Saul Bass

Psycho

Psycho was made in 1960 by Universal pictures and Paramount, it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Saul Bass made the title sequence for it. The opening title sequence reflects the genre, theme, and mood of the film through the use of colours as well as the movement and the positioning of the titles. It is evident from the titles alone that this is going to follow the horror genre, although there may be some aspects of thriller within it. The genre is made apparent from even before anything Psycho based is shown, the distorted paramount logo highlights the horror genre from very early on.

There are several clues at the narrative through the use of editing, whereby the titles are incredibly fast-paced and jolty which instills the feeling of unease and fear in the audience, much like the rest of the film will, considering the genre. Moreover, the fast-paced editing, as well as the parallel soundtrack, creates fear in the audience as they feel as though they're being chased or followed, this suggests hints as to what's to come in the rest of the movie. Additionally, the soundtrack builds tension through the fast pace as well as instrument choices, whereby it really does cement the horror genre through the unpredictable tone of the music. 

The simplicity of the sequence also subverts from Bass' common foreshadowing technique, although this minimalistic approach hints at far more of the story than you would think, as the mysterious yet uncomfortable tone of the sequence could reflect the narrative of the movie, as it foreshadows further events. The colour scheme is incredibly basic, whereby it's kept to just black and white, although the simplistic colours help to build tension in the scene as the colour black is often connotated with death and evil, and the white text really stands out in contrast to the dark background. Finally, the jolty movements of the graphics and the distorted titles make the audience feel uneasy as they create an element of suspense as we are unsure as to what will happen next.

By incorporating the titles into a sequence as opposed to still images the audience are already engaged from the offset as they almost feel obliged to depict what can happen in the rest of the movies from the titles alone.

We researched the opening title sequence of Grease a few months ago, I believe that this also follows this style as it creates a backstory to the actual movie, whereby the characters and main locations are introduced to the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed the titles of Grease as you're emerged in the movie from the offset, although Grease is more of a musical with elements of romance and comedy, therefore these two movies are almost incomparable. 

Additionally, the titles of Psycho could be compared to those of James Bond whereby the opening title sequences of the James Bond franchise are a key part of the movies as they tell a story within themselves. Moreover, both Psycho and Skyfall (James Bond) follow a dark colour palette and both use elements of text positioning and size to hint at the narrative.