Film??? Film, one can argue, is a creative residue of team work. In the complex fabric and structure of film, visual and other artists of various vocation, play a specified role. Their names and contributed work, more of an exception than the rule, sometimes get credit in small print on the fast-roll of the end-credit. The aim of this examination is to briefly slow the motion to investigate frame-by-frame the art and craft of film titles, putting the spotlight on one of the greatest film title practitioners whose name has boldly appeared on the silver screen right next to the film title, Saul Bass.

As a relatively young branch of expression on the growing tree of arts, film like no other creative discipline before has managed to unify various forms of artistic practice. Experiencing moving images requires a considerable amount of alertness, primarily of visionary sense. What follows is an examination of how film titles attract our attention in employing our visionary sense.

Early signs of use of devices now known as film titles, could be traced back to silent films. So as to increase the probability of successful findings, we will start the excavation at the place full of various cinematic heritage, Hollywood.

Almost a century ago, a bunch of free-spirit rebel filmmakers and entrepreneurs unwilling to pay extortionate licences as set by the camera and film-stock manufacturers, had decided to pack up and simply exchange the coast. The shrewd move proved to be a success and by taking refuge in the all time sunny and dry valley in California this lot embarked upon some serious filmmaking.

One of those visionaries, also known as the father of film, was D.W. Griffith. With his companions, Griffith dropped anchor in the place to be called Hollywood, and started immediately to make and churn out numerous silent pictures.

Silent films, still a novelty at that time, relied heavily on the use of the printed word. Used as an alternative, the printed word served as a supplement in order to enhance the narrative or to clarify the action. This inevitably gave birth to a brand new cinematic device within the medium known as intertitle, laying the first tracks for further development within the film titling field. Griffith used this device extensively in his films like Birth of a Nation or Intolerance.

Film as a new medium allowed for the first time stories to be told in moving pictures. In the early 1920s silent films had made significant artistic and technological achievements. But perhaps because of the lack of sound, scripts and scenarios were tucked into the background of the filmmaking process, creating an impression that the writer was regarded as being of lesser importance: hence some of those fierce debates and red-hot arguing on the importance of silent film as the ultimate way of telling a story.

Intertitles did not die with the advent of sound, intricate use of intertitles could be found in many other more contemporary features...

Tomislav Terek is a London based curator of the forthcoming exhibition on Saul Bass.

Picture credit of Bass/Yager Citigate Design Studio.