Decode with Dhruv

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DECODE WITH DHRUV

Art Direction | Identity Design

Client

Netflix India

Created and Produced by

All Things Small

Executive Producer & Director

Rigved Siriah

Identity Design, Graphics Lead

and Episode Specific Graphics

Mihir Lele

Chroma, Compositing,

Episode Animation and Color Grade

Kshitij Verma (Doozyworks Studio)

Writers

Nupur Pai, Mohammad Hussain,

Deloret Imnidian, Vishal Dayama

Title Track

Mehar Chumble & Sharukh Makani

Associate Producer and Subtitling

Eeshita Chinmulgund

Researcher

Poorna Swami

Brief

I was approached by Devaiah Bopanna of All Things Small (ATS) to design and produce all the graphic assets required for an analysis show exclusive to Netflix, "Decode with Dhruv", developed by ATS for Netflix India's YouTube channel, featuring YouTube sensation Dhruv Rathee.

My Role

Once the concept was green-lit by Netflix India's editorial team, the show was to go live in the following 2 weeks. My role then was to come up with the visual treatment and all the graphic templates required for a 10+ minute episode and producing the first episode in time for release. Post the release of the first episode, each episode there-on was produced on a week to week basis, i.e, the shoot, edit and post production all happened in one week's time for each episode.

Apart from visualising the overall design language of the show, creating the opening sequence and setting the animation and motion templates for the animators to follow on subsequent episodes, the following were my responsibilities on each episode of the series:

1.Designing, sourcing and timing all the graphics required for the episode, in consultation with the writers.

2.Supervising the animation and motion graphics to make sure the graphics are landing well in the episode and are in-line with the templates and designs that have been set.

3.Quality check of color grade and chroma cleaning.

4.Doing an overall quality check of the episode before release.

Logo Design and Show Treatment

To come up with a visual design for the overall show, we first began by exploring various treatment options for the logotype of the show.

The aim was to arrive at a design aesthetic that everyone is happy with, which can then be adapted into all other design elements required for the show.

This was the first set of explorations I worked on:

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Our internal team of producers and creators, along with Netflix's editorial team, unanimously decided to go ahead with the first route from the above explorations. The next step was to arrive at a treatment that best complimented the shortlisted logo design. For that purpose, I did another round of explorations with various color palettes and treatments before beginning to explore the layouts for the episode.

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The last treatment route was selected to be taken forward, to explore different layouts within the epsiode that would best work to showcase the visuals mentioned in the script. The scribbles and hand-drawn crayon style was an exciting starting point to begin exploring different layouts.

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Opening Sequence

Since the concept of the series is to analyse popular Netflix titles and deep dive into their background, the social and cultural milieu they were made in, the reason for their success, etc, I wanted the packaging to reflect this core idea.

The packaging opens with Dhruv logging into his Netflix account, as a magnifying glass pops into screen and scans across numerous titles in the Netflix library. The titles all come together towards the end to form the word DECODE, as the magnifying glass becomes a part of the unit, and eventually the rest of the logo is formed.

A cursor clicks on the “More Info” (a hat-tip to the show's format) button at the end , like the one Netflix has on its title cards, as the sequence opens into the show.

Packaging Storyboard as pitched to the client.

Episode 01: F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Once all of the above graphic elements were locked and approved, with a few tweaks and a couple of feedback pointers, we got down to producing the first episode of the series- one that would set the final look for all other episodes to come, which in retrospect, was one of the most daunting yet exciting experiences of my professional career.

Process

-The host, Dhruv Rathee, would shoot the episode from his home setup in Germany, with the director and camera team coordinating with him on a zoom call.

-The footage would then be downloaded by the editing team, who would create the edit timeline for the episode , in time for a meeting between the design team and the writers.

-We would then go through this first cut and make a list of graphics required for the show.

-The next step then was to collate all the graphics and time them as per the episode, clean the chroma and create a new edit with the graphics.

-This cut would then be sent to the sound team, while the graphics were being fine- tuned.

-The legal team would then run through the episode, give final pointers and at the end of this, the episode was made ready for release in a week's time.

Episode 02

Theme specific episodes

One of the most exciting design prospects on the series was the scope to explore different themes and show specific design treatments. We explored different design elements and adapted our set design templates to suit the aesthetics of the Netflix title being decoded.

DARK

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