Maurice Binder
Maurice Binder | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | December 4, 1918
Died | April 9, 1991 London, England | (aged 72)
Occupation | Film title designer |
Known for | Work on 16 James Bond films, including the first, Dr. No (1962), and for Stanley Donen's films from 1958 |
Maurice Binder (December 4, 1918 – April 9, 1991) was an American film title designer best known for his work on 16 James Bond films—including the first, Dr. No (1962)—and for Stanley Donen's films from 1958.
Early work
He was born in
James Bond
Binder created the signature gun barrel sequence for the opening titles of the first Bond film, Dr. No (1962). Binder originally planned to employ a camera sighted down the barrel of a .38 calibre gun, but this caused some problems. Unable to fit the lens of a standard camera far enough down the barrel to bring the entire gun barrel into focus, his assistant Trevor Bond created a pinhole camera to solve the problem, and the barrel became crystal clear.[3]
Binder described the genesis of the gun-barrel sequence in the last interview he recorded before he died in 1991:
That was something I did in a hurry, because I had to get to a meeting with the producers in twenty minutes. I just happened to have little white, price tag stickers and I thought I'd use them as gun shots across the screen. We'd have James Bond walk through and fire, at which point blood comes down onscreen. That was about a twenty-minute storyboard I did, and they said, "This looks great!"[4]
At least one critic has also observed that the sequence recalls the gun fired at the audience at the end of
Prior to GoldenEye, the only James Bond movies for which he did not create the opening title credits were From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), both of which were designed by Robert Brownjohn.
Other sequences
Binder shot opening and closing sequences involving a mouse (an animal that did not appear in either the novel or the film) for
He designed the
Binder also was a producer of The Passage (1979), and a visual consultant on Dracula (1979) and Oxford Blues (1984).
Death
Binder died from lung cancer in London, aged 72.[7][8]
Filmography
James Bond
- Dr. No (1962)
- From Russia with Love — gun barrel sequence only (reused from Dr. No) (1963)
- Goldfinger — gun barrel sequence only (reused from Dr. No) (1964)
- Thunderball (1965)
- You Only Live Twice (1967)
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
- Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
- Live and Let Die (1973)
- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- Moonraker (1979)
- For Your Eyes Only (1981)
- Octopussy (1983)
- A View to a Kill (1985)
- The Living Daylights (1987)
- Licence to Kill (1989)
Selected other films
- Indiscreet (1958)
- The Mouse That Roared (1959)
- Once More, with Feeling! (1960)
- Purple Noon (1960)
- The Grass Is Greener (1960)
- Road to Hong Kong(1962)
- Reach for Glory (1962)
- Charade (1963)
- Call Me Bwana (1963)
- The Running Man (1963)
- The Mouse on the Moon (1963)
- The Long Ships(1963)
- The 7th Dawn (1964)
- The Chase (1966)
- Caccia alla volpe (After the Fox) (1966)
- Arabesque(1966)
- Kaleidoscope (1966)
- Bedazzled (1967)
- Fathom (1967)
- Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
- Two for the Road(1967)
- Barbarella (1968)
- Battle of Britain (1969)
- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
- Young Winston (1972)
- Gold (1974)
- The Tamarind Seed (1974)
- Shout at the Devil (1976)
- The Wild Geese (1978)
- Dracula (1979)
- The Sea Wolves (1980)
- The Final Countdown (1980)
- Green Ice (1981)
- Max, Mon Amour (1986)
- The Last Emperor (1987)
- The Sheltering Sky (1990)
References
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- ^ McGregor, Don Sighting Down the Gun Barrel at 007 Starlog Sep 1983
- ISBN 978-0810932968.
- ISBN 978-0806513119.
- ISBN 978-1845115159.
- ISBN 978-0571220571.
- ^ "Maurice Binder; Designed Film Title Sequences". Los Angeles Times. 14 April 1991.
- ^ "Maurice Binder, 73, 007 Film-Title Artist". The New York Times. 15 April 1991.
External links
- Maurice Binder at IMDb
- Maurice Binder at Art of the Title