Saul Bass is a graphic designer and film director, infamous for creating title sequences for films in the 1950's-1960's, and is a traditionalist within his work. He has worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. He became widely known in the film industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger's "The Man with the Golden Arm", which targeted the topic of heroin addiction.
Bass created title sequences for many world-renowned films including:
- Around the World in 80 days (1956)
- West Side Story (1961)
- Big (1988)
- The Age of Innocence (1993)
Bass also created logos for many companies as shown below:
Additional to that designed movie posters, some of which were for films he created the title sequence for, including "The Man with the Golden Arm."
I am personally very impressed with Bass's work and I like the fact that they all have the same aesthetic and style by being quite simple yet effective at planting narrative enigmas about the film.
The opening title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" begins with a sound bridge that instantly creates an atmosphere and mood typical as a "thriller". Typically the heavy stringer orchestral music creates an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The establishing shot is an extreme close up of an eye, typical of a thriller as this portrays emotion and the fear of the character.
The opening title sequence of "Psycho" features the titles being split into pieces, which could symbolise both the knife cutting the words in the same way the antagonist cuts the victim and also connotes the way the antagonists mind may be in pieces and not all together because he is a "psycho" which is a abbreviation of the mental disorder "psychopath." The music features high pitched violins, typical of fear, suspense and panic.
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