Film Leader vs Saul Bass Title Design

フィルムリーダー / ソール・バスのタイトルデザイン

Film Leader comes from Film Technology and Saul Bass Title Design from Broadcast Design. They are reached for with different intent, which is the fastest way to tell them apart.

Film Leader

Film Leader — フィルムリーダーのカウントダウン「3」のスキャン — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Film Leader — SMPTEユニバーサル・リーダーのタイトルフレーム — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Film Leader — ウォルト・ディズニー・プロダクション《『ブラック・カルドロン』予告篇のフィルムリーダー》1985 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The countdown at the head of a print, there for synchronization and inspection. Reversed lettering, punch holes and numbers falling from 8 to 2 were purely functional shapes, and they turned into the cultural sign that the film is about to start.

Saul Bass Title Design

Saul Bass Title Design — ソール・バス『スパルタカス』タイトルロゴ 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Saul Bass Title Design — Saul Bass による『或る殺人』の図像 1959 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSaul Bass Title Design — Saul Bass による『栄光への脱出』のポスター 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Moves flat cut paper shapes and hand drawn capitals along simple straight paths in time with the music, stating the theme before the film begins.

Film LeaderSaul Bass Title Design
Era1930s–1955 to 1990s
FamilyFilm TechnologyBroadcast Design
KindStyleStyle
CuesCountdown numerals / Sync marks and punch holes / Inspection lettering / Scratches and flickerFlat cut paper silhouettes / A palette held to a few colors / Uneven hand drawn capitals / Simple moves along straight lines
Best used forMarking the start of a screening or a film with an unmistakable signal · Opening a short or a trailer with a reminder of cinema as apparatusHanding over a work's theme and temperature before the story starts · Redesigning the obligation of credits as a piece in its own right
TypeHeavy monospaced numerals sized to half the frame heightOne face only, entrances and exits designed to the musical beat
CompositionA sweeping line and circle at center, inspection lettering in the cornersHand the names to the moving shapes, fix one reading position
MaterialKeep the grain and flicker, and move the scratches every frameArt built apart from the feature, few colors, one repeated motif
CautionPlacing the countdown purely as decoration while the film behind it does not start on the beat the numbers just promised.Decoration unrelated to the feature is not the form, since only the structure that summarizes the theme survives, and when moving the names becomes the point there is no time to read them.

Put these two together

Film Technology ／ Broadcast Design

IndexStyle