Page 15 - dig_photo_processbk_jmmfinal

naked essence of a two-hour feature-length film and condensed the track sequence for the movie as well. As devised by Bass, the film’s
emotion of the drama into a brief title track of two minutes or less. title track initially called for a series of animated rectangular shapes that
Bass possessed a heightened sense of expression and an ability to marched into position to form an arm. The arm, continually distorted,
convey atmosphere, theme, and story line through the preliminary accented further the movie’s central theme of drug addition. The design of
title sequence of a feature film. For four decades he grabbed the the arm developed into the basis of an advertising campaign, although the
attention of the movie going public, holding spectators riveted to smoothly animated quality of the sequence, as it was originally designed,
the silver screen, eager to follow the title track into the substance of was eliminated from the final track. Interestingly, it was a tug-of-war
the plot. As an advertising designer he endowed similar extensions relationship between Bass and Preminger that resulted in the final version
of form and perception to products other than motion pictures. of the movie opener with disjointed animation of the arm. While Bass
With deftly coordinated combinations of advertising and product argued that the sequence fell flat without animation, Preminger stubbornly
packaging, he transformed the corporate image into a cohesive opposed the idea. The final compromise, staccato-like movements as the
personality, poised to seduce the consumer. arm segments maneuvered through the visual progression, quickly earned a
spot in the annals of classic moments in American film.
Bass was born in New York City on May 8, 1920. He learned his
way around the big city and developed a sense of sophistication that Decades later, critics concurred that the title sequence of Man with the
accompanies life in a world-class metropolis. From 1936 through Golden Arm revolutionized the film advertising industry by selling the film,
1939, in preparation for a career in graphic design, he studied as a unique and individualized commodity. A new concept emerged, which
modernism at New York’s Art Students League under the direction aligned the title sequence with a symbolic representation of the movie.
of Howard Trafton. Bass worked also as a freelance designer Prior to the arrival of Bass and his ideas, the title track served little more
during that time. Near the end of the Second World War, and still purpose than that of an announcement posted on a bulletin board. Every
freelancing, he enrolled at Brooklyn College where he studied new sequence by Bass was an artwork of itself, and a microcosm of the
with Gyorgy Kepes in 1944-45. In 1946 he moved to Los Angeles, full-length feature to follow. Pamela Haskin said of Bass in Film Quarterly,
California, where he established and operated a more permanent “His titles are integral to the film. When his work comes up on the screen,
business venture, a design firm called Saul Bass and Associates. the movie itself truly begins.” Bass’s ingenious use of morphs grabbed
filmgoers instantaneously with a micro summary of the story line of the
Master of Movie Titles film to follow. The laconically morphing flower-turned-teardrop at the
opening of Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse left the audience mesmerized in
Bass entered the film industry in 1954 when he developed the 1957.
advertising campaign for Carmen Jones, an Otto Preminger
production. The central image devised by Bass for that movie was a In 1958 the opening sequence of William Wyler’s Big Country marked a
simple but evocative rose in flames. The image served as a cohesive further evolution for Bass in his unique craft of filming title shots. Bass
motif for the film promotion and led to a successive assignment from acted on an inspiration to set the scene of the feature film by creating a
Preminger. He was asked to create the promotion motif for a 1955 video prologue to the movie proper. It was an interesting notion and one
Frank Sinatra film, called Man with the Golden Arm. Bass developed that proved highly successful. In the opening moments of Big Country he
a graphic symbol for the film’s advertising promotion by designing a introduced the premise that the main character left his home for the wide
logo that was shaped like an arm and intended to represent addiction. open space of the American West and simultaneously defined the extreme
Preminger approved the logo and requested bass to create the title remoteness of the location wherein the story takes place.

Course Title: Motion Graphics Project: The Volvo Ocean Race Student: Janet McPhatter Instructor: Prof. Russell Brown Term: May 2011