Titles | Rachaelcrisp Media

Otto Preminger's controversial drugs movie arrived in US theatres in 1955. At the time, curtains in front of the screen would not be pulled back until after the title sequence of films has been shown as they were so dull. Therefore, Bass made it his mission to create a dynamic, interesting title sequence; a note was added to the can containing the film of reel - “Projectionists – pull curtain before titles”. The title sequence was designed almost similarly to modern art, in order to compel the audience and change the trends of title sequencing.

Bass was challenged by the need to create a symbol for the drug taking topic of the film that signified the intense drama, without resulting in sensationalism. To do this, he created a distorted image of a disjointed arm - Bass powerfully suggests the heroine taking through the disfiguration without being implicitly literal. This is created by the white bars on a black background which appear and dissapear in abstract patterns, until they take the form of the arm. The use of white on black creates a strong contrast and shows the intensity of the film. Bass also designed the title sequence to the beat of the music, to bring the two pieces together.

Saul stated that “The intent of this opening was to create a mood spare, gaunt, with a driving intensity… [that conveyed] the distortion and jaggedness, the disconnectedness and disjointedness of the addict’s life the subject of the film.”

TITLE SEQUENCES:

Title sequences are important in films as they need to put across information in a clear and aesthetically pleasing way, whilst suggesting or possibly seeting the tone and atmosphere of a film. For example, titles are often successful in conveying the genre of a film through use of symbold, colour schemes, editing, technical codes and font style. Also, title sequences credit the cast and crew involved in production as a sign of recognition and promotion. I have made use of the 'Art of the Title' website to aid my research into title sequence designers.

SAUL BASS:

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker in the 20th Century. He produced title sequences for well known Hollywood names such as Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder, and gained recognition for his work in 1955 when Bass created the titles for Otto Preminger's 'The Man with the Golden Arm'. He changed this element of the film industry, inspiring modern opening titles through his innovative and memorable title sequences, even inventing a new type of kinetic typography. His methods are known to be diersified, ranging from cutout animation and montage to typography. Saul Bass shows the importance of title sequences through his statement: "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”

KYLE COOPER:

Kyle Cooper is a director and designer of film title sequences, holding an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art. Over his career, he has directed and produced more than 150 film title and VFX sequences, including those for films such as 'Se7en','Spider-Man', and 'The Mummy'. In 2003, Cooper founded Prologue Films and from here he created more title sequences, such as for 'The Walking Dead'.

For the title sequence of 'Se7en', David Fincher asked Cooper to create a sequence that set the pitch, plot and characterisation for the noir thriller. This is not shown until after the protagonist characters have been introduced. The title sequence is shown following close up shots of hands clipping paper and images to create his diary entries. This allows the audience to build a relationship with the antagonist, without the character being fully introduced until much later in the film, and also hints at the plot line to come. This footage also gives the audience an insight into the workings of a serial killer.

Kyle Cooper makes use of a fragmented montage of partially destroyed images and distorted graphic sets. 5 weeks were taken to cut the footage together; the takes are short, creating a fast pace and excitement. These fast take give only a quick glimpse of pieces of information which hint at events that will occur later on in the film. This captures the attention of the audience and intrigues them to find out what will happen.

The text was hand-etched into black-surface scratchboard in an unneat manner, to portray the hand writing of the killer himself, and then manipulated during the process of film transfer in order to increase the smearriness. After this, the transfer was cut up and reassembled during editing. This added one final layer of dissaray and disorder, to suggest the distress of the character. Similar to Saul Bass' work, the text is white on black background to create the stark contrast.