Tremfya

Pain imposes a heavy toll, and individuals who suffer from plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis pay that price every day. It exacts its cost on their quality of life. It damages their self esteem, prevents them from doing things they love, and imprisons them in a body that no longer feels like their own.

Our goal is to speak with a level of empathy, understanding, and sensitivity to the tens of millions of people who struggle with this everyday. We want them to connect emotionally to the characters, nod their heads in agreement with the metaphorical portrayal of the symptoms, and ultimately—leave them with a feeling of hope and optimism. 

There is an answer. There is a way to gain relief; to retake control of their lives, and to emerge triumphant. 

That’s our message, and we will deliver it by employing a visual aesthetic that grounds the metaphorical manifestations of the disease with a cinematic sensibility that is compelling and real.

The Visual Aesthetic

In order to gain the greatest impact and emotional connection to the film, it’s critical to design a look that focuses the eye on the thing that matters most—our people and the metaphors. 

To achieve this, we will avoid anything that feels in any way artificial or distracting. Every detail will be executed in ways that are photo real. Our people will live in an environment in that is minimalistic, clean, and real. A Mediterranean vista, looking out on crisp blue waters, distant hills, and a beautiful bright sky feels like a good fit. It would help imbue the narrative with a sense of hopeful and relaxed optimism, while adding to the naturalistic aesthetic.

Technically, there are a few options that can be used to place our people realistically into this environment. Perhaps the best of those would involve shooting an existing background and then projecting it (in high res) on the walls of a 360º studio. Basically what we’ll be doing is creating a virtual (Unreal Engine) world that shifts perspectives in synch with the camera moves. It will appear absolutely real, with infinite depth and dimension, beautiful natural light, and a surrounding horizon line that can bring an epic quality to the film. 

To add to the reality, the set pieces our actors touch or interact with will be derived from real architectural elements, and built to look completely consistent with the reality of the environment. Subtle stylistic touches like a hint of texture in a plaster wall, a shadow cast by an architectural element like a column, the luster of the floor—all will help bring a greater feeling of realism to the film. 

Tone & Approach

Above all, this demands to be handled with a sense of honesty, sincerity, and forthright understanding. We must speak from a base of knowledge sensitive to the ways this disease can impact a person’s self esteem, health, and relationships. 

There mustn’t be the slightest hint that we are trying to manipulate their emotions. The camera, performances, lensing, and art direction must all combine to present viewers with an artful story, rich with humanity, but never overwrought or saccharine. 

These people are tough. They’re courageous. They’ve been fighting this disease and hoping for relief. The look and style will be sophisticated and modern. But the message will remain simple and direct. We appreciate the challenges you face every day, and we are here to offer help. 

Cinematography

The use of a loose camera (as opposed to one that is static) also feels perfectly suited for this naturalistic style. Adding a bit of float to the camera it will bring the moments more of an observed quality consistent with the people living in this environment. 

We will enhance that with movements that add to the naturalness and flow. The camera might glide in toward a person, arc around their shoulders, slide down the length of someone’s arm, or brush past someone as we capture an intimate shot of a neck.

A deep focus shift directs us to the source of their pain. There could be a heat shimmer for the hot coal treatment a distorted glass FX for the glass shards, or lens flares on the armor, can give each symptom its own character.

The movement of our actors will be choreographed to work in a complementary way to the narrative. At first we might see them seated. There’s the feeling that they are burdened by the physical and emotional weight they are carrying with them. 

As the TREMFYA begins to defeat the metaphors of this disease, and they begin to fall away from their bodies, the people rise up—creating a sense of them being liberated. 

This coincides with a slight shift in ambient light. It becomes warmer, more golden and more flattering to the skin—as if the sun is rising on a new day. 

Their posture and physicality becomes more confident, empowered, and self-assured. A fresh breeze might blow through the setting, lifting a woman’s hair up and away from a soft and lovely shoulder or neckline.

The expressions on their faces brighten. We see and feel the relief, ultimately taking us to a moment when the camera pulls back… And we reveal our three people standing confidently together in this clean minimal, modern, architectural space.

The Metaphors

The metaphors you’ve chosen bring a clear and powerful emotion to the narrative. The visual depictions of the disease must support that by establishing an organic connection to the skins of our people. We have to feel the burning itch of the hot coals, the stinging of the shards of glass, and the burdensome stiffness of the metal plates on the skin. 

They exist in a way that allows us to enter the minds of these people, to feel the pain their feeling, and fully experience the suffering of the symptoms. Because of that, their appearance, texture, and dimensionality will be created in a way that a physical presence and a look that is photo real.

The Burning Coals will combine black lava like mounds of crust with cracks and crevices that glow red and molten. To push this to a higher level, we will see heat vapors radiating from the coals.

The Glass will cause light to kick of its edges and cause elements in the near background to appear distorted.

The Armor will have a look akin to something inspired by Steam Punk. Patinated iron cut at odd angles, held together by rivets, and layered with overlapping edges that you can almost hear rasp with friction…

Each and every detail will appear so incredibly real that you will feel as if you can reach out and touch them.

Amplifying the images, we will get the camera in close to the different areas of their bodies that are afflicted so that the renderings of these metaphors take on a sensory, tactile, realness. 

And when they experience relief—when the coals, the metal, and the shards of glass fall away—we want to use the camera to celebrate those moments. We see up-close these elements fall away—leaving soft and beautiful skin in their place. 

The camera can follow them down as they descend, and then cutting to a low graphic angle, we will see them land—exploding, clattering, and shattering in macro super slow motion. A metaphoric shift showing the evil has now gone.

Similar to the RBC spot, we can enhance that through the use of speed ramping, which can amplify the emotions. For instance, after a shard of glass falls and shatters on the floor, breaking up in dramatic slow mo—we would then ramp up to see it burst into thousands of particles in real times they fly away. 

Cinematography

The use of a loose camera (as opposed to one that is static) also feels perfectly suited for this naturalistic style. Adding a bit of float to the camera it will bring the moments more of an observed quality consistent with the people living in this environment. 
We will enhance that with movements that add to the naturalness and flow. The camera might glide in toward a person, arc around their shoulders, slide down the length of someone’s arm, or brush past someone as we capture an intimate shot of a neck. 

A deep focus shift directs us to the source of their pain. There could be a heat shimmer for the hot coal treatment a distorted glass FX for the glass shards, or lens flares on the armor, can give each symptom its own character.

The movement of our actors will be choreographed to work in a complementary way to the narrative. At first we might see them seated. There’s the feeling that they are burdened by the physical and emotional weight they are carrying with them. 

As the TREMFYA begins to defeat the metaphors of this disease, and they begin to fall away from their bodies, the people rise up—creating a sense of them being liberated. 

This coincides with a slight shift in ambient light. It becomes warmer, more golden and more flattering to the skin—as if the sun is rising on a new day. 

Their posture and physicality becomes more confident, empowered, and self-assured. A fresh breeze might blow through the setting, lifting a woman’s hair up and away from a soft and lovely shoulder or neckline.

The expressions on their faces brighten. We see and feel the relief, ultimately taking us to a moment when the camera pulls back… And we reveal our three people standing confidently together in this clean minimal, modern, architectural space.

The Casting

We’re creating this film for the sufferers: We need to handle it in a way that is bold enough to be honest. That means researching the effects the disease—and searching for actors with real and approachable looks who can deliver nuanced performances that are understated and deep-felt. 

Little things—like the way someone might touch an arm, or the affect it has on their physicality, can resonate with our audience, and we want to bring that subtlety to the performances. The relief felt when freed from the pain is also key to the storytelling. Our actors have to convey it with clarity, calm, and newly felt sense of liberation as well.

Another factor to consider is that the disease doesn’t discriminate. It can and will attack men and women regardless of their age or race. To tell that part of the story we will open the casting to a diverse group of people. And even though we will be limiting our principals to three individuals. Our choices should reflect a good cross section of humanity. 

Haley is in her thirties. She’s an independent woman who’s been facing the challenges of succeeding in the world of video gaming. She’s been climbing the ladder and now works with a boutique game design company. But just over a year ago, she started noticing symptoms that were soon diagnosed as Plague Psoriasis. 

She wrestled with the shame, doing what she could to cover up the scaly patches on her skin. She began changing her life to avoid social gatherings, and soon realized that she was beginning to fold in on herself. The confidence she once had was beginning to vanish. She felt as if her personality had been highjacked by this disease. 

She’s taken the organic approach, changed her diet, and tried to avoid stress. But the disease persisted. Now it’s become a matter of who is going to win. Her, or the disease, and if she is anything at all, it’s a fighter. And she’s glad to have TREMFYA in her corner.

Damian is open, friendly, social, and outgoing. The warmth of his personality, professionalism and enthusiasm for life has helped him build a business as a photographer. His timing was impeccable, having started a small business in synch with the Millennial wedding boom. 

But the one obstacle he could have never seen coming was PsO. Now, those hours he used to enjoy shooting are riddled with chronic stinging pain. It’s become exhausting and distracting. It robs him of what was once tireless energy, and his fear is that it will end up damaging his ability to meet the high expectations he has always set for himself. The best news he’s heard in a long time is: TREMFYA

Bianca made a career move, leaving a lucrative job as an assistant chef with a chain of high-end restaurants, to literally venture out on her own. She purchased a used food truck, cleaned it, installed new equipment, sourced food locally from farmer’s markets and organic ranches. And it worked—better than she could have imagined.

Her days began before sunrise and lasted until well after dark. But she loved it. She had a passion for it. She looked forward to experimenting with new recipes, seeing the joy on people’s faces when they ate, and the freedom afforded by not being anchored to a brick and mortar restaurant.

She worked tirelessly, but now has another challenge to deal with. PsA. The simplest of tasks have become more and more difficult. The harder tasks almost impossible. And all of them—painful. By the end of a day she’s is exhausted, and recently was forced to consider hanging it all up, selling the truck, and searching for something less physically demanding. Then, she heard about TREMFYA.

EMERGE TREMFYANT

The camera moves through a light modern architectural space, gliding in toward (Haley) a woman seated on a short pedestal. The look on her face is distracted; preoccupied with something that she can’t ignore—a burning itching sensation that takes on the visual shape of hot burning coals.

Shifting to a close up looking over her shoulder, we see her run a hand gently down her arm. The coals glow red, like lava radiating on her skin…

The camera arcs away to discover Damian, also seated. As we push in we notice an expression that is tense, and then pick up the first clues of the cause. His upper torso is covered with shards of glass.

For the sake of coverage, we’ll capture this moment from a few different angles—shooting close ups that highlight the glass metaphor.

Transitioning away, we find Bianca leaning against the edge of a short pedestal. One arm is massaging the other, which is sheathed in plates of rivet-studded metal. Her movements are labored, reflecting stiffness and pain…

We might cut to a close up of her hand wrapped around her other arm, or push in for an intimate close up on her pained expression.

This takes us to the moment of change when our three heroes Emerge TREMFYANT.

Bianca stands up with a look of purpose taking over her face. The metal that once encased her joints shatters and falls away from her body…

Cutting quickly to a series of intimate close ups we see shards of glass flying away from Damian’s shoulder, metal plates release from Bianca’s elbow and wrist, and coals dropping from Haley’s shoulder—leaving behind nothing but healthy skin.

Building editorial energy, we cut to low angles of these metaphors landing, shattering, exploding, and ricocheting on the floor. 

Then, freed from the symptoms of this disease we cut to a wide shot of all three of our heroes, standing triumphant. The remnants of the disease are scattered on the floor around their feet.

Perhaps there are a few hints of them remaining on parts of their skin, but this is one of the decisions that can be made in post.

Integrating the Logo

Type design and animation is important. (Think how Star Wars revolutionized the type crawl and how David Carson changed type design forever.) As mentioned during our call, we would like to explore the possibility of creating the typography and logo in a way that feels active—as opposed to appearing like it’s been superimposed over living imagery. 

That might involve having it move around the edge of the frame, which would lend those graphic elements more of a contemporary look that feels very consistent with the overall aesthetic of the piece. It could look like moving ticker-tape bending around the corner of the frame. But this is one of those details that we can continue to discuss as we move ahead.

The Music & Sound Design

An evocative sound track can go a long way toward upping the drama and emotion of the film. Although we didn’t discuss this, we definitely want to collaborate with you on either scoring the film, or selecting a piece of music that can be used to bring that extra cinematic element to the narrative. 

The emotional build it provides can be enhanced by hints of sound design that punctuate the relief moments. The sound of glass landing and shattering, the clang of metal, the impact of coals breaking apart, the hint of a breath being expelled as the pain disappears—can all play a part in the visual language we’re using. The key is to keep the use of music and sound subtle so that it completes the film without ever competing with it.

Summing things up…

This project is easy to get excited about because it allows us to use all the powers of the medium in a way that will help people live better, more fulfilling, and more enjoyable lives. 

Our intention is to bring that sense of humanity to the storyline by combining great casting and performances with a cinematic look that is honest, emotional, and engaging.

Thanks again for sending this our way. We look forward to continuing the conversation and working together to make this a great and meaningful piece of film.