Saul Bass born 1920 and died in 1996 at the age of 75 is regarded as an ingenious title sequence designer with auteurship of using lines and geometric shapes to conotate what will occur the feature following his title sequence, he is looked at in film as a pioneer and an inspiration to modern day title designers.
He studied at the art student’s league in New York, after graduating he took on free lance work as a graphic designer. He went on to open his own personal studio. Bass had an undeniable ability to show the audience brief snippets of what is going to happen the film they are about to watch with his iconic titles and use of geometric shapes was able to sum up the mood, tone and genre of the film with the opening credits and movie posters he has produced. Over his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.
Carmen Jones,1954(poster)
He began his time in Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until he along with filmmaker Otto Preminger was asked to the film poster for his 1954 film Carmen Jones. Preminger was very impressed with Bass's final product and out of instinct asked him to manufacture the title sequence as well, this was a chance for Bass to revolutionize title sequences, by creating a title sequence which shows the audience a glimpse of what is going to happen in the film as well as set the mood and genre for the film.
Following the success of creating the poster and title sequence for Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, he was asked by Otto to create the title sequence for his 1955 film, The Man with the Golden Arm. He used the shaped of the title sequence to create a sequence which involved a drug addiction theme, which was taboo subject in the 50’s. He chose the arm because this is where the needle is injected and the sequence (below) shows a struggle through drug addiction.
He provided memorable title sequences for Alfred Hitchcock, such as North by Northwest, Vertigo, and the iconic Psycho He later worked with Martin Scorsese on Casino and Goodfellas. Over a title designing career spanning 40 years, he created title sequences for a diverse range of films such as ,It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963),Spartacus (1960) and Cape Fear (1991).
Designed poster for iconic film the Shinning
Every Saul Bass title sequence created
His work will live on ferever
No comments:
Post a Comment