Territory Studio
Jar of Sparks
Overview.
Our objective with this film was to visualise the process that order and chaos play in the creation of existence. We gave life to the inseparable relationship of these two fluid and yet symbiotic forces, showcasing how one’s constant evolution only excels the development of their opposition; from particles of dust to great monolith structures of myth and legend, from the inaccessible cosmic horizon beyond the ever-expanding universe to its molecular unravelling by humanity and from the months of exploration, concept and development that set the stage for drawing back the digital curtain and revealing the final piece above – sealed, fixed and ultimately determined.
Order & Chaos: The role of chaos in finding solutions.
Brief and Concept.
Jerry Hook, former Head of Design for Halo Infinite, approached Territory Studios to create a brand announcement for his new games studio: Jar of Sparks. Set to release their first title in three to four years, their ethos is focused on ‘a new generation of narrative-driven action games’ that revolve around ‘immersive worlds’ – a perfect fit for Territory’s own mission statement. Working closely with the in-house team at Jar of Sparks, Ryan Hays, our Creative Director for this project, underwent an explorative journey to uncover and then visualise the concept for a brand film – focusing on doing justice to both the emergence of this radical company whilst still remaining versatile to the evolving nature of Jar of Sparks’ own creative direction in the near-future.
Although the subject of their game is still undetermined, the antagonist has been decided: Dread. Our team closely studied the Chaos and Order theory as a result and began to tether their visuals from scientific methods, ideas and philosophies that surround the theory. The Lorenz attractor, for instance, served as a simulation model following it’s representation of a dynamic system that can and will evolve into a new state of being following a long enough period of time (commonly occurring as ‘The Butterfly Effect’ in modern media – partially due to its close relation the butterfly wings in appearance).
Order & Chaos exploration
Development.
Awake. Spread. Resistance. These were the three key beats of the film's narrative arch which we developed into storyboards where our art director for the project, Dan Turner, used harmonic subdivisions to ensure that all of the shapes within the framing were precisely reflective of a grid system – allowing the triangles to be, travel across or grow from calculated vectors.
The creation of each scene saw our talented artists building the scene (sim, environment, camera move), base rendering (black & white shadow pass, key colour pass) and finally traditional renders (colour, texture, artifacting). Cinematically, locked off camera angles were utilised with slow pans and layered atmospheric effects to extenuate each moment of intrigue and build a visual language for the film.
World building materialised through focusing on the spectrum of corruption to purification. Much like the balance between the order and chaos, we wanted the universe for the film to portray the flux between the two opposing forces – finding the tipping point between the realms of impossibility and the limits of the laws of physics – allowing the whole film to linger in an eerie peace as if viewing from within the eye of the storm.
Storyboards
Look & feel exploration
Chaos is the space that only Order can exist in. To get rid of Chaos altogether is to prevent change and transformation from occurring, and without change there is no Order.
Style frames
The Triangle.
“If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.” – Nikola Tesla
Given no more than the logo in terms of visual conception, the team deconstructed its outline into a trifecta of three identical but interlinked triangles – the three shapes of which we follow as they voyage across the arcane universe to reform into the logo as the final image. The triangle becomes an embodiment of order – distilling chaos within its surface as its hard-edges become the gatekeepers of entropy and the organic, fluid and aperiodic materials beyond.
The number three also carries major influence within the film – past its initial symbolism with the triangle due to its three sides, the number three also represents self expression, forward motion within life and denotes the first number to instigate a figurative sense of a ‘pattern’ which, in itself, is a device of order.
Semantic notes of key emotions that were requested by the client were also stripped back into their most simplistic form. Mystery, intrigue, discovery – all were represented with simple black and white shapes and shadows to become building blocks for style frames and storyboards.
This became particularly poignant when the original red, black and orange that was the film's principal colour palette was desaturated back to the black and white of these icons – allowing the games subject to become open to interpretation and intrigue.
Title exploration
Audio.
‘Close your eyes and imagine being next to a fire in a cave. A siren goes off outside…
You go to the sound. It’s getting louder. Your head is right next to it. Your ears are bleeding. Then everything shuts off and the world is dark.’ – Dan Chosich, Game Experience Director, Jar of Sparks
The music for the film was created in-house – allowing us further creative control and a closer, more fluid relationship with the visuals. Initial drafts were refined from complex symphonies to a simple, three note theme – allowing Jar of Sparks’ to have their creative avenues unbeholden to a distinctive sense of sound.
Dan Turner, art director and musician for this project, used a Roli Seaboard for the tool of choice: a pressure sensitive, five-dimensional synthesiser that is perfect for creating slow strings and gestural music with the ability to use the keys as effective faders. With each of the shots for the film standing at four seconds long, the BPM remains at a steady sixty with the only other musical instrument seeing a drum beat actioned on the changing of each on the shot.
Chaos is the law of nature; Order is the dream of man.
Final frames
Credits:
Creative Director: Ryan Jefferson Hays
Producer: Joy Whilby
Art Director: Dan Turner
CG Team: Duncan Tune, Nick Wood
