saul bass

saul bass was born on may 8th 1920 and lived till april 25 1996, he was an american graphic designer and an acadmey award winning film maker. saul bass had a career in the industry lasting around 40 years during this time saul bass becam best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences.

saul bass began his education at the art students league in manhattan, and later went on to design the sixth at&t bell system logo and the at&t globe logo, after the break up of the bell system.

beginning in hollywood saul bass would do print work fo film ads, when he collabrated with filmmaker otto to go on and design, the film poster for Carmen Jones. so impressed by his work he was asked to film the title opening sequence, which led him to working with some great filmmakers such as alfred hitchcock, otto preminger,stanley kubrick and martin scorsese, and collabrating with otto and alfred hitchcock.

saul bass was responsible for the best iconic logogs in north amercia, he later went on to produce logos for japanese companies.

saul bass title open sequences:

1. spartacus (1960)

2. the victors ( 1963)

3. its a mad,mad,mad,mad world ( 1963)

4. gooddfellas (1990)

5. cape fear (1991)

6. casino (1995)

saul bass iconic logos:

1. dixie ( 1969)

2. united way (1972)

the price of work i a, anaylsising is the title opening sequence for the film human factor.

when looking athe title opneing sequence for the film the human factor i noticed thaat the two main colours used were black and red. both these colours have deep denotations, for example, bklack has dennotations of death, hell, isolsation and red is like, blood, and death. however when looking at the colour red it can be suggested that there is deeper meaning behind the colour and it can in fact have connotations of love, passion, roses etc there could be deeper meaning behind the use of this colour.
it also only contained the image of a telephone, it was more like a still image with the camera making a pan movement. the suggest use of the telephone could be used to emphasis death as one minute the telephone is laying there the next it is dangling or could be where the most important extract of the film takes place, or could just be a symbol that has a great signifiance in the film.
when watching saul bass title opening sequence you can see how much times have changed, there was no suggestion of location no characters intoruduced, not really a narrative or plot.
although the genre may be introduced if you look at it like me and beleive it to be a horror/ thriller genre.
i think the title sequence is quite dull, the colours are dark and at this stage dont mean nothing to the audience. they aint appealing colours in the way that they have been used.
the typeface used is bold crooked white writing, again its simply ordinary and doesnt give anything to the film. the colour white emphasis cleaniness, purtiy, virginity. by using the colour white saul bass has added a twist in the title opening sequence for when it was jus black and red the dennotation of the colours where closely linked giving the suggestion of the horror/thriller genre hoever noe we have a colour whose denotations are complete opposite. this is a good
technique to use if the idea of this was to leave the audience in suspense and keep them guessing.
thorugh out the title sequence the whole camera movement is a pan movement, however as there is only a telephone to look at it doesnt do much to add anything to the film. however in the case of the telephine breaking the pan movement emphasised this in great detail.
the music used linked to the apparent genre quite well, it added tot eh suspense of the film and was probably one of the best features that were in the opening title sequence. without the music i dont think the title seqeunce would be appealing at all.
i thin the target audience is 18-34 year olds when watching the opening title seqeucne there is nothing to suggest this however because of the colours and the believed genre, i would have to say the film is aimed at older people. it is also known that this is the target audience for most genres. weither or not ther film is aimed at a specific genre is to hard too tell.
in the times when title opneing seqeuences were beginning i believe this would of possibly beem entertaining cause by use of colour, music, and little detail you are left in suspense. however if this was mage today i beleive it would come across as extremley dull, and i dont think it would appeal to its target audience as it doesnt contain all the conventions that a opening sequence of today would.
however when looking at the title opening sequence for cape fear you can see a big difference.
alhtought the colours used are very similar, the way it which there used, to describe the water and the surroundings you get a clear indication that this film is a horror/ thriller genre straight away.the connotationa of this colours and the way the are used reslte to the film signifficanlly. you can tell that these specific colours have been used for a reason.
furthermore, the images are no longer still, we know have moving images and a lot more camera shots such as close up to get a detailed descriptive of certain images that saul bass whats emphasis on.
we also have certain efffects such as the dissolve effects when the images dissolve into something else, this also makes the sequence good as it really adds suspense to the film and makes you wonder whats about to happen.
more over the images are mainly moving with a water effect, this is something i havent seen before and definently adds effect to the film and relates to the genre as the water effect gives you a chilling and pershaps feeling of fear.
moreover, in the title opening sequence for cape fear the actors and actresses are introduces, something we never saw in the human facotr. theres a lot more happening in this title sequence and really gets the ball rolling for the film to start it grabs your attention straightaway and leaves you gripped.
unlike the human factor the location is introuduced to us almost immediantly, we get a clear images of the lake, plus the water effects tel, us that something will happen here and the key location or the most significant location is indeed the lake.
another thing we are introuced to in cape fear is a character, we see a face of man that in a way gets sucked up, which adds suggestion that it is a horror genre. we also at the end see a cleat image of a dfinant character whos looking straight towards us which adds to the genre.
the music used in this opening title sequence is quite eery and leaves you feeling uneasy. sililary to the human factor i beleive that the music does add some level of suspense and realtes to the genre.
the typeface is bold and italic which attracts you more to it, italic wrting appeals to the audience as it is more detailed that straight writing. the writing also dissolves on and off the screan which relates to other dissolve effetcs used and the suggestion of genre.
similary to the human factor i think the target audience for this film is 18 -34 year olds. i think its mainly aimd at men due to the dark, deep balck blue colours. they have connotations which realte to the male sex, and theres nothing which suggests the aim towards a female.