Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage is an HBO feature documentary about the three-day music festival promoted to echo unity and counterculture idealism of the original 1969 concert but instead devolved into riots, looting and sexual assaults.
We were tasked by director Garret Price to create a grungy, 90’s inspired overall design language that bled into title design, analog footage and technology effects, posters and newspapers of the era, and more.
Offical Trailer
MOTION DESIGN CASE STUDY
Main Title Sequence
Grunge. VHS. Those were the primary tone words we followed here. Garret wanted the graphics to invoke the era, and we did that in design, while keeping a touch of the modern in the motion.
We also treated footage from different formats across the era with analog effects - heavy for TV, light for home videos.
Alternate Title Design Explorations
Columbine
This bespoke section covers the story of the Columbine school shooting of 1999, shortly before Woodstock 99. Told through a video collage of news clips, newspapers, and handwritten notes from the shooters, it provides tone, and era-specific context to the times.
Due to the dark tone, we treated everything here with a heavier, more forced hand, for emphasis.
TV clips were treated with heavier analog effects, while newspaper and other documents were designed to be grungier, with harsh, precise camera movements.
Woodstock 99 Program
The director, Garret, wanted to take the original program of the festival (which was rather drab), and highlight some of the key bands that became part of its story.
To make it interesting, our approach was to mark it up the way an attendee and fan would - with a ball point pen. Add in some dynamic camera movement and poof - it’s interesting!
Posters
We were tasked to use animation to bring several of the festival posters to life.
Newspapers
There were numerous newspaper articles written about the festival, both on the local and national stage. Our task was to design a look consistent with the grungy tone of the film, while still presenting the articles in an interesting, dynamic way.
Our approach was to lean softly into some grunge as an edge framework, creating some subtle parallax, keeping the viewer focused on the information presented at center.
Fans Everywhere
During Woodstock 99, there were a depressingly high number of sexual assaults. A website was set up after the event to help victims identify and report their experiences.
Our task was to take the website and place it into an era-specific monitor. We went a bit beyond realism, and leaned toward a heavier effect, in keeping with the overall grungy tone of the movie.
Documents
Several documents detailing correspondence about the festival plans became key story points in the movie. We were tasked with highlighting the relevant key words, while maintaining the overall tone we’d established.