Saul and Elaine Bass research

"in a sense, all modern opening title sequences that introduce the moodier theme of a film are a legacy of the basses work."

Saul Bass 

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer who is best known for his designs for many opening title sequences and film posters.

During his 40-year career, Bass worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his best known title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.

Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the Geffen Records logo in 1980, the Hanna-Barbera "swirling star" logo in 1979, the sixth and final version of the Bell System logo in 1969, as well as AT&T Corporation's first globe logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He also designed Continental Airlines' 1968 jet stream logo and United Airlines' 1974 tulip logo, which became some of the most recognised airline industry logos of the era.

Elaine Bass

Elaine Bass is also an American opening title sequence designer and filmmaker.

Elaine worked for 40 years alongside Saul Bass, a graphic designer, title designer, and filmmaker whom she married in 1961. Together, they developed many projects for directors such as Martin Scorsese and Danny DeVito. She is one of the main designers who helped to elevate the short film and the title sequence to an art form.

Saul and Elaine 

Elaine designed title sequences alongside Saul Bass for 40 years, and employed diverse filmmaking techniques from Bunraku-style maneuvers in Spartacus, live action sequences in Walk on the Wild Side, Nine Hours to Rama, The Victors, Seconds, Grand Prix to time-lapse photography in The Age of Innocence, and even chopped liver in Mr. Saturday Night.

From the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, Saul and Elaine moved away from main titles to focus on filmmaking and their children Jennifer born in 1964 and Jeffrey born in 1967. Remarking on this time, Saul said:

"Elaine and I feel we are there to serve the film and to approach the task with a sense of responsibility. We saw a lot of pyrotechnics and fun and games and I suppose we lost interest. At the same time, an increasing number of directors now sought to open their own films in ambitious ways rather than hire someone else to do it. Whatever the reasons, the result was ‘Fade Out.’ We did not worry about it: we had too many other interesting projects to get on with. Equally, because we still loved the process of making titles, we were happy to take it up again when asked. ‘Fade In’…"

In the 1980s, the Basses were rediscovered by James L. Brooks and Martin Scorsese who had grown up admiring Saul Bass's film work. For Scorsese, Saul and Elaine Bass created title sequences for Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, and Casino (1995), their last title sequence. This later work with Scorsese saw the Basses move away from the optical techniques that Saul Bass had pioneered in his early career and move into the use of computerized effects. These later title sequences featured new and innovative methods of production and startling graphic design.

Director Martin Scorsese spoke about his collaboration with the Basses, saying:

"I had the honor of working with Saul and Elaine Bass on the title sequences of four pictures in a row. Each time they would study the film, take a few months, and then send us back a test that exceeded my wildest expectations. The simple, speeding graphic of the Goodfellas titles synced to the sound of speeding cars on an expressway … the ominous, wavering reflections in water of phantom images that began Cape Fear… the endlessly blooming flowers, like love renewing itself again and again, under layers of lace for The Age of Innocence… the form of a man falling through a neon hell in Casino. These title sequences didn’t just complement my pictures, they gave them another layer, embodying the themes and the emotions in a way that led viewers into the mystery of the film without giving it all away. And, of course, every sequence was different in style and approach."

Screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi said of Saul and Elaine Bass, "You write a book of 300 to 400 pages and then you boil it down to a script of maybe 100 to 150 pages. Eventually you have the pleasure of seeing that the Basses have knocked you right out of the ballpark. They have boiled it down to four minutes flat."