In this first picture, you get an immediate idea what the film, furthermore the tone of the film, is about. To state the obvious, you are about to watch a zombie film. But just from the visuals of a father/son three-legged race where everyone bar one of the contestants has been infected, you can tell it’s going to be a comedy. |
As any person would realise, when talking about the history of a subject, the logical place to start would be right at the beginning. Not to long before I was born in 1904, famous businessperson, Thomas Edison was the first to implement a title scene. However, it was not for artistic reasons as they are used for now in modern times. They were actually used to combat film piracy (Patrick (H) Willems (2021).
This idea of having something before your films was in its very early stages at this point and took a while to catch on. Even contemporaries and pioneers of cinema, the Lumière Brothers didn’t have any title sequences for their films at that point (Gray, 2013). I believe that this was due to film being in its infancy and therefore more focus was being put on what a person can do with a camera rather than the finances behind it. It took a businessman in Edison to have a reason as to why you would want to have something before your film. |
Above - Edison's original anti - piracy title
Below - Example of Edison's early film |
I would like to introduce the second part of the history section. This is credited to a man who goes by the name Saul Bass. Saul Bass is one of, if not the, most crucial figure in the artistic development of title sequence for cinema. Mr. Bass was born in New York, United States in 1920 and is the proprietor of the best signature in history (pictured right). For most of his career, Saul Bass had been a graphic designer and occasional dipped his toe in the world of film by designing posters for such films as Champion (Dir. Mark Robson, 1949), Death of a Salesman (Dir. László Benedek, 1951), The Moon is Blue (Dir. Otto Preminger, 1953). The director of that last film, Otto Preminger, played a big role in the illustrious career of Saul Bass. Otto employed Mr. Bass once again to design the poster for his next film, Carmen Jones (1954). Otto had been so impressed by the Mr. Bass' artistic ability that he hired him once again but to design the title sequence for the film the Man with the Golden Gun (1955).
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Mr. Bass went from strength to strength after Vertigo and would actually continue to work with Mr. Hitchcock throughout the late 50's and 60's. In fact, Mr. Bass is credited as the first implementer of Kinetic typography within cinema when he used it in the film North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959). Kinetic Typography is basically animated text. In the title sequence for North by Northwest, you can see immediately see that the credits now move instead of just fading in. This added dynamism would've probably blowed the minds of cinema goers at the time à la Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat.
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