Best of Title Sequences
Best of Title Sequences
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (commonly known as Dr. Strangelove) is a 1964 black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn and Slim Pickens. Loosely based by screenwriter Terry Southern on Peter George’s Cold War thriller novel Red Alert (aka Two Hours to Doom), Dr. Strangelove satirizes the Cold War and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction.
The story concerns a mentally unstable US Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, and follows the President of the United States, his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer as they try to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse, as well as the crew of one B-52 as they attempt to deliver their payload.
In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Additionally, it was listed as #3 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 drama film based on the novel of the same name by Harper Lee. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and stars Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch.
In 1995, the film was listed in the National Film Registry. It also ranks twenty-fifth on the American Film Institute’s 10th anniversary list of the greatest American movies of all time, and #1 on AFI’s list of best courtroom films.
Saul Bass (May 8, 1920—April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen.
During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, the text racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the United Nations building in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that raced together and was pulled apart for Psycho.
Saul Bass designed the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, that at one point achieved a 93 percent recognition rate in the United States. He also designed the AT&T “globe” logo for AT&T after the break up of the Bell System.
Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 independent film co-written and directed by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess and stars Jon Heder as the main character, Napoleon Dynamite. The film was Jared Hess’s first full-length feature and is partially adapted from his earlier short film, Peluca.
Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in and near Preston, Idaho, in the summer of 2003. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004. In June 2004 it was given a limited release. Its wide release followed in August.
Panic Room is a 2002 thriller film directed by David Fincher, and starring Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker. It also stars Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, and Kristen Stewart. The film tells a story of a mother and a daughter hiding in a panic room during an invasion by three armed robbers who aimed at millions of dollars stored in the house. The tale expresses strong moral themes.
Title design company: Picture Mill
The sequence: Giant, 3-D credits hover ominously over New York City. The letters achieve a sense of menace because of their scale and the uncanny natural appearance of the type, which somehow manages to look as if it actually belongs within the skyline’s achitecture.
The process: According to Lebeda, director David Fincher “had a vague notion he wanted to be outside.” Much of the film itself takes place in a tiny space. The vastness of the skyline and the enormity of the type conspire to set up spatial discomfort. An inspired transition for a movie that includes a mother and daughter’s desperate, claustrophobic fight with home invaders.
The Incredibles is a 2004 computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, centering around a family of superheroes. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director of The Simpsons who has also directed the 1999 animated movie The Iron Giant and the 2007 Disney Pixar film Ratatouille. The Incredibles was originally developed as a traditionally-animated movie for Warner Bros., but after Warner shut down its division for fully animated theatrical features, Bird moved to Pixar and took the story with him.
The Island of Dr. Moreau is a 1996 film, the third major movie version of the H. G. Wells novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, a science fiction horror story about a scientist who attempts to convert animals into people. The film stars Marlon Brando, features Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk, David Thewlis and Ron Perlman, and was directed by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay was written by Richard Stanley and Ron Hutchinson.
Seven (also marketed as SE7EN) is an American 1995 Academy Award, BAFTA nominated crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The story follows two detectives, one retiring (Morgan Freeman) and one his replacement (Brad Pitt), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.