Maurice Binder was born on August 25th 1925 in NY City. He was a film title designer, although born in America he mostly worked in Britain from the 1950s. He died at age 65 on April 4th 1991, from lung cancer. He never married or had children, just focused on his job.
He is most know for his work on the 14 James Bond films, including the first Dr No in 1962. As a film title designer he was in charge of designing the opening sequence of the film, with the credits. The credits usually include the company that produced the film, the director and the main actors names. It is also known as animated credits or motion graphics.
Not only did he work on 14 James Bond films he also did work on many other films too including, Dracula, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and The Final Countdown. His career lasted all the way up until 1990 just one year before he died.
The video below is the work of Maurice Binder on the first James Bond film Dr No. in 1962.
Maurice Binder described the come about of the gun barrel scene in his last interview before he died like this ; 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!"
Something that he did almost by accident turned out to be something that went on to be one of the most remembered things about the opening of James Bond films. The gun barrel part scene is used in a lot of the other opening titles of James Bond films too.
The final film that Maurice Binder was the title creator for was called The Sheltering Sky in 1990. The opening title is all in black and white beside the credits which are in a bold blue. The contrast is very clever as the film is called The Sheltering Sky the blue could connote the sky.
Binders style is very clever he makes sure that the opening title does not give too much away about the film but it still gives an introduction to the main actor and sets the tone of the film. In the James Bond films he ensures that there is ladies acting in sexual ways or being shown as sexual objects. He is known for making the women in the James Bond films to jump around or use guns, these are trademarks of the Bond films. He makes sure there is reference to guns and violence, which is why the gun barrel scene is used so frequently. James Bond is always shown as the main character and the one that is in control. No matter what actor is playing the role they are represented in a very positive way and seen to be classy, well dressed and sleek.
Some screenshots put together of Billion Dollar Brain the opening title by Maurice Binder. You can see that the colours that are used are all similar and there is a reoccurring theme. Things are shown more than once and colours change but the image doesn't.
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