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archived process book Before reading this let me tell you, this project is totally insane. It came with the potential of taking over my life and that was the real challenge. It’s an exciting project—I mean it’s about watching movies and making a film festival, what’s not to like? But as the weeks went by, it became more and more difficult to keep heads above the water. At the first day of this 15 week class, all the work was alloted and it was upon us to manage and produce them in our time, and completely based on our design decisions. The good part was, I was in charge and it gave me an awesome authority over this project that you don’t really get in design projects everyday. This book outlines the process, sweat and blood that went into the design and development of this giant body of work. The book makes the process appear to be clean and organized, as against the reality where in everything was in chaos. According to the plan, I wanted to get a head start on things, plan the production time early in the process and finish in good time. And as you must have guessed it, it happened in the exact opposite way. This class made me feel overwhelmed from time to time and a few weeks post halfway, it turned everything upside down. It also taught me to never compromise on design when in the need of the hour is to prioritize. All in all, it was a memorable experience and it changed the designer in me for good.
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research
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Project Director Design Brief
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deliverables
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build up
Buckets Identity Photography
Poster Advertisements Environmental Graphics Catalog DVD Packaging Soundtrack Tickets & Schedule Website
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presentation
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Container End note
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research
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project
shitload of stuff The premise of this project is to design a film festival. It’s not as straightforward as it sounds. It means that we need to design an ‘experience’ from start to finish for the people attending the festival. That means, every step must be well thought, every design design decision must tie back to the thread we formulate as a theme for the festival. This theme set the mood of the experience and it ties the pieces together with a strong visual system.
list of pieces The following is the list of deliverables that I chose to go with to build my festival. There were others to choose from like a trailer, flying logo, a uniform system, etc. I chose to go with these and to stick to my guranteed best. The amount of work in the given span of time seems impossible to achieve, but it’s doable. I did it. Research Design Brief Identity Logo, type style, graphic style, photography, business system— letterhead, envelope and business cards. Poster Real festival size poster—30 x 40in + 12 x 16in with appropriately branded holding tube. Catalog A beautifully designed hardbound limited edition catalog to explain the narrative flavor of the festival and showcase the films.
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think about it... at the end of 15 weeks, you would have done something you’ve never done before. —Christopher Morlan
Advertisements A minimum of 3 different designs to promote the festival, flawlessly comped in the evironment to formulate scale.
Schedule This gives access to dates, screening times and events. No format or size restrictions.
DVD Packaging
Environmental Graphics / Signage system A system of destination and directional signage (minimum of 6 individual designs / destinations) that will help “brand” the space and orient the attendees. Virtually comped in an exquisite manner within an environment similar to our festival venue.
Multiple DVD Packaging for the chosen films of the director, with an 8 -page booklet per movie as a part of the packaging. Website A fully functional website containing a home page, 3 secondary and 3 tertiary pages, fit to be viewd on a 1024 x 768 monitor. Soundtrack Much like the DVD packaging—should be conceived as a limited run, but could take any format. Must include appropriate songs, liner notes and design elements. Tickets These could be in a booklet form or unbound separate pieces for entry at the festival venue, with an appropriate container.
Presentation All these materials should be presented in some sort of a container / housing. This does not have to be elaborate construction but more robust and specific than a grocery bag. This can be customized off-theshelf item or an entirely custom creation. Annotated Process Book This process journal will document all the key stages of this project, including inspiration, process and outcomes.
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director
quentin tarantino
March 27, 1963 Director, Producer and Actor Won 2 Oscars (Pulp Fiction & Django Unchained) Palme d'Or winner (Pulp Fiction)
Born in Tennessee in 1963, Quentin Tarantino moved to California at age 4. His love of movies led to a job in a video store, during which time he wrote the scripts for True Romance and Natural Born Killers. Tarantino’s directorial debut came with 1992 ’s Reservoir Dogs, but he received widespread critical and commercial acclaim with Pulp Fiction (1994), for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay. Subsequent features included Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) and Grindhouse (2007). Tarantino earned several award nominations for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012), the latter garnering him a second Oscar win for best screenplay.
choosing a director This was actually the easiest decision to make. I researched two other directors besides Quentin Tarantino—Mira Nair and Christopher Nolan. I started out by researching their work styles and backgrounds to find a relation with my own working style. I wanted to design a film festival for a director that I really admired, and Tarantino is one of them. I watch his movies for sheer entertainment and pleasure and have never missed watching any of his movies. This project gave me a chance to find insights and inspiration to his style of working. It was a lot of fun obviously, since it’s watching movies for homework. I found that Tarantino is a lot more awesome in his personal life besides the awesome we see in his movies. A major reason to choose him was that he’s known today by doing what he absolutely loves. I admire that quality and aim to practice that in my personal life as well.
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design brief
design fucking master To go with my thread, I created a design brief that not only informed my classmates, but instructed and reminded me on where I’m going with the festival. It outlines the thread / theme, films, history, location, audience, for me to keep a track while moving forward. This is a snapshot from a detailed design brief.
Festival Filmography 1991 Reservoir Dogs 1994 Pulp Fiction 1997 Jackie Brown 2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 2004 Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Thread Badass gangsters cause havoc, unfolding a bloody aftermath furiously driven by betrayal, vengeance or cover-ups. Moments of ironic humor make way to highlight their ordeals.
Audience The target audience is 18-40 year olds because nearly all of his films are rated R 18+ due to their violent themes and sexual references making them inapropriate for minors. They are people belonging to western cultures, not gender specific or targeted at any particular social class. They are both local and international people, coming together to re-live his films.
Festival filmography This chosen list of films tie together in the thread, in addition to his powerful, compelling and irrestible visual style, making them festival worthy. This festival will celebrate the movie geek in him, his encyclopedic of knowledge of films and his obvious love for it.
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bad-ass gangsters cause havoc, unfolding a bloody aftermath furiously driven by betrayal, vengeance or cover-ups.Moments of ironic humor make way to highlight their ordeals. —Grishma Shah Location & dates
titles & subtitles
The venue for the film festival would be Paramount Drive-in theatre at Paramount county in Los Angeles, CA. It falls in a comfortable spot between Pasadena—in and around LA where he filmed most of his film scenes, and Torrance—where he grew up. The event will take place on May 23, 2016 which is day he won Palme d’Or for best film Pulp Fiction, at Cannes Film Festival 1994.
Chapters of Vehemence Stories of cold-blood revenge in the films of Quentin Tarantino
history
Rough Ride Quentin Tarantino film festival
The QT Film Fest is an annual film festival Quentin Tarantino is holds in Austin, Texas, where he screens selections of favorite films from his own private collection. But there hasn’t been a film festival in the honor his own films.
positioning This is a proposal to create a film festival to celebrate the work of this genius director and for his passion to forward his love for films to the audience in the same way he feels it. It will be a one-time novelty film festival unique to the director, that will go on for a 3 evenings in a Drive-in theatre at Los Angeles.
Not Just Damn Feel the satisfaction in the films of Quentin Tarantino Karma’s a Bitch Bad-ass gangsters and rough rides in a Quentin Tarantino Film Festival
Blood-fest Quentin Tarantino film festival Mortal Kick Back Truly deadly film festival of Quentin Tarantino Cut Throat Blood-fested film festival of Quentin Tarantino Avenged Stories of cold-blood revenge in the films of Quentin Tarantino
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buckets
bag full of stash Working with buckets and moodboards was a bit challenging for me, especially when I was trying to find sample references that could work in my style. Although, I figured it out soon enough and matched my photography and graphic style to a shortlisted sample of inspiration. Buckets were a way to start somewhere and lead to something really unique and bold.
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photo style Raw, Narrative, Intense
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graphic style Bad-ass, Bold, Loud
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type style Handwritten, Old-school, Drop shadow
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language Profane, Sarcastic, Witty
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you keep talking like a bitch, I’m gonna slap you like a bitch.
—Mr. Blonde, Reservoir dogs
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rma’hs ka abitc
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karimtcah’s b a
ROURGIHDE
identity
what goes around, comes around I took some time finalizing the title and subtitle. Initially I worked with many different ones and landed on ‘Rough Ride’ for a while. It seemed to fit with the thread. In week 08, I came up with the idea of ‘Karma’s a Bitch’ in the subtitle, only to realize that it’s a better title. And so ‘rough ride’ moved to subtitle and moved forward with Karma’s a Bitch.
Final logo mark and subtitle. A handwritten bloody logo to express the anger and frustration felt when karma takes on it’s toll. It’s loud, it’s big, it’s red. It’s in-your-face.
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photography
a dash of personality I went on to do three photoshoots, all with different intentions. The first two proved to be good practice sessions and it helped me chart what exactly I needed in my shots. I went ahead with a ‘guy’ who is the hero of my story. He’s been in a fight and now he’s on the way to his car while being careful on the go from being attacked. My photo style worked well with film grain and multiplied deep yellow light sourcing.
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poster
building curiosity Poster was the toughest for many of us to crack and it took weeks of putting the visual system together, to find the perfect one. I actually got mine just two weeks before finals. Listed here are some of the explorations I tried, with both titles—Rough Ride and Karma’s a Bitch. The intention of my poster design was to use all the elements from the visual system and give out the ‘feeling’ in the first design the audience sees. The advertisements adopt from the final poster a lot, and are purposefully similar. As you see through my explorations, you’ll notice that they’re not perfectly type set. This is because most of them are 5 minutes or 2 minutes explorations that needed to set the tone without spending too much time on refinement.
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One of the main challenges was to simplify the poster and narrow down the visual system to simpler color handling. These explorations led me to use one image (above) and play with the layout. I also tried mixing two styles of photo treatment—realistic plus vector, which I chose to let go later.
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gs o ir D o Reserv ic t io n P u lp F Brown J a c k ie and 2 l Vol 1 K il l B il
Final poster. I was thrilled to see how far I’ve come with the poster design and I think this is a very effective poster solution for this project.
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advertisements
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spread the word
The ads shown here are the final advertisements which came after the poster design was close to final. The advertisements adopt heavily from the poster design, purposefully to keep the strong feelings going and setting the mood for the festival. These ads will be released in the respective mediums three months prior to the festival, all over the US. As you see the red splatter graphic element here, is treated similar to the element in the w poster.
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environmental graphics
did you see the sign up front? This was definitely my favorite of all deliverables. I had a lot of fun coming up with messages in the Tarantino Universe, by poking reference at key dialogues from his movies. The second part of my thread has to do with how humor comes in and highlights the irony of their ordeals. I took advantage of the opportunity that environmental graphics come with, to create witty signage using the minimalistic elements of my visual system.
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catalog
some serious intellectual shit The catalog is where I could use interesting type layouts with a fusion of my photo and graphic styles. It’s a limited edition run, containing director’s biography, filmography, film synopsis, trivia, quotes, film reviews and interviews, among location and date information.
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films
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how’s the week going? remember, this work is supposed to be fun too.
—Christopher Morlan
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dvd packaging
cool pack, palooka Following the visual system, I designed my DVD packaging to reference the kill bill costume. It’s an a yellow box with the red line cutting through it like a sword mark. It opens up from the thin front side, imitating a snake bite like that of the Black Mamba. The individual DVD sleeves hold one key item from respective movies in the form of unique illustrations. All in all it’s a bad-ass DVD collection package.
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Final DVD packaging. I started out by making it in a square box, which from the front too, just up top. Later I realized that the box didn’t need extra space in between the sitting sleeves on the inside, so I narrowed it down. The final design shows the spines once open, a key functional aspect. All the DVDs have a booklet inside that give out information, stills and quotes from the particular movie.
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soundtrack
down from the beat Another favorite deliverable was the soundtrack for me. I hadn’t worked on vinyl record covers before and so was a bit overwhelmed to make an attempt. Once I got to it, it was the most exquisite medium for packaging. Much like the DVD box, I designed this record package with the intention that I would love to have it from a Tarantino film festival. An absolute must have for a music loving director like Tarantino.
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tickets and schedule
stick a bullet in your calendar Tickets I chose to keep the festival tickets black, with a quote from scenes where somebody is about to die. It not only reminds the viewers about how wicked the movie is, but also kicks the gut feeling of wanting to watch the movie ‘right now.’ The concept is to tear the ticket at the entrance, enforcing the physical action of rough theme.
schedule The tickets and schedule go hand in hand in one sleeve. The concept of the schedule is to open in smaller parts to reveal information one at a time. It’s size is super handy, yet again highly functional to use for a three day festival. It follows an envelope convention and that’s why it holds tickets within.
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de s ug h ri al an d ro fe st iv st er snt in o fi lm s ga ng ra ti n ta ba d- as en in a Qu
de s ug h ri al an d ro fe st iv st er s in o fi lm s ga ng ta ra nt n ti ba d- as en in a Qu
de s ug h ri al an d ro fe st iv st er snt in o fi lm s ga ng ra ti n ta ba d- as en Qu in a
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Final tickets and schedule. With the entire schedule visible at once on the inside, it makes the schedule and tickets pack referable on the go. The information is easy to follow and the pack can fit inside a purse or even a jeans pocket. Talk about being cool on the move.
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website
you oughta get online Lastly, the website completed this project by getting online. It was fascinating to see how the applcation of visual system changes when it gets on screen. No inks, no paper, no trimming to size. Getting it pixel perfect is a skill that’s now polished for me with this fully functional website. You can visit it at karmasabitchfilmfest.com.
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container
the box was a good idea As a presentation piece, I used an old wooden box as my container to hold all the deliverables in. I gave it a lock, so if it has to be shipped, it becomes an excellent custom made box for the festival. The logo and subtitle are painted on the surface using a vinyl sticker stencil, and the red paint is hand painted.
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end note
everything comes to an end This project and class changed me as a designer and as a person, for the better. One very valuable lesson learnt from this class is to never compromise on design. When it comes to priortizing, design is on the top of the list—always. I can’t bear to not design well anymore. Each and every aspect much be well thought and tested. Of course it ties into time management, which was a key challenge. I loved every bit of this class, even though it was totally insane. The amount of work I’ve designed and produced in these 15 weeks, is much more than any previous semester in this course. Additionally, this project will always be cherished, because I chose a director and theme that I really love. I think it makes a great deal of difference to design what you truly love. I’ll take this opportunity to thank my husband, who helped me more than he could and also modelled for my photography. Also big thanks to my sister, who’s support is invaluable. Lastly, a big shoutout to Christopher Morlan, whose teaching and guidance made this class worth the madness.
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you won’t believe how much you can get done in a week.
—Christopher Morlan
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