OUGD501 - Studio Brief 02 - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1963 British spy novel which looks at the 'amoral' techniques used by both British and Soviet intelligence forces. As well as being adapted to screen, there are plans to adapt it to a television series. The 1965 film was black and white and the opportunity to take advantage of colour in the production design would not have been as wide as todays opportunities. For this reason, my visual investigation will involve designing props for this novel, to determine how successful the use of pastiche is in designing props and how to successfully execute this technique without using Jameson's blank parody.

The novel focuses on Leamas, a British spy who, defects as a double agent to take down a Soviet spy.  Written by John le Carre, his works focus on morality, this particular novel focuses on whether or not individuals should be sacrificed for the greater good. In the same way that Becker uses pastiche in Carol, the production design for this story can be done in a similar way, using referencing of imagery and design that reflects this story's themes. The design choices can even be approached in a similar way to Atkins work in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and be aware of referencing existing work with a pun on the themes. This approach to design has the potential to prevent nostalgia film.

There are many other elements in design and in production design of other films that also deal with similar themes, such as le Carre's other story Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the Bourne series. There can be examples of graphic design that connote the themes in le Carre's novels such as the crime novel covers from Penguin, or a pun could be taken on the British public information graphics during the Cold War.

In the novel, Leamas interacts with several props that will be designed for this visual investigation. His character interacts with a whiskey bottle, a packet of cigarettes and a spy's dossier. He also handles a bag of groceries which could include any common foods of this time such as corned beef, marmalade, tins of soup or biscuits.