THEME/TOPIC

• designing for culture

THESIS
Independent films often don’t have the resources to promote their films successfully to their audiences. The first points of contact for a film, the promotional materials and then the opening title sequence, are important to the success of the film. They setup the film for the audience and are the beginning of the storytelling process. Can design improve how well a film is received by the audience and add to the story a film is trying to tell?

AUDIENCE
This project has both a primary audience and a secondary audience. The main audience are people who attend independent film festivals. The VIFF describes this audience as “a diverse, multicultural audience (32 “first spoken” languages identified) of young (61% are under age 44), single, well-educated (80% have at least some university), media-savvy urban professionals with high disposable income. The gender mix is 58% female and 42% male.” The secondary audience is made up of film festival admission board members.

OBJECTIVES
Through collaborating with another student in the IMED department at ECUAD, Amanda Thomson, I think their is an opportunity to enrich each of our learning experiences via our grad projects by considering other creative fields and the way in which designers and film makers communicate with the audience. Creative projects often require the work of many different people, and this is an opportunity to begin working with other people towards a common creative goal.

CRITERIA
At this preliminary stage I plan on working on the opening title sequence for Amanda’s short film entitled, Heart Robin. In addition to this I would like to develop promotional collateral for the film which could include posters and a website. The VIFF requires admitted films to supply 3-5 posters, and film stills or a website for publicity.

RESEARCH
To date I have done some preliminary research on three main film festivals: VIFF, TIFF and Sundance. The VIFF website has provided fruitful information about their film festival audience as well as requirements for film makers wishing to submit a film. I am in the process of reading Uncredited: Graphic Design and Opening Titles in Movies. I plan on carrying out significant visual research which will include watching opening titles for other films, both what has been done historically as well as what has been done more recently. I would also like to look at promotion for other independent films, especially those that have recently been featured at the above mentioned film festivals.

EDUCATIONAL GOALS

• learn how to make an opening title sequence technically and conceptually
• develop storyboards and a sequential visual language
• apply a visual language across a range of media