Winner of:

2023 PromaxBDA North American - Gold: Main Title Design

2023 Clio Entertainment Awards - Bronze: Main Title/Credits

OVERVIEW

This HBO Max docuseries follows the Murdaugh family, who have had a powerful influence over the legal system in South Carolina's Lowcountry for a century. The family's legacy unravels amidst accusations of fraud, deception, and murder. To attract viewers and maintain their interest, the docuseries needed to strike a powerful tone, combining the southern local with themes of decay and wealth.

Alongside over one hundred custom in-program content sections, Spillt developed the main titles in conjunction with Campfire Studios. While most main titles are reserved for serving as a prologue to the feature, our team was fortunate enough to be tasked with crafting a mood piece. Creatively, this opened the doors to focus on an authentic southern locale, combined with the tone of decay, rotting, and generational wealth.

MY ROLE:

CREATIVE DIRECTION, DESIGN, ANIMATION, COMPOSITING

SPILLT
PRODUCER: KATIE MARIANI, KATE SWIFT
CREATIVE DIRECTION: ED RHINE, RYAN SUMMERS, DAVID RICKLES
DESIGN & ANIMATION: DAVID RICKLES, HOLLEE WINANS, HARRISON VINCENT
EDITORIAL & COLOR: ADAM SCHMISEK

CAMPFIRE STUDIOS
DIRECTORS: MOR LOUSHY, DANIEL SIVAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: ROSS M. DINERSTEIN, MOR LOUSHY, DANIEL SIVAN
CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: BRENDAN DAW, REBECCA EVANS, ROSS GIRARD
PRODUCERS: BROOKE BRUNSON, KAITLIN DEL CAMPO
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER HUTCHENS, JEFF HUTCHENS
EDITORS: GARY POLLAK, ERIN PERRI, EILEEN KENNEDY, ALEX DURHAM ACE
MUSIC: ANTONIO PINTO, EDUARDO ARAM

We regard small towns as havens for safety, community, and quality. And yet, in Hampton, the opposite couldn’t be more accurate. From profiting during the railroad days to control over the legal system, the Murdaugh family, for generations, has maliciously navigated Hampton as predatory opportunists without a single care for the wreckage left in their wake.

Most of what was going on didn’t occur in the shadows, hidden away in some dark corner of evil. Instead, to some Hamptonians, all roads of misery led incontrovertibly to the Murdaughs. But by design, the Murdaughs wielded control over their empire to obscure reality, safeguarded by the town structures they built for generations. They walked with impunity over the people of Hampton and suffered those who would interfere with their power.

This relationship has been symbiotic; the Murdaughs couldn’t be who they were without the unique circumstances afforded them in the early days of Hampton. And yet, today, the town of Hampton could not be mentioned without the Murdaugh name. They are linked, as all emperors over their empire. And now, like a roman tragedy, the empire is crumbling as a direct result of their own impunity.

Theme:

A journey through the wreckage brought to the town of Hampton, we see iconic elements of the Murdaugh legacy and the town of Hampton - from the swamp lowlands to the railroad tracks, to the river, to the roadway, to the main street, to the dirt road leading to the entry gate.

The railroad tracks, the roadway, the rivers, main street, and the Murdaugh’s entry grate will all
be presented graphically and in a manner in which each linear path is aligned and followed. The end of each course shows some detail disrupted by horizon fog - speaking to the willful veil the Murdaugh family seemed to hold over ever finding a resolution. Interspersed between each shot, we see flash-cuts of iconic visuals from the Murdaugh family and their crimes (from cigars to drugs to empty beer cans to money). The final shot in the progression leads us to the entry gate of the Murdaugh family, where the title card reveals itself through the haze.

Tone:

Stark, minimal, haunting, isolating and misdirecting, the tonality of this piece should be one of desperation, dread, and fear. The visuals will be intentionally presented with obscure details, in underlit, hazy environments. Each shot should feel composed in an unset- tling way, pushing unease on the viewer. Each scene should be crafted to maximize a deepening sense of hopelessness and isolation. All while having an under- current of death and destruction in the wake of this family.

Response:

Viewers will feel equally intrigued, alarmed, and enraged after each watch. Each episode will reveal another reason why a shot has been included within the sequence, making the viewer wonder just how far the betrayal reaches as they see scenes without a told story yet. The ending leads the viewer to the same outcome that is always reached in the show - the doorstep of the Murdaughs, but never further.

As a second yet equal weight audience response, this treatment aims to allow the setting of this story - Hampton - to be a critical player in the show. We cannot write the town’s history without the Murdaugh family, and the Murdaugh family could not have arrived at their power if not for how the town. The city of Hampton, with its rural lowlands setting, has been an equally unwitting character throughout the saga.

Location and Perspective

Historic, Rural, isolated, and haunting, Hampton and it’s lowland setting are the visual basis for this piece. Moving a level deeper, each location important to the story has an interesting literal linear correlation... from railroads to roadways, rivers to stairways - each is a path that can be aligned to one another as we move about the town of Hampton.

Camera angles will always take a perspective as slightly off from comfortable. From being POV as we sink to the bottom of a river, to an unsettling angle on a gun that’s just been fired, we want the unease ooze in every shot.

Obscuration/Distortion:

A key element to this story is the nature that the Murdaughs crimes were so fully manipulated and obscured from accountability that even though guilt was all but known, it was never provable. Tactically, we think showing the locations of crimes could be clean, but the crimes themselves should be shown in an unnerving, distorted and obscured manner - flashes of the truth shown in a manner that evokes appropriate sensation of unease surrounding the criminality. Fog, light, shadow, distortion and disruption can all be tools to bring this motif to life.

Tone and Emotion

Emotions were widespread and diverse among the people of Hampton. For the victims, anger, isolation, helplessness, and despair remained constant. For the friends of the Murdaughs, disbelief, confusion, and denial.

But these individual emotions only feed into the sinsister nature of what the Murdaughs did. They weilded unrelenting power with not just impunity, but also a satisfaction - to rule is to do no wrong.

Tonality must engage all of this: isolation and starkness, dread and hopelessness, and an undercurrent of sinister unease.

Once the conceptual work was secured, I stepped into my personal favorite part of the process on this one - design and animation. As the lead 3D designer, I was responsible for visually conveying this tone through the docuseries opener. I created immersive 3D scenes that entice viewers without revealing too much of the plot, using techniques such as water and vine simulations and expert camera manipulation to maintain a sense of unease. The scenes firmly depict the southern location of the story.

From building landscapes, to growing infection vines, to shifting lens lengths, each scene was a masterclass in 3d animation and production, with no detail left out of consideration. Each scene was made and set into the sequence to evaluate it’s effectiveness to the overall story and tone.