MIHIR LELE
AMAZON PRIME WEB SERIES: AFSOS
Animation and Conceptualisation of Opening Sequence
Client
Amazon Prime Video
Agency
OML Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Director
Anubhuti Kashyap
Design and Animation
Mihir Lele
Music
Neel Adhikari
Brief
Created by Anirban Dasgupta and Dibya Chatterjee, Afsos is a dark comedy thriller, about a man, who, after several failed suicide attempts, pays a contract killing agency to kill him. Upadhyay, a deadly assassin is assigned to get the job done. But the man has a change of heart. A cat and mouse chase ensues, with some riveting turn of events.
With this plot summary in mind, I was asked to create a packaging that would do justice to the theme and mood of the show and in a way, also capture the essence of the story in 30 seconds.
The concept for the Packaging
After brainstorming on a number of concepts for the packaging and different treatment ideas for the same, two ideas were zeroed down to be taken into the storyboarding stage to see which one would visually capture the theme of the show better and fit more organically in the show universe .
Storyboard- Route 01
This idea was one that the creators of the show had in the works for a while but without a strong visual narrative. It was once I jammed with them over multiple brainstorming sessions, that I was able to build a visual narrative and a complimenting treatment for the concept. (Click on the storyboard below to go into full screen mode)
Storyboard- Route 02
Though the narrative of Route 01 worked for everyone, it wasn't as visually striking as this route- one that everyone unanimously was drawn to. This concept, that I thought of for the show, best fit the theme of the show, best encapsulated the plot of the show and also conveyed the overall idea within the show that "things can change in the blink of an eye", visually.
(Click on the storyboard below to go into full screen mode)
Finalised Opening Sequence
Basis the animatic, the animation was finalised. Some changes from the storyboard level were incorporated in the animatic for better flow of visuals. The rough treatment and animation from the animatic was cleaned up in the finalised one. The treatment was arrived at, post several discussions with the director and creators of the show and multiple explorations, during the making of the animatic.
The character animation was done in Adobe Animate and composited in After Effects, while the illustrations were done in Adobe Photoshop.
Finally two sequences were delivered, one with name credits and one without.
Watch the show on Amazon Prime Video.
Animation Xpress, an online magazine, did a small piece on the title design of Afsos. I spoke to them about how I approached the sequence, the incredible team I got to jam with while working on the concepts, and a couple of other things! Do give it a read here-
Another online curation page, called IndieFolio Network, did a breakdown of my process, on their social media pages-
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAx-1KYJ4RV
The project also won a baby elephant (In-book winner) at the 2020 Kyoorius Creative Awards, in the Film Craft- Title Sequence section.
