Check out the stunning opening film for OFFF Festival 2023

One of the highlights of any OFFF Festival is always the opening titles. Each year, a different studio is asked to create a new film to launch the design festival, and this year the task fell to renowned studio Framestore, whose VFX credits include Blade Runner 2049 and No Time to Die.

Speaking at the opening of the festival in Barcelona this month, Framestore explained how it worked to an open brief from Hector Ayuso, founder of OFFF – now in it's 22nd year. The result is a mesmerising visual collage featuring contributions from all of Framestore's US designers, and it's now available to watch online (below). Inspired to create a video of your own? Check out the best laptops for video editing.

Titled 'Coalesce', the film featured no less than five directors. “Open briefs are lovely," the team shared, "but they can’t always be the studio’s priority." And it was from this constraint that the hugely collaborative approach was born. 

"We wanted to allow contributions from all our designers, from interns to senior artists," Framestore's Jake Cuddihy said. "We told everyone to give us 3-5 seconds, but in the end everybody gave us 12-15 which was great – although sadly we couldn't use it all."

“The tagline of this year’s festival ‘Made for the Curious’ really guided us. We felt it was key to celebrate the process we all go through to find something special and out of the ordinary. Our main character is The Curious. She’s a hard worker, striving to unlock something unique and beautiful by forcing one world onto another. Frustrated by her lack of progress, we witness a big release of pressure through an emotional outburst." 

But while this was a particularly collaborative project, this ethos is important to Framestore as a whole. "We are artist led. We believe in the power of community and sharing of community. The concept of a collective has allowed our design studio to continue to create world-class visuals." 

Indeed, after a difficult few years thanks to the pandemic, this year's OFFF showed that the creative community is as alive and inspired as ever. For more inspiration from this year's festival, check out Charis Tsevis's 5 tips for artists, and Adobe's AI presentation.

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