The Art Of A Title Sequence

Titles in a silent film:

Words and lettering played an enormous role in films of the silent era. Film titles made their appearance in the earliest silent films, along with letter cards (or inter-titles), which provided context. These cards were the responsibility of the lettering artist, who collaborated with the scriptwriter and director to create narrative continuity so that audiences could follow what they were seeing. Distinct from these inter-titles was the film’s main title, a vehicle of particular concern to film producers because of the legal, copyright and marketing information this footage had to bear.

This gives me an understanding that words had a big impact on the films that had no sound because of the technology they had back then, but now in this generation technology is at its highest meaning you wont see any words or lettering in a film without sound being in the film. The director, film writer and producer had to wok together to make sure the film had a clear understanding and also to make sure the film makes sense.

A great draftsman and visual storyteller, Saul Bass ran the gamut of techniques for his title sequences: montage, live action, cut-out paper animation, typography in motion, to name a few. Whatever technique he used, Bass summarized the film as a metaphor that often shone with creativity. (In January 2010, David Peters, Kai Christmann and Dav Rauch, all of Design Films, gave two presentations on the work of Saul Bass at the 12th Future Film Festival in Bologna, Italy.)

I find this part interesting as it tells me that Saul Bass is one of the first to use techniques such as montages, live action and cut-out paper animation in his title sequences and they ''often shone with creativity.'' He inspired many of today's film makers and has had a massive impact on films and there title sequences.