for the Psycho opening sequence, Alfred Hitchcock collaborated with one of the legend's of film titling who was Saul Bass. Although the graphic design for Psycho on the whole appears to be simple, the synchronization of the moving images makes the film seem very powerful and exciting. The opening sequence is highly effective, as it relies on the brilliance of Bass's titles, and let them create an effective title, and the background movements fit in with the systematic movements. The opening credits cost a very minimal amount of $21,000 which shows just how even opening sequences with low budgets can still make a great introduction to a film.
Bass's designing of the titles incorporates the theme of aggression that appears later on in the film. He does this by the formation of names on the screen, and as they disappear, their is a violent dispersement. The graphical element of the line in this sequence is relied on heavily and alludes to the fact that the story may stick to a conventional thriller, along that line, and will have the same levels of suspense as the sequence alludes to. This theme often is used in Western films, bu tthe change to a thriller film suggest that there will be action and excitement throughout the film which will appeal to a large majority of people
In Term's of Mise-En-Scene, there is almost no examples of its usage, however in this sequence, it is not needed. Traditionally, companies had to use people, as they did not have access to more advanced CGI methods, however 'Psycho' was a ground breaking piece of cinematography in the sense that it went against conventionality, and used a more advanced piece of graphics with moving names and shapes, and as a result, the piece, which was created in 1960 has remained a timeless classic, and will remain for many years to come.
As a result of the lack of props and characters and even location, the sound and shapes used are critical to this piece. The sound is brilliant, and is fitted perfectly to the genre of movie, which is a thriller. The music is all non diagetic, and is created from the recording of a strings orchestra, and particularly the screeching sound of an out of tune violin. This uneasy soundtrack is clever, as it alludes to the sadistic villain being mentally unstable, which we find out towards the end of the film.
The black and white titles shows that the film is a classical film from the time period of the 60's, and create a sense of class to the titles.
The transitions between the titles are very cleverly cut. They almost show a puzzle like system whereby the names have to find their way to fitting with each other, a bit like the opening sequence has to find its way of fitting in with the film. It also shows sophistication and a new level of internal editing as it builds up people waiting for the name of the film as it finds its alignment.
If I had the opportunity, I would ask Bass and Hitchcock, why they decided to use the moving lines and names, as opposed to using characters and build up of suspense shots from the film. Although I have already seen this film, if I hadn't seen it, I would guess that the film was a thriller and a horror in a sense, due to the eerie music and also the name of the film, as Psycho suggests that their is a mentally unstable individual involved, who is most likely the villain.
The titling of this film gives us a good indication of what type of film it is, firstly as it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock who is traditionally a director of thrillers, also the vast amount of people involved in the film shows that a lot of time and effort was put into making as good a film as possible.
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