The film I was given was “Az ötödik pecsét” (“The Fifth Seal”), a 1976 Hungarian film set in Budapest during the Second World War.
The project required capturing the overall industrial and fearsome ‘feel’ of the film and convey it visually, as well as thinking about how it would work logistically in a stage show, and finally how it would fit into a poster.
Looking a lot at constructivism and Dada, and movements at the time the film was set, I used a lot of sharp lines and angles to convey the way the character’s lives are shattered in the play and give a sense of impending danger. I spent a lot of time looking at textures and physically cutting up, destroying and rearranging the images and scanning them, to try to give a more lived-in, less clinical feel, as the film gives a peek into the characters real lives.
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