Still shocked and excited from last night, it's an honor for us to show
you this absolutely MINDBLOWING TITLES made for OFFF by PostPanic.
Thank you so much to PostPanic, and specially to Mischa Rozema, Ania Markham and Si Scott, simply epic!!!
Written by Mischa Rozema and British graphic designer, Si Scott, the
opening titles reflect their dark thoughts on a possible future.
Directed by Mischa and shot on location in Prague, the film guides the
viewer through a grim scenario embedded with the names of artists
appearing at this year’s OFFF festival. The live action was brought back
to Amsterdam for post, primarily carried out by PostPanic’s in-house
team of artists but also with the additional help of freelancers and
partner companies that we have enjoyed strong creative relationships
with over the years. It’s really fair to say that this was a labour of
love by a passionate crew of people.
Says Ania Markham, Executive Producer at PostPanic:
“The images created by the crew of people working on the titles has been
unbelievable, with nationalities represented including Dutch, Czech,
English, American, Polish, German, Swedish and Belgian. It’s been a
great opportunity for all of us to work together on a non-commercial
project we’re passionate about and we’re so proud of the combined effort
and final result.”
DIRECTORS NOTES (Mischa Rozema)
This project started out as a collaboration between myself and Si Scott.
Right from the start, we decided that it should be the darkest thing we
could make. I think it just felt natural to the both of us; if we had
to nail the future, it would not be a nice place.
This idea evolved into a clash of times. Inspired by an idea from the
late Arthur C. Clarke. He wrote about different historical civilizations
meeting in a single point in time. So what happens when civilizations
meet? The 'weaker' one gets eaten by the 'stronger'. You only have to
look at history to see the destructive power of civilizations.
So the main underlying idea is: what would happen if the future lands on
our doorstep today? Let's take mankind, add perhaps 100 years and then
let them show up on our doorstep today. The future would pretty much
devour the present. Probably in a matter of, let's say, 7 days… So
that's what we're looking at. But every ending also means a new
beginning, hence Year Zero.
There's all kinds of hidden messages in there. Like the virus eating
away at reality, buildings and people, even at the viewers brain. It's
behaving off course much like a computer virus. And the network of wires
represents the future of social networking. I just made it physical and
let it 'catch' the city and it's people like a net. All these ideas
just serve as inspiration for us to create a future that worked for this
concept. They're not meant to be deciphered by the audience. It's still
meant to be just a title sequence and not an actual movie.
Now what makes a good title sequence? Personally, I think it's something
that gets you in the mood, warms you up for what you're about to
experience, be it a film, tv series or in our case, the OFFF festival.
We decided to treat the OFFF festival as a feature film experience. So
all we had to do was get the viewer into the right state of mind.
Without, of course, being too narrative led. The best title sequences
out there are nothing but a random collection of images/scenes that
don't tell a lot if you watch them on their own. But edit them together
and a new context is created. A context that matters, a feeling that
gets the viewer ready for the main event, in our case, the festival.
To get started, the next thing we did was make a collection of ideas
that would scare me and Si. So, anything drawn from our youth, right
through to stuff that's inspired us over the years as well as seemingly
random compositions that trigger the imagination of the viewer. For
example, when we show you the aesthetics of a car explosion, it's
carefully constructed. Why a car and not something else? Because an
exploding car brings extra content to an otherwise simple aesthetic
display of violence. A car doesn't explode by itself so instantly the
brain tries to formulate the background behind it. It adds an either
political or criminal edge to the violence. To me it felt appropriate
because of the sense of protest and rebellion the shot has. And maybe
the biggest question; was there someone in the car and if so, who was
it? For me, every idea should provoke these kind of questions; from a
girl in a prom dress holding a rocket launcher to a riot cop standing in
the kitchen. All scenes have a pre and post story to them. In no time
you're actually trying to connect these seemingly random scenes and
boom; you've just created your own strange context. You now have a
feeling, a taste and lots of questions probably. Questions that normally
would be answered by watching the actual movie. But since there's no
actual movie here we'll leave stranded with, hopefully, an uncomfortable
feeling and lots of questions - some might feel unsatisfied and
wondering why. Just like a nightmare.
We also wanted the actual titles to be different this time. Most of the
time festival titles are driven by the idea on how to show titles. A
mechanism that displays titles in a creative way. We actually thought to
bring the festival theme to the foreground and have the titles play a
part in it. Incorporate them so they become the actual fiber/texture of
the piece itself. Practically I still think it's nice that the viewer
has to actively look for the names and not get too comfortable. Even if
it means to see it a couple of times which surely is the best we can aim
for as a free project ; )
How about the shoot? Well, prior to Prague we created more than 50 ideas
I could play with. This was always the intention. Go out shooting with a
tiny crew, acting like we're still in art school and be open for
anything that might happen. That's why we shot everything on 2 Canon
5D's (that and having no budget off course). This was a really nice
change for me. Normally I prepare commercial shoots to the very last
detail and there's a lot more people involved. Savage helped us out big
time in Prague. We also had some bad news. Due to his back problems Si
Scott had to abandon the project and couldn't join the shoot.
When we came back from Prague I started editing straight away and soon
came to the conclusion we had about 60 vfx shots to work on and no
budget and increasingly less time. Remember that this project was a side
dish for PostPanic, we had to work on commissioned jobs also. But
everybody involved soon fell in love with the project, including STORM
Postproduction who are our neighbors (luckily for us).
In the mean time we received the title list. It had about 70 names on
it! That's when I found out that the dynamics I wanted to use would
probably not work. Just too many names that would make the piece too
long to just show random images. So in the plane towards Prague I
thought of bringing in a tiny bit of narrative. Which turned out to be
the beginning of the sequence (1st act). I wrote in a lead character
that would relate to the viewer.
The idea was to trick the audience into thinking they're watching some
kind of documentary. We basically follow a guy going home. Bit by bit
his environment gets stranger and more uncomfortable to watch. Is he
living in a war zone? Slowly the background takes over and the piece
changes into an urban nightmare. And like a nightmare, the story/edit
doesn't always make sense but makes you feel really uncomfortable. I
also wanted the viewer to experience the nightmare. That's where the
dark matter comes in. Dark matter is what I call the macro shot bits.
Flashes that derail your train of thought like there's something eating
away at your brain as you try to make sense of the nightmare. I wanted
the viewer to go nuts, alongside with the cast. Erase the line between
nightmare and reality. The end result is something you won't come across
easily on your tv. And is also just another fun way to do titles.
The sound design and music made by Hecq added a lot to the feel and
scale of the film. It clearly divides the 3 acts (1st act: up to
execution, 2nd from execution, 3rd final shot) and makes completely
different ideas and scenes feel coherent. It also emphasizes the
dynamics of the film and brings the much needed pace at the end. It's
been great working with Ben. We've been surfing the same wave length
throughout the project.
Finally I want to thank everyone involved for making these titles
possible. For creating something out of nothing. For showing so much
love for something as dark as this.
CREDITS
Directed by Mischa Rozema
Story by Mischa Rozema & Si Scott
Production Company: PostPanic
Executive Producers: Jules Tervoort, Ania Markham
DoP: Jiri Malek, Mischa Rozema
Music & Sound Design: Hecq
Senior Producer: Annejes van Liempd
Production Assistant: Jacinta Ramaker
Production Designer: Roland Mylanus
Editor: Mischa Rozema
Prague Cast:
Main Hero: Vladan Bláha
Grafitti Guy: Tom Malar
Main Hero Sister: Katerina Galova
Post-Production: PostPanic
CG Supervisor: Ivor Goldberg
VFX Supervisor: Chris Staves
3D Artists: Jeroen Aerts, Matthijs Joor, Jurriën Boogert, Marnix Reckman, Adam Janeczek
2D Artist: Erwin van den IJssel
3D Interns: Cara To, Xander Clerckx
2D Interns: Mathijs Luijten, Per Westholm
Compositing: Chris Staves, Ivor Goldberg, Adam Janeczek, Matthijs Joor
Graphic Designs: Si Scott
Additional Graffiti Elements: Florian Stumpe
Matte Painting: Wieger Poutsma
Additional 3D and Compositing: Storm PostProduction
Production (Prague) by Savage:
Executive Producer: Klara Kralickova, Pavla Burgetova Callegari
Producer: Michaela Berkova
Production Assistant: Vojta Ruzicka
Prop master: Jan Fiala
Location Scout & Management: Petr Bastar, Adam Fuchs
Location: CREVISTON, a.s.
Tattoos made by: Wowa tattoo prague
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