An American title designer and Film maker
She was originally at the New York high school of music and art but dropped out in order to pursue a professional career in singing. from the ages of fourteen to eighteen she was releasing records as the leading singer.
She then went to work in the fashion industry, after singing with her sisters, at the age of eighteen. She found a job in the department of Capitol Records. It was there that she heard about Saul Bass hiring an assistant. She got the job and worked there from 1955 to 1959, and it was then that she co-designed the sequence to the movie Spartacus in 1960 uncredited.
Elaine and Saul then got married the following year., where they then created film title sequences together for the next forty years.
The couple were not only asked to design big film sequences, but also short films for various companies and certain events, some of which even being Oscar nominated, such as "Notes on the popular arts" and "The solar film".
Saul Bass - Biography
An American graphic designer and Oscar winning film maker
He has worked with many big film directors and designers, such as Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, and has designed some massive film opening sequences, such as "Psycho".
He studied part time in the art students league. In the early 1940s he started designing for advertisements for films, most of which designed by Otto Preminger. He then designed the film poster for Carmen Jones, and was then asked to design the opening sequence as well.
He became widely known, however, after designing the opening sequence to Preminger's "The man with the golden arm", and all the work after that is what made Bass a graphic designer. Once him and Elaine got married and had children, they decided to focus on their family, designing title sequences and directing, this was from the 1960s to the 1980s. In the 1980s they were rediscovered however by James L. Brooks and Martin Scorsese, and they created the sequences for Goodfellas and other notable works. Bass' work has then inspired many other famous works, and is used in later films, such as "Catch me if you can" and "X-men: first class".
List of films he has designed (chronological order):
- Carmen Jones (1954)
- The Big knife (1955)
- The man with the golden arm (1955)
- The racers (1955)
- The seven year itch (1955)
- The shrike (1955)
- Around the world in eighty days (1956)
- Storm centre (1956)
- Attack (1956)
- Johnny Concho (1956)
- Edge of the city (1957)
- Saint Joan (1957)
- The pride and the passion (1957)
- The young stranger (1957)
- Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
- Cowboy (1958)
- Vertigo (1958)
- The big country (1958)
- Anatomy of a murder (1959)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Psycho (1960)
- The facts of life (1960)
- Exodus (1960)
- Ocean's 11 (1960)
- Something wild (1961)
- Advice and Consent (1962)
- Its a mad, mad, mad, mad world (1963)
- The cardinal (1963)
- In Harm's way (1965)
- Bunny lake is missing (1965)
- Not with my wife, you don't! (1966)
- Such good friends (1971)
- That's entertainment part II (1976)
- Tonkō (1988)
- A personal journey with Martin Scorsese through American movies (1995)
List of film credits they have designed together (chronological order):
- Spartacus (1960)
- West side story (1961)
- Walk on the wild side (1962)
- Nine hours to rama (1963)
- The victors (1963)
- Films for the "New York world's fair" (1964):
---- From here to there
---- The searching eye
- Seconds (1966)
- Grand Prix (1966)
- Why man creates (1968)
- Notes on the popular arts (1977)
- The solar film (1979)
- Quest (1984)
- Broadcast news (1987)
- Big (1988)
- The war of the roses (1989)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- Cape fear (1991)
- Doc hollywood (1991)
- Mr Saturday night (1992)
- The age of innocence (1993)
- Higher learning (1995)
- Casino (1995)
One sequence they designed that catches my eye...
West side story. This is mainly because it is a musical and I love musical theatre, but also because it depicts the time this film was made and set in and the theme of conflict of the film extremely well. The sequence has the prologue playing through the opening credits, with an abstract image of grey lines, and the background changing colour, starting at the colours red and orange, and goes through the colour wheel until it lands on dark blue, where the title "West side story" comes up underneath the abstract picture. The image then fades into the picture of the buildings of New York City, of which we are then taken over the city with an aerial view, which apparently Saul was responsible for, and then slowly cuts into the streets of New York and the characters known as "the Jets" are sitting in a basketball court. The prologue is playing the whole time in the background while this sequence is happening.
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