Research On Title Sequence Designers: Saul Bass

This is a presentation I have put together with research I have found on the famous title sequence designer Saul Bass. I researched information about himself and then gone on to analyse some of his work.

This work includes title sequences such as 'West Side Story' (1961), 'The Man With The Golden Arm' (1955), 'Vertigo' (1958) and 'Psycho' (1960)-just some of his great pieces of work. 

'The Man With The Golden Arm' (1955)

Bass’ titles for the film feature spiny, cut-out projectiles, which vaguely represent veins and syringes, that manages to be unsettling to the audience despite the accompaniment of Elmer Bernstein’s brassy jazz music. The lines enter at awkward angles in a stabbing motion which comes to a stop at the various titles. The title of the film is boarded by four of these lines, suggesting there is some sort of conflict in the film. Finally,the title “golden arm” appears as a bent and tortured image, reaching out for either redemption or a fix.

'West Side Story' (1961)

Bass uses a vibrant orange to fill from corner to corner the entire screen. Specifically placed vertical bars or lines create an abstract form, yet strangely representative of a certain setting. As the “mood” of the music differs as does the colour of the background. The music culminates in a blue frame, and pulls in a backward motion to reveal the film title below. The image fades in to an aerial shot of Manhattan, and the vertical bars/lines reveal the sky line of the setting.

This simplistic sequence is an exemplary use of colour and the way in which it can easily reflect a certain emotion or mood. 

'Vertigo'(1958) 

The opening Paramount logo is in black and white while the rest of the film, including the closing Paramount logo, is in Technicolor. 

The psychedelic movement and colour used in the background draws the audience into the screen. 

'Psycho'(1960)

As the music swells, the horizontal and vertical lines that appear are driven across the screen in a stabbing motion (similar technique used earlier by Bass in the opening title sequence of 'The Man With The Golden Arm'), foreshadowing the action later to come in the movie. 

Occasionally, a name that appears on screen (for example Alfred Hitchcock) becomes scrambled,which leads to the suggestion that perhaps during the film identities will become scrambled.