Bass on titles

Here's a bit about Bass on his titles, also including a few of his:



Watching this veideo opened my understanding to the power of the title sequence and what truely it is. It can be many things, such as being a prologue to a film, to being just an introduction to a film. Saul Bass is indeed one of the most important figures in the evolution of the title sequence, being of the first to have brought it to lfe by putting the images into motion.

Bass's use of straight lines, which may be refered to as one of his trade marks, i believe, are an atractive feature to his title sequences. They pull you in and get you slightly excited, as at the time he was probably one of the only few to use straight lines in his title sequences, as you think 'wow this is different'. Its possible that Bass's favour of straight lines could have originated from his previous work in grapic design, where straight lines are used alot. A title sequence i believe to be a good example to show would be his work on the 'North by Northwest' film by Alfred Hitchcock.



Aswell as his like in the use of lines in his title sequences, it would seem that Bass also likes the use of a cartoon/animation sequence. Bass uses this in a variety of was, such as we have just seen in 'North by Northwest' going from the animated opening with the lines and fading into live action, and a complete use of animation, where his complete title sequence is all animated such as taht of 'Mad Mad Mad Mad World' by Stanley Kramer.



Bass's choice in music always seems to be similar, orchestral pieces of music. This could be due to saul bass's interest in this music or i could just be because this is the sort of music that was floating around at the time, either way it fits effectivly with his titles and n films such as 'Psycho' by Alfred Hitchcock, the music sets a pace and tone to the film aswell as making you feel slighlty uneasy.

Contiuity sequence