Saul & Elaine Bass

 Who is Saul Bass?

Saul Bass is an American filmmaker and Graphic Designer. He is best known for his work in title sequence and Film posters. Some of his most prominent work being on movies such as 'The man with the golden arm' and 'Carmen Jones'. the movies 'Carmen Jones' was Bass' first big break in the industry, the team of filmmakers were so impressed with his work on the poster that they even invited him to produce the title sequence to the film. Saul Bass was then invited to work on the Otto Preminger film 'The man with the golden arm' where he took the tab-boo topic of drug abuse and made it the focus of the poster. This caused his name to blow up in the industry, leading him to work with names such as, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, and Martin Scorsese. Before Bass the title sequences of movies were often overlooked as disengaging to the audience, and were often projected on to a curtain before the movie, the curtain would only open for the first scene of the movie. Bass made it his mission with his minimalistic yet detailed designs to create engaging title sequences for the audience. Because of this, the movies he worked on often came with a note too "pull curtains before titles"

 

Who is Elaine Bass?

Elaine Bass, the wife of Saul Bass was commonly looked over in the industry due to her husbands success. Previous to her marriage to Saul, Elaine had already created a name for herself, working in Graphic design for 'Capitol Records'. during her career at Capitol, she was offered a job as Saul Bass' assistant in 1955. from 1960's onwards, most of Saul Bass' design work was often made in collaboration with Elaine, however due too the prejudice against women at the time period, her name was often looked over. 

Analysing a title sequence: Carmen Jones

The movie Carmen Jones is a love story set in the deep south during WWII about a man named Joe who walls in love with a woman called Carmen (an adaptation of the Spanish set opera, 'Carmen'). 

In the opening title sequence we only see a singular image, that of a burning rose. A rose is a common metaphor or signifier of love or lust, therefore, the burning rose could signify that the love that will be found in the movie is not to last. the fact that this is the only imagery that is seen in the opening title sequence could mean that the love that they found was never true or that they could never truly be together, almost like the story of Romeo and Juliet. the opening title sequence is set to the non diegetic soundtrack of the original operas 'Carmen: Overture', which is a playful fast tempo pice of music. the tempo of the music, sounding almost circus or carnival like, this could mean that the characters in the move experience an almost playful type of love.  

the titles themselves are in white and fade in and out. the font on the titles are storybook like, which means that the movie is probably a fiction movie.