The Job: Annotated Process Journal by Joe Golike

THE JOB ANNOTATED PROCESS JOURNAL

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Designing a Film Festival

Translating Film to Print

Creating a film festival is no small undertaking.

belong together without being matchy-matchy is a

word and image, but both tell a story. The purpose

A huge amount of collateral goes into pulling off

challenge. The visual nature of both film and print

of this journal is to tell a story. I will show you my

any event. The task of designing a system that

make them great companion mediums. One uses

festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final products and the steps of the process

can make a bunch of different items look like they

moving images, the other draws more heavily on

I went through to get there. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;&#x2030;Joe Golike December 2009

RESEARCH & CONCEPT Dreaming Up the Festival

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Choosing the Director

Deciphering their threads

Paul Thomas Anderson

Terry Gilliam

I started out with three filmmakers: Paul Thomas Anderson, Terry Gilliam, and Michael Mann. I love different aspects of each oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, and could have seen myself building a festival around any one of the three.

Paul Thomas Andersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Magnolia and There Will Be Blood are both favorites of mine. During my initial research phase, while watching Magnolia, I loved diagraming out the complex relationships between the various characters. Finding a common thread proved difficult.

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Michael Mann

Terry Gilliam’s Brazil ranks as one of my all-time favorite films. His commentary on socialist government bureaucracy is pitch-perfect. I decided against Gilliam primarily because his visual style is so particular, I didn’t want to compete with it.

Michael Mann’s Heat is another of my all-time favorite films. I decided on Mann for a number of reasons. His themes of work and male identity resonates with me, and I also felt like he didn’t have a particular visual style that my work would be compared to.

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Design Brief DIRECTOR BIO

Setting the Direction

Michael Mann was born 1943 in Chicago the son of grocers. He grew up in the tough neighborhood of Humboldt Park which would help create his primary interest in crime films. At the University of Madison he studied English literature before becoming interested in film. He later attended London Film School. Over the course of his career, Mann has written directed and produced a taut, stylistic and often brutally impersonal filmography that seems most interested in the concept of work. His movies are preoccupied with how men (almost always men) of extraordinary skills practice their craft, and the price they must pay for doing so. Mann employs an architectural approach that establishes a plot framework but declines to fill every nook and cranny. He uses very few elements to suggest many more, and constructs a kind of environment that the audience experiences rather than a narrative that the audience observes. (adapted from article by Khoi Vinh)

Full FILMOGRAPHY

Public Enemies (2009)

Manhunter (1986)

M iami Vice (2006)

The Keep (1983)

Collateral (2004)

Thief (1981)

Ali (2001)

The Jericho Mile (1979)

The Insider (1999)

Eighteen Days Down the Line (1972)

Heat (1995)

Jaunpuri (1971)

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Threads

POTENTIAL TITLES

Crime

Work

Minimalism

Codes of Honor

Justice

Obsession

Identity

Isolation

Crime and Punishment

The Cost of Becoming an Expert

Cops and Robbers

Isolated Protagonists

Both Sides of the Law

Caught in the Crossfire

Opportunity and Justice

Work Alone

Justice and Opportunity

The Cost of Expertise

Crime and Minimalism

The Cost of Work

Men at Work

The Job

Work/Life Imbalance

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POTENTIAL SUbTITLES

Work and Obsession in the crime dramas of Michael Mann Work and Obsession in the crime films of Michael Mann Themes of Work and Obsession in the films of Michael Mann Work and obsession on both sides of the law Work and Isolation in the films of Michael Mann Obsession and Isolation in the films of Michael Mann

FESTIVAL POSITIONING

Michael Mann has made a name for himself telling stories of men (almost always men) who are experts at their profession, and who struggle with the tension between obsession with their work and the inevitable isolation it creates for them from the people who are close to them Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s frequent topics of crime stories are familiar material, but his skill as a writer and director sets his work apart from lesser filmmakers. Mann truly is an expert of his craft, and in a way as he unfolds the stories of his main characters we see a filmmaker telling his own story.

LOCATION AND DATES

Labor Day Weekend September 3-6, 2010 Because the theme of the festival is men and their work, the event will take place on Labor Day Weekend, the holiday dedicated to American workers, in Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hometown of Chicago. It will be in an urban setting, keeping in line with the settings of the majority of his films.

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Film Selection

The Crime Films of Michael Mann

I knew from reading fans of Michael Mann that his movies centered around the them of work. When I looked at those films that were my favorite, I realized that most dealt with crime. Early on, it made sense to use the threads of work and crime to unify the festival. I

was disappointed that this knocked The Insider off of the listâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is a great film that brings home the identity of a man in his work, but it was the odd ball with a looser connection to crime than the rest on the short list. The other tough choice was to drop Public Enemies. I

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Different time period & too biographical

Cowboys & Indians, not Cops & Robbers

Excellent film, but missing the crime thread

Really is Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worst film, not on the same critical level

Related to crime, but not chiefly about breaking or enforcing law

Made for TV movie didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel on the same level as others

made this decision this time in spite of the fact that it is very much a cops and robbers story. Rather, when set next to the other five crime films on my list, it seemed a little out of place given its 1930s time period and its overtly biographical subject.

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Title Brainstorming

Arriving at “The Job”

The first item of business after choosing my director and the unifying thread was to wordsmith the best title. After a bunch of iterations of names that either sounded too convoluted cliché, I hit one that was simple, communicated my theme quickly, and offered multiple layers of meaning.

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Title & Logo Iterations

Identity & Meaning

Concurrent with title brainstorming, I began sketching possible logos using various titles. Again, there was no shortage of designs that would just not work. It took awhile to get through the crap to finally hit on a title and logotype with simplicity yet depth.

BUCKETS Creating a Kit of Parts

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Type Studies

Matching the type to the Thread

The importance of picking the right typeface for the festival cannot be overstated. A perfect title or knock-out graphics paired with the wrong font will be a distraction and take away from the impact of the design. Choosing the typefaces was the first big design hurdle.

My first choice was Univers, for its bland no-name character. I had decided early on to use graphics of police reports and forms, and felt that Univers would provide an excellent compliment. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large x-height also meant it could go tiny and maintain legibility.

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The next decision was an alternate typeface to pair with Univers. I chose Egyptienne F because it looks vaguely typewritery, and feels business-like without being anonymous. It was a good match for Univers visually due to a similiar x-height.

Lastly, I landed on Hoefler & Frere-Jonesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Tungsten for display type. I first decided upon Tungsten for the logotype because of its strong, sturdy character. From that point it was an easy next step to use it for headers and titles throughout.

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Photo Style

Urban Blur

In Michael Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s films, the city acts as an ever present unspoken role. I wanted to communicate this urban identity without focusing too much on the particular place. I hit on the idea of using lensblurred photos (mostly at night) to suggest context while not being

too specific. In exploring this photo style I also added photos taken at the Oakland Police Department that were blurred out and grainy in a similar style.

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Technical Diagrams

Architectural Blueprints

Police Forms

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Graphic Elements

Overlays

The graphic overlays all intersect with the main threads of work and crime. I chose various police reports and forms, architectural blueprints and technical diagrams to use as overlays to photos and textures. I also decided to reverse them so that words on the overlays would be less distracting.

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Graphic Elements

Urban Textures

To pair with the blurred-out urban and crime photos, I chose various close ups of textures found throughout the city. More often than not, items from this bucket served a supporting role to type, as divider pages, or as a companion to photos.

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THE FINAL PRODUCT Making IT VISIBLE

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The Catalog

Festival Guide

The centerpiece of the deliverables was the catalog, what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve called the Festival Guide. More than any other item in the collection, the catalog contains the majority of design buckets in the same place, as well as the bulk of the written content.

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