# DRY BONES — Branding Guidelines

**Version 1.0 — February 2026**

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## Project Identity

**DRY BONES** is a feature documentary in development, produced by CULTSCALE. It follows five competitive Dota 2 players from Beirut and Istanbul chasing qualification for The International 2026 in Shanghai.

It is a sports film in form and a character study at heart. The camera follows people, not games.

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## Brand Name

**DRY BONES**

Always set in full uppercase with a space. Never:
- "Dry Bones" (mixed case)
- "DryboneS" or "DRYBONES" (no space)
- "dry bones" (lowercase)

**Short reference in copy:** _Dry Bones_ (italicised when referring to the film by title in running text)

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## Tagline

**STILL HERE.**

Single line. Full uppercase. With period. Used as a closing statement — not a descriptor. It is the emotional payload of the film in two words.

**Meaning:** Persistence in the face of irrelevance. The world has moved on; these players have not. That stubbornness is the story.

**Usage:**
- Close slide of pitch deck (gold, tracked out)
- Social media profile bios
- End card of trailers
- Do not use as a page title or headline — it works only as a closing mark

**Arabic equivalent:** TBD (consult Arabic-language creative consultant)

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## Color Palette

Dry Bones inherits the CULTSCALE base palette and extends it with one project-specific accent.

| Name | Hex | Usage |
|------|-----|-------|
| Milky Black | `#121212` | Background (primary) |
| Deep Charcoal | `#1F1F1F` | Cards, surface backgrounds |
| Light Gray | `#E6E6E6` | Body text, secondary copy |
| Pure White | `#FFFFFF` | Headlines, primary copy |
| Resurrection Gold | `#EFCA6F` | Accent only — tagline, key moments, the "icon" status marker |

**Gold rule:** Reserve `#EFCA6F` (Resurrection Gold) for the "STILL HERE." tagline, qualifier moments, and any reference to the TI climax. Not for buttons, decorative use, or general emphasis.

**No additional accent colors.** The project does not introduce new hues. The monochrome palette mirrors the underground world of the players: unglamorous, unsponsored, unilluminated.

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## Typography

**Primary typeface: Space Grotesk** (same as CULTSCALE)

No project-specific typeface. Typography discipline is the brand's restraint.

**Hierarchy in presentations:**

| Element | Size | Weight | Color |
|---------|------|--------|-------|
| Display (film title) | 60–72pt | Regular | White |
| H1 (main claim per slide) | 36–42pt | Regular | White |
| H2 (supporting line) | 28–32pt | Regular | Light Gray |
| Kicker (section label) | 12–14pt | Regular | Muted/Gray, tracked +2.5pt |
| Body copy | 22–24pt | Regular | Light Gray |
| Notes / fine print | 14–16pt | Regular | Muted |

**Tracking:** Kicker labels use wide tracking (~2–3pt). All other text uses default tracking.

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## Logo & Visual Mark

**CULTSCALE logo** appears on all project materials as a small, subordinate mark (36pt in presentation context, top or bottom of cover/close slides). It signals provenance, not prominence.

**Dry Bones project mark (in development):**
- Direction: Skull-adjacent, bones motif, amphora silhouette
- Core constraint: Must read at small sizes and work in monochrome
- Status: Logo design not yet initiated. Asset backlog item.
- Domain: `drybones.gg` (available, not yet purchased)
- Social handles: `@drybonesgg` or `@drybones_gg` (finalise on domain purchase)

Until the project mark is created, the CULTSCALE logo serves as the only visual identifier on all materials.

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## Photography & Cinematography Style

**Reference aesthetic:**
- Handheld, close, available light
- No studio setups, no interview chairs against neutral backgrounds
- Subjects in their own environments: apartments, LAN cafes, commutes
- Allow mess, allow silence, allow nothing happening
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 (presentation, social). Cinematic deliverable TBD with director.

**Background image (`slate-drybones-hero.jpg`):**
- Esports player silhouette at a terminal, glow-lit from screen
- Used on cover, logline, and close slides in presentations
- Overlay: 62% (cover) to 72% (interior/close) to control brightness

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## Brand Voice for Dry Bones

Dry Bones speaks as CULTSCALE speaks: confident, precise, without hype. Applied to this specific film:

**What the copy does:**
- Establishes stakes through specificity (names, ages, cities, constraints)
- Avoids tournament recap language ("defeated", "eliminated", "champion")
- Anchors drama in daily life, not competition outcome
- Never tells the audience how to feel

**What the copy does not do:**
- Use "tension" in external communications — say "what it costs", "the weight of", "what is at stake"
- Use em dashes in general copy — rephrase or use commas/colons
- Frame the story as an underdog triumph narrative — the film is outcome-agnostic
- Name-check generic gaming tropes ("leet", "respawn", "GG")
- Explain Dota 2 mechanics — treat the audience as adults

**Vocabulary:**
- "grassroots" ✓ — accurate and non-patronising
- "underground" ✓ — captures the structural invisibility of MENA esports
- "persistence" ✓ — the film's central human quality
- "qualifier" ✓ — specific, not hyperbolic
- "the world stage" ✓ — The International is genuinely the largest prize pool in competitive gaming
- "gamer" — use sparingly; prefer player names and roles (carry, support, mid laner)

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## Co-Production & Market Positioning

Dry Bones is positioned as a MENA-China co-production with implicit Netflix targeting. This positioning is a production and financing strategy, not a consumer-facing brand attribute.

**In external pitch materials:**
- Lead with the story and characters, not the platform strategy
- The Netflix reference is implicit: comparables (Drive to Survive, Esports World Cup: Level Up), distribution language, and format all signal it
- China co-production framing is explicit in market-facing materials (EFM, producer meetings) but not in press or public-facing copy

**Never say in public-facing copy:**
- "Made for Netflix"
- "Targeting Netflix"
- "A Netflix-style documentary"
- "MENA-China co-production" as a logline element (it is a financing structure, not a story attribute)

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## Deck & Presentation Rules

1. **No em dashes** in slide copy — rephrase around them
2. **No "tension"** — say "what it costs", "the stakes", "the weight of"
3. **Outcome-agnostic framing** — never write as if qualification is the climax
4. **Specificity over abstraction** — use real names, cities, ages. "Faruk, 28, Istanbul" beats "Turkish player"
5. **Gold accent sparingly** — one or two moments per deck maximum
6. **Kickers in small caps / wide tracking** — section labels should whisper, not shout
7. **Background images at correct overlay** — 62% on cover (image-led), 72% on text-heavy slides

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## Relationship to CULTSCALE Brand

Dry Bones is a CULTSCALE production. It does not have its own parent brand. All materials carry the CULTSCALE mark (small, subordinate).

**In pitch decks:** "CULTSCALE PRESENTS" as cover kicker, small logo mark.

**In press / public materials:** "A CULTSCALE production" or "Produced by CULTSCALE" in credits position.

**Do not:** Build a Dry Bones brand that competes visually or narratively with CULTSCALE. The project mark (when created) should feel like it belongs to the same family.

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## Asset Backlog (Not Yet Created)

- [ ] Project mark / logo (skull/bones direction)
- [ ] `drybones.gg` domain purchase
- [ ] Social handles registration
- [ ] Social media profile assets
- [ ] Trailer end card (STILL HERE. treatment)
- [ ] Website (public-facing project page on cultscale.com exists: `/slate/drybones`)
- [ ] Arabic tagline development