Horror DNA is one of the UK’s and US’s longest running genre news and reviews sites, and they have been moving steadily towards more video content in recent years. After already creating a rebrand for them, Ilan was asked to create a simple but catchy intro sequence.
Daniel Benson of Horror DNA talks about the collaboration:
“When needing new branding for my website, I knew I didn't have to look any further than Uncle Frank Productions. Better still, I didn't even need to worry about a brief or giving any kind of direction; I simply told Ilan what the new site was going to be called and he ran with it, not just producing an amazing logo set, but a branding concept that fitted the site perfectly.
Same for our YouTube intro, the brief was simply "an intro that fits the rest of the brand". And guess what? Another home run on the visuals complemented by the audio from Headcinema Productions.”
For the basis of the brand, Ilan wanted references to body horror. Examples like “The Thing”, “Body Melt” and “Society” show examples of how the body can transform, alter or decay. Organic elements are pushed to their limits.
The marketing material showed different portions of a body that could be pieced together. The almost zombie-like figure is seen decaying into a slush. The logo itself, however, leaves things open to new interpretations of the brand in time.
In addition, the animation intro had to seem organic, the transitions being more biological. Thus, the animation was drawn by hand based on the music and sound design of Headcinema Productions.
Producer Mariam Draeger of Headcinema Productions elaborates their process, “The challenge here was creating something with all the personality of the brand in merely a few seconds of sound. The jingle is played with a vintage organ, showing respect to classic horror whilst incorporating the word play of an ‘organ’ for the biological twist of the brand. Additionally, the sound design depicts many elements that are representative for different facets of horror films.”
Picking out key sounds, the created accents within the “organic mass”. The results are a very fluid but playful monstrosity.