Saul and Elaine Bass

We looked at the well respected Saul and Elaine Bass to gain a greater understanding of how significant an opening title sequence can be and how their skills can be applied.

Saul bass was born in 1920, may 8th in the Bronx, New York to his eastern European jewish parents. He always had an interest in the arts. As soon as he graduated from James Monroe high school he moved to study part time at the art student league until he eventually came upon to attend night classes with György Kepes, a skilled designer as a teacher. Saul was working on Spartacus in LA when Elaine Makature came to work with him as a director and producer of the title sequence, the two married and after three years they went on to have the first of their two children, Robert and then their second Andrea in 1967. Elaine Bass was born in 1927 in New York to her Hungarian parents, she grew up alongside her 3 older sisters in New York and in the early 40’s they all began to sing which led Elaine to the New York High school of music and art but left to go for a professional career in music. Eline performed with her sisters during World War II in service clubs and on the radio until the oldest sister got married and had to leave the group. 

Saul’s first job in the industry was designing print advertisements for the film champion in 1949 and from that point he gained recognition enough to be able to design a movie poster in 1954 called carmen jones, this project was a collaboration with Preminger and this led to Bass’s first title sequence as he became aware of the job through his work with Preminger. This first experience with title sequence is what stated his passionate and renowned career which led to his work on Otto preminger’s the
man with the golden arm in 1955 which was the first time his worked was widely noticed and appreciated and since he had work with Preminger a bit now it was an excellent product and director to get known with. His place in the industry was only validated and validated as when he worked with Alfred Hitchcock he took his unique presence in design to a new level by design a new type of kinetic typography which is a type of titling that shows the words moving, his work with Alfred Hitcock included; North by northwest, Vertigo and psycho all renowned and respected films in the industry, the reason for his work on these was because his products were so memorable and ending that you could spot his style from a mile. Elaine and Saul happened to work together on Spartacus and this was so successful that they continued this partnership in their personal and professional life disjoining title sequences for more than 30 years. They decided to take a break from designing to focus on films and their family life but returned to work with directors such as James l brook and martin Scorsese who had specifically searched them out for their work as they had admired their style and work for a while. With Scorsasse the pair made the sequences for Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Age of innocence and casino adding to their collection of iconic film openings. For his last work he did the film poster for Steven speilburg’s schindler's list in 1993. the impact he had in the film industry has left such a mark that film director Spike Lee used a style similar to Bass’s for a film poster for clockers as a tribute to bass. 

The opening sequence I chose was Saul Bass’s work on Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as it is a very celebrated and iconic piece and Bass’s work in the opening only adds to this. The film starts with a bold white font with introduction to Bernard Herman for sound, the white bold lettering eight the classic and formal font stands out against the black background catching the audiences eye but also the combination of this with the soundtrack really adheres to the conventions of a thriller as it is sharpe and clean and almost eerie. The next addition Bass makes is the fast transition with grey and oddly displayed stripes coming into the screen from the left and right to cover the titles and when the stripes slide back oh the title is gone.

This imagery is very useful when it comes to this genre as the darker colours that don’t usually match and are slightly conflicting put an edge to the stripes and all of them coming in at different times and from different places also adds an unexpected element. Also the harsh, hard lines on all of the designs really give off a violent or frightening or tense mood which is a reference to the build up and over crimes that happen in the duration of this film. The next moment is the titling of the director steven spielberg whose name is also is the same bold, hard and white font but as a effect bass made the name look at though it had glitchy and pixelated but then come back together, which another strange and unique affect to keep the audience we faded but also add some confusion or tension.
the same transition of stripes occur to take away the directors name but this time they entered from the middle of the screen and reaches up to the top and bottom of the screen to remove the title making it very clear that movement is very important when it comes to Bass’s design also how they appear from different places gives hints to expect the unexpected.
The way the opening titles transfers into the city frame is through Bass’s stripes and his titles continue over a panning shot of the city and he continues with this movement by having location and dates slide in from all different directions so that they cannot be missed but also the words coming from everywhere suggests that in the film the danger could be anywhere and everywhere. overall Psycho offers a fast padded and detail, unique introduction to the films vibe without giving to much context and this form of moving and interesting imagery that way so used by Bass in this film was also used very often in the title sequence for the iconic ‘Fargo’ who's designer jeff russo was heavily inspired by Saul Bass.