Identity, Things
Short Film

Blackwool

Short Film

Challenge:

The producers from Blackwool, approached me with a challenge to create end credits for their short film.

In the film, a London teenager on her first day at a high school in rural Scotland, is targeted for her afro hair by cocksure class bully and must harness her inner power.

The credits needed to follow the emotional climax of the film, giving the audience room to decompress and reflect while still keeping the charged emotions and themes introduced in the film fresh in their mind. We also developed posters for its release and expanded its identity onto print media.

Development

Research

I interviewed the film director and read their film treatment to understand their intention for the film. I then viewed a rough cut of the film I also began researching themes and references that the film and characters were inspired by. I distilled some key themes: Violence (Both overt and understated, invisible and systemic), isolation, anger, resilience, hope and identity.

Visual Research

Creative

The ideas almost directly expressed the themes above — Understated punk aesthetic, claustrophobia and isolation — but ultimately one which pulled from a key reference point, the punk band X–Ray Spex was chosen. We went with bright day-glo colours, woven with distressed punk flyer inspired typography as well as illustrations by Jacqueline Briggs. The illustrations are used throughout the film so tie the credits back to the main feature. The neon colours and jumpy edit inject an energy and an uneasiness to the end of the film.

Result

We successfully met the brief of providing the film with end credits which helped to round the viewing experience of the film and give the brand of the film a visual identity. The film was selected for showing at the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as nominated for a Scottish Bafta, I was proud to provide a product which comfortably sat alongside and integrated with such a high quality production. You can view the whole film, below.

You know I’ve always liked your work, but I’m really impressed.

Jack Gemmell – Producer