Under The Lake Title Sequence - Lim Yu's Portfolio

Under The Lake - Title Sequence

Rationale

As the Covid-19 virus takes up our current world after 2020. It was one of the main issues and interest to all to pay attention to the topic of the virus. Start from the virus, I also focus on the vaccine and mutation. Still, now, viruses mutate gradually and this is where my synopsis created. The mutated virus kills the people and scientists keep working for new experimentation. Title sequences of Under the Lake begins from the surface of the water (Lake) and the view changes to under the water. Beginning from unpolluted underwater circumstances, it becomes polluted rapidly at some point. Some abstracts scenes are combined between the footages using the montage method. Music is used for guiding, reinforcing, and supporting the footages. Overall, it never shows a detailed story but just abstract images. It gives the vibe of how the film will develope.

Inspiration / Concept Research

I was focus on the virus characteristic which is “spreading” while researching. So I decided to focus on spreading effect of ink in the water and on the paper. Based on the concept research, I build a story on top of that, which is related to the water and virus. After I decided the concept I want to use, I created the sypnosis.

Synopsis of Under The Lake

Doctor J, who is known as a mad scientist, obsessed with how viruses and germs affecting the human body. He doesn’t mind any experiments for his research and, finally, he discovers a new aspect of the virus on the human body. He successfully completes animal testing and recruits people to his laboratory without revealing his purpose for subjects. However, unlike the success of animal testing, it created an unexpected mutation virus in the human body quickly. Unfortunately, unexpected mutations kill all the volunteers, and doctor J tried to hide it. Dr. J decided to dump them into the lake, concealing the facts, and continues to conduct risky experiments. He thought he can bury it in silence since there’s no witness. Years later, volunteers rise to the surface of the lake one by one, discovered by the people who came to the lake for a picnic. Finally, the lake’s blocked off and the Investigation begins to uncover what’s happened in the lake.

Brainstorm

Analysis of Research

Basically, three of the researched title sequences are following the method of montage. It arranges the footage that glimpses the story and, at the same time, stimulates the viewer’s imagination that gives a creepy feeling. Three of those opening sequences shoot zooming in on the subject and work with enlarged footages, which is giving very frightening emotion to viewers in that it gives creepiness from a different perspective of usual objects. Also, three of them do not stay still while each of the scenes is showing. It moves slowly to the right or left or even zooming in or out. This prevents viewers to get bored easily and keeps viewers more immersed in the film. In addition, all of the title sequences show the type (director, actor/actress name) after they show the footage when the viewers get tired of slow change. Type serves as another interesting element for viewers to enjoy by catching their eyes.

Font Choice

The font “Courier” is a type of font that combines decorations of serif around sans serif. It is also called ‘Egyptian’, ‘Square Serif’, ‘Mechanic’, ‘Antique’. During the First Industrial Revolution, “Egyptian,” which Robert Thorn developed and named slab serif type, was influenced by Egyptian architecture. Overall. it gives the feeling of strong, bold, and reflecting a trendy feel. Also, it gives an experimental feeling. Since slab serif was born for a strong and impressive impression on the viewer. I thought Courier, which is one of the slab serif fonts, is great for the Crime and thriller-themed opening title sequence, which is strong and impressive to the viewers. Also, in terms of slab serif is experimental font at that time, it fits well to the firm I created. I also think arranging the footage I took is symbolic of the story.