Friday, July 31, 2009

Saul Bass: The Man with the Golden Arm Redux

Following up on Mark's suggestion in the earlier post, here is a "transcription" of Bass's titles into comics form, based on screen caps.



I cheated a bit with panels 13 and 14, because there are only 13 "stable" states in the title sequence, and 13 panels do not fit nicely into a grid. So I assigned the stable states to panels 1-12 and 15, and for 13 and 14 I used "in-betweens. " Still, I think it works nicely. A longer strip could be done using many more of the in-betweens.

Edit: now that I look at it, it kind of reminds me of the I-Ching. Just look at that eighth (and central, though not consciously intended as such) panel.
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7 comments:

  1. DrawJuly 31, 2009 at 1:16 AM

    cool comic, I like the end, it changes into a abstracted hand.

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  2. Andrei MolotiuJuly 31, 2009 at 1:23 AM

    I'm guessing that's the "golden arm" of the title.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 31, 2009 at 8:16 AM

    Rats! You beat me to it! I was going to try this over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark Staff BrandlJuly 31, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    BEAUTIFUL breakdown Andrei! I'm going to show that in class when I discuss composition! Thanks.

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  5. Jeffrey MeyerJuly 31, 2009 at 1:15 PM

    Outstanding.

    If you haven't yet seen Bass' film "Phase IV" I highly recommend it:

    http://www.goofbutton.com/2008/09/saul_bass_phase_iv.html

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  6. Andrei MolotiuJuly 31, 2009 at 5:41 PM

    Thanks!

    Jeffrey--that looks beautiful. In a weird way it reminds me of Antonioni--that kind of perfect composition, abstract use of color--say, in "Red Desert," or "Zabriskie Point"--which, no matter how cheesy the story, is a beautiful film, visually.

    Grant--umm, sorry! Maybe you can do the longer version, with all the in-betweens...

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  7. troylloydAugust 2, 2009 at 4:20 AM

    yeah, diggit.

    this is the comic w/ the golden lines,

    like, them lines on rhythm
    such jazzly,

    i'm a junky,

    ghostly.

    never did i thunk such
    an icon of illustration
    could be turned up end
    to mainline my needled eyes,

    so, yeah, diggit:

    play has purpose!

    sandbox of sandboxes

    where the crimson coast

    of blissful beaches

    play the waves

    of an endless surf

    ReplyDelete

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