Saul Bass

Background Info

• Born May 8th 1920 in New York City, Saul Bass studied at the Arts Students League in NYC, attended Brooklyn College and worked as a freelance designer before moving to Los Angeles in 1946• Bass, 1920 to 1996, was an American

motion-picture designer-director who was notable for his work in film and classic logo design.

His Work • Bass is best known for his use of simple, geometric shapes

and their symbolism. Often a simple dominant image stands alone to deliver a powerful message.

• Bass is also known for his imaginative, animated titles, prologues and epilogues.

• Bass’ uncanny ability to capture the mood of the film using simple shapes and images.

• The shapes were often hand drawn by Bass to create casual appearance and always packed with a sophisticated message. This was used to great effect in most well known posters

West Side Story- Analysis• This sequence is simple as are the majority of

Bass’ work. Slow fade in as music begins to play- yellow background reflects the ‘happy’ non diegetic soundtrack from the film

• Colour fades into orange as ‘Tonight’ begins to play. The faint lines on the screen seem to represent a setting, presumbly Manhattan where West Side Story is set .

• The music soon begins to become more romantic with the use of string instruments which is further emphasised with the purple/pink background.

• Slowly, the title of the film begins to appear. The music chosen features a dramatic instrumental which suggest to the audience the film will have a dramatic element to it.

• It can be suggested the blue background refers to the gang featured in the film, the Sharks, whereas the red refers to the rival gang, the Jets.

• The typography is bold and strong as it is in all caps this could further suggests the film will feature a large amount of drama.