Capstone - Death Comes To Dinner

IS THERE A PLACE FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS IN FILM? YES, THERE IS.

Death Comes to Dinner is my Capstone Case Study, a project designed to showcase all my Graphic Design skills and beyond, and that combines my passion for design and love for movies. This project acknowledges the presence of Graphic Designers in the film industry and the importance of their role; it also walks the audience through the production process of a movie from the perspective of a Graphic Designer as an integral part of the Art Department.

I love movies, always have, always will, but I have always loved design as well; I have always wanted to work in the film industry, but not as an actress or a filmmaker, these are the most common roles people think of when someone says they want to work in movies; I want to work on the design part of the movie making process. When I tell people that I studied Graphic Design and I am starting to work in the entertainment business they are like "but you are a Graphic Designer", they look confused primarily because they have a specific idea of what a Graphic Designer should be or do; this confusion and the specific idea that people have when they think about Graphic Designers are the reason why this project exists in the first place.

Pre-Production

Pre-Production is the process of planning some of the elements Involved in a film, television show or play. The process ends when the content starts being produced. The following are the Statement of Intent and the Brief for my Capstone project.

The Script and Storyboard

Death Comes to Dinner is a story of friendship, revenge, and murder sets in the county of Surrey, England in the 1920s. Lifelong friends Lord Kenneth Tottenham and Lady Violet, members of two of the most powerful and wealthy families at that time, plot to get revenge on people who wronged Lady Violet and her family in the past. The following is the script that I wrote for my story; it breaks down the main parts of it and it helps to follow the storyboard better as well. They both help the audience to understand how the story unfolds and develops.

The storyboard helps the audience to understand how the story unfolds. I kept it as simple as possible also because I am not an amazing illustrator, but I think it is easy to follow and the captions under each frame help to comprehend what is going on in that scene.>

The scene I chose to bring to life with my production design and graphic design skills is the scene when Lady Violet enters the room, hands out the envelopes to the guests, and puts the two ampoules of poison on the table. I think this scene has a lot going on, it is the climax of the story, and I think it would be the perfect choice to better use my skills and demonstrate what I can do with just one scene and what Production Designers and Graphic Designers do daily in the entertainment industry. When thinking about props, I thought it would be appropriatel to make the letters, handwriting trying to emulate the writing from the 1920s, and to make the ampoules of poison, digitally, as a package design component. I sketched out the scene that I am going to bring to life through production and graphic design work and made it bigger and more detailed. One can see the art present in the room, the dining set, the letters, the ampoules, the guests, and the main characters. Here is the list of props I thought would be more appropriate, more fun and challenging to make, and also more significant:

Infographic

I created an Infographic to show the multiple existing connections between the world of Film and the field of Graphic Design. In the sketches for the infographic I have tried different layounts, designs, and decorations to make it as effective, communicative and visually appealing as possible.

For the digital version of the infographic, I went for a simple but effective design; I wanted the focus to be on the connection other than on how pretty the whole thing might look. However, I did add some illustrations to make it more visually appealing because the audience needs that when looking at something. I drew lines and rectangles to represent the connections and similarities between the two worlds, and I used different colors to group and connect them.

Text of the letters

The following is the text for the four letters that I am going to handwrite with a calligraphy pen and black ink on a calligrapher parchment paper. The text includes the reason why each guest is sitting at the table, the kind of poison that was used, and what is going to happen to their bodies.

Dear Aunt, You might not remember what you have done, but I remember it clearly, and the time for you to pay for your mistakes and sordid actions has finally come. My grandfather was always against the union between you and his son, my uncle; he saw you as the opportunistic, manipulative prostitute that you are, and you never liked it. You tried to control my grandfather as you did with my uncle, you tried to extort money from him, and expensive gifts for your stupid daughter, but none of this worked; he was too smart for you and your subtle games. I am pleased to see you here tonight and I am glad to inform you with this letter that you have been poisoned with arsenic. Soon, your body will start failing, you will experience acute stomach and throat pain, you will have convulsions and you will vomit blood. I am delighted to witness your death, there is nothing that would bring me more joy. All my love, Violet.

Dear Uncle, You have always been your father’s favorite, the only son and heir to all the assets; the circumstances have always given you the idea that you had the right to do whatever pleased you, the right to try to take advantage of my mother, your sister. The only problem was and still is that you were, are, and always will be weak, spineless, and incapable of managing your own wife and her greed; my grandfather knew that and despite all the love for you, there was never respect. You allowed your wife to have a saying in matters that didn’t concern her, especially after your father died. This is the time for you to pay for your weakness and uselessness, and I am very happy to be the one who will make this happen. I am pleased to see you here tonight and I am glad to inform you with this letter that you have been poisoned with strychnine. Soon, you will have trouble breathing, you will experience seizures, severe muscle spasms, and brain death. I am delighted to witness your death, there is nothing that would bring me more joy. All my love, Violet.

Dear Mr. Talbots, You have known me since I was a child, you were my family’s lawyer for as long as I can remember and always behaved as a loyal dog, but in the end, you betrayed all of us. You helped my uncle with the attempt of framing my father for fraud, and you almost succeeded; thankfully, honest people still walk the earth, and you were stopped before it was too late. However, the damage was made and the time for you to pay for what you did has finally come. I am pleased to see you here tonight and I am glad to inform you with this letter that you have been poisoned with arsenic. Soon, your body will start failing, you will experience acute stomach and throat pain, you will have convulsions and you will vomit blood. I am delighted to witness your death, there is nothing that would bring me more joy. All my love, Violet.

Dear Mrs. Talbots, You are probably the worst person sitting at this table. You always acted as the good friend that everyone would be lucky to have by their side, but then you tried to seduce my father and humiliated my mother, who was anything but kind to you; you stole important documents from my father’s office and forged them in order to help your husband with framing my father. Snakes like you must be put down and I feel truly blessed to be the one to end your life. I am pleased to see you here tonight and I am glad to inform you with this letter that you have been poisoned with strychnine. Soon, you will have trouble breathing, you will experience seizures, severe muscle spasms, and brain death. I am delighted to witness your death, there is nothing that would bring me more joy. All my love, Violet.

Production

Production is the stage where the story described in a script starts coming to life and the content starts being produced. The production stage of my Capstone is all about prop making; letters, ampoules and place cards.

The place cards

When I decided I would create place cards for the dinner guests, I thought it would be nice not only to show the name of each guest but also a silhouette of each of them. The following are the sketches I created for the guests; I then placed them in Illustrator and traced them by using the pen tool, where I made some adjustments to make them look more detailed and realistic.

In the digital version of the silhouettes, they all face the same direction, the left side which represents the evil side; in the sketches, you would notice that the lower part of each silhouette is pointier while in the digital versions, it is more rounded to make the silhouettes look more harmonious.

This is a drawing of how I picture the place cards to look; vertical, held by a silver place card holder, some simple ornaments at the top and bottom of it, and in the center, the silhouette and the name of the guest will be placed. The place cards measure 4in x 5in and will be created with the stencil printing method. Here are also the sketches that I made for the vintage ornament decors for the place cards. I decided to keep it quite simple, but meaningful, in fact, I wanted to incorporate ancient symbols between the lines to emphasize everything through details.

Stenciling is a technique for reproducing an image or pattern by applying ink or paint to a surface under an intermediate object; I opted for this printing method because I thought it would give a nice, elegant and unique touch to my place cards and would be a better way to make the silhouettes pop up more. I then handwrote with my calligraphy pen the name of each guest under the silhouettes and hand-drawn four ornaments for each corner of the place cards.

The ampoules

The ampoules that Lady Violet uses to keep the two poisons she kills the guests with are essential oil ampoules that were gifted to her by her grandfather. How did she get the poisons though? Well, in England in the 1920s people had very easy access to poisons such as arsenic and strychnine; they could get them at the grocery store. Lady Violet wanted to send her lady’s maid, but since she was going to be easily recognized, she decided to send her kitchen maid (the kitchen staff was almost ignored back then) to make sure to get the job done without leaving a trace that could have led back to her.

In my sketches for the ampoules, I experimented with different shapes especially for the top because I wanted that to be more kind of detailed and seen as decor. I went from the very simple rounded ones to those more elaborate such as the leaf-shaped top or the resembling cross-shaped one. I played a little bit with the shape of the body of the ampoules, but not as much as I did for the top part. Here are also the sketches and some measurements for the labels and ampoules that I made. The labels are going to include the name of the essence and some decorative details that, as you can see, I played with a little bit.

For the digital version of the ampoules, I went for a very simple style and shape for the body of it, but I got more creative for the top which is an indefinite shape that resembles some sort of smoke cloud. The ampoules will be entirely made with glass in order to give them a more elegant and sophisticated look.

For the labels, I went for vintage paper as background texture, I then added some decorations that were common back in the 1920s and added the name of what each ampoule is filled up with; or better still, what each ampoule is supposed to be filled with.

The letters

The process of creating these letters included a few steps to achieved the result I wanted. I started it out by practicing with the calligraphy pen and the ink trying to get familiar and comfortable with the process. I decided to handwrite the letters to make them look as much period accurate and realistic as possible. Since my story is set in the 1920s, I found a type of paper that resembles the one used back then; I purchased this old-age parchment paper, 8.5 x 11 Inches standard letter size and I think it is a good fit for what I am going for. It is vintage colored; it holds the ink well and it is thick enough for the purpose.

These are the envelopes for the letters.

Post-Production

Post-Production is the stage after production when the filming is wrapped and the editing begins. The post-production in my Capstone consists in the making of the movie poster.

Movie poster and Type Study

Every movie comes with a poster and my movie is no exception. In these sketches, the main idea revolves around who/what represents death in the story, namely, Lady Violet. I wanted to keep the design kind of simple, basic and linear; I reprised the silhouette concept, but this time it is the silhouette of the whole body, not just the bust as it happened with the silhouettes on the place cards. I imagine her as a very elegant and sophisticated woman who smokes cigarettes with a long black cigarette holder and has a bob haircut. In the second round of sketches, I decided to also experiment with some of Lady Violet’s accessories such as the shoes and the long black cigarette holder; in addition, I tried a version of the poster with two silhouettes of Lady Violet’s face on the opposite sides and just the title centered with a few decors around it.

I decided to do a type study to find the right type to use for the movie poster. I type studied thirty different types and then narrowed down the list to three. I did my research through the Art Deco, Geometric and Luxury sections of Adobe Fonts, I tried to pick the types that could better fit the time period and the story behind. My favourites are Pinot Grigio Medium, Vatican Medium and Espiritu Condensed.

The movie poster consists in a very simple but quite effective layout; black background, type elements and illustration in white to make them stand out more. After doing the type study, my final decision fell on Espiruto Condensed because I think it is the one that is more suitable for the time period and for how I want my poster to convey information.

“People should be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their revenge”. -Niccolo Machiavelli-