Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia

We’re a standardly online bunch at BigStar, so were familiar with the app and its moment of virality, but not so much with the story behind its rise and fall. Only when the film’s producers at Left/Right approached us and detailed the behind-the-scenes drama that took the app down did we know we had to be a part of telling the story of the brief game sensation.

HQ went viral during a time in tech that could aptly be summed up as, ‘move fast, break things’— an ethos we used to guide our design for the film. We didn’t want the film’s design to mimic the app’s look in an overt way because that was something that was already established and would appear throughout the film.

In our design exploration, we set up three modes that would take viewers through the dysfunctional progression of the app graphically. The three modes included a crystal clear mode where everything was functioning fine as the game kicked off and hit the scene. Then, as the app gained popularity and started to suffer technically, we transitioned to the second mode where you can tell things have started to go wrong. The final, third mode is the shitshow, which funnily enough was the film’s initial working title.

While Sh•tshow didn’t stick as a title, the final title, Glitch, was inspired by the graphic evolution of our design. Our design touched almost every aspect of the film from TV and phone comps to tweets, headlines, trivia questions, player counts, custom GIFs, mortises and the title sequence.

One of our favorite elements was designing graphics for the talking head interview portion of the documentary— something we usually don’t have too much interaction with in a film. Here, however, we got to add some levity to the interviews and specifically showcase host Scott Rogowsky with some bespoke custom graphics that really round out the storytelling.

Design Director Ross Henderson concepted some of these quirky elements and really put a memorable spin on the graphics.

Seeing the film come together was the culmination of the effort of a lot of hard work and creativity. The film strikes the perfect balance between accuracy and levity— sharing the details behind the dramatic story of the HQ app and also the fun that was had during its heyday. Glitch is airing now on CNN and will debut on the HBO platform sometime next month.