Unit 03 Ideas and Concepts

SAUL BASS

RESEARCH

My First Mood board

One of the best ways to research how to do something, is to look at past examples of the subject. As work that is inspired by Saul Bass is usually very visual, it makes sense to use mood boards to research this subject. 

These are all Saul Bass inspired posters that I found on google images. Like Saul Bass' original work, all of these posters have contrasting colours, hand drawn fonts and are very simple. I particularly like the fonts from the Red Dead Redemption and Dexter posters. the film that i have chosen for this project is True Grit, a western like Red Dead, so I think that if I use a similar font to the Red Dead font it will look good in my work. The font used in Dexter would also suit the western style of True Grit, as it resembles the text from an old western wanted poster. This could be useful when I make my Saul Bass style movie trailer, as . could use a wanted poster as one of the frames.

As a western, one of the main themes of True Grit is violence. The Jaws and Dexter posters both have a lot of red in them. The colour red is often used to portray anger and violence, so I could use the colour schemes of the Jaws and Dexter posters to try to add those feelings to my work.


  Both of these Posters effectively capture the Saul Bass style as they are very simple, but still manage to tell you about the movie. The only object the Fight Club poster has on it is a crude clenched fist. but it clearly shows that the film is about fighting as clenched fists often signify violence. the Star Wars poster is also very simple, it only has the silhouette of a man and a red triangle. But because of the way that the triangle is positioned, I can tell that it is meant to be a weapon. and the fact that the man is portrayed in a dark colour, tells 
me that he is the bad guy.
Even if I took away the movie titles, you would still be able to identify the films because the images are so iconic. I have learnt from these posters that when creating images for my own work, i must make them simple, but also recognisable enough for the viewer to know what the image is and how it relates to the subject.

TYPOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT

Hand drawn fonts are important when doing Saul Bass style work. So it makes sense to begin typography development with hand drawn designs. All of the designs that I came up with are inspired by the posters on the mood board that I did for my research.

My first designs for my Saul Bass style movie title

On the bottom sheet, the bottom right design was based on a Star Wars poster, and the bottom left was based on the Red Dead Redemption poster. The top ones were inspired by the Dexter poster, and I attempted a design based on the Fight Club poster, above the Red Dead inspired design, but i wasn't happy with how it was
turning out.

On the top sheet I have developed the 
Red Dead and Dexter designs. The movie 
that I have decided to do in Saul Bass style
is True Grit. As True Grit is a western film, I
decided to develop those designs because they suited western movie style. I think that the top design suits because it it inspired by Red Dead redemption, a very successful western style video game. The bottom design is based on the Dexter title, because it looks like the font that was
used on old western wanted posters.

Below I have some Fonts that I downloaded to give me more inspiration when it came to making my own hand drawn writing styles on Adobe Illustrator. They are all based on Saul Bass style and I tried to get ones that would suit the movie that I picked, True Grit. I picked fonts like Scrunch, which looked gritty, and fonts like The Dead Saloon, which looks like it came from an old western movie. 

Some examples of Saul Bass style fonts that I downloaded from www.DaFont.com

The first 6 movie titles I designed in adobe illustrator were all based around my hand drawn designs or inspired by the fonts that I downloaded from DaFont. 

The first is of the Red Read style design that i hand drew. it is on top of an eye patch as one of the main characters in true grit wears an eyepatch. The second is based on the Dexter title as it looks like the font from a wanted poster. The third is of my own design which I didn't plan. the T's are meant to represent guns shooting at each other, which i why there is an explosion behind the type.

The fourth is based on the 20.000 Bail Bond font that I downloaded from DaFont. It doesn't really suit a western film, but I thought that it looked pretty cool. The fifth Is based on the Vermin Vibes Diet font that I got on DaFont. it looks more like it should be in a sci-fi movie, but I wanted to explore my options. I put the letters in a triangle because the font is quite triangular. The sixth is based on the mexican Fiesta font I got from DaFont. I liked it because it splits into colours, and it would suit a western movie, but it is quite hard to read because the letters are split in half.  

My first 6 Saul Bass style movie titles done in Illustrator

IMAGE DEVELOPMENT

A mind map with things that relate to True Grit

 To design and create a Saul Bass style movie opening sequence, you need more than hand drawn fonts. You also need to design images to add to it. The images have to link to the movie, but be as simplistic as possible. To come up with my own images, I first created a mind map of things that relate to the film True Grit, e.g. guns, outlaws, bounties.

A hand drawn mood board 

I then made a hand drawn mood board of images that relate to True Grit, so that I could see how they looked. The drawings of the beard and eyepatch and hat and plaits are based on two of the films main characters. I plan to develop them
more and hopefully use them in my final
story board.

After I developed six of the best ideas from the hand drawn mood board and mind map. The first is of a US marshal badge, as one of the main characters is one. the second is a simplified version of one of the characters faces. I only put the beard and eye patch because they are so iconic. The third image is a development of my outlaw idea. He has a big cowboy hat and a bandana to hide his face, so the only facial feature you can see are his eyes.

the fourth image is of a horses head. Because horses are so recognisable, I only needed to silhouette its head. I did the horses mane in a contrasting colour because it looks cool and it suits the Saul Bass style. The Fifth is of another of the films main characters. She has a very recognisable hair style and hat in the movie. As long as the image has two features, it is clear what it is meant to be of. The last image is of a shotgun. I chose this because Guns and violence are a common theme in western movies, and an image of a shotgun is easy to simplify.

6 images that I developed on illustrator

After I finished my research and development of fonts and imaged that I could put in my Saul Bass work, I then began work on a rough story board for my True Grit title sequence. It has twelve frames which introduce the characters and the directors, the Coen brothers. I am also going to use images that I have developed in certain frames to give hints about characters, locations and the story line.

The rough story board for my True Grit title sequence.

FINAL STORY BOARD

I have uploaded my final True Grit story board below. It is intended to be an opening scene of the movie, it introduces the main characters and gives a slight idea of what the story is. I have also briefly written about the shots and what the scene involves below each panel to give vital context to to others who may read my story board.  

HORROR POSTERS

RESEARCH

For this part of the unit I am going to produce posters for two different horror movies or games. I have decided to make posters for the movie Tucker and dale vs evil, and the video game Metro 2033. Before I make the posters, I am first going to research other horror movie and game posters to find aspects that I like such as the colour scheme or fonts. Once I find aspects I like, I can apply them to my own work.

My horror poster research.

More horror poster research. All of these posters are Saul Bass
style.

After I finished my research on other posters, I made mood boards based on things from the movie and game that I am making a poster for. I did this to research different visual aspects that I could include in my poster. The first set of the three mood boards is based on visual aspects from Metro, and the second set is based on visual aspects from Tucker and Dale. 

In my first Metro mood board, I mainly collected pictures related to the location. For example, there are pictures of Moscow, and the Russian metro, as that is where the game is set. I also got pictures of winter cloths, a gas mask and a haz mat suit, as the game is set after a nuclear apocalypse.

My second Metro mood board has more pictures relating to a nuclear apocalypse. It is also mostly made up of pictures relating to the different factions in the game. It also has a picture of venice as one of the locations is the game is called venice.   

My last Metro mood board is largely made up of photos that relate to items that you get in the game such as night vision googles and a Geiger counter. I also put a photo of a fishing boat as in venice you go fishing for creatures called "prawns". 

Like my first Metro poster, my first Tucker and Dale poster is largely made up of photos relating to the location, a log cabin in the West Virginian countryside. I also have photos relating to the main characters in the movie, hillbillies  college students and a police officer.

My second Tucker and Dale poster is mostly made up of items that are included in scenes from the movie, such as pancakes and a chainsaw. I also have a picture of a sawmill as the big fight in the movie takes place in a sawmill.

My last Tucker and Dale mood board is made up of a mix of things. The gun and tea are related to scenes of the movie, and it ends in a bowling alley, so I put that photo in last. There is also a scene where some of the characters try to talk and end up fighting, which is why I put a photo of politicians fighting.








After I finally finished my mood boards, I collected different textures that linked to the movies. I did this so that I could use the textures as inspiration for types of textures I could put in my final posters. I also took samples of colours from the textures and put them in the top corner so that I can use them when it comes to making my final posters.
                                                                                                                                                                     

some textures that linked to Metro 2033.

textures linked to Tucker and Dale.

TYPOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT

After I completed my research, I began my typography development so that I would have fonts to use for my final posters. I began my typography development by downloading 20 different fonts from Dafont. I picked fonts that I thought would suit the movie or game I picked it for. For example, I thought that the remnant font really suited Metro as the game is set in the remnants of post apocalyptic Moscow. I also think that the blood dripping effect of the chung dipped font suited Tucker and Dale vs evil as the film is pretty graphic.

After I finished researching different fonts, I began developing the fonts that I chose to use in my final posters. The fonts that I chose were actually different to any of the fonts that I included on my font research as I found them on a later date, but I preferred them to any of the fonts that I put on my research sheet. I think that the best designs were the blood splattered Metro and the yellow Tucker and Dale title.

IMAGE DEVELOPMENT

After I finished my typography development, I began to come up with ideas of images that I could use in my final poster. I started of with Metro 2033. The first image that I came up with was a gas mask. Gas masks are a vital part of the Metro games as you need them to protect your character from radiation. As they are so important to the game and they look quite scary, I thought that it would look good on my final poster. I also drew a Spartan shield. I added the shield because the games main character Artyom is a member of the Spartans (basically the UN peacekeepers of the metro). Because the Spartans and all thing related to them are so iconic, I thought that it might look good on my final Metro poster.

The first of my two Metro 2033 image development sheets.

My second Metro image development sheet.

After I finished my Metro image development, I moved on to Tucker and Dale. The first image that I came up with was of a log cabin. The log cabin is on of the most iconic things from the movie as most of the film is centred around it. Thus it would make sense if it was included in the movie poster. I also drew a wood chipper. The wood chipper is involved in one of the best parts of the movie, so i am thinking of including it in my Tucker and Dale final poster as it is so memorable.

My first Tucker and Dale vs evil image development sheet.

My second tucker and Dale image development sheet.

POSTER DESIGNS

After I finished my image development, I started my final poster designs. One of the main themes of the Metro games is survival of the fittest. So I decided that I would include that theme in my final poster. I included it by drawing different stages of human evolution, with the dark ones (creatures that are superior to humans) at the end of the chain. I then added the title and the text at the bottom of the poster.

After I finished my Metro poster, I started my tucker and Dale final poster design. I decided to stick with the log cabin from my image development. In front of the cabin is Chad, the bad guy who gets half his face burnt off. I then added the title and the text.

My metro 2033 final poster design.

My final Tucker and Dale vs evil poster design.

FINAL POSTERS

After I finished my final poster design, I moved on to doing the final posters. I made them on illustrator with some help from photoshop and google. I completed the posters with varying degrees of success. I am happy with my Metro 2033 poster, the food chain and the ruined city look look good, the font suits the poster and I am happy with the colour scheme.

My final Metro 2033 poster.

However, I am not as happy with how my Tucker and Dale poster turned out. I spent so long on my metro poster that I didn't have time to complete the poster that I had planned to make, so I had to quickly make this one, which is based on another part of the movie. I also had problems with the font that I planned to use so I had to download another from Dafont. I don't think its terrible, its just not what I planned to do.

My final Tucker and Dale poster.