Saul Bass's title sequence, Oceans 11-analysis

This title sequence starts by showing us the production company which is "Warner Bros. Pictures" which is probably one of the most biggest production company's even in the 1960's. This then turns into a black screen from where lots of yellow digital dots appear which then flashes and moves until it forms a big 1 which takes up most of the screen while this is happening the music being played is like a thinking/computing theme tune and then when the 1 is fully formed there is a sound which is celebratory, the digital dots on the screen then turn purple and start to takeover the 1 and turn into a 2 while the music is being played again, when it is formed it does the same noise and changes to a different colour which is blue. From this point the audience can tell that it is counting up to a number which is probably 11 if the audience know the title of the film.

However next to the number 3 is the first title of the sequence which happens to be the lead actor which is Frank Sinatra one of the most famous faces of them times as he was also an amazing singer. The digital dots continue to change colour and count up however when a title appears next to one of the numbers which is one of the actors a different sound is played after the number which represents that character, I believe this is done purposely by Saul Bass to try and give the audience a little hint about the characters in the film or maybe just about that person in real life.

The numbers continue to go all the way up with titles until it reaches number 11 where the title of the film kicks in as number 11 is in the title. Then some happy upbeat jazz music kicks in and the digital dots start to create different shapes against the black background in like a maze shape and in the middle of this maze some other cast members appear in a list, I think that maybe this could be another hint to the audience about the storyline. Then some interlinking circles are made up using the digital dots and in the holes there is some more cast members shown. After this there is some more maze type shapes made by the dots, this is where Saul Bass has put his own stamp on it with all the shapes giving the audience hints at the storyline of the film they are going to watch yet again.

This carry's on but starts to show other people other than the actors and cast such as the screenplay people, director of art and film editor and lots more. We are then shown two cards a king and a queen this tells me that the film could have some sort of trick in it and then a slot machine appears which gives us another hint that a casino could be in the film, so again lots more hints left by Saul Bass for the audience to see but is done very discretely.

Then we see another big shape made by the digital dots which then disappears and more dots come across the bottom to create a flat surface which a pair of dice role along which means that i then no for sure that a casino has something to do with it. Then finally on the dice after they are put back out with no dots on the directors name appears and they are then dragged off a table from which the film then fades in.

I enjoyed watching this title sequence I think it was well thought out and ran really smoothly, I believe the animation was simple but yet quite effective in the message hints it was trying to get across, so in my opinion it did the job that it was meant to and has lots of Saul Bass elements in which would let me know it was Saul Bass's work if I didn't already know it was his.