D&AD DCM Video Idents

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Stories Live Beyond the Screen

The brief asked me to create an ident to showcase the rich emotions and experiences that make the big screen such a powerful and impactful medium. The final outcome needs to be a series of 20 seconds videos with a creative interpretation of the true power of cinema. Also it needs to visualise emotion, literally showing how film feels.

For the creation of the series of the DCM (Digital Cinema Media) visual idents, I used movies of Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch, which are a true classics of the world cinema. The novelty in their work perfectly blends with the longstanding traditions. The episodes from the following movies were used in the making of a new concept for the DCM idents: The Birds (1963), The Shining (1980) and Mulholland Drive (2001). These movies have same aesthetic values, even though; they were made in different times. One can notice that human is always in the centre of it all with his complex, subconscious, unexpected and obscure inner world. The air of mystery, ambiguity and shock is a distinctive element of these movies. These directors are true masters of their work and are able to keep an audience in tension to the end.

Ident No.1

Ident No.2

Ident No.3

The concept of the three videos is intended to reflect experiences of an audience. And that experience is based on an illusion of the reality, largely created by the sound effects and the darkness of the room. The first thing you see going through a door in the cinema, is a white screen. Each video starts with the white blank background, symbolising, that cinema is an illusive art. Everything that appears on that white screen is somebody’s imagination, fiction, an inviting storytelling, but we welcome it to become our reality for the short period of time. The sound is one of the main attributes of the cinematograph. It creates the right atmosphere, fills it with air and awakens imagination.

It creates the right atmosphere, fills it with air and awakens imagination. In one of the videos, I used the sound of a train approaching and passing by - it is a direct citation to a motion picture of Brothers Lumiere, Arrival of a Train. The sounds in the other videos are designed to create intensity and mystery. Who would want for their lives to be mixed up with illusion? Anyone, who has dreams and seen movies!

Process

Various techniques were used in the process of making videos: photomontage, scanning, collage and painting. At first, the three episodes were chosen from the three movies: The Shining, The Birds and Mulholland Drive. Each one has it’s unique motif, which reflects experience of those in audience. The process of making videos was the following: first, the episodes were chosen from selected movies; after, screenshots were taken and printed separately; then, new compositions were created using these screenshots with the help of montage. Each photo-shoot was made individually and filmed on a camera. As a result, new visuals were created.

In the ident No.1 (The Birds), the sound of arriving train was used; it helped to enliven a visual picture. This black & white video sends us back in time, to when first ever movies were made. Black color starts filling white space, creating an illusion of chaotic flight of birds. In the indent No.3 (The Shining), the sound of the typewriter was used to symbolise the importance of literature in the film making process; and we get involved in the story immersing ourselves in in the fantasy of the director.