3 ways to develop new ideas

Austin Kleon - blog 

•  Steal like an artist 

the concept of stealing like an artist acknowledges that there are no truly original stories left to tell and instead celebrates the power of influence. 

By intentionally allowing ourselves to be influenced by stories and either form of art, we learn to shape and transform those influences into unique new works, So, how do we steal like an artist to brainstorm new ideas? 

10 ideas 

1. Titanic - I liked the relationship and how it was formed between Rose and Jack. I like her independence in her decisions. 

2. Greatest showman- I liked the creativity, and the acceptance of everyone no matter their differences.  

3. wave after wave - Mr. Probz - I liked how free it is. I enjoyed the rhythm. 

4. SpongeBob- I liked The comedy of all the different characters created. I enjoyed the things each one represented.  

5. drive - black coffee - I liked the fact that the story is a love story and about going your own way. The rhythm I really liked.  

6. Shrek- I like that his character is outgoing however, he is shown to have that other side that is not a monster but actually a highly carrying human being. I like the Scottish accent. Fiona chose Shrek. Donkey.    

7. insatiable- I just liked the story and comedy of it. I related to the fact that she just continuously gets herself in a mess but then fixed it.  

8. you cannot hide - It was a very gripping story and I had to watch it all in one go. The love story. 

9. mamma mia- I like the love story, and I love the choreography and location of the film.  

10. bloodstream Ed Sheeran - The song resonated with me, it talks about pain and getting over it. 

11(bonus). Lucifer - The love story. The fact he thinks he is harsh and cold, but in reality, he's got a soft spot.  

12. criminal minds- the mindset, I like how they bust the killers and have each other's backs.   

13. Eminem- lyrical genius  

spider diagrams 

- Harry Potter - fraudulent- lies - Hustle 

                                                   - The great hip  hop hoax 

                                                   - how to lose a guy in 10 days 

-Shrek - relationships - chose an ogre over a prince- 

• Method 2# the question game 

- what if space were ruled by a corrupt empire? 

- what if a wealthy aristocratic fell for a woman who loathed him?

- what is a Third-World African country were secretly the wealthiest nation on earth?

What if a princess got to chose the man? 

What if a love story that was so perfectly formed twists into a dark hidden relationship? 

What if God himself vanished?

What if humans were pets and m¡animals were rulers? and that didn't change 

What if the Amazon covered the world? 

What if we could all see are words left? 

What if we had a timer for each person on the planet?

• method 3# the emotional RollerCoaster 

- love stories - they through something together (in awwww) 

- someone jumps into the middle of the people I have shipped. (annoyed) 

- 5 feet apart - the fact that there is so much love that and love that cannot be acted on, for the person's safety ( really sad )

- gadget horrors - Where's Sarah ( creep as ever) 

The film industry is dominated by the Hollywood film studios whose global products reach mass audiences and make huge profits. Companies such as Disney. Warner Bros Pictures and Sony release generic, franchise movies target a mass audience, often cashing in on the pre-sold elements of existing texts and characters. However, this is only a segment of film industry output, and as there are many small, independent film companies also fighting for a place in the market. 

comparison of Saul Bass

 comparison of Saul Bass's work alongside a modern-day example. 

Catch Me If You Can and Anatomy Of A Murder 

Scene 1:We are shown to be in an airport in the opening sequence, it is not as abstract as Saul Bass's work, It is made a lot clearer the location of the figure, the character is also half presented whereas in Saul Bass's work the character is never truly represented. There is no high colour contrast between the opening credits and what is going on behind them, they are just in black and capitalized. The non-diegetic post-production music follows Saul Bass's style however is more modern as it does not in-tale the same amount of dramatic sound as a usual opening title sequence of Saul Bass. We are shown an airport scene which reflects part of the film itself and we are shown that the character is in and out of different locations. The foreshadowing in Catch Me If You Can is much more predominant than Saul Bass's work as he is much more abstract with his foreshadowing whereas Catch Me If You Can is much clearer and tells the story in a much smaller time frame. In the airport we are also shown a detective-like character chasing the main character this is made obvious with a suit and pandora hat on the detective character these props are often associated with an old-fashioned detective, therefore, expressing this image. Each scene is very busy and there is a lot of movement which is also a major difference between Saul Bass's work as there is a lot more to look at with Catch Me If You Can. 

Scene 2:We are shown a road with four cars two of which are in colour being a taxi and a police car, due to the colour of the taxi we can see that one part of the film is based in America as it is yellow, there are only two cars in colour this is done so that our focus is drawn on these two cars, again this much more different to Saul Bass's opening title sequence as he usually keeps his colours to a minimum being black, grey and white. In Anatomy of a murder, the colours are kept to a minimum and the contrasting colour is white against the black, the post-production music is carried with a dramatic rhythm throughout the opening sequence. In Anatomy of a Murder, the story is not fully told it is done in a very abstract manner showing different shapes forming a body which is dismembered, Saul Bass's style leaves more to the imagination rather than Catch Me If You Can. Catch Me If You Can fully tell the story in a smaller time with animations that are quite obvious. 

Scene 3: In scene three we are shown different contrast in colours where our character goes through different places, changing what he is wearing while running away from the detective. Again unlike Saul Bass's work Catch Me If You Can use a lot more colours to express different locations and different events that are happing, such as the character imposing as a doctor and as a guest in a luxury resort, Catch Me If You Can relay the story exactly how it is from the opening sequence we know that the character imposes as different people, we know that it is taking place in different locations globally as well as we know he is being chased, whereas in Saul Bass's opening sequence of Anatomy of a murder it is much more simplistic and open to the imagination as the shapes are much more abstract to convey the setting and tone of the film, with Catch Me If You Can you feel much less like the tone is set and rather that the story has already been pre told. We can see that the lines from Psycho have been used as the credits in Catch Me If You Can are continuously attached to a line, which is a huge connection to Saul Bass's work. 

In conclusion, a lot can clearly be linked between Saul Bass's work and the work done in the opening title sequence of Catch Me If You Can, however, there are major differences that are shown between them such as colour contrast and use of colour as well as the non-diegetic post-production music which is shown to have a different tone to it compared to Anatomy Of Murder. Anatomy of murder is much more simplistic and gives away a lot less of the story compared to Catch Me If You Can, a lot less colour has been used in Anatomy Of a murder dictating a huge impact in the difference between the two opening sequences. In conclusion, however, I personally prefer the opening sequence of Catch Me If You Can as it lures the viewer in more than the opening title sequence of Anatomy of  A Murder, due to its use of colour compared. Both opening title sequences match the tone of the film itself, which is key to a successful opening title sequence. 

Honorable mentions that reflect Saul Bass's work: 'Mad Men', 'Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang' etc.  

Saul and Elaine Bass Psycho

 Psycho: 

Scene 1: Non-diegetic music starts to play; it is a highly dramatic post-production sound, that is carried throughout the whole of the opening title sequence. Lines are seen to cross the screen carrying the opening credits. This abstract art form follows Saul Bass's usual style, this means the lines could be doing this to present the story as unstable. The colors are light and dark(black and grey) the contrasting colour used to present the credits is white it is bold and eyecatching, the credits are capitalized, most likely done to present the drama of the film. 

Scene 2: As the opening title appears, Psyco it splits into three sections and starts splitting and going back together to create a glitching effect. At this point, the non-diegetic music builds up expressing the drama of the tile. This is most likely done by Saul Bass to show the unstable personality of a psychopath which therefore foreshadows the character we will, later on, be presented with. 

 

Scene 3: The non-diegetic music continues and the lines continue to come from every direction carrying the opening credits, onto the screen. The lines continue like this for the majority of the opening title sequence. As it gets to the end of the scene the lines end up in the center of the screen conveying a sound wave following the music as it fades out, with a crossfade to the location the film is set in. 

 

Scene 4:We are shown an establishing shot of the location the film is set in, we are shown a pan from left to right of the city the opening is set in. We are shown credits of the location it is set in as well as the time and date, this indicates that it is important information to the film. The scene ends with a zoom into a window of a building. All together this opening title sequence is successful as it gives some context to the location it is set in as well as portrays the unstable characteristics of a psychopath, however, I do not believe this is Saul Bass's most successful opening title sequence as it is not very engaging in my personal opinion. 

   

Tone: 

The opening title sequence matches the tone of the play as the film itself is a dramatized murder, which is committed by a man who is shown to be clearly unstable, the owner of the motel is shown to be continuously disconnected with his emotions a clear example is when he explains his passion for taxidermy as more than a passion and a hobby as he spends more time on it than anything else, the character leaves the conversation by saying he studded more than just birds. This thereby reflects the tone of a psycho in the opening title sequence as it is broken just like the mentality of the killer.  

Saul ( and Elaine) Bass

 "In a sense, all modern opening title sequences that introduce the mood or theme of a film are a legacy of the Basses' work'"- www.artofthetitle.com

 Biography : 

Elaine and Saul Bass have worked alongside each other as graphic designers, title designers, and filmmakers, they got married in 1961. Together they developed many different projects for directors such as Martin Scorsese and Danny DeVito such as 'War of the Roses'. Elaine is one of the main designers who helped turn short films and title sequences into an art form. 

Saul Bass during his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood's biggest filmmakers, which included Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley  Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, and Martin Scorsese. Saul Bass's name started to become well known after his work on the opening sequence of Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955. 

Opening title sequence: 

Anatomy of a murder

Scene 1:

Saul Bass uses a very abstract style to convey what is about to happen in the film. In the opening scene, we are shown multiple different shapes which are put together to form the shape of a human body which is dismembered, this is clever as it plays with the title of the film, Anatomy of a murder, anatomy being a body. The title is white placed on black shapes forming the human body creating a bold eye-catching contrast as the colors are complete opposites. Non-diegetic music plays throughout the opening sequence, I would say there is a pleonastic contrast between the music and what is on-screen as the music is quite upbeat and dramatic, while we are being shown essentially what is meant to convey a dismembered body. The music itself is very old fashioned, it has a classical jazz sense to it.  

Scene 2: 

The camera then zooms into different shapes that are meant to be forming the human body. Credits are shown above these black shapes as this creates a high contrast that catches the viewer's eye. The font of the credits are all capitalized to express the drama of the film. The non-diegetic music continues throughout.  

Scene 3:

The shapes that are forming the human body start to split, possibly done to indicate that the murder weapon is a knife. This could also portray how many different ways the murder may have taken place and that the investigators need to place everything back together due to the fact the body parts are separated. This small action in the opening scene foreshadows what the film is about as we automatically assume there is a murder. The non-diegetic music continues. 

Scene 4: 

In the final scene, we zoom into one of the shapes being the hand, indicating that they are going to catch the culprit, this is portrayed strongly due to the fact we commonly hear 'catch the person red-handed' when referring to catching someone or something doing something, therefore zooming into a hand we automatically assume they are going to catch the killer. This strongly foreshadows what is to come from the film. The fact that the hand is also back together in this scene indicates that they are looking for someone, as it tells the audience it's a different person subtly.

 

Theme/mood: 

The genre of the film is a murder mystery, the tone is very dark as the story refers to a murdered of a local innkeeper after the wife of the murder claimed she was raped by him. The business partner of the murder is hiding a dark secret throughout the trial making it hard to set the clients free. Part of the story is strongly foreshadowed in the opening sequence as it reflects the murder and that there are multiple different elements to the story of the murder. I believe that this opening title sequence was very successful as it expressed what the story genre was going to be from the get-go without telling the whole story.