Here are the key elements of the style sheet:
Colors:
- Dark orange as the primary color
- Dark navy blue as the contrasting/complementary color
These colors will provide high contrast and evoke the classic noir aesthetic while giving the work its own unique identity.
Fonts:
- Bernard MT Condensed
- Perpetua titling
- VERDANA PRO COND BLACK
These retro-style fonts fit the 1950s noir inspiration and will help the text stand out against the dark backgrounds.
Overall Style:
- High contrast between the dark colors
- Limited color palette focusing on the orange and dark blue
- Retro-inspired fonts that enhance
3. Character type How they appear in your story (existing product- Star Wars)
The Hero Luke Skywalker
Central hero/protagonist.Wanting to leavehis boring life and plannetbehind. He learns
that he has the force and joins the Rebalallianceto combat the empire.
The Villian Darth Vader/ Grand Moff Tarkin
Both villainsare in charge of the death star (the main objective of the film is ti destroy the
death star, which has the abilityto destroy plannets)
The Helper C-3PO, R2-D2, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan
The Donor N/A
The Dispatcher Princess Liea/ R2D2
Princess Liea is in trouble, so she records a message on R2D2 to deliver to Obi-Wan Kenobi
who will hopfullyhelp her. Once Obi-Wan gets the message he is 'dispatched' along with
Luke, the two droidsand Han Solo and Chewbaccaalong the way.
The Princess or prize Princess Liea
The heros to go to save princess Liea, Solo sees her reward for saving her as a prize, which
motivateshim.
4. Story Theory Applied to Existing Product
• At the beginning of the film there is already disruption, the rebel fleet is under attack by
Darth Vader's star destroyer in pursuit of the death star plans. If we want to strictly
follow the story circle and begin at a stage of equilibrium, we must look at Luke's
character.
• Life is normal for him, in the beginning. He is in a stage of equilibrium until he
discovers the new droids his uncle bought have a secret message for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Luke must make the choice to stick with the droids and get the help of Kenobi or stay.
One thing leads to another, Luke's Aunt and Uncle have been killed by the Empire, this is
the point of no return, his life is disrupted.
• Luke and Obi-Wan know this, they have a plan. They have recognised the disruption and
are dealing with, getting a pilot to fly them out of Tatoonie.
• The attempt to repair the damage is when they're on the death star, trying to save
princess Liea.
• And the new equilibrium is when they go to Yavin 4, only for a while, they then must get
ready to destroy the death star.
7. Idea 1
Who An ex-hitman turned private eye detective. The detective would only kill those who deserved to be killed. He would be
hired by widows, abuse victums anyone who wanted revenge but didn't want to get their hands dirty. The detective would
kill, but never murder. He would never kill someone innocent. He was a vigilante of sorts.
What A string of grusome murders oucur, the detective is hired anonymouslyhe is paid in full. He was sent an
envolopeof money , newspaper clipping of crimes, and a note written with letters cut out of magazine
stating: YOU'RE BEING WATCHED. DON’T FAIL THIS TIME
Why Some wants revenge from the detectives past
When Present day
Where Northern countryside
How -
conclude
8. Idea 2
Who Hitman
What Hitman wanting to get out of 'the game' does one last job, that could cost him his life.
Why He has found someone he loves. He wantsto protect them; he worries his profession will put her in danger
When Present day
Where Urban city
How -
conclude
9. Idea 3
Who A vigilante who hunts down the murderers and rapists of the world.
What The vigilantegoes on different mission to take down criminals to have the police in their pocket.
Why He grew up with an abusivefather who would actively rape his mother in front of him. He hated his father
more than anyonein the world. His traumaticexperience scared him for life, he vowed to destroy any man
who did this.
When Present day
Where suburbs
How -
conclude
10. Mind Map:
Story ideas/
Background info
Detective dark past
comes back to
terrorisehim
He used to be a hit-man but he had very strict
rules.
He would usually get hired by widows or men
seeking revenge. People who didn't want to get
blood on their hands. Clean blood.
The people the detective would kill were
murderers who got away. Thieves. Rapists. The
worst of the worst. Who got away.
The detective would NEVER kill an innocent man by
mistake. He killed those he deserved to be killed. He
was VERY strict with that. He would kill a man on hard
FACTS. Double, sometimes triple check a suspect
before he would kill them.
His clients are often in a lot of pain and
were desperate. The detective would record
the him killing the suspect, to hand over to
his clients as proof and satisfaction of true
justice.
However, on one of the detective's final cases of a hit-man,
something goes wrong withouthim knowing about it.
A desperateman hires him to find the man who raped and
murdered his wife. He suspects a man called Harry Bell did
it. The detective takes it fromthere. He finds a man, Harry
Bell. Doubled checks the facts. And kills him. Another job
done.
Only he killed the wrong man. He murdered an innocent
man. Harry Bell had a son who was very closeto him. 10
years old. He promised to find the man who murdered his
father, of coursethis would be an empty promisefroma
grieving 10-year-old. Untilthe man who hired the detective
(at the time hit-man) dies. The police went to take care of
him, and found the footageof the detective killing Harry
Bell, they contact to tell the family to tell them the
development.
Harry's son, Kevin gets re-inspired to perusehis father's
murder. He hires a privatedetective to help him. They
discover who it is and plot his revenge.
Gameplay style- Choose your
own adventure game
Find point and click gamesimilar to
my idea in theme/style to draw
inspiration from.
12. Film Synopsis – Hollow Past
• An ex-hitman for hire, turned private investigator is anonymously paid to visit a
location high up in moorland where he discovers a body. Soon more murders
follow, each one more gruesome than the last. The detective quickly realises
these murders are all connectedto him. Aided by his on and off girlfriend, the
detective must discover who is behind the murders, who is on his payroll and
who has come to bring his dark past into the light?
14. Existing Product – Film Noir Posters
Leading man and lady both
on poster
Bold and dark
contrasting
colours,
making a
striking poster
Presenceof danger
in the poster usually
someoneholding a
gun Gun behind the back of leading
lady. Suggesting betrayal?
Classic femme fatale, blonde hair
and striking dress. Theposter
almost acts as the femme fatale,
seducing you into watching the
film
Stars name in big bold text
above the poster
The physical contact and how
close they are to each clearly
suggests there is a romance
between the two
Women prominent in the poster 'This
Gun For Hire' has the face of the woman
dominating the space. Giving us a stern
look, making us question if she is just a
romantic interest or eye candy...
someone more sinister?
She holds power in the poster, the man
levels her out with holding a gun.
Femme fatale, holding gun. She
takes up the whole height of the
poster, in a corner, not centered.
Suggesting in the story she is
pushed into a corner forcing her
to do something rash.
The gun also suggests she is
dangerous, someone not to trust.
Yellow on blue contrast,
stands out. Bold.
15. Existing Product – Saul Bass Posters
To fit my style of classic filmand film noir, I thought I could
possibly do a Saul Bass inspirited poster. I've always
admired his work, his poster designs are some of the best
in history, not to mention his iconic opening credits
sequences.
The conventions of a Saul Bass poster consist of one or
two main colours (for example The Shining is just one
colour, yellow). Bass boiled down the filmto a simple
idea, emotion or meaning. Unlike todays poster which try
and fit every character who appears in the movie into one
poster. Sure, some are memorable, but Bass created art.
Needless to say, Bass revolutionised the movie poster and opening
credit sequence game. Starting out he collaborated with Otto
Preminger and went onto to work with Billy Wilder, Alfred
Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg and Martin
Scorsese. Circling back to what I said earlier, Bass brought the film
down to a simple image. You'll notice no pictures of movie stars-
that’s boring. Bass combined different dynamic shapes together to
create a single piece of art that symbolises the film.
- Intricate shapes combinedto create a
single image
- Limited colourpalette, two or three
coloursat most
- Simplisticdesign
- Geometric blocks of solid colour
Main takeaways froma Saul Bass
poster – essential to his style:
16. Existing Product – Magazine Covers
Coverstory,bigfilmof the month,exclusive
infofromthe magazine interivews,specifics,
gettingpeoplemore excitedaboutfilmor
educate themonthe filmandencourage
themto watchit
Bar-code Tease other new big films coming, for
anyone interested in those
Exclusive artwork for the magazine cover, main
characters centre of page so we directly know
what film is being advertised. If the image is
unique and striking, customer will be intrigued.
Quotes frommain actor
or creative involved,
teasing whatis to come
in the full cover story
Name of magazinetop of the cover filled
the width in big bold text, stand out.
Literary device – alliteration
Promises exclusive content only the
magazine will provide making it
worthwhile for a potential customer
Masthead
Second largest piece of text on cover, drawing
attention. Of course, the other largest text is the
film name
17. Existing Product – Consistantcy across marketing poster to magazine cover
I'm still unsure how directly consistantI want to be when it comes to the magazine cover and poster. I know
poster Magazine cover
Magazine cover
poster
The poster for Avengers Endgame translateswell to the
magazine cover. Containingthe same colour scheme of dark
purples and blues. The main characters are all clearly present.
The title of the film are both at the bottom of the page. Theres
a clear link, visuallybetween both pieces of marketing. It stays
consistant.
The poster for Mank somewhat translatesto the magazine
cover. It's the same image of Gary Oldman is both pictures,
but the magazine is less taiored towardsthe poster. Bt be
frank, the magazine cover looks quite lazy. Not exclusive.
Not fitting the same colout scheme or tone of the poster.
18. Existing Product - Choose Your Own Adventure Game
With my film idea being a crime/thriller/noir murder mystery, I feellike the best style of game that suits my film idea would be the so
called 'point and click adventuregame' or 'choose your own adventure'.
This style of game play mainly involves the player to choosea reply or decide as the character which will impact how the game's story
develops and ultimately, how it ends. So, there will be multiple differentendings. I think this will work well for a detective story; I could
work in some action scenes for the player for example a chase, to make to game moreengaging.
An example of a point and click adventure game would be Thimblewood Park. This is a great game
to draw inspirationfrom. Firstly, is pixel animated,it's a murder mystery story and it's a point and
click adventure.All three of those factors are what I'm doing as well.
The gameplayset up is from left to right and up and down, dependingon which characteryou
play as, you'll havedifferent accessories to aid you in the level.
The game has got a consistant colour scheme of different shades of dark blues, greens
and black. Adding to the atmosphere of myserty and intrigue, and how something is
going on in the town. There's been a murder, but no one seems to care. This lack of
empathy of the towns people is reflected in the gloomy, melocolic colour scheme. A
lot of the games adventure takes place around night time, it's always got this sunset
look to it.
Like I said the game is pixel animated, the characters are desgined human-like. No
body part is exaggered nor is it minimul. You’ve got a life-like character desgin but a
self-aware story and characters, the characters break the fourth wall many times. The
screen layout is side scrolling something I will implement into my game.
19. Existing Product - Soundtrack of Game (Thimbleweed Park)
Moving on, to talk about the soundtrack of the game.
The sound desgin itself is very ambient based. You spend a lot of time in the
game going from point A to pointB talkingto people. Naturally,you're
travelingoutisde. A convention ofa point and click adventure game is the
sound, it's more subtle. Popularyoutubevideo game reviewer ACG says
"...much of the sound in pointand click adventures is more subtle, listening
this almost strange pop and stop style of sound effect rhythm that occurs
within them, movement and action separated by large amountsof
environmental blanket..."
What I simply gathered from that, is the sounds emerse the player in the
game for example Red Dead Redemption 2 which is set in a massive open
world, primarley outiside. So of course, it's full of beautifulimerisve sounds
from birdstweeting, your boots rubbing on the desert soil or the wind
whistling through the trees. This is the same case for Thimbleweed.The
sounds are so distinct as well. In thimbleweed there is a prominent sound
of critckets where the body is found. Adding a novelty to the scene, making
it a more memorable experience for the player.
20. Research Summary
• What have you learned from your research?
I learned different ways to use colour to evoke an atmosphere, genre and to
help make the text stand out. The conventions of film noir posters and
characteristics of Saul Bass poster both styles think to my genre. The
conventions of magazine covers, how to make them appealing, bright and
bold. Different sound design for video games and the layout of a point and
click adventure game.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your work?
A Saul Bass inspired noir poster. The layout and rich sound design of a point
and click adventure game. How to make a magazine cover bold and
interesting.
21. Bibliography
1. Developer. (Year of Release) Game’s Name
2. The Big Sleep POSTER 1946 Dir. Howard Hawks (Google Images)
3. Double Indemnity POSTER 1944 Dir. Billy Wilder (Google Images)
4. Empire – Magazine (Google Images)
5. This Gun For Hire POSTER 1942 Dir. Frank Tuttle (Google Images)
6. Out of the Past POSTER 1947 Dir. Jacques Tourneur (Google Images)
7. The Third Man POSTER 1949 Dir. Carol Reed (Google Images)
8. Total Film – Magazine(Google Images)
23. Style Sheet
I firstlooked at colour theory to help get some ideas for my stylesheet.
So, I wentonto a colour wheel and looked for complementing colours. I thoughtyellow would
be an interesting startas I wantmy poster and overallfilm/video game to evoke a classic noir
feel. My poster will look like it came out of the 50s.
The colour that best complemented yellow was a dark blue. It's a nice contrastwhich will
help the text and visuals stand out. However, the samecolour scheme was used for the
poster Out of Past. I wantmine to haveits own identity.
I also tried a tridactic styleof the colour wheel. Using yellow as the
main colour I got a light blue and a light purple. Thosetwo colours
do not match with my subjectmatter or genre. They'retoo bright
and light. I wanthard, dark, constating colours. To match the tone
of the film/game.
Potential FONT (Bernard MT Condensed)
Potential FONT (Perpetua titling)
Potential FONT (VERDANA PRO
COND BLACK)
My plan to use contrasting colours in the marketing (poster, magazine) is still on. I found the
yellow and blue too bright and similar to Out of Pastposter and having the backboneof Saul
Bass in my poster desgin, wherehe only uses two or three colours. I'vegravitated towards
orange, the constarting colour to orangeis blue. I would darken this blue. The poster should
still havea classic feel to the noir and Bass posters of the 50s, but also darker to represent
the themes in the product.
24. Magazine and advert layouts
Potential Poster (layout)
Two Main characters (detective
and Katie) stood centre, exclusive
mag cover
Masthead
barcode
The Detective
Katie, helps with
investigationand love
interest
Dead body
Blue background?
Maybe- leave dead body
but take out the
characters butleave a
smoking ciggerette and
blonde hair (SaulBass
inspiration) simple.
Or the back of character in the
moors? But then it wouldn't be
consistant with the film
marketing poster
25. Magazine and advert layouts – poster desgins
Since I’m debating how
detailed I want my
minimulist Saul Bass
inspired marketing
posters to be, I could
mix it up when choosing
which marketing style.
For example, the
billboard would be
more detailed with
objects and a bus stop
coud just be one shape
for a character like a
smoking ciggerette for
the detective.
26. Video Game layouts
Accesseries
particular to
the character
you'replaying
as which will
help you during
levels
When object
is selected a
green bar
surrounds it
to shows its
selected
Menu collapse
Game control to move
character around in location
PlayablecharactersLocation of level
Left to right, a consistant way of moving up and
down on a point and click adventure gameand in
films, the good guy move from left to right, they sit
on the left of the frame - when the detcetive
discover the body, the character will move right to
left. This alters the perspective, subtley
forwshadowing who the villain really is.
28. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Heavy Wind RoyaltyFree Mp3 file (if I were to record
foley, the wind would shudder the mic)
Coughing Actor / internet
Walking on ground Internet / foley
Bush blowing in wind Internet / foley
Flies buzzing Internet
31. Contingency
What can go wrong? What can you do if it does?
Loose voice recordings Record multiple takes and back up audiofile
Not saving work Alwaysremember to save and backup work
Editingcrashes Save work after every big step or auto save if that's a
feature
Actor unavailability Have a backup actor or backup dates
Heavy rain and wind in location If possible- shoot scene, the weather could add to
atmosphere of scene but if reallybad, use the backup
date. And simulate bad weather through a strong
wind machine.
32. Risk Assessment
What could be a risk to you, others or the
equipment?
How can you make sure that doesn’t happen? What
will you do if it does?
Lighting- too hot could cause headache Use LED lights, less heat. Take breaks. Highdrate
Filming
34. Using your plans, produce:
• A synopsis for your film
• A video game that would support your film, to include a menu screen,
demo level and cut scene
• Sound track for the video game
• A magazine front cover, promoting the film
• Additional advertising to promote the film
Include synopsis, magazine cover and advertising in this pro forma.
Animation to be embedded in your blog.
44. • Note:
•Something I changed
• At first, I had the detective get paid anomsly with the money
newspaper clippings of the crimes (the first body being discovered
high up in moorland). I decided to change it to, that the detective is
paid anomlsly to go to the location where the first body is in the
moors. As I thought it didn't make sense a random person finding the
body. Having the detective be the first person to find the body
immidently sets up intrigudge in both the viewer and character. Why
was he told to come to the location? Was the body a coinsidnece?
Additionly it adds to the atmosphere of the film, very dark and
moody.