CORNERED (1945) Opening Titles |
Before 1950s, film openings titles used to be unimaginative, consisting of conventional lettering over an equally conventional background that did little more than suggest the genre of the film. They tended to be show onto the cinema curtains only to be raised in time for the first scene. The status of credit sequences were low. According to Bass it was "a time when the film hadn't begun yet". [1]
Bass's earliest title sequences grew directly from graphic symbols. He brought a Modernist design of sensibility to film titles and revolutionised not only what they looked like, but also how they were thought about. He was one of the first people to realise the creative potential of the opening and closing of a film. [4]
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| Ocean's Eleven (1960) Opening Titles |
"I began dealing with titles in terms of setting the mood, creating an atmosphere, an attitude and a generalised metaphor for what the film was about. And setting up the subtext of the film." [1]
Thus, the title sequence is seen as a passage, a transitional vehicle that helps the audience cross from the world outside the theatre into the film diegesis.
Title Designs of Saul Bass
Hitchcock believed Bass invented a new type of kinetic typography. Kinetic typography or 'moving text' is an animation technique to evoke a particular idea or emotion. This is clear in Hitchcock's classic films in which he collaborated with Bass such as North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). [2]
BASS'S LEGACY
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| Catch Me If You Can (2002) Opening Titles |
From cut-out animation to live sequences, Bass used diverse film making techniques amongst all his title sequences. In some essence, all modern opening title sequences which suggest a mood/theme/genre can be seen as a legacy of Saul Bass's innovative work. Some examples that pay homage to Bass's graphic designs and animated title sequences are Catch Me If You Can (2002) and the AMC TV series Mad Men (2011). [3]
Catch Me If You Can Opening Credits
FILM TITLE SEQUENCES
Saul Bass was involved in directing the title sequences for the following films:
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] --> Bass & Kirkham, J.B. & P.K. (2011) Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design
[2] --> http://www.areaofdesign.com/americanicons/bass.htm
[3] --> Interview with Olivier Kuntzel & Florence Degas, designers of the Catch Me If You Can (2002) title sequence. www.artofthetitle.com (Retrieved: 2011)
[4] --> Saul Bass: Title Champ [Documentary] (2010) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jFpQMpsMiE
SCRIPT
George:
Saul Bass. Before I ever met him, before we worked
together, he was a legend in my eyes. His designs for film titles and company
logos and records albums and posters, define an era. In essence, they found and
distilled the poetry of the modern, industrialised world. They gave us a series
of crystallised images of who and where we were and of the future ahead of us.
They were images you could dream on. They still are.
Peter:
Saul Bass was born in May 8,
1920 in New York City until his passing in 1996. He studied at the Art
Student's League in Manhattan until attending classes at Brooklyn
College.
He began his time in
Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker
Otto Preminger to design the
movie poster for his film Carmen
Jones (1954). Preminger was so impressed with Bass’s work that he asked
him to produce the title sequence as well.
George:
This was when Bass
first saw the opportunity to create something more than a title sequence, but
to create something, which would ultimately enhance the experience of the
audience and tell the beginning of the story within the opening credits. Bass
was one of the first to realise upon the storytelling potential of the opening
and closing credits of a film.
Peter:
Bass was also seen as landmark in
changing the face of film advertising through his emblematic film posters.
Before Bass, film posters relied heavily on depictions of key scenes or
characters, however Bass’ work captured the key elements and themes of the
films using symbolic designs. For example, his iconic poster for The
Man with the Golden Arm uses the centrepiece of a jagged arm and
uneven typography to highlight the protagonist’s struggle with heroin
addiction.
Bass has designed posters for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and
Stanley Kubrick. His last commissioned film poster was designed for Steven
Spielberg’s Schindler’s List in 1993 but was never used. After
spending five decades designing film posters, Bass’s work has become
identifiable for his distinctive typography and a minimalistic “paper-cut”
appearance often featuring geometric shapes and bold colouring. His style has
remained influential and is still being replicated by the film poster designers
of today.
George:
Before 1950s, film openings titles used
to be unimaginative, consisting of conventional lettering over an equally
conventional background that did little more than suggest the genre of the
film. They tended to be show onto the cinema curtains only to be raised in time
for the first scene. The status of credit sequences were low. According to Bass
it was "a time when the film hadn't begun yet".
Bass's earliest title
sequences grew directly from graphic symbols. He brought a Modernist design of
sensibility to film titles and revolutionised not only what they looked
like, but also how they were thought about.
"I
began dealing with titles in terms of setting the mood, creating an atmosphere,
an attitude and a generalised metaphor for what the film was about. And setting
up the subtext of the film." [1]
Thus, the title sequence is seen as a
passage, a transitional vehicle that helps the audience cross from the world
outside the theatre into the film diegesis.
Hitchcock believed Bass reinvented
a new type of kinetic typography. Kinetic typography or 'moving text' is an
animation technique to evoke a particular idea or emotion. This is clear in
Hitchcock's classic films in which he collaborated with Bass such as
North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960).
SHOW
TITLES CLIP
Peter:
From cut-out animation to live sequences, Bass
used diverse film making techniques amongst all his title sequences. In some
essence, all modern opening title sequences which suggest a mood/theme/genre
can be seen as a legacy of Saul Bass's innovative work. Some examples that pay
homage to Bass's graphic designs and animated title sequences are Catch Me If
You Can (2002) and the AMC TV series Mad Men (2011).
