Research of Saul and Elaine Bass

Research of Saul and Elaine Bass

Saul Bass was a filmmaker and graphic designer who was especially well known for his title sequences and film posters. His wife Elaine Bass was also a filmmaker and designed titles and also worked alongside Saul where they married on the 25th April 1961. 

Saul Bass' career last for 40 years and during that time he worked with some Hollywood's most iconic filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. Bass' sequence were often memorable and unique, some of his best work can be seen on the the films North by Northwest, Vertigo and the incredibly influential Psycho.

Saul's posters were also incredibly influential with his minimalistic style. They worked well not only as a standalone film poster but also as artwork which had a timeless quality, this effect is produced by the lack of cheesy marketing ploys and huge amounts of text.

Elaine joined Saul in his work swiftly after he finished the opening title sequence to the film Spartacus which Elaine was actually the producer and co-director for. Since then they worked closely together and there first collaboration together was some short promotional films including 'From Here To There' and The Searching Eye' 

Surprisingly Saul also ended up designing some well known corporate logos such as AT&T (1969) and their logo in 1983!  

Here is some examples of the work they have done:

Next, I will analyse one of their opening title sequences, Psycho:

The sequence begins with a group of string instruments playing a fast ominous non-diegetic soundtrack which is in a minor which provokes fear into the hearts of the audience. Whilst this
frantic tune is playing horizontal black lines swiftly travel across the screen and then reveal the name of director 'Alfred Hitchcock' and then that name is quickly disposed of by the lines, this could possibly imply that there is cold blooded thinking actions based on how quickly the directors name is disposed of by the lines which are orchestrating everything that is happening within the sequence. then the word 'Psycho' is revealed in a larger font size. This larger font further suggests the importance of the word and how it may be essential throughout the film and that it is the only clue needed to build a picture of what the film is about, possibly someone absolutely unhinged and a danger
to everyone around them; the font of the word begins to distort and shift around which could be compared to stabbing and slicing the word up which in turn reinforces the idea of killing taking a key role in this film. The word is split in two and then is disposed of vertically (half the word coming up half going down) where the title of the starring role Anthony Perkins is revealed but then being split into two just like the last title and then revealing more titles. the way the titles are disposed of and chucked out of the screen provides a sense of disposing and almost destruction of the words which implies some kind of mass murder.

After some more titles and words being cut up by the black lines that could be compared to one mass murder in their own right. The soundtrack then takes a step back and softens a little to become less aggressive but more eerie and creepy than before, the visuals also change to reveal a cityscape in which the camera is panning from left to right; this could represent a psycho man and the way he looks down on the world and sees everyone as just another opportunity to cause harm. Then the date is shown through a title as Friday the 11th December before zooming in two a specific building with a specific window and revealing the exact time 2.43pm. This is all information a killer would need to know hen attacking his victims because they would need to know what time they are going to be in the house and probably have a plan. The zoom in also represents how random killing people may be and sometimes can appear random to who it
happens to  since the zoom in happend to one specific window out of hundreds.

This opening title sequence has clearly set the foundation for most horror films today with the way they use their openings by leaving subtle clues of what is tom come such as the way the opening scene for the horror film 'Hostel' gives disturbing imagery with creepy noises to keep the viewer guessing of what is to come.