Hi, John Hess from FilmmakerIQ.com and today we’ll explore the history of the credit sequence. When Auguste and Louis Lumière first turned
on their motion picture machine in Grand Cafe in Paris 1895, there were no credits or titles
- the film just began. The same was true with for the early films
of Georges Melies - here, the 1897 film “After the Ball” just begins - no title card, no
credits - and why would we need them to get in the way of seeing Jeanne d'Alcy undress. It wasn’t until 1900 did we get a peep of
what might actually be the first title card of all time in a cleverly titled comedy: How
It Feels To Be Run Over - which is really just a film of one of those new fangled horseless
carriages driving recklessly and running into the camera. Then we get some quick frames reading “Oh,
mother will be pleased!” - I guess you had to be there. A year later in 1901, we start seeing intertitles
- these are title cards in the film itself to provide dialogue or to set the scene. Perhaps the first use of intertitles come
from the British film “Scrooge or Marley’s Ghost” which is also the first time the
Holidays Dicken’s classic was adapted for the silver screen. At the same time we start to see the beginnings
of title cards at the front of films and even copyright and anti-piracy warnings with Thomas
Edison’s 1901 film “Trapeze Disrobing Act” - here a stern warning from Edison
himself, ironic given the amount of pirating and exhibiting foreign films he may have been
responsible for. This one also happens to be another one of
those titilizing silent film stripteases only done on a Trapeze by uncredited vaudeville
strongwoman star Laverie Vallee, known better as Charmion. By the time The Great Train Robbery, what
many consider the first feature film, came out in December of 1903, the practice of putting
title cards at the beginning of the film was becoming common place. Also notice the practice of placing the trademark
of the producing company. But one thing you won’t see in the title
sequence of the earliest films is the name of the actors in the film. That’s all about control. Thomas Edison borrowing from his experience
with the Phonograph, tried to monopolize the early film industry. Part of that is making sure that the actors
and directors wouldn’t be able to get a big popular followings and demand higher wages. And most other film producers followed suit
or at least were forced to- early film stars were known under character names - Mary Pickford
was Little Mary and Florence Lawrence was the Biograph Girl. But the Star System which came from theater
was really pervasive. By 1909 when publicity stories about the silent
film stars personal lives began to go to press, the cat was sticking its head out of the bag. In 1910 Carl Laemmle, lured the silent film
star Florence Lawrence away from Biograph and their parent company Edison’s Motion
Picture Patent Company to work for his studio IMP - Independent Moving Pictures Company. He floated a fake report that Lawrence, using
her real name in public for the first time, was killed by a streetcar in New York City. Then he mounted a huge ad campaign proclaiming
that as a smear a black lie run by Edison to ruin Lawrences’s career after she left
Biograph. And if you needed proof, you just had come
down to the theater and see leading man King Baggott escorted her for the fabulous premiere
of their first picture together The Broken Oath. Well, the publicity stunt worked - It was
a media blitz as fans, thrilled that she was still alive, rushed her and tore off pieces
of her clothes. Lawrence became a household name and by 1911
other studios would start promoting films on their star power. Eventually even Biograph would join in, promoting
their star director D.W. Griffith - here in Griffith’s first feature
and last film before going independent Judith of Bethulia in 1914, we see Griffith’s name
after a title card and credit for Biograph. But in Griffith’s next film - Birth of a
Nation - he let everyone know exactly who was in charge. The title card sees his name or initials in
five different spots. Each intertitle also contains Griffith’s
name. These title cards were all basically static
- probably created by just shooting a printed board or painted glass. But there were some experiments in animating
titles. The first experimental animation from 1906
“Humorous phases of funny faces” - gotta love those early 20th century film titles
- was animated by J. Stuart Blackton using chalk and stop motion animation. Into the 20s we have some early animated title
sequences from Europe where film was more an artisanal product than the factory mentality
of Hollywood - here with Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 and even
the first ever released silent film by Alfred Hitchcock from 1927: The Lodger: A Story of
the London Fog Into the twenties the major Hollywood studios
began to employ full time lettering designers for creating titles and intertitles. The first Academy Awards, held in 1929 even
handed out a statue for "Best Title Writing" that went to Joseph Farnham for no film in
particular. But that was the first AND last year the Academy
would give out an award for title card design as sound had shaken up the industry and decapitated
silent films the year prior. With sound came the overture - a musical introduction
that set the mood and allowed late comers to settle into their seats. Under the Hollywood Studio system of the 30s
and 40s, this musical title sequence stayed pretty consistent but studio artists working
on painted glass would experiment with different kinds of typography to evoke different moods. Still, studio films stuck to a familiar template
- A film would always start with the studio logo. Then Top Billing stars would get an “Above
the Title” credit - followed by the title. Then the rest of the cast is credited followed
by screenplay credits, cinematography, music, wardrobe and finally the director though it’s
not always necessarily in that order. Only key Department Heads were given credits
in the film even if they really didn’t do much - if you worked for the studio as craftsperson
you were an employee of the studio basically a skilled factory worker not necessarily of
any one particular film - so credit wasn’t really that necessary. Some movies would add a quick end title card
that lists the name of the cast - a famous example is The Wizard of Oz from 1939 which
ends on this list of the cast - but everything was really based on the producer’s discretion. In the studio system, titles were just done
by another department in the studio - directors may have had a say in the style, but like
marketing the film it was just something that another part of the movie making factory was
responsible for. So titles wouldn’t really begin evolve until
the after the collapse of the studio system and individual producers and directors became
more artistically involved with the entire film including the marketing which is why
you see a growth in creative trailers around the same time. The collapse of the studio system starting
in the 50s would coincide with the rise and growth of another pop culture American art
medium: Advertising. The economic boom in America after World War
II saw a great demand for graphic design in both advertising and packaging - a demand
that was filled in large part by European design schools - specifically the German Bauhaus
school which contributes to the mid century modern look in both design and architecture
and the International Typographic Style or Swiss Style, a graphic design discipline that
emphasized heavily on minimalism, typography, and grids. Everyone’s favorite san serif font - Helvetica
originates from the Swiss Style. Out of this advertising discipline would come
the name that anyone watching this video with any bit of familiarity with title design is
expecting me to cover: Saul Bass. Trained in the New Bauhaus and Swiss styles
in the art schools of Brooklyn New York, Bass moved out to Hollywood in the late 40s to
work on movie posters. This 1949 poster for Champion show’s Bass
combining the American realism and Swiss style emphasis on typography. After a string of posters, director Otto Preminger
gave Bass his first title sequence assignment - Carmen Jones. Condensing the modernized Bizet opera into
a single moving image - that of a flaming red rose - was really quite revolutionary
for it’s time. But it was the next title sequence Bass would
do for Preminger that would be seen as the breakthrough in modern title design. The Man With the Golden Arm catapulted Saul
Bass into title sequence lengendary status - his career continued working for Billy Wilder
in The Seven Year Itch, and retelling the entire story in animation for the end credits
of Michael Anderson’s Around the World in 80 Days. But Bass is perhaps best remembered for his
work for Alfred Hitchcock, who we have already seen as having an affinity to unique title
sequences. Hitchcock after all, started his career as
a Title Designer. These films include Vertigo, North by Northwest,
and of course Psycho. But Saul Bass wasn’t just stuck to kinetic
typography - he saw the title sequence as essentially a moving poster for the film itself
- boiling down the ideas and concepts of the show into a few minutes of film. A philosophy of his was to make the ordinary
extraordinary -which can be seen in Walk on the Wild Side which tells a grandiose tale
about an ordinary cat prowling the streets at night like a lion king. We could devote a whole video to Saul Bass
and there are many online that are dedicated to him but he wasn’t the only title designer
on the scene. Maurice Binder is the title designer responsible
for creating perhaps the best known character intro of all time - the James Bond gunsight
sequence from 1962’s Dr. No. Binder ended up shooting the sequence with
a pinhole camera looking down the barrel of a 38 caliber gun - the barrel gets washed
over with blood before becoming part of a dancing circle sequence that is very in line
with the Swiss Style. Binder would work on every Bond film except
To Russia with Love and Goldfinger up until his death in ‘91. He was succeeded by Daniel Kleinman who worked
on every Bond Film since GoldenEye with exception of Quantum of Solace. Pablo Ferro is another big name worth including
in our short tour of 60s title design - Ferro rose to prominence creating the first color
NBC Peacock animation. His hand lettering graces the beginning sequence
of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and he combined multiple split screens in a complex woven
montage for the original The Thomas Crown Affair. Ferro would be responsible for over 100 title sequences over his lengthy and distinguished career. Bass, Binder and Ferro were just three prominent
figures pushing the artistic boundaries of just what a title sequence could do. But not all directors wanted a title sequence
and with studios gone, the names of the people who wanted credit of the film grew longer. The credits had to find a new home. Credits Move to The End With the studio system replaced by a producer
based system where each film is it’s own company with its own employees, getting a
screen credit became more and more important. If you were a set designer having your name
in the title scrawl of the film was undeniable proof that you actually worked on the film. It’s also key for the smaller jobs as well
as they work up their resume. The first films to get extensive end credits
but skip opening credits altogether were the aforementioned Around the World in 80 Days
from 1956 and West Side Story in 61 which also tapped the talents of Saul Bass. Now that everyone on a movie set was basically
a freelancer - craft guilds began to gain power in the 60s and 70s and contracts began
to stipulate who and what was required in both beginning and end credits sequences. We’ll get into what all those jobs in those
end credits sequences mean in a future lesson. An interesting example of the legal battles
involving credits occurred over Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The Director’s Guild of America stipulates
that the director be the last name of an opening credit sequence - well Star Wars doesn’t
have an opening sequence - just the studio logos which includes that LucasFilm Logo and
then we’re into that famous title scrawl. With A New Hope, Lucas was both writer and
director so the DGA was fine with the LucasFilm Logo and no opening credit for the director. But Lucas, didn’t direct or write Empire
- Irvin Kershner directed and screenplay credits go to Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. The DGA and the WGA saw the LucasFilm logo
at the beginning as a credit without giving recognition to the real director and writer
and threatened to pull the Empire out of theaters. Well Lucas settled their dispute by paying
a $250,000 fine out of his own pocket and promptly dropped out of the DGA, the WGA and
the MPA for good measure. But I think the DGA had a strong case, ask
most non-film geek today who directed The Empire Strikes Back and most people will incorrectly
name George Lucas. Now to most of the those same people, the
end credits aren’t really more than a formality with some pleasant music - unless you’re
at film festival, 90% of the audience is gone by the time you get to the craft services
credit. Knowing this, some filmmakers began putting
in little bonus treats at the end of the credit- called a post credit scene. One of the earliest examples of the post credit
scenes, cited for starting the trend, is 1979’s Muppet Movie which runs the credits over footage
of the muppets hanging around at a theater and ending with animal saying: In 1980, Airplane! ended the credits with
a call back to an earlier taxicab joke. Throughout the 80s the post credit scene was
common place in a lot of comedies, often entertaining the audience during a credit sequence with
outtakes or in the case of Jackie Chan films - stunts that went wrong. And of course how could not mention Ferris
Buehler’s Day Off: You're still here? It's over... Go home go But post scene credits take on more meaning
in a heavy franchise films - starting with 007’s ubiquitous line “James Bond will
return in such and such movie” which wasn’t always accurate. And now with the Marvel Cinematic Universe
stretching out to infinity and beyond - I know but they’re both Disney, the post credit
scene has become some pretty serious geek fodder - a last minute tease to get people
talking on their way out about the next film. .I cannot understate how game changing digital
has become for title sequence designers. The original Saul Bass titles were meticulously
done by hand - the bars in Psycho were actually 6 foot long aluminum bars painted black that
had to be moved carefully with a camera over head recording stop motion animation. Although technically you could say the spirals
created by Bass in Vertigo where the first use of a computer in a title sequence - that
computer being an anti-aircraft targeting computer, the first real use of computers
in the construction of titles is often credited to the title sequence for Superman in 1978. Using a computerized Oxberry animation camera
- they were able to create the streaking effects using the same long exposure concept of 2001’s
Stargate sequence. But it really wasn’t until the 1990s with
Nonlinear Editing and Digital compositing did you really see big artistic leaps in title
sequences. Kyle Cooper is one big stand out name known
for his work with David Fincher in Se7en in 1995. But there are a lot of really talented artists
working in the arena of title design - With the second golden age of Television starting
the 2000s that brought compelling storylines and beautiful production value, the title
design has a new outlet. The Sopranos, Dexter, Mad Men - are just three
much heralded title sequences burned forever in the minds of these shows’ fans. From a few simple printed cards to the lavishly
beautiful digital pieces - the title design has been witness to the power struggles of
Hollywood before eventually transforming into living breathing artform that can put us in
the right mood for what we’re about to see next or ever get us to take a breath at the
end of an exhilarating film. So consider your titles as an element of making
something great I’m John Hess and I’ll see you at FilmmakerIQ.com You still here? It’s over - go watch a cat video.
I'm surprised he didn't talk about the decline in Intro/Main Title Sequences. Nowadays, instead of a long, clever/creative, visually inspiring title sequence with a good orchestral backing, we just get a title and the movie starts.
Also, he didn't talk about the history of cold openings as well.