Referencing 1970’s analog design techniques, King+Country set a gritty and dangerous tone for The Continental, a three-episode miniseries born from the world of John Wick produced by Lionsgate and airing on Peacock.

Director/partner Rick Gledhill: “The Continental explores the origin story behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe, this time through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott as he’s dragged into the hellscape of 1970’s New York City.

“The show inherits such a rich and deeply involved world, so there was an incredible amount to draw from. Since the series is set in the 70s, we wanted to create a sequence that feels like it could have been produced using the analog technology available at the time — a fusion of illustration, high-contrast photography, and bold mondo design.
 

“We created a look that appears to be visually simple and tactile on the surface, but underneath enabled us to plan every shot in 3D and build in some sleight of hand to carry us from scene to scene.”

 
“We knew we wanted a gritty print look, but simply layering up grunge gets messy quickly and serves no purpose. Instead, we did an in-depth study of 70s Xerox band posters, taking cues from the grain, print marks and the patterns the xerox leaves while deconstructing the image.

“Using this method, we created a look that appears to be visually simple and tactile on the surface, but underneath enabled us to plan every shot in 3D and build in some sleight of hand to carry us from scene to scene.”

“Every asset of the titles were created from scratch, including the live action slow-motion shoot-outs. We shot all the assassins falling on green screen with blue screen guns during a one day shoot. And instead of going the high-speed film route, we adopted more of a ‘human puppetry’ approach by suspending the actors mid-fall from rigs, which allowed them to fine tune the performance and composition.”
 
 

 
Client: Lionsgate, Peacock

Production: King+Country
Director/CD: Rick Gledhill
Art Director: Sorin Voicu
Post Producer: Ryan Lowrie
VFX Supervisor: Andrew Cook
EP: Jerry Torgerson
Designers: Sorin Voicu, Rick Gledhill, Josh Lewis, Eunha Choi, Jason Guerrero, Ben Hurand, Matt Taylor
Animator/compositor: Sorin Voicu, Rick Gledhill, Hugo Condinach, Thomas Kenney, K.A. Batcha, Josh Lewis, Rafael Monguilhott, Li Li, Timur Salikov, Geoff Cicarelli, Chun Lim