Title Sequences

The Work of Saul Bass

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and filmmaker. He is very well known for this film posters and motion picture title sequences. During his long 40year career, he worked with some of the worlds best filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Stanley Kubrick. Bass became widely known after creating a title sequence for Otto Preminger’s ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ (1955).Towards the end of his career, Bass worked alongside Martin Scorsese and created the title sequence for the well known film, ‘Cape Fear’.

Saul Bass’ The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)

The subject to this film was a jazz musicians struggle to get over his heroin addiction. This was a huge taboo subject of the time that the film was made. Bass decided to create a controversial title sequence to match the films controversial subject. For the central image of the title sequence, Bass chose an arm. Even today, arms are a strong image relating to drug use. The sequence features an animated, white on black cut out arm portraying a heroin addict. As Bass expected, it caused quite a sensation when the film was released.

The Importance of a Title SequenceThe importance of a title sequence in a thriller is that it sometimes highlights some of the important elements in the film. It doesn’t give away any of the story but it still relates to it. The title sequence to the newer version of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ really entices the audience to watch the film because it shows a form of black liquid running though things like keyboards and wires, portraying that there will be elements of technology in the film. The image of the girl getting tied up really makes the audience feel anxious and wanting to know why she is tied up. Whilst watching this title sequence there were a lot of questions going around in my head. Why is she tied up? What is the meaning of the bees? Why is there loads of wires floating around? What is the black liquid resembling? This is a really good title sequence to look at because it really shows elements in the film but it also makes the audience want to continue watching so they are able to get answers for their many questions.