Saul Bass

                                                      Saul Bass

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and Academy award-winning filmmaker. Bass is best known for his picture title sequences. In fact Saul Bass was a genius at it, he took title sequences to a whole new level. Bass worked for some of the greatest Hollywood filmmakers ever, these include the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese.

Saul Bass was born in May 8, 1920, in New York City. He studied at the Art student's league in Manhattan.  He began his time in Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design the film poster for his 1954 film Carmen Jones. Preminger was so impressed with Bass’s work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. This was when Bass first saw the opportunity to create something more than a title sequence, but to create something which would ultimately enhance the experience of the audience and contribute to the mood and the theme of the movie within the opening moments. Bass was one of the first to realize the creative potential of the opening and closing credits of a movie. So in 1955 Bass created his first title sequence which was for Otto Preminger's, The man with the Golden Arm. This was a massive success which shot Bass to fame and all the best filmmakers wanted him to create their title sequences. 

A great quote from Saul Bass himself - "My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it."

Saul Bass worked write up until the year before he sadly past away in April 1996 at the age of 75. His last title sequence was for Martin Scorsese's film, Casino, in 1995. The title sequence below is for Casino and Saul Bass's last ever title sequence. I am also going to analyze it and prove how much of genius Saul Bass was.