analysis of title sequences

PSYCHO

I analysed the opening sequence to the film Psycho created Saul Bass. It began with the music which was screeching violins; this set the mood of the film straight away and gave the sense of suspense and fear. He uses a series of simple white bars to usher in the sans-serif titles and escort them back out again. Although these lines come from different areas of the screen, they never once break formation or intersect. The way the lines move around from left to right etc. represents the mind of psycho (Norman Bates character)  with confusion. Saul Bass introduces, the director Hitchcock first then the name of the movie after this all the actors and actresses following that came the all the producers and people involved in making the film.

THE WAR OF THE ROSES

Secondly I analysed the opening sequence ‘the war of the roses’ also created by Bass. This film opening linked to the way Psycho was arranged with who was introduced in what order. It was static, nouveau sans-serif typeface is superimposed over a neutral grey background which soon was discovered to be a bit of white fabric. The fabric becomes more detailed and the folds become more clear and pronounced and by the end you discover that it’s a crumpled tissue which links into the film as the first thing you see is the man blowing his nose with this tissue which was a clear graphic match.  The music on this has a much different feel to it compared to psycho as Saul chose music which linked well to the story line and feel of this film. It goes from very light hearted music which is calm and quiet to sudden bangs and loud noises then it changes again.

ANATOMY OF A MURDER

Anatomy of a Murder was the third opening title sequence I analysed and again was created by Saul Bass. He created this for a crime drama movie but he went a different way about this by using graphic design. The music placed with this opening scene was music which created suspense. The animation worked well and told a little story within itself. A body is shown as one then dissembled and put up like a jigsaw this then had the names of actors/actresses placed inside it. It was said that no special equipment was needed for this and only resources around them, this would of meant it was a lot cheaper than the other film openings he had created before.