Probe
Prescribe
Brief Drip
Progress
Present
Research Book Collaborators:
Joel Burden
Brief Breakdown Content Analysis
Concept Generation
Research Process
News Channel Graphics
Identities
Children’s Handwriting
Press Kit
BBC
Handwritten
Children’s Drawings
How to?
Kellerhouse
Case Study
Se7en
Primary Research
Typeface Generation
Disturbing Drawings
Art Therapy
Examples
Meeting With Director
I had an initial meeting with the director Mark Trifunovic to write a brief. On the next page is the brief I printed and filled in with Mark. We discussed all aspects of the brief and what we both wanted to achieve
Brief Breakdown
One aspect of the brief required a piece of graphic design for in-film. This was for a fake news channel. It would be inserted into the film in post-production. Because this was a very small part of the brief, it would be best to base the graphics on an existing channel in order to succesfully feign the legitimacy of the graphics.
News Channel Graphics
One aspect of the brief required a piece of graphic design for in-film. This was for a fake news channel. It would be inserted into the film in post-production. Because this was a very small part of the brief, it would be best to base the graphics on an existing channel in order to succesfully feign the legitimacy of the graphics.
Strong Film Identities
I conducted general research into strong visual identities within film promotion. At first, I have not focussed on a particular genre to understand and evaluate how a visual identity works across film regardless of the genre.
1. Burning Man Burning Man relies on a high impact surreal image as part of it’s poster promotion. Typography is kept to a minimum so not to impose on the image. 2. Cracks Cracks uses a visual metaphor that is a reference to the title, in order to strengthen and form it’s identity. 3. I Saw The Devil Using harsh and crude typography, the film communicates it’s genre. It uses powerful and relative type and image that support each other to distinguish the film’s tone. 4. The Stranger Inside The Stranger Inside employs a simple and sophisticated application of image to act as a visual metaphor for the film’s title. The weaker and more subtle typography is applied to a simple two tone image, which inturn acts to emphasise the image.
6. The Informant The Informant uses striking colour and large bold type inorder to create a high impact identity that is instantly recognisable. The colour palette consists of colours close on the colour spectrum in order reinforce the identity even further. 7. I’m Still Here This poster was designed by Kellerhouse. This already begins to provide a strong identity, due to his identifiable work that strays from in house production comapny.
Source: pinterest.com
5. We Need To Talk About Kevin Using a desaturated duotone, the film poster starts to create an identity through colour and type specifications.
1. Inner Jungle The film creates an identity based on an intriguing and surreal image. The well laid out and considered type harmonises with the image, creating a more powerful identity. 2. Haywire Another Kellerhouse design once again shows a strong identity through individuality and bespoke type. The display Haywire identity is joined by a secondary typeface that is laid out to reinforce the identity and provides a platform for the image. 3/4. Gummo Gummo employs a lo-fi visual style to reference the film’s style. This creates a transferrable identity that is identifiable across successive platforms.
Source: pinterest.com
5/6. Weekend Weekend relies on similar photographic imagery inconjunction with consistent type and a structured layout. The photography not only is treated similar in terms of tone, hue, saturation, and brightness, but also contains similar introvert subjects.
Hand Written Type
I proceeded to look into more specific film references. Having determined a concept based around a hand rendered typography, I wanted to find examples of films that I felt had successfully emplyed using hand written typography. I focussed on examples where the type looked not just hand rendered, but specifically hand written.
1. The Other Man While this film does not use hand written type Ias titling, the image and and image based type is hand written in the style of a child. This is the type of style I will be looking towards, however the overall tone needs to come across as more disturbing. 2. The Kings Of Summer The type for this film is handwritten. The style is very clean and the type must have been cleaned up in post production. The handwriting style contrasts and harmonises well with the bold sans serif. 3/4. Rust And Bone Rust And Bone appears in two forms here: Handwritten, and Computer Generated. I much prefer the handwritten in this instance, as it seems more organic and fitting with the tone of the film. The The handwriting seems to integrate better with the photograph as it becomes part of the image itself.
6. Corvidae Highly stylised image with appropriate hand rendered typeface. The type reflects the tone of the image and vice versa, this strenghtens the relationship and the impact of the type and image. This is something I need to consider. 7. Monsters My favourite example. The titling is thing yet stands out against the bold sans serif beneath it. It is high impact and delicate, and I think this is a very skilled application of type.
Source: pinterest.com
5. The Man With The Iron Fists I have no idea why I included this. This is not what want to imitate. However, this is just as important to realise.
1. Building Hope The film seems to imitate a child’s handwriting style. This is something that I hope to replicate also, but I am unsure that this is the correct tone/way of doing it for my brief. 2. The Kings Of Summer Similarly the half nelson typography also imitates a younger person’s script. The two films seem t be about a very similar subject and it is reflected in their typography and image. While they are good reference points I need to develop this in order to create the right tone. 3/4. Detachment Detachment creates a nice visual paradox between the type and image. Detachment denotes separation, however the typography has an emotional attachment to the image and content of the film. 5. Primer While this is not handwritten in the traditional sense, the typeface looks like it has been based on a handwritten type. This is one technique of ensuring the type and image integrate and harmonise with one another.
Source: pinterest.com
6. Heima Another example of how the typography can create a more emotive aesthetic.
About film posters:
Neil Kellerhouse is a designer from California who works with Criterion specifically on film posters. In his early days as a designer he worked with Pixar on films such as Finding Nemo. Subsequently being introduced to Criterion and a range of directors, Kellerhouse has created posters for may recent blockbusters such as: The Social Network, Haywire, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. “In the same way a successful logo is a single image that represents a large company, it communicates a message about themselves, who they are and what they do. Likewise a poster should sum up what it is you want to message, sell or communicate about your film. Not in 24 frames, not 30 seconds, but one single frame.�
Source: http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/marketing/person-to-know/neil-kellerhouse/
Notable Designer
The examples on this page relate to my brief to their use of hand rendered type that deliver’s a unique personality and emotion to a film. Kellerhouse’s work with photography is also a large part of his work and I am in awe of his ability to seamlessly tie both type and image together. Their is a beautoful disjointed aesthetic in these posters which are especially noticeable in the posters for Antichrist and The Eclipse.
Source: kellerhouse.com
Neil Kellerhouse Kellerhouse strives to make bespoke artworks for each of his clients. His film posters are bespoke to the films content. They do not imitate the trends of the production company aesthetic.
Case Study
Mark Trifunovic, the director of Drip gave me the film Se7en as a case study. The film develops a typographic language throughout the titling. While I do not this this is integrated into the poster very well, the opening and end credits utlise a hand rendered typgraphy that is supported by disjointed images. Se7en relates heavily to our concept due to the relationship between the graphic design and the psyche/ narrative of a character in the film.
Se7en
Film Poster
A few reasons why I think this is a bad movie poster:
How could this be made stronger:
Lack of any logical type hierarchy.
Use a type hierarchy that reads logically.
The same information is repeated twice.
Don’t repeat the same information twice.
The word seven is used too many times, which shows the poster has not been based on the concept that is strong within the Opening titles. Why you would disregard great work in the titles is beyond me.
The film is called Seven. There is no need for a tally, there is no need to put 7 in the word seven. There is no need to list the seven deadly sins, twice. Relate the poster to the titles!
There is no harmony between the image at the top and the image at the bottom.
Treat the poster as a whole, and not two halves.
There is two logos for the same thing.
Use one consistent logo.
Floating heads.
Don’t have floating heads.
Production company aesthetic.
Think about the design.
Source: google.com
How could this be made stronger?
Se7en
Opening Credits
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY
Why are these credits so good? The almost innocent writing provides a good paradox to the tone of the film, which increases the on edge value to the film. The credits use imagery from the film, but displays it in such a way as to not give anything away. The credits not only introduce the character but his motivations, and his process. The credits look like elements of an investigation which subtley introduces the setting of the film.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY
The credits introduce the antagonist through a complex and unnerving look into his psyche.
Se7en
Ending Credits
Why are these credits so good? They do not include too much complex imagery, as the film has finished. The visual style references the title images, but is presented in an entirely different way. The titles are clear, but still nod to the visual style of the title credits.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY
The credits end on a disjointed note.
Se7en
Additional Imagery
Source: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/
“...it delivers us into an even darker world, which — unlike the random city violence beneath Somerset’s window — is obsessive, methodic, and purposeful. Directed by Kyle Cooper while at the newly-formed Los Angeles arm of titling giant R/Greenberg Associates, it’s a short story told in fragments and vignettes, following the hands of an unknown man — presumably the antagonist, John Doe — as he makes entries in his diary alongside clippings from books, self-developed photographs, and found images and objects, giving the audience an intimate look into the mind of a serial killer obsessed with religion and, more to the point, attrition. It’s a sequence that has drawn comparisons to the grotesque photography of Joel-Peter Whitkin and the experimental self-aware filmmaking of Stan Brakhage, and its format has been likened to Stephen Frankfurt’s title design for Robert Mulligan’s 1963 adaptation of the courtroom thriller To Kill a Mockingbird, which also features close-up photography of personal items to describe the psyche of one of the film’s key players. But it is more likely a convergence of unique circumstances and artistic vision that gave the Se7en titles their own distinct cadence, blending Fincher’s treatment of the film itself with Cooper’s visual interpretation of its narrative.”
Source: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/
artofthetitle.com article:
Childrens Writing
In order to create a typography that would reflect and symbolise child like innocence I have been looking into the writing of children in order to get a understanding of some of the qualities and identifiers that make it children’s writing.
Real Life Childrens Writing
Tanida offered her brother’s handwriting to us, so we gave her directions on what he should write and she returned with some great examples of children’s hand rendered type. This was good for us to visual the type we needed and see how we could reproduce it as a visual language.
Childrens Drawings
It was decided that the concept would be built around the child character within the film, and the visual style would also explore and deliver the child’s character to the audience in greater depth. With this in mind I began to research drawings done by children in order to have some reference for a visual style.
Disturbing Drawings
Further investigation saw research into ‘disturbing drawings’ by children, which had more complex themes. These drawings almost acted as a coping mechanism and an understanding of a certain situation, which related very well to the brief.
Art Therapy
The ‘disturbing children’s drawings led me to into art therapy. Art therapy is used to treat children and adults who have gone through serious traumas. The subject is fitting for the concept that has been developed. The link between the visual and the emotional is something had sits well within our concept. Perhaps Art Therapy will be able to inform some of the promotional materials required for the brief.
This mask, made by a wounded soldier, represents the feeling that he needs to camouflage himself to fit into civilian society. He said that art therapy was one of the few times he felt he could truly express himself. The children’s art therapy stuff is rather preditcable and not quite what I had in mind. The ‘colouring outside of the lines’ is a concept that I feel engaged with. However, the image above is what really caught my attention. I feel it is visually very stimulating. While this is an adult’s response to war trauma I think the visual is so beautiful that I could not miss the opportunity to document it.
Press Kits
One of the elements I need to submit for this brief is a press kit. I have heard of Press Kits before but I have never had to put one together. Therefore, I am looking into what you need to include in a press kit and specifically how these are produced for independent films.
Press Kit
What are they?
A bunch of stuff that is neat, which tells people what the heck the story is about. Cover Sheet, Synopsis, Photos, Cast and Crew, Anecodtes, Reviews if applicable, Credits. Around 100 prints for low budget, large budget will send out thousands. There are three types of synopsis. Long, medium and short, these make the film easier to review. Have a brief biography and intentions behind the film. Film ‘hype’ is not earned it is manufactured by you. Publicity Stills. Re-enacting key moments of the movie, stills of the cast and crew, showing off the production values. Pictures of the director producing. Produce an electronic press kit. Front Page, Logline, Synopsis, Runtime, Shooting Format, Cast and Credit List, About the film (production notes0, Filmmaker/ Director Biography, Information about any other notable cast or crew members involved, Previous and Future Sceduled screenings, Awards and Laurels
Press Kit
Examples
This press kit is for a greek film and employs a very consistent visual style across the range of deliverables. I willl have to employ a similar tactic for the press kit I am to produce. The film almost too branded to the point I am unsure what type of film it is. I am unsure the graphics communciate the film properly. While I do like the graphics, I do not think they support the tone of the film. I am reading more into the film through the photography used. This is something I do not want to do with the press kit I will be creating.
This press kit is far more suited to the tone of the film. It interacts far more successfully with photography. This is something I would like to recreate with the press kit I am to design.