Dead Ghosts
Client
Simple Pictures is a film making collective established in 2010 by The Halsall Brothers. Based in London and Seoul, they create bold and contemporary visual content; both drama and documentary.
Brief
Simple Pictures required a piece of promotional artwork to represent their challenging visual storytelling. They created ‘Dead Ghosts’; a video series set in an oppressive and cruel North Korean regime. The film series depicts a couple’s life being torn in half by a powerful dictatorship and tells the story of reverse hypnosis; a once obedient militant breaking free and fighting for revenge.
Solution
Complexity disguised by simplicity formed the direction of the design. What, at a glance seems to be one thing, becomes something else upon closer inspection. The disguised skull came to represent the hidden terror of a perceived normality. A terror that once it has been seen, it cannot be unseen. This thought process was reflected from the series protagonist’s journey. As the societal hypnosis is reversed, the spell of obedience is forever broken.
The arrangement of characters and elements was important; the tower, a North Korean landmark which enforced the geographical and social-political themes, points menacingly at the protagonist’s love, like a blade to her neck whilst the protagonist looks down, helpless.
The wonderful Korean calligraphy created by Brother Tak complimented the design perfectly; simple yet complex.
The arrangement of characters and elements was important; the tower, a North Korean landmark which enforced the geographical and social-political themes, points menacingly at the protagonist’s love, like a blade to her neck whilst the protagonist looks down, helpless.
The wonderful Korean calligraphy created by Brother Tak complimented the design perfectly; simple yet complex.
Result
The project delivered a powerful visual that the Halsall Brothers could attach to all instances of the series and its presence on the web. A screen print of the one-sheet poster was commissioned in celebration of the projects completion and release.
Attribution
Title calligraphy by Brother Tak
