Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night

KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY | DESIGN

- FEBRUARY 2021

This is a storyboard from a dynamic typographic project driven by the poem Do not go gentle into that good night, by Dylan Thomas, a British Poet, and it is also his best known and most beloved work. Written in 1947, Thomas’s masterpiece was intended to encourage his father to fight with his chronic disease and approaching death.

Poem | Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas

Concept

I was driven a lot by the poem and the story behind it, in which we can see how Thomas described the image of an old man (his father) who was struggling with his aging days and body. The audio above is Thomas reciting the poem in a sonorous voice, which is really unforgettable. I started out my style frames based on the content and the emotional recital.

Style

I incorporated grunge textures into my style frames, for it can express the vicissitudes of humans’ life. Every grunge pattern resembles every symbol that we, as humans, have fought for. Just like Thomas’s father was fighting with one of the battles in his life.

Storyboard

Do not go gentle into that good night

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01. This line will show up in a shape of a cross, written from top-left to bottom-right and bottom-left to-top right.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day

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02. The camera rotates around 30 degree, as the next line types in and the area of “BURN” and “RAVE” will burn with flames.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light

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03. The Two “Rage” and the rest of the line comes in in order.

Though wise men end know dark is right

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04. The following line keeps coming in. As soon as the voiceover reads “know dark is right”, the red backdrop will be ripped off and the text with black backdrop will be revealed.

Because their words had forked no lightning they

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05. When the voiceover reads “forked no lightning”, the lightning will flash out from the ascender and descender of “forked” and “lightning”.

Do not go gentle into that good night

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06. Same as frame 01

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

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07. “GOOD MEN” Shows up at first, and the rest of the texts will be gushed up by the wave.

Learn too late grieved it on its way

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11-2. “Learn too” shifts back to the normal font and then the camera keeps panning to right.

Do not…(cont.)

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12-1. A man is walking in and bringing the dark background in.

Do not go gentle into that good night

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12-2. The line fades in with the walking man transition.

Grave men, near death who see with blinding sight

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13. The words drift in and blur out sequentially

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay

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14-1. A meteors, meteors and be gay, shoots in from the top-right corner and strikes the texts letting them scattered around.

Rage…(cont.)

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14-2. The meteor frame spilts out into two sections to reveal next frame.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light

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15. Same as frame 03

Do not go gentle into that good night

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17. The red backdrop will turn into bright version, and the following line writes in.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light

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18. The line writes in in order.

Closeups

Credits

Design: Li-Yu Chen
Storyboard: Li-Yu Chen
Poem: Dylan Thomas