CITADEL : ORLICK NARRATIVE : CITADEL & MANTACORE BACKSTORY
FULL CASE STUDY HERE.
Our team at Perception collaborated with The Russo Brothers and Amazon to help develop a critical story within their new series, Citadel. Starring Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra and Stanley
Tucci, Citadel is a thrilling series that explores global spy networks, both good and evil. We designed the crucial narrative backstory revealing the identities and backstories of Citadel and Manticore for episode one, which includes doctored footage, custom documents and sleek UI.
Since 2013, our team at Perception has collaborated with The Russo Brothers on numerous films they previously directed to bring narrative sequences to life. When this sequence was in pre-
development, we were brought on to design the sequence and build its story due to our team’s previous work with The Russo Brothers on Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Gray Man.
My role was Creative Director, but also Art Director and Co- Editor.
STILL GALLERY
This was an exercise in hyper speed storytelling, something that The Russo Brothers have continuously trusted Perception with. In order to complete decades worth of plot in this short amount of time, we landed on a dynamic, visual method of storytelling that blends narration from Stanley Tucci and glimpses of historical moments in a thrilling, dramatic montage. This sequence revolves around the backstory of Citadel, a heroic spy organization who was influenced various monumental events in history. We worked closely with the show runner, VFX supervisors and producers to lay out which historical events we should highlight in the sequence.
Our teams wanted to target specific points that were beyond obvious historical moments, so we took a deep dive into the greatest political events since the 1930’s. We worked together to develop storylines around which events would work based on if Citadel was real to make this sequence completely to this organization. This section features documents, photographs, maps and memorabilia from history.
Once the sequence moves beyond the backstory of Citadel and into the uncovering of Manticore, the focus shifts from previous moments in history to current events. Manticore is linked with the 1%, so we focused on events that indicate their status and wealth while also showcasing relatable moments to the audience. Unlike the Citadel portion, Manticore’s section of this sequence includes more high-tech UI to stay with the tone of current events.
It was an honor to collaborate once again with The Russo Brothers and Amazon to develop such a critical sequence for Citadel. This exercise of hyper speed storytelling is always an exciting opportunity for our team to take a deep dive into history and see how we can manipulate it to tell the richest story possible.