Title Sequences, Kyle Cooper and Saul Bass - Sam Lee

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper is one of the most successful modern designers of motion picture title sequences. He has created many Films such as Flubber (1997), Hulk (2008) and his latest film Tropic Thunder. In addition to this he has created various computer games such as metal gear solid 2 and metal gear solid 3.

These are the some examples of Kyle’s work on the film hulk. The Title sequence basically tells the story and also runs some credits telling the audience who is starring in the film and what is happening in the opening scene. It tells the audience what is happening and gives them a rough idea what the film is about. Kyle wanted to run credits over the opening scene, people believed it would confuse the audience however it was effective and worked well. This title sequence is from the film Dawn of dead, the sequence shows that there is a war going on against the super natural (zombies) and that it is happening all around the world. The white house is shown to represent America; a mosque is shown to represent the Middle East. The overall picture is put together as a collage to represent the clashes with the supernatural on a world wide base.


Saul Bass

Saul Bass was also a notorious title sequence producer. Bass became hugely known in the film industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger's, The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). The subject of the film was a jazz musician's epic struggle to overcome his heroin addiction. Bass decided to create a controversial title sequence to match the films controversial subject. He chose an arm as his central image, as the arm is a strong image relating to taking heroin and drug addiction. He expected it would cause quite a sensation therefore the title sequence featured an animated, black paper-cut out arm of an heroin addict. Over 40 years bass carried on creating title sequences some of the most famous being Spartacus (1960), Cape fear(1991) and Casino (1995).Bass created many title sequences for thrillers such as Vertigo (1958). The film is about a man trying to find a woman’s identity. Bass uses the story line to get the audience fixed to the film straight away, he does this buy showing each facial feature of the woman’s face in various close up shots. After showing various body parts the camera becomes transfixed on the lady’s eye. The Camera then turns to her face and before her true identity in shown the screen becomes soaked in red thus making the woman anonymous pmce again. Bass does this to make the audience ask the question who was that and it also sets the mood for the film.