a bit unsettling
Client
Warrior Poets
Our friends at Warrior Poets asked us to create an open for their film which takes a global look at our relationship with rats. It needed to be unsettling, it needed to be creepy, and it needed to reflect how you feel when you walk home at night and something resembling a large cat, but is clearly not, runs over your foot to get to the promised land of a pile of garbage.
If you’ve ever lived in a congested metropolis, you’ve probably developed a difficult relationship with, or possibly even a phobia of, rats. If you haven’t, you might come close to feeling like a city dweller after watching Morgan Spurlock’s horror documentary, RATS.
Finding the right materials to set the stage for the film was one of our biggest challenges. We burrowed and foraged for archival footage and photographic elements that could offer us a historic context for our relationship with rats. Then, armed with a bank of imagery we went to work, weaving our story of parallel paths and conflict. Applying simple design architecture based on the RATS letterforms and footage treatments, we were able to create an intentional and tense visual through-line that crescendos with the title reveal.
A special thanks goes to the Warrior Poets creative and producers for always being engaged and generating great ideas throughout the process.
Have fun watching and don’t wear sandals in the city.
