Swan Song

Title: Swan Song

Category: Design & VFX - 3D Designed VFX & Holograms - VFX Supervision - Film & Broadcast

Realising Benjamin Cleary’s near-future world, one where tech retains familiarity despite moving away from screens and handheld devices into a vision of personal and office interfaces being displayed via AR.

Crafting the Visual Language

The stylistic feel of Swan Song is strikingly cold, clean and minimalist. Throughout the film, we were careful to ensure the design of the UI on screen married up with the narrative of the scenes they feature in, and the character’s they are operated by. This allows the technology to become either the protagonist or a passive role within the scenes they are featured.

As the mobile AR UI visual is displayed via contact lenses, navigation is gesture-based. The UI is summoned and controlled via hand gestures such as hand swiping, and finger or thumb gestures.

Personal UI

The film’s protagonist, Cameron, is a product packaging designer by trade, and sketches as a hobby. The character’s creative job and hobby’s helped inform the style of the UI he would have selected for his mobile device. Cameron’s UI style is considered, uncluttered, unobtrusive, with gentle texture and clear text on a neat tile layout.

Home Office AR

For other interfaces that feature in different locations throughout the picture, we applied the same context-aware, narrative-lead thinking into the design of identities, layout and styling of the AR tech UI.

The ideal home working setup, Cameron’s home office UI is a larger extension of his mobile interface that runs the design software he uses to design product packaging prototypes as well video calls.

AR Home Arcade Game

Beyond the interface UI we designed, we also imagined and produced an AR home arcade fighting game that is played by the protagonist, Cameron and his son virtually. Envisioning the evolution of arcade-style fighter games like Mortal Kombat, AR brings the action directly into the room. The characters (a frog and a robot) fight without any health indicator or other data dashboard to extend the minimal aesthetic of the AR technology that features in this world.

Beyond UI

Having imagined and designed the core AR technology in Benjamin Clearly’s imagined near-future world, Territory was asked to design for a number of other tech solutions.

Whilst only a small and discreet piece of hardware, the Memory device placed on the temple of Cameron’s head allows technicians at Arra Labs to scan, and copy his memories.

The charming Echo Butler, offers a personalised service to passengers on the train. As well as offering small talk, the Echo butler can conveniently retail snacks and drinks.