Saul Bass was a born in May 1920 and was an American graphic designer and film maker, most famous for his company logos, such as 'AT&T' and 'United Airlines' and for his opening title sequences, for example 'Psycho' and 'Casino'. Saul put his knowledge of graphic designing into his opening title sequences as he believed that an opening title sequence should convey meaning/narrative and almost show a short movie or tell a story. Saul met Elaine Makatura through film as Elaine was working with Alfred Hitchcock and many other directors before Saul. They married in 1961 went on to work with each other for 40 years making opening credits, short movies.
They worked together to make movies such as 'Psycho' directed by Alfred Hitchcock and 'The man with the golden arm' directed by Otto Preminger and 'West side story' directed by Jerome Robbins. Many directors have been influenced by Saul and Elaine Basses work as you can see in the opening title sequence of 'Monsters Inc'.
The establishing shot shows a mysterious, gloomy town with broken down houses immediately adding mystery and a dark theme. The tracking shot moving in towards the butcher's ads further mystery and creates a ominous atmosphere through the use of the lighting in the windows disabling the audience from seeing inside and by the use of the non-diegetic and ominously low sound. Once the camera enters the building we see the butcher sharpening his knife. The clear use of contrast between the glistening clean knife and the dusty and dirty surroundings shows the butchers love and care for his tools, this adds a sinister tone.
All of these opening title sequences give a lot of narrative detail but not a lot of character information. This is either because no characters are introduced or because of the lack of detail shown on the character, for example in the opening title sequence for 'James Bond - Casino Royal' James Bond is just portrayed as a black figure.
The most outstanding scene for me was the opening title sequence to 'Back To The Future', this is because of the ongoing tracking shot used when showing his clever contraption. The use of the ongoing shot showed how clever the contraption was by leading into several morning tasks. In my opinion the most successful opening title sequence was 'James Bond - Casino Royal' because of the use of the traditional James Bond opening title sequence effects, drawing in James Bond fanatics. On the other hand, in my opinion the least successful opening title sequence was 'Halloween ||', this is because of the lack of narrative information and character information. The only context that can be absorbed from this opening title sequence is the genre and when the movie may take place.
The opening sequence to 'Back to the Future' is nearly all one shot showing clever contraptions in the house that do certain physical tasks in the morning. This is very unusual to have in a house and so this immediately shows the audience this is no ordinary person or house. From this the audience has the idea of the house owner being an inventor or some kind of mechanical engineer. The use of the title 'Back to the future' and this clever contraption immediately makes the audience think of time travel, giving ideas of what the film is about and the events of the film. I believe this opening title sequence doesn't target a very specific audience however you could say it targets sci-fi movie and fiction enthusiasts through the use of the contraption shown by the travel shot and the title given. The genre of the movie isn't clearly given because of the lack of context given, however the genre may be determined from the title. The use of the stolen Plutonium shows themes of sci-fi and comedy as it is being reported on the news and then the tracking shot shows a crate of Plutonium under the desk.
We are introduced to one character who enters calling "Doc", we immediately know this character is a teenager through the use of the skateboard and the backpack. The camera tracks the lower part of the character and tracks the skateboard. This makes the audience want to understand more about the character. Nearly the whole of the sequence is one tracking shot, however there are some extreme close ups. The only sound used is the dialog and general background noise adding realism to the sequence as no non-diegetic sound is used. The credits are shown big and bold on the screen that fade in and out roughly every 3 seconds. This sequence is very effective because of the use of the ongoing tracking shot of the contraption immediately giving the audience ideas about the narrative. This opening sequence also leaves the audience wanting to know more as it gives us ideas about the narrative but not about the character introduced.
The opening title sequence to 'Dunkirk' shows an animated montage of dogfights and general war events. This immediately gives the audience context by telling them when and where the movie is based. From what we know so far the movie could either be post-war or during a war. The target audience for this movie are people who like action movies, war movies or movies based on real historic events. We know this because of the use of animated dog fights and the warlike setting shown. The intension of these animations is to attract the targeted audience type. The genre of this movie is very clearly shown as an action war film through the use of the mise en scene in the montage. No characters are introduced during the opening title sequence apart from some soldiers. This makes the audience want to know more and they have a lot of contextual information but no character information.
No camera work is used in this opening title sequence as it is all animated. Parallel sound is used as when there are planes on the screen as there are plane sounds. There is also non-diegetic unsettling music playing which increases in intensity as the title appears and the sequence ends. This adds to the horror and tragedy of war and gives the audience more understanding of the narrative as the movie may be very violent and graphic and disturbing. There are many editing techniques such as where the credits are placed. The credits in this opening title sequence are often placed in places where dark and light meet, for example one credit is placed just above the surface of the sea line because of how the darkness of the sea meets the light of the sky. The series of clips are cut without any transitions between one another. This opening title sequence is very effective because of the information and context given, for example when and where the movie is set is very clear.
Narrative is given in the opening title sequence through the use of a montage of the world after the disease outbreak. The audience also gets an idea of the rest of the movie because of the blood, gore and violence used in these short clips, for example the short clips of people screaming in pain and struggle to control their body's shows the violence and the transformation of the humans into zombies immediately telling us this movie is post-apocalypse. The target audience for this movie is people who like gore, blood and violence. I can see this because of the amount of blood and violence shown in this sequence. It is very easy to gather the information from this opening title sequence to say this movie is a thriller because of the blood and violence used. The credits are also written in blood to show horror and death furthermore showing thriller. In this sequence we are introduced to many people however the audience isn't made to form a bond with them because it only shows a montage of people panicking and infected people trying to kill the regular humans. We are also introduced to a news reporter who is explaining the current world situation and giving context to the audience, the audience is given some short clips showing of the news reporter on air, giving the audience a closer connection to him.
Many extreme wide shots have been used to show the audience the scale of the catastrophe. Extreme close-ups have also been used to show the blood and gore to shock and thrill the audience from the very beginning. The use of dialog helps the audience understand the situation and gather information to get context. The lyrics "the hairs on your arms will stand up, to the terror" are used to compliment whats on the screen, adding to the thriller and terror of the movie and showing the genre and theme from the very beginning. Short duration shots showing panic have been used to create tension and to highlight the sense of panic for the audience to understand the intensity of the situation. I think this opening title is very successful because of the amount of context and narrative given through the use of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene. I also think that the genre and theme of the movie is very clearly given in this opening title sequence making it very easy for people to get context and further understanding of the movie.
In the opening title sequence of 'James Bond Casino Royal' the audience gets ideas of the films narrative through the use of the screenplay as it has the same look to all of the James Bond movies which immediately addresses the audience the movie is trying to attract. The use of the card suits and the casino patterns directly correlates to the title and shows where the movie may be based. Although no clear detail of the narrative is given the use of the original opening title sequence from previous James Bond movies shows the clear format of the movie with James Bond fighting his enemies in order to fix a certain situation or save someone/something. This opening title sequence targets all James Bond fans and attracts them using the tradition James Bond opening title sequence.
The use of guns and fighting during this sequence immediately addresses the genre as an action film. The use of blood emphasises this. We are introduced to James Bond, the gentleman spy right from the beginning of the sequence however we are also introduced to some other characters such as the red figures fighting the black figure. From this we know this is similar to other James bond films as there is good versus bad. We know that the black figure is James Bond and the red figures are his enemies because James Bond traditionally wears smart black suits and the colour red is most commonly associated with danger to violence. Many creative and traditional Bond transitions have been used during this opening title sequence, for example when the blood pours down the screen it then transitions into swirling card suits given context and location of the movie while also addressing the title. These type of editing techniques are used to target the James Bond audience as it is very similar to the previous Bond films.
I think this opening title sequence is very successful as it attracts a perticular audience type by using traditional Bond movie edits and themes. It also gives a very good introduction showing the violence, action and some context through the use of creative animations.
In the opening title sequence of 'Halloween ||' the audience gets given almost no narrative understanding as there is nothing on the screen apart from the credits and a slowly enlarging jack 'o' lantern, however the audience knows there is an obvious theme of Halloween because of the title and the enlarging jack 'o' lantern. This immediately creates suspicion and mystery for the audience and draws in our attention as we want to see where this movie is leading. Initially it's quite hard to figure out the target audience because of the lack of narrative information however judging by the information given/genre and the title of the movie I presume that the target audience is around 17-30. I also used the average age of people who go to the cinema to predict the target audience. This movie also targets many horror movie finatics as 'Halloween |' was a major hit in the horror movie business.
We can tell this movie is a horror because of the use of the enlarging jack 'o' lantern as it's used at halloween. Near towards the end of the opening title sequence the jack 'o' lantern slowly breaks open and reveals a skull also showing ideas of darkness, death and horror. There are no characters introduced to us in this opening title sequence which adds to the mystery. The music involved during the opening title sequence adds to the eeriness because of its odd and off beat rhythm.
I think this opening title sequence is very effective because of it's simplicity and the direct correlation between the title 'Halloween' and the jack 'o' lantern used. I also think that adding the skull at the end after the jack 'o' lantern breaks open helps to give the audience an idea of the genre and theme as it shows tragedy and death.
