opening credits
Featured
May 25, 2025
Opening credits started as functional text rolling over a static background. Then 1954 happened. Designer Saul Bass and director Otto Preminger revolutionized the game with ‘Carmen Jones,’ treating the opening sequence as art instead of legal requirement. Before that, projectionists literally kept the curtain closed during credits.
Saul Bass went on to design iconic sequences that made you sit still before the movie even started. Maurice Binder created the James Bond openings—silhouetted figures, gun barrel sequences, psychedelic colors—that became inseparable from the whole franchise. By the 1980s, opening credits weren't just necessary: they were the cultural event.
The meme culture proved it: watch the ‘Too Many Cooks’ surreal horror parody, a cult classic that celebrates the power of opening sequences. See more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits
Saul Bass went on to design iconic sequences that made you sit still before the movie even started. Maurice Binder created the James Bond openings—silhouetted figures, gun barrel sequences, psychedelic colors—that became inseparable from the whole franchise. By the 1980s, opening credits weren't just necessary: they were the cultural event.
The meme culture proved it: watch the ‘Too Many Cooks’ surreal horror parody, a cult classic that celebrates the power of opening sequences. See more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits
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