Initial idea generation for Mercury Rising poster

Initial idea generation for Mercury Rising poster

To begin generating ideas I watched the film marking down key points, scenes and aspect of the film both from my interpretation and based on literal scenes and content of the film. The ideas I take forward into visual responses from these notes will be presented in the next development stages. 

Thinking deeper into the scenes and how I could re-interprate them for opportunity of visual response's. 

To think of more out of the box concepts for my visuals I tried out mind mapping words derived from the films stroyline, title and the book what the film is based on (Simple Simon). This wasn't a very productive idea though as not many successful ideas came from this so I went back to basing my visual responses on the ideas i gathered from watching the film and taking notes on my interpretations of the film and certain scenes.

What I did note down was the film category, been an action film I felt I could communicate this with colors that denoted Action like Reds, Yellows and blacks. Also the color of mercury would be a possibility to use, a silvery white metallic color so the idea of metallic inks would be a good aesthetic. Also the films name "mercury rising" is the description of how atmospheric pressure or temperature rises and is recorded through a thermometer. 

Main aspects of the film I noted down were the story the film is based around. The idea that an autistic boy could crack a secret NSA (National Security code) through a puzzle book. This gave me ideas of presenting forward visuals of puzzles, encoding, code and cryptic messages to present a more literal concept derived form the main story line. 

Other ideas were more illiberal and out of the box and based on snippets and interpretations of me watching the film so would or could leave the viewer of the poster wondering what the message behind the visuals are. One example of this would be the E=Mc2 combined with the periodic value of mercury (from the movie title) idea. This idea is based on a scene were bruce contacts an NSA member and shares email details about the code that is been cracked. 

Here are a range of literal and illiberal ideas.

Presented bellow are 10 ideas that will be mocked up in more detail and with color for the interim crit.

This idea was inspired by a scene in the film were Simons "instruction cards" were shown, after researching autistic conditions i found out they had trouble taking in information. So simon has description cards to help him out with daily life. This particular card helping recognize his house stood out to me and proved to be an interesting idea of presenting a loose & illiberal concept based on a scene in the film. If you watch the film the house also has relevance to the start of the film, he uncovers the government code in this house and his parents die in this house so this presentation of the house in this abstract visual response marks an iconic scene in the film.

Another idea inspired by a scene in the film. Autistic people are drawn into things easy through oversensitive senses, this scene Simon walks toward the train due to been attracted to light & sound. Art has to save him last minute. This has no relevance to the actual storyline but I think its an interesting visual based on Simons personal autistic reactions to everyday aspects. 

Looking up word puzzles was an idea I thought of to visualize the main storyline and how Simon has a love of puzzles and cracked the government code through a puzzle. 

A simplified visual of a cross word, simplified due to a loose inspiration from the book title "simple simon". After looking into successful posters simple visuals also deemed to be the more successful visual responses. 

What simon did was decode something, a cryptogram or a cryptograph. So I looked up the idea behind this and began thinking of visual responses to codes and how symbols and code elements could link with the decoding of the movie title in a visual response. 

This idea was based on a word search but instead of words a mass of symbols. If I was to take this idea forward I would consider looking into creating my own cryptographic language to translate the movie title/information within. The movie name mercury rising is scattered within, this is relatively confusing and illegible in terms of easily communicated information but has a certain interactive element within it for the viewer. The idea is to draw the viewer in and have them attempt to figure out the visual puzzle them selves and spot out the movie title within. 

This is a very literal response based on the movie title and the idea of a thermometers temperature rising. I don't think this idea is very imaginative and although the visual has good links with the movie title has no real links with what actually goes on in the film.

A loose concept inspired by the password for an email account Art accesses to gather information on the government code Simon has cracked. Combining the periodic value of mercury with the E=mc2 code is an abstract way in which the movie title can be translated too. 

The idea behind this was to present abstract visuals of bullet holes, been an action movie and lots of guns involved I though I would combine this denotation of an action movie with abstract visualization of coding & decoding through the use of typography seeping out of bullet holes like blood.

Another idea of creating a symbolized language to decode the film name. These could provide interesting visuals and again an opportunity to develop my own coded language as I have a fair amount of time to create one. 

How the symbols could work together, or the combination of geometric shapes has links with puzzles and childhood basic math lessons which loosely links with some autistics heightened intelligence. 

Another idea again based on the main storyline of the film was to manipulate the NSA logo as these are the main "vilans" of the film. These are who the people who set the code and Simon cracked it. 

An abstract presentation of 2 versions of how the NSA is been decoded and cracked.

The final idea was a loose concept based on a childhood "challenge" to draw a house without the pen leaving the paper. This has loose connections with puzzles and how Simon has a talent for cracking them, and also links back to the scene where his instruction cards are presented. The first one been his house description. This is an interesting concept but one that doesn't really communicate much about the film unless you watch it and fully take in the scenes and storyline. 

The 10 ideas are a combination of literal examples based on the films main storyline & the films name. The other ideas are more out of the box examples inspired by scenes and my interpretation of certain aspects of the film linked with autistic tendencies.