Paa Joe & The Lion - Main Titles

I produced the main titles, fantasy sequences & visual effects for the feature documentary Paa Joe & The Lion. The title sequence received official selection for SXSW 2018 as well as winning in the Moving Image category at The Drum Design Awards in 2019.

Paa Joe & The Lion is my good friend Benjamin Wigley's first feature, following legendary fantasy coffin maker Paa Joe and his son Jacob over four years as they attempt to return their trade to its former glory years. The film puts a unique artistic spin on documentary, including fantasy sequences, poetry and abstract imagery alongside traditional documentary techniques and structure.

Look & Feel

When coming up with ideas for the title sequence I researched the Ghanaian culture, dress, landscape, posters, art & especially visual references relating to the building and painting of the fantasy coffins.  I compiled a large folder of reference material ranging from Ghanaian fabric patterns to wood grains and hand painted signs.  I really wanted the titles to represent the crafted feel of the film whilst also reflecting the unique handmade & individually crafted feel of the coffins.

Development

Early on I began playing about with some footage and stills Ben had shot on his first trip, combining these with wood, earth and fabric textures to create a layered frame.  I knew the lizard was going to be an important symbol in the film (believed to be bad luck in Ghana) as well as the actual crafting of the coffins so I was playing with ways to incorporate these themes.  These initial mock-ups were a good way to play with various colours and textures, as well as giving Ben something to use as a placeholder in his edit and see how they worked along side the footage in the opening.

I found it useful to animate short sections of certain ideas as it gives a better sense of the pacing.  I briefly played around with a more light-hearted, illustrative approach following Paa Joe & Jacob across a Ghanaian landscape, however as the film was progressing it was obvious this was too cartoony an approach.

I was keen to use a lot of varied images, graphics, textures and styles to echo the eclectic mix of design visible in Ghana so I worked up an idea featuring sliding panels revealing images, names etc.  This rough test animation was slotted into the edit as a placeholder and felt like a nice approach, however Ben wanted to cut back and forth with Paa Joe driving and coming in and out of the sliding panels felt too jarring.  It also got a bit boring to watch as it had to move relatively slowly to avoid anything strobing, especially when the names appeared.

Sketches & Storyboards

With a clearer idea of how the titles would be used and the theme and narrative they needed to convey, I began sketching out new ideas, adapting, combining and refining some of the previous concepts.  Because the titles would be cut together with the opening I knew I needed to make them work as individual chunks, however I wanted them to be connected and not feel like static cards. With a rough list of credits from Anna, the Producer, I started working them into a loose narrative and breaking them down into sections that seemed to have a natural break between them.

By now I'd seen a work in progress edit of the film, and although Ben was still shooting more and the story was continually evolving I had a good idea of story elements which needed to be conveyed. Paa Joe's diminishing orders, moving the workshop, the unlucky lizard and actual design & construction of the coffins were all elements I wanted to incorporate.

Production

With all of the name cards sketched out I started working them up in colour, layering in wood & paper textures to add to the handmade feel. I put the individual cards together in Photoshop, making them wider or taller if I was planning on doing a move across it later. I wanted to use physical elements where possible so I filmed various bits including sawdust, paper rolls and paint strokes to use in the frames and as transitions between. The final animation was put together in After Effects, with the odd element animated in Photoshop.

Along with the main titles I also animated several dream sequences throughout the film as well as several invisible vfx shots. The dream sequences were abstract and combined filmed and animated elements, as well as a very quick green screen shoot we managed to do with Paa Joe and Jacob one afternoon while they were over from Ghana. The vfx shots involved removing camera reflections from windows, adding smoke and mist to certain shots and removing the odd person stood in awkward places or looking at the camera.