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I was able to help out one of my favourite cartoonists, Dave Cooper with the title design to his first live-action short film. His brief included the idea of having an “alien” looking language pop up on screen for the opening credits while simple subtitles would indicate the English words. We ended up using the typeface Standard-bb 80 and playing around with letters that were close to the English words but mutated in cool looking configurations. It was also nice to work with a director that wanted the layout to be a bit different than usual for the end credits, allowing for odd batches of names grouped together in an oval shaped template. It was also a real thrill to see Cooper’s handmade rendering of the Title Design for promotional images and the films official poster. A real dream project!
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Film synopsis: A wobbly, strangely resolute woman brings home a shopping bag filled with treats to share, both familiar things like food, and bizarre things like pharmaceutical sex toys. Pounding dissonant music and an unsettling, molasses-like pacing offer insight into her state of mind, she's giddy and shaky with arousal. There's a shine, and a undulation, and an engorging vibe that establishes a world that is a reflection of her hunger. Upstairs a further reflection of her, an alternate version of herself , or possibly a doppelganger, eagerly awaits. The longing they both feel seems to turn reality in on itself intermittently, it seem to open a portal into a grinding, psychedelic looking glass. Fruit, and meat from her shopping trip, along with their own flesh are twisted and smeared in a surreal, elated consummation. "Squash" refers to the sensation of involuntarily pressing into another, or your self- of losing yourself in your partner's body, or in your own. That feeling when one is hyper-aroused, when there's a craving for physical intimacy to the point that one wants to become a unit, consuming and being consumed.
Watch the full short film HERE.
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Production House: Sandbay Entertainment
Director: Dave Cooper
Cinematographer: Kaplin
Cinematographer: Kaplin
Actress: Cassia Jasper
Score: Mark Molnar
Additional music: Horseman, Pass by. / Andrea Simms Karp
Title design: Martin Dupuis
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