Low Saul
Saul Bass (May 8th 1920 - April 25th 1996) is a graphic designer American famous for his work in the cinematographic field.
He collaborated with the largest realizers, at the same time for the generic creation of S and for the design of posters.
Biography
Saul Bass is born in Bronx, in New York on May 8th, 1920. It very early shows predispositions for the drawing and at 15 years takes courses of painting to the “ Art Students League ” of Manhattan before reaching the necessary age to continue its studies with the “ Brooklyn College ”. It is at that time that under the impulse of its profressor Gyorgy Kepes, he discovers the Bauhaus and the Russian Constructivisme and initiates with modernistic esthetics . After several training courses in studios of design of Manhattan, Saul begins as an advertizing graphic designer freelance . He moves for Los Angeles in 1946 , in the search of more than freedom in its work and opens its own studio, “ Saul Bass and associates ”, in 1950 .
It takes part thereafter in the realization of film posters and meets Otto Preminger in 1954 for the design of the poster of Carmen Jones . The approach adopted by Bottom, consisting in centering the publicity of film on a graphic symbol (in fact a stylized pink), is in total rupture with the methods in force until there and resting primarily on the use of visual elements resulting from film (the trailers and them posters of then are only a Montage of images of film or portraits of the actors). Allured, Preminger requires of him to carry out the credits. It is the following year, whereas he always works on the promotion campaign of the Man with the gold arm ( The Man with the Golden ARM ) with Preminger, that he carries out the credits which will make it recognize like the Master of the kind. The force of evocation of visual conceived by Saul Bass (a stylized arm representing the talents of musician and player of poker of the main character, as its addiction with heroin) is such as at the time of the first of film in New York, only the logo is posted, the title is superfluous. A note of accompaniment is stuck on the reels of film; it specifies “Projectionists: to open the curtains before the credits”. Hitherto, the list of the participants in the realization of film was considered to be so tedious that the curtains opened to discover the screen only once the finished credits. For Preminger, the work of Saul Bass forms to integral part of the Man to the gold arm and must be seen by the spectators. Collaboration between the two men will continue on ten other films.
The quality of these second credits leads it to carry out of them many others as well as prologs and epilogs of which those of Autopsie of a murder or West Side Story . It starts two other notable collaborations then, one with Alfred Hitchcock, the other with Stanley Kubrick. It is with these realizers that beyond its work on the credits, Saul Bass also takes part in the design and the realization of certain sequences, in particular the scene of the shower in the film Psychose ( Psycho ) or combat of Spartacus .
Since 1964, it carries out court-measurings (the first of them are The Searching Eye and From Here to There ), for which several will be rewarded in festivals ( Why Man Creates gains a Oscar in 1969). The failure of sound only feature-length film, Phase IV , leads it to concentrate on the graphic design. It will produce within this framework of many logos among which those of United Airlines, AT&T or Minolta.
Even respected adulated for its work in the Years 1950 and 60, it is requested by realizers of the following generation such as Danny DeVito ( the War of the Pinks ) or Penny Marshall ( Big ). In 1990, a new profitable employment relationship starts with Martin Scorsese for the film Freed the ( Goodfellas ) then on three other films.
Its death, on April 25th, 1996 at the 75 years age, puts an end to a 40 years career and contributions to more than 50 films.
Influence
Saul Bass revolutionizes the credits of cinema. Of a purely informative and legal function, it gives to this one a narrative and artistic dimension, carrying out true court-measurings which form integral part of film as a work. Low underlines the set of themes visual and dramatic film, exposes the character of the characters:
“initial My thoughts butt what has title could C was to set mood and to premium the underlying core off the film, S story, to express train the story in nap metaphorical way. I saw the title ace has way off conditioning the goes down for hearing, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already cuts year emotional resonance with it. I had has strong feeling that films really began one the first frame.”
“My starting idea was that credits could put in environment and underline the narrative screen of film to evoke the metaphorical history of manner. I saw the credits like way of conditioning the public so that, when the film starts, it has already an emotional echo among spectators. I was convinced that the film really starts as of the first image. ”
The original quality of Bottom lies in its capacity to identify the detail which summarizes with him only film and to restore it in a graphic and modern way. For Scorsese, these creations are “a emblematic, recognizable image instantaneously and immediately related to film” (“ year emblematic image, instantly recognisable and immediately tied to the film ”).
It is this very graphic approach (with a prevalence of the lines, forms cut out and of a Typographie broken) which marks the rupture with the practices in vogue. The poster of the Man to the gold arm forsakes any representation of the Frank Sinatra star who incarnates the main role, a very dared party taken which as well marks the beginning of a new era in the field of the posters as in that of the credits. Gradually, the sequences created by Saul Bass diversify and forsake the graphic elements to integrate other means such as photographs ( Spartacus ), animations ( the Round the world tour in 80 days - Around the World in 80 days, 1956) or of the filmed sequences ( Walk one the Wild Side ).
Thereafter, the credits explore another way and are integrated into the narration while being in the continuity of the account. The credits intervening with the whole beginning of film, Saul Bass imagine what could exist before the first images filmed by the realizer (what it names the “time before” ). It shows the moments or the months preceding the beginning by the action in order to reinforce the context as in Grand Prix of Frankenheimer:
“In this box, I dealt with the very moments before has Monte Carlo race. I was interested in what takes place in the preparations for the race. The tension. The anxiety. The little nervous technical adjustments and gestures that the drivers go through.”
“In this case, I treated the moments right before a Grand Prix of Monaco. I was interested in what occurs during the preparations from the race. The tension. Anxiety. Small technical adjustments and nervous gestures which the pilots live. ”
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