Drip_DevelopmentBook

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Brief Drip

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Development Book Collaborators:

Joel Burden

News Channel Graphics

We had to create the graphics for a fictitious news channel that is featured within the film.

The name of the news channel is West Yorkshire News.

The channel identity is to look like a generic channel that could be real. There needed to be a banner over the top of the shot so that the shot looks legitimate.

I went straight into the graphics with somewhat of a blind eye. The graphics looked basic and terrible. I used colours from a screenshot and it seemed washed out and unprofessional.

The typeface did not seem correct and so I decided to use a recognisable news channel as a starting point.

Graphics I decided to base my graphics on the news channel on BBC News. The interesting thing about this brief was that I needed to create something that was not original and would directly look like something else. Being one of the most recognisable news brands in the world I thought that basing it on BBC would make the graphics look in place naturally.

I decided to use Gill Sans as this is the type face that the BBC use for their logo.

Setting the WY NEWS in Gill Sans immediately established the news channel as a brand. The brilliant thing about typography is that the subtleties in a typeface can really resonate a certain sector. I think this is due to the ubiquity of the BBC brand.

The news channel looked established and I thought this was a perfect aesthetic to run with. I felt the only thing this graphic needed to acheive was: if someone where to see it, they would not batter an eyelid at it’s presence.

I applied the graphic to a banner that had a similar layout to the BBC news banner. I applied the graphic to the screenshot and it looked convincing enough. The director was happy with the graphic, however I was asked to add a drop shadow.

End Credit Graphics

For the interim deadline I created some end credits as a place holder for the graphics that I had in development.

I did not have time to execute the plan for the final graphics so I was forced to layout some typography for the placeholder end credits. I took two routes. Serif, and sans serif.

I prefer the sans serif attempts due to their clinical aesthetic. I prefer DIN over all the options here. I think it is eerily cold and calculated. I am unsure if this would come across to an audience, however I think given the right setting (an appropriate audio ending), it would fit in place.

The sans serifs are slightly predictable.

Despite my advice, the director advised I use Trajan Pro for the provisional end credits. Wonderfully predictable for a horror film, Trajan Pro does the job, but looks like the end to an ITV drama.

I tried to lay good old Trajan out as well as I could, and I think I did it some justice, but it was not really what I wanted.

However, the director is happy, and at this stage that is all I am concerned about.

I submitted these images also. I submitted them as jpegs, so that the video editor could use them in post production.

Liasing with the Producer, I set up a joint Dropbox account so that we could share the final files immediately. This proved to be a very efficient way to deliver the files, especially for their provisional use.

Type Development

For the titling of the film Joel and I have created a bespoke hand written type that is both child like and eery.

My role within this part of the brief was in the hand writing and scanning of the characters and in the critique of Joel’s layouts until completion.

To generate the typography that we would use I experimented with various ways of writing in order to imitate that of a child. I tried drawing with my eyes closed, lef-handed, and holding the pencil in foreign positions .

Here are some of the developmental layouts that Joel created from our generated type. I was looking for something that would be eery but innocent looking.

We inverted the colour in order to give the type a dark backing, which was done for it to fit within the context of a film.

After an initial critique Joel was able to to create the rest of the titles in a consistent style. The look of the typography was exactly what we were going for.

Disturbed innocence was the aesthetic we wanted to achieve and we believe this acheived it.

Press Kit

The press kit started to take form from multiple discussions between Joel and I. I was to execute the press kit personally, but we discussed the form it would take, the body copy typefaces and the hierarchy of information.

I printed out an initial layout and grid in order to construct some distressed line work around the titles and body copy.

I did these independently for each page and went through the same photoshop process to get them in reverse out.

I then placed them in InDesign to lay them out. This is the first time I have used photoshop and InDesign in the production of a layout. It was an insightful process into how difficult it is to work this way. I do not think I have done it justice just yet, but I feel if I were do something like this again, I would be able to produce better results with a more coherent and professional work flow.

I worked around the grid to layout the PressKit. I used Vignelli’s grid work as a guide and was able to typeset the page professionally. I feel my layout has come on with this brief, albeit in a somewhat unnattractive visual. I feel my layout is a little too structured for this particular brief.

I made a dummy booklet to understand the pagination for the document. I wanted to know how many pages I would have to include on the InDesign document.

I made a mock up for the director to look at also. This was to provide him with a visual for the printed document.

I finalised the layout in InDesign. Here are some of the screenshots in the finalised layout.

Set Back The previous press kit would have taken a lot of printing and would have been difficult to print in mass on a small budget.

Instead I came up with a different idea that would be cheaper to print and could potentially work better as a press kit.

This press kit reduced the amount of paper to be used for each press kit and would be far easy to manage interms of print.

I mocked up how the press kit could fold out in a narrative that delivered information in the same order as the original press kit.

This press kit would start of portrait and end landscape. I felt this was better as the folds worked more with a logical turning of the page like you would with a book. I feel that if you were to read the information then a logical turning instinct would occur, making it work as I expect.

Landscape variant, I felt this was a little less obvious to read like a book.

I moved toward finalised layouts in InDesign. I felt this was far better as a graphic product, and would be more interesting to read/memorable.

I put together a press kit to be viewed electronically that was based on the printed press kit. I thought it would be a good idea to give the Production Still’s more room on the interactive press kit as I felt they added a quality and narrative to the films production that was difficult to put across in the written content of the press kit.

After the director had changed the typeface I decided to change the press kit back to a booklet format, to avoid any confusion. This meant that the Print and Electronic Press kit would appear the same, which would give a visual consistency over the two products.

Final End Credits

After the interim deadline we were to create the final end credits. These were to be kept in te same style as the press kit, which had built on the typography created for the opening titles. I created the titles my self under the critique of Joel.

Below is the file that I created for the end credits. I made the file so that it will be usable within AfterEffects, which is the software that the video editor will be using.

I created the visuals in the same style as the Press Kit. I used scan charcoal to create the illustrations but then llayered and manipulated them further in photoshop.

The style is a visual metaphor for the repercussions of the final scene and is in keeping with the rest of the film.

The director required a change in typeface. I expressed my reasoning for a sans serif to contrast the scrawly script titling, and to allow for further legibility within reverse out. However the director requested a sans serif that was likened to Trajan Pro, so I chose Palatino.

I chose Palatino beause of it’s likeness to Trajan Pro. While the extra work changing the font was not what I particuarly needed, I needed to keep the director happy for the brief, as I felt I was dressing up his child in some clothes that I had chosen. I feel that the end result works just as well if not better than what I had initially chosen. DIN worked well for my initial response to the brief however I think Palatino has pulled it all together, and I am much happier with the visual language now.

Poster Image

Joel was to create the poster. The idea and concept for the poster was developed in collaboration, but Joel was to execute it under my critque.

Joel and I arranged and executed a photoshoot in order to get some images for the basis of the poster. Joel created a setting that was reminiscent of the young boys room in the film and we tried numerous lighting compositions in order to get a variety of subtley different results.