Art of the title article for film title sequences

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/

"Words and lettering played an enormous role in films of the silent era."

Many films that were released during the silent movie era created title sequences in a more traditional and old fashioned manner. Usually, the title sequences would be created by placing text and cutting outs of writing onto a black screen board/title. This would then be recorded by the film stock and edited together in a simplistic way. Because of this, this made the particular words and lettering during this era very essential as the audience were becoming tired of the same generic title sequences back then. So, when films would experiment with different with different ways of reinventing title sequences back then, this was seen by the audience as revolutionary.

"As movies grew more popular, their titles evolved."

After the silent movie period, films were beginning to become much more popular as time went on and, as movies became more popular. With the popularity of movies rising higher and higher in time, movie companies during the mid 40's period were given more money and more of a budget in order for film studios and directors to invest more in to their title sequence. Given this advantage, this allowed film studies/directors to experiment more with their title sequences and create them with the inclusion of more graphics, making them more engaging and interesting for the audience, compared to the old fashioned silent movie title sequences.

"The incorporation of audio into movies — making them “talkies” — didn’t revolutionize how film titles were handled, at least not immediately."

With the inclusion of audio in to title sequences, this was indeed revolutionary as to how film titles were handled. This is because with the inclusion of audio, audiences now had something to listen to along with watching the title sequences. This made the viewing experience more engaging and interesting. However, I can see why this was revolutionary immediately due to the fact that having soundtracks and audio didn't necessarily relate much to the title sequences back in the 1930's-1940's as the title sequences didn't have much of a concept back then. Soundtracks and soundscores became very essential and revolutionary when the movie 'The Man With The Golden Arm' was released, due to the fact that the title sequence was very creative and the soundtrack related and went along with the sequence.



"Breakthrough ideas in titling, such as timing the typography to interact with metaphorical imagery or to create its own world, were largely innovations that came from outsiders to the Hollywood studio system. Figures such as Saul Bass, Pablo Ferro, Maurice Binder and Richard Williams arrived on the scene in the 1950s, at a time when the studios were starting to flounder in their fight with TV."

Due to the empowering introduction of television, film studios - back in the 1950's - had to create and think of new and innovating title sequences in order to attract and interest the audience. Ideas such as the typography of title sequences being metaphorical and having some meaning that relates to the movie were being introduced. This was successfully done by famous title sequence designers such as: Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Richard Williams. They provided fresh ideas towards title sequences and had essentially changed the way title sequences were being viewed and created.

"Every sphere of contemporary life — and especially the film business — has been affected by computers. For designers, creating film titles meant participating in the apprenticeship tradition — learning by doing, on the job; that continued unabated into the mid-1990s."

With the introduction of technology being prominent within the film industry, this had essentially taken over the way in which title sequences were created. Film studios decided to include CGI even more in to sequences and, film studios essentially learnt to manipulate title sequences using technology. A famous title sequence creator during the new technology age was Kyle Cooper due to the fact that he created the majority of pop cultures most famous movies. The title sequence of the 1995 movie 'SEVEN' was again revolutionary due to its grittiness and innovating ways of displaying unsettling imagery - again created by Kyle Cooper.