smile

Title Design I 2025
As part of a university assignment, we were given the freedom to develop a title sequence for a fictional series of our own creation. I chose to explore the psychological thriller genre with "smile" - a dark, haunting story set in the 19th-century English countryside. The story follows Eleanor, a quiet but intelligent twelve-year-old girl living in Willowbrook Orphanage: a cold, isolated institution run by the tyrannical Matron Eliza Hargrave. In this world, smiling is forbidden, believed to be a sign of rebellion. Children are raised under a regime of fear and rigid control. But strange events begin to unfold: whispers in the walls, shadows in the night, and the mysterious disappearance of those who break the rules. Alongside her closest friend Thomas, Eleanor uncovers the terrifying truth - that the orphanage hides a secret society called "The Smiling Order", which uses the institution for disturbing rituals. As Eleanor becomes the target, she must fight not only to survive but to reveal the truth behind the smiles that were never allowed.

Production
The title design translates a dark atmosphere into a visual language. I combined film and stop-motion techniques and worked exclusively with physical materials to maintain historical authenticity. I printed and aged photographs of the characters and the orphanage and created props such as letters, lists of names, character profiles and a logo. All visual elements were shot on camera and later animated frame by frame. The sequence is mostly in black and white to convey a sense of bleakness, with the exception of the colour red. Red appears in bloodstains, stitched threads and symbolic details in images and documents, symbolising the invisible thread of threat and control that runs through the orphanage.