Early Life
Saul Bass was born in May 8, 1920 in New York
City. He studied at the Art Student's League in
Manhattan until attending classes with Gyorgy
Kepes at Brooklyn College. He began his time in
Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until
he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger
to design the movie 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 tell
the beginning of the story within the opening
credits. Bass was one of the first to realize
upon the storytelling potential of the opening
and closing credits of a film.
Movie Title Sequences
Bass became notorious in the industry after creating
the title sequence for Otto Preminger's The Man
with the Golden Arm (1955). The subject of the
film was a jazz musician's struggle to overcome
his heroin addiction, a taboo subject in the mid
50's. Bass decided to create a controversial title
sequence. He chose the arm as the central image,
as the arm is a strong image relating to drug
addiction. The titles featured an animated, black
paper cut-out arm of a heroin addict. As he expected,
it caused quite a sensation.
For Alfred Hitchcock, Bass provided effective,
memorable title sequences for North by Northwest,
Vertigo, and Psycho. Bass famously claimed that
he directed the highlight of Psycho, the tightly
edited shower-murder sequence, though many on
set at the time (including Janet Leigh) dispute
this contention.
It was this kind of innovative, revolutionary
work that made Bass the revered graphic designer
he is today. His later work with Martin Scorsese
saw him move away from the optical techniques
that he had pioneered and move into computerised
titles, from which he produced the stunning sequence
for Casino.
He had been designing title sequences for 40 years
before his death in 1996, from films as diverse
as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) to Casino
(1995). He also designed title sequences for films
such as Goodfellas (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991),
Cape Fear (1991) and The Age of Innocence (1993),
all of which feature new and innovative methods
of production and startling graphic design, and
all of which attempt to tell some of the story,
be it introducing characters or giving plot clues,
in the first few minutes of the film.
He also designed the Student Academy Award for
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 1974, Bass made his only film as a director,
the visually splendid science fiction film Phase
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