The Returned: a starting point for CD cover (1)

I'm not usually a fan of 'zombie' films but I really enjoyed the television drama series 'The Returned' shown at the end of 2012. The subtitled series was created by Fabrice Gobert for Canal+ and won an international Emmy for the best drama series....

'The Returned' is a supernatural crime thriller set in an Alpine village. It focuses on a group of men. women and children who  do not know that they have been dead for several years. I found the whole production very atmospheric almost eery deriving this feel not just from the storyline but also the quality of the natural light used in the filming and the evocative soundtrack.

So why choose to rework the CD cover for this soundtrack? One of the story lines featured a serial killer who returned periodically to the scene of his crime, gloomy pedestrian underpass. The underpass scenes reminded me of an image I took of a local underpass last year for my TAOP assignment on contrast.

P145: Dark

I always felt a sense of menace emanating from the dark silhouetted figure in this picture and think this could be a good starting point for the CD cover.  The original cover below features a crowd of shadowy figures emerging out of the grey surroundings - there is a sense of threat - you cannot see their features just sense their overwhelming numbers. 

P614: Original CD cover

What I want to do here is create an image which conveys the sense of menace visually ..the viewer being less an observer but drawn into the underpass location taking on the role of the pedestrian walking through a typical unwelcoming and 'lonely' location.

How to create my image?  

Without a cast of thousands, I went back to the local underpass with an idea to take a number of pictures that could work with my original image. I had one willing model to place in different places within the underpass. My intention was to find 'background' for the final design, one that either has an existing sense of menace derived maybe from graffitti or colour and lighting or the exact opposite i.e. an open, normal everyday feel to the sense of place. But I also wanted to create potential silhouettes for use within the final design..

P625: f10 @ 1/3  ISO 100 -1step  43mm  AWB

P625 above is one of the images taken ..it provides a clear sihouette and a sense of gloom and disrepair that might work...The white wall at the end is overexposed but gives a quality of light that will add a ' supernatural' element but I'm not sure whether the colours will work with what I have in mind. The image below taken last year might offer a better background colour.

P626