Digital Media Design Blog

Clip02

2010-04-21T17:55:00.004+01:00

For Clip02 I was interested in the idea of using negative space to form the dancers in the animation instead of drawing shapes for them. Using photoshop I imported all the video to frames like before and I used the pen tool to isolate the dancers, then cut of them out of a fill layer. I then filled the gaps of the dancers on 3 different layers with different colours and space them out which is something I saw in my Persona 4 research. For it to work I needed to create a static background however, so I took a frame of the dancers and manipulated it with filters so that it was coloured to match the colour scheme and unrecognisable, then placed it at the bottom of the layer stack. This gave great contrast to the solid colour layers above it and contrast the movement by remaining static.

I then put the frames together in Adobe Premier as video and imported it in to After Effects to add some colour correction filters and overlays to make the contrast and colour pop a bit more.

Here is a low quality preview:

Clip 25

2010-04-19T16:11:00.004+01:00

For clip 25 I decided to go for a combination of ideas. I made the rotoscoping look a bit like water colours (but black instead of coloured) and then used some colour schemes and themes from my research in to Persona 4. Using photoshop I made the dancers have a pencil draw/painted look. Not quite perfect, broken and even lines make it look rougher and more hand drawn.

I then took this in to After Effects and edited several things to change the colour scheme, making it more like my persona 4 research. More interesting than white and red. I also animated some vertical lines of varying thickness across the screen across the sequence using solids and keyframes. I believe this adds an extra element of style to the scene as well as smoothing across the transition between camera angles.

Here is a low quality preview:

Clip 18

2010-04-19T00:56:00.006+01:00

For Clip 18 I wanted to make something that was more than an outline but not so detailed that it was just the raw video. It is sort of a combination between my neon idea (the outline) and my chalk idea (the slight shading and trails). I imported the video in to Photoshop as layers, then exported the layers out as full quality jpgs. I then used Adobe Bridge to batch rename them to a sensible naming convention (frame followed by 2 digits).

I used combinations of filters and brushing to create a look that was partly looks drawn and partly like a neon sign (which extreme highlights). I recorded some actions to help speed up some of the more mechanical aspects of the editing and then went and edited individual frames. Unfortunately I had to desaturate the image because I was very unhappy with the mess of colours that came as a consequence of some of the effects. I intended to correct this in After Effects. I exported the layers again and imported them in to Adobe Premier as an image sequence, a 15fps video file. The processes I used were not ideal immediately, so I spent time cleaning up the images to be more focused on the dancers. Below is a screen grab of some of the extra detailed that existed before I removed it, and I believe it is better with just the dancers drawn.

I then imported the video in to After Effects and added additional effects. I used adjustment layers, solids and masks to make it more interesting than black and white. I chose orange and blue because they are contrasting colours and creates an interesting look. I then used some overlay effects to add more variation to the colours. Here is the result:

Here is a low quality preview:

Ideas: Research and Brainstorming

2010-04-19T00:36:00.009+01:00

I have 3 clips to rotoscope and I have to use 3 different styles so the clips look different. They are at different parts of the video so they should not be designed to relate to each other or transition. I figured what most people will be doing is based on outlines, solid blocks of colour so I want to see if I can do something different in at least one of mine.

One idea I have is to make something that looks a bit like a chalk drawing. Not intricately shaded and coloured to look realistic but a simple style, a bit like a child but not looking bad on purpose. Just to capture the look of the material on black card. Here is an example from a stock photo to illustrate the look:
http://thumb10.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/449803/449803,1250580298,1/stock-photo-white-flower-on-a-blackboard-child-chalk-drawing-stylization-35446042.jpg

I experimented in Photoshop to get an idea of what I could do:

Another idea I have is to create a neon look. Much like neon signs that populate areas with a large night life scene (Las Vegas for example). I like the intense brightness and highlights contrasted against darkness. I don't think I want to recreate the mechanical look of neon signs, so I wouldn't make it look like it was coming from tubes or metal but the visual style I find interesting. Here is a visual example to illustrate what I mean:
http://www.myneonhaven.com/Neon-signs/uploaded_images/outdoor-neon-sign-775483.jpg

Another idea I have is based on a videogame called Persona 4 for the Playstation 2. The title screen uses 2 different styles that are like rotoscoping of the 3D models. The first features characters randomly scattered about the screen coloured in different shades of yellow against an image. The solid colours of the animated characters against the detailed background image creates a good contrast.

The second is a rotoscope of a character running in slow motion. This time everything around the character becomes a solid colour and you see the image behind it through where the character should be. This uses concepts of negative space to create the image of a person running.

I tested my idea:

These ideas are very appealing to me but heavily time consuming as the animation contains several layers which means drawing each frame several times. I will experiment with some ideas.

Importing Video to Photoshop

2010-04-18T20:12:00.007+01:00

I intend to use Photoshop primarily to edit the frames, so knowing how to get the video in to photoshop is key. For this I used Adobe Photoshop CS3. From a combination of experimenting and lectures in class I have found an easy way to import video, change the framerate, export layers to files and then batch process them.

File > Import > Video Frames to Layers allows the video frames to be imported on to seperated layers.

Ticking the limit option allowed me to half the framerate, halving the amount of animation I would have to do to a more manageable level. From here I can export the frames as files so I can edit them individually.

Edited Video

2010-04-18T17:29:00.002+01:00

Jack was kind enough to create a complete edited piece using the footage and as a class we agree to all use this version instead of deciding between our own edited versions. With the whole sequence together as a video we decided on how it would be divided. Although it would make sense to edit with the cuts in the film there aren't enough for each of us to do several. The video has been split up in to 3 sections for everyone of varying length:

01. Rhys
02. Ali
03. Dan
04. Toby
04b. Guy
05. Jack Wells
06. Matt
06b. Roarke
07. Steve
08. Guy
09. Jack Layfield
10. Kris
11. Roarke
12. Guy
13. Rhys
14. Steve
15. Jack Layfield
16. Roarke
17. Matt
18. Ali
19. Toby
20. Jack Wells
21. Kris
22. Dan
23. Toby
24. Matt
25. Ali
26. Rhys
27. Jack Wells
28. Dan
29. Jack Layfield
30. Kris
31. Steve

We also thought it might be a good idea to have a visual queue for which sections we were editing so Jack also made a video with our names overlaid on our sections.

Named Dance video from jack wells blog on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/10349290

Research: Star Wars

2010-03-29T15:11:00.003+01:00

In the Star Wars movies they use rotoscoping to create the effect of the lightsabers, as well as other effects but the most prevalent is the beam of the lightsaber. In this process the beam has been created an animated frame by frame to look like it is coming from the handle prop that the actors are holding.

This isn't especially relevant to my project but it is a good example of adding rotoscoped elements to live video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEjcvIRMDo

Research: iPod

2010-03-29T14:30:00.003+01:00

Apple's iPod ads are contemporary examples of rotoscoping of dancers. The first few sets of adverts featured realistic black figures dancing, as if they were a silhouette juxtaposed against a bright coloured background. The product is rotoscoped separately in white and stands out against the dancer. The contrast is very pleasing and even though it is a realistic look it has a good simplicity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHUz99l-eo

These adverts later developed, moving on from the black silhouettes and having coloured figures against differently coloured backgrounds. They art style is more abstract, with shapes and gradients in the background

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=PKxGfLo7Cqo

Footage Evaluation

2010-03-18T10:03:00.002Z

Here is an evaluation of the clips we shot from the back of the room, in order to find the best parts.

Camera back 01
- Far left back dancer blocked.
- More blocking.

Camera Back 02
- More blocking
- Better than 01
- Some off frame

Camera Back 03
- Much less blocking
- Small stumble/stagger
- Cut off left edge
- Slightly off timing
- Best circle shot
- Bad jump

Camera Back 04
- More blocking
- In time movement
- Out of time movement
- Good jump
- Start not as good as 03

Camera Back 05
- More blocking
- Bad cutting off sides
- Hesitation

Camera Back 06
- Cutting off sides
- Better spacing
- Hesitation
- Out of time
- Ring cut off

Research: Strictly Come Dancing

2010-03-17T12:15:00.000Z

To look at how dance sequences are edited on TV to see how I should edit mine.

The editing is quite slow compared to other TV shows, and cuts just before key moments in the dance.

New Project: Dance

2010-03-16T12:34:00.003Z

For our new project we will be filming and then rotoscoping a modern dance sequence by dance students at the college to be projected on to a wall during the actual dance. Once the sequence has been filmed I will need to edit it together and then chop it up in to small chunks that everyone can edit before piecing them back together again.

Looking up contemporary and modern dance I get these definitions:

Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs systems and methods found in modern dance and postmodern dance, as well as classical ballet. Contemporary dance draws on modern dance techniques as well as newer philosophies of movement that depart from classical dance techniques by altogether omitting structured form and movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_dance

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_dance

I will continue to read up on these so I have a better idea of what to expect in the project.

DVD Cover Design

2010-03-06T18:10:00.004Z

I have created a design for my DVD cover based on the design of the animated menus. This provides me with an existing framework but also consistency between what's on the outside and what's on the inside.

I believe this be sufficient for submission but I am unsure as to certain aspects such as logos, so I have left them off.

Film List

2010-03-03T15:44:00.003Z

I made a list of all the films and the categories they are contained in.

General Message:
1. Small Things by Guy
2. If by Roarke
3. CO2 Addict by Alister
4. CO2 Timeline by Matt
5. Your Country Needs You by Toby
6. The Attack of Carbonzilla by Christian

Food:
1. Bin Liners by Alister
2. Shop Local by Jack Layfield
3. Dig for Victory by Toby
4. Waste Not Want Not by Jack Wells

Transport:
1.Car Crash Bang Wallop by Matt
2.The Return of Carbonzilla by Christian

Lifestyle:
1. Recycle by Guy
2. New Outfit? by Jack Wells
3. Not a Superhero by Steven

DVD Design Ideas

2010-02-28T18:42:00.005Z

In preparation for the DVD design pitch I have come up with some ideas for possible designs. The first idea I came up with was very simple, but I have rejected this pretty early on because I recognise my idea from somewhere else and I don't intend to press forward with a design that is already out there.

My second idea is to use textures and slightly abstract imagery. An image of a planet sitting at the top of the screen, paint then sprays out the sides and drips down the paper background. The camera then turns sideways and the paint stops, then the menu items appear.

I am not sure about the relevance of my menus, but I also don't know how relevant they have to be. Here is a video preview:

Submission for Client Approval - Monday 22nd February

2010-02-27T20:59:00.002Z

Today, Monday 22nd February, I submitted my completed videos to the client Nick Adlam by presenting them on the projector in class. He seemed pleased overall. While his general lack of feedback on the videos left me feeling like he wasn't that interested he accepted them both and seemed happy with the overall message and the presentation.

For my Food base idea Nick, along with Andrew, had no requests or ideas for improvements and that video was accepted as it was which left me surprised but pleased. The CO2 addict video was probbably different from what he was expecting and he was more vocal about this one. Nick and Andrew both provided some suggestions. The only real problem Nick had with it was that he said that he felt the ending just cuts off like we are missing something, and I would agree. I couldn't quite work out how to end it correctly. The 2 suggestions I was givn for how to end it was a comical sign off, showing how he's changed or a small fade/cut with some appropriate text. To make room for this I was advised to cut down one of the sequences earlier in the video to 2 shots instead of 4.

I will need to make these improvements by Thursday 25th February to submit to the server.

Post Production Effects

2010-02-21T20:39:00.006Z

The look of the raw video is not very good. It has very little contrast, harsh saturation and looks quite grainy. To make my footage look better I have used After Effects to apply several filters/effects to achieve something that looks better. The top is the raw image and the bottom is the edited version.

I have used colour correction, adjusted the levels to give it more contrast, lowered the saturation to create a bleached effect and created a simple 2D depth of field effect using a gradient ramp.

In Production: Bin Liners

2010-02-19T20:43:00.000Z

Here is some image preview on me putting together some of my props. I had over estimated how much I could fit in to the pan, so I had to do a lot of trimming to find something that would fit and hold together without gluing or sticking it inside.

I wil require much more black bag to coat the inside of the oven.

CO2 Shoot Roundup

2010-02-18T21:55:00.000Z

Having finally shot my CO2 video I can begin editing. There were many problems shooting this. I had to change some things on the fly, I had to change my ideas for camera positioning and angles. The actor I used did some variations on the lines I wrote which added something to them. I had the idea of recording a short and a characterised version of each line, but unfortunately some of the takes were ruined by an external noise or mistake that I didn't notice at the time.

Overall I learnt a lot about directing an actor and compromises I might have to make while filming if I make mistakes in my planning.

CO2 Addict Script

2010-02-16T16:28:00.000Z

Here is a basic draft of the script for my CO2 addict film:

Tom: “Hi... my name’s Tom... and I’m a CO2 addict.”

*cutaway* Turning light switch on and off

Tom: “I’ve been addicted for 6 years now... and I’ve done stupid things to feed my addiction.”

*cutaway* Going to suck on car exhaust

Tom: “It’s easy to just keep using more and more and not seeing the effect it has.”

*cutaway* Sitting in living room surrounded by electronics

Tom: “But... yah know, my family have been very supportive and I’ve been clean for 6 months...
I don’t need it any more.

*cutaway* Turning off switches

Tom: “I can walk to town. I don’t have to take the car... right?”

*cutaway* Holding car keys, shaking

CO2 Addict

2010-02-08T13:21:00.003Z

Due to the challenges presented by filming this idea I have had to adapt it to my skill and what resources I have available. I severely underestimated the planning, and with delays from the people I was counting on to 'act' for me I have had to postpone filming for much longer than I had intended and therefore had to scale back slightly and rethink my ideas based on some of my additional research.

I have changed my idea from a help/support group to an addict interview, as I saw in my social media addicts research proving it to be an acceptable format for my original concept. I will shoot the interview portion in a room, perhaps an office setting with neutral walls and objects. I will have some cutaways as originally planned, but might change and develop them to be more interesting.

Logistics and Planning

2010-02-01T15:05:00.004Z

Now that I have 3 ideas that the client would like to see produced, I must work out exactly what I need to produce them, and the feasibility of my ideas.

1. General: Addicted to CO2

Setting:
Neutral, bland room. Clean, mostly empty. Small - medium square room.

Location:
Community centre room, or one of the smaller teaching rooms.

Characters:
One adult male, 18 - 30 as the main character. Other people in the room any gender or race, between 18 - 80. A variety would be good.

Props:
Chairs (to sit in).
Plastic/Ceramic Cups (to make it look like they have refreshments)
Car

Equipment:
Camera
Tripod
External Mic (Boom)

2. Food: Bin Bags

Setting:
Kitchen. Medium size. Clean, light. Standard layout, well furnished.

Location:
Flat or house kitchen.

Characters:
One adult, 18 - 30 as the main character.

Props:
Pots
Pans
Hob
Microwave
Bin Liners
Wooden Spoon
Carrot
Potato
Chicken

Equipment:
Camera
Tripod
External Mic (Boom)

3. Consumption: Child in a Box

Setting:
Several locations, inside and outdoors.

Location:
Shop
House
Bedroom
Kitchen
Lounge
Street

Characters:
One male (adult, young adult or teenager).
One child.

Props:
Bin

Equipment:
Camera
Tripod
External Mic (Boom)

Thumbnail Storyboards

2010-02-01T13:14:00.006Z

I prepared some thumbnail storyboards for the presentation. I had so many ideas that I didn't draw them up in to full, big storyboards because I wasn't sure which ideas the client would like to use, although it still would have been good to have as much detail as possible. They show my 5 ideas as well as commentary on what will be going on and timings.

I will draw up some of these in to full storyboards.

Pitch Feedback

2010-01-28T13:03:00.009Z

I gained a lot of useful feedback from the pitch, from the client as well as the lecturers and classmates. First of all, of the 5 ideas I pitched the 3 favourites were:

General: Addicted to CO2
Food: Bin Liners
Consumption/Lifestyle: Child in a Box.

The motion graphics facts one was considered overdone and I was told not to make this one, much to my disappointment. I wanted to do a motion graphics video, but I know I should do what is best for the brief. Also, my 'Evolution of Walking' video was not very well received. I am not sure if it was considered 'bad' or just not as good as the 3 other ideas that were picked out. Ironically these ideas are the 2 that I developed the most and are my favourites but

Of all of them the Child in a box idea seemed the most popular, and most of the feedback was focused on that.

The child should remind people of that unpleasantness of children/being a child
Could be an older person pretending to be a child
Could be a woman with a child (but might mistake it for a mother relationship)
Walk past a shop window with better, smarter, cleaner children
Could be an adult man who buys it
Make the child a purchase rather than a gift
Could be a brother and sister looking relationship, so someone else young

Another important issue raised is that I need to get written clearances from my 'actors' including the children (parents) otherwise the council can't use them. I will do some research in to the clearances and make it as professional as possible so when I hand them to the client it will be clear what they are.

The following lesson Andrew provided some additional feedback through the notes he wrote down during the pitch, which he has now distributed to us. Here are the notes:

Ali
PowerPoint - [presentation]
- good graphics
- Reading and a lot of text.

Adicted to CO2
- humourous
- video examples

Information overload
- Dynamic text
- Simple visual style
- Text moving with right angles.

Video 2: Food
- The wasting of food

Video 3 Transport
- using fun with walking styles
- Funny walks with captions

Video 4 Consumption and lifestyle
- child representing a piece of technology
- The boy is the phone and is put in the rubbish.
- do two or three inc the phone one and the addicted
- Amusing and quirky voices
- what about the boy being an adult that is green screened overlaid etc via After Effects.
- Different characters can relate to different technological devices and one can feel envious of another or overtaken by another but they both share the same fate and are both discarded.
- Can have other discarded children/ characters to create metonym of a world full of thoughtless throw away actions.
- Changing emotions of the phone/boy/ character, smug, working, concerned by rival, forlorn and rejected

It seems like I have a lot of work to do. Idea development, design decisions based on the feedback, serious planning and of course production and post production.

Client Pitch Part 2

2010-01-28T12:55:00.005Z

This concludes my presentation.

Client Pitch Part 1

2010-01-28T12:48:00.005Z

I prepared a slideshow presentation for my pitch to the client. Here are the slides from that presentation. I used some artwork I made at the start of the project to make the title screen more interesting.

This is the first half of the presentation.

Climate Change: Food

2010-01-26T15:11:00.003Z

Here is some research on the food topic in this project.

Here is a good video of a Peter Griffith, an agriculturalist from Shropshire talking about the carbon footprint on food production. Carbon footprint in food production is about "taking more than you need". Food is 13-14% of the average UK residents carbon footprint including production, processing, distribution, packaging and the fuel it takes you to get to the shop to buy it.

Agriculture is 44% of food production emissions. The reason for this is a lot of methane and nitros oxide is released, 21x and 10x more potent respectively. It's a system which produces these which add to the carbon footprint by releasing even worse greenhouse gases than CO2.

Transport of food is about 16%, half of which is heavy goods vehicles. The food miles aren't much of a big issue, since the agricultural side is so much worse. Reducing food miles will have an impact but not as much as changing your diet. By being vegetarian you eliminate the methane and CO2 generated by cows and turning them in to beef.

Research: Social Media Addict

2010-01-25T16:38:00.001Z

The videos are a series of virals for a Sony laptop.

The video series are mock interviews and some of them are mock meetings for people addicted to social media. Some are very brief, but some are several minutes long. They feature very little other than a person looking towards the camera explaining their addiction. The age ranges of the people are varied, it doesn't seem important who is speaking so long as they look like the average person or someone relate-able. The dialogue is very upbeat and cheeky.

One of the interesting things about the pacing is that the short videos don't give time for introductions, it just dives straight in there. This time constraint creates a mystery to the piece because at first you aren't sure what the relevance is if you know the topic, or if you don't know then you aren't sure what the topic is. As in this example, where he is talking about World of Warcraft but you aren't sure why:

This next one is more direct, whereas the others were comedic. It's an actor claiming to be the organizer explaining the issue.

Research: Body Shaped Insulation

2010-01-24T22:47:00.001Z

This animated short is a comical stab at our society with a green message. It shows an alien/monster suggesting a great idea to cut down on our heating - body shaped insulation. It soon becomes apparent that this idea is just clothes, different clothes that people can wear to cover themselves and use the heat stored in their body rather than turning some on.

I could use this idea of mocking a solution to climate change by introducing a very familiar concept, and this might open people's eyes to what they can do. Simple, but effective.

Research: Gusty and Ford

2010-01-24T22:40:00.003Z

This is a very interesting and funny video. It uses a narrator to tell a grand tale, except all he is describing are road signals and signs and interpreting them in to a novel style story. It's genius lies in the interpretation of every day signs, that we don't see anything in but through this persons mind they represent something much more elaborate. The advert is to encourage people to walk instead of drive with the angle that walking can be more interesting.

Research: The Fun Theory

2010-01-24T22:23:00.006Z

As a piece of viral marketing by Volkswagen is part of a project called 'The Fun Theory', asking can we get more people to take the stairs (instead of an escalator) by making it fun to do. This is an interesting theory, and the overall question is whether you can change behaviour by making an activity fun. In the piano video there are obviously health benefits from taking the stairs because you are using more muscles than simply standing and being lifted and moved across. The idea of making it fun makes it easier for people to choose between something that is beneficial for them over convenience, something that could ring true for my global warming message.

Using the idea of making beneficial things fun is a good one, but I wonder if they 'own' this idea, so anything I do in the same vein would be a complete rip off. If I even mention the idea of fun literally or through the video it will be in the shadow of this. Still, putting the 'good' thing in light of a positive thing like fun, it can enhance your message.

Here is another video in the series, they attempted to make putting rubbish in the bin more fun ad they found that more people would put rubbish in the bin than in a regular bin. This kind of idea is more workable. I could make an aspect of action against climate change, or recyling, seem fun or enjoyable.

This video is even more related to what I am doing. They applied their theory to a bottle bank, making recycling fun. They made a game out of it, in the style of a traditional arcade game with points. People putting their bottles in according to the lights and trying to get a high score. The bottle bank was used by over 100 people, and a nearby regular bottle bank was used by just 2 in the day. I could portray the act of recycling in a fun way by making it in to a game, or making a game out of carbon dieting or energy saving.

Research: Clean Coal Clean

2010-01-24T21:52:00.002Z

This video parodies the coal industries attempts to make coal clean, even though it is a fossil fuel and still a problem for climate change. In the video they say that they add the word clean to make you think it's clean. It uses cheesy actors to add to the comedy of the parody. I could use this sense of parody to convey my message, by showing the opposite of what you should do in a laughably bad way.

Research: Black Balloons Energy Saving Campaign

2010-01-24T21:31:00.003Z

This advert is very literal, with a little bit of creative flair to keep the viewer interested and something which I could use. It uses black balloons to represent carbon dioxide, something which currently doesn't have a form in the media as it is a seemingly invisible gas. This image is quite ugly, even repulsive especially at the end when it is filling the sky so this immediately puts you off the idea of contributing.

Each appliance in the ad creates a black balloon and a voice over explains that the balloon represents 30g of CO2. This is informative and lets the viewer understand that stopping the appliances stops the balloons. A simple but effective message to combat climate change.

Another video in the series shows literally that by taking actions you can reduce CO2, by showing the balloons receding and not coming out of the appliance by swithcing it off, and also suggesting other solutions.

Research: Mr W

2010-01-24T21:24:00.002Z

This advertisement follows the personal story of 'Mr W', a man with unusual features and perhaps some sort of disability. His speech is impaired and his body is slightly disproportioned, and he explains that people never accepted him and saw him as a bother. His whole life is a metaphor for wind energy. He says he is misunderstood, until one day people gave him a chance, just like wind energy. His action can be reinterpreted as actions that the wind might cause, once you know the message. He pushes things over and rattles, breaks. It is a very cleverly conveyed message, well shot and has some elements of comedy so it makes a good viral.

I could use this kind of metaphor in my video, substituting the problem/solution for something else but being subtle that it is in fact a metaphor, so people will be shocked or amazed when they realise enough to show other people.

Research: The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

2010-01-24T21:08:00.002Z

This video attempts to present an argument that will convince anyone, no matter what their view of global warming, that we need to take action.The argument is very convincing, and he presents it in a very simplified and charming way that anyone can understand and not feel any bias on his part. He creates a hypothetical situation where there is complete doubt about global warming, and that our own views could be completely wrong. This leads to outlying the worst possible situations and the best.

He starts the video by saying "What's the worst that could happen?" and the argument is based around that. The worst case scenario if we act on global warming and it turns out to be false isn't even nearly as bad as the worst scenario if we don't act and it turns out to be true. This logic could promote action no matter what the beliefs. Unfortunately this might not be useable in my videos because the idea seems to be his, and he has written a book with it.

Research: Moms Against Climate Change

2010-01-24T20:46:00.002Z

Here is a touching advertisement for 'Moms Against Climate Change', a Canadian campaign to take action against global warming.

The ad uses very dark imagery and post production effects to contrast against the sweet young children. This sinister looking riot police against children seems silly but is very effective in conveying the message. They are the ones who the climate change movement is for, so it is understandable (as it says at the end of the ad) if they knew what we knew they would be the ones protesting as they do in the advert.

Review: An Inconvinient Truth

2010-01-23T15:30:00.007Z

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary about Al Gore giving a slide show presentation to people around the world about climate change and global warming. It was directed by Davis Guggenheim and released in May 2006.

The film has 2 central themes, the science behind global warming as shown in the presentation and things from Al Gore's personal life that he uses to explain why he is doing this presentation around the world and why it is important for people to take action. He talks about the devastating effect smoking had on his sister who died of lung cancer, and compares that to global warming, asking how you could let that happen to something you love so much. He also compares global warming to when his son was hit by a car, and how scary it is to almost lose something you love.

During the scientific portions of the film he uses graphs and statistics to show CO2 levels. He explained the process of using Antarctic ice cores to measure Carbon dioxide levels hundreds of thousands of years back, and these studies showed CO2 levels are higher now than in the past 650,000 years.

One of my favourite parts of the film that seems useful for my project is a graph of the CO2 emissions (above), and then it slowly takes a coloured slice away and labels it according to the action. Each of the actions only reduces it a bit but it builds up until emissions are much lower, so it shows that through combined actions not just doing one thing and leaving it at that, C02 emissions can be reduced. I think this would be a really useful message for the video.

There are some useful facts and figures, and also some ideas that I can take away from this film. The science of global warming, and how we can prevent it are explored enough in this film for me to build my own ideas on. At the end of the film it lists a lot of things that people can do to help, and it might be useful to make note of these so I can use them.

Viral: What is it?

2010-01-20T14:39:00.006Z

In the brief it states that our video for this project must be viral, but what is Viral? It is important that I have a complete understanding of what the term means so that I can create my videos with this in mind.

Wiktionary lists it as:

Noun

viral (plural virals)

1. (marketing) A video, image or text spread by "word of mouth" on the internet or by e-mail for humorous, political or marketing purposes.

Source: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/viral

There are different terms associated with viral, the most prominent being Viral Marketing. I will be producing a viral video, which may be a part of viral marketing but my main focus is on the video being Viral.

Wikipedia has an article specifically on viral video:

A viral video is a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through internet media sharing websites. Viral videos often contain humorous content and include televised comedy sketches such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday and Dick in a Box; amateur video clips like Star Wars Kid, the Numa Numa videos, The Dancing Cadet, The Evolution of Dance, the "Benny Lava" video, Chocolate Rain on youtube; and web-only productions such as I Got a Crush... on Obama. Some "eyewitness" events have also been caught on video and have "gone viral," including the Battle at Kruger.

Humor is sometimes considered to be a vital component and characteristic of a viral video. But humor is not, in fact, the defining characteristic; a viral video is any video that is passed electronically from person to person, regardless of its content.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_video

There is also an interesting analysis and tips for what makes a viral video by Dave Grishman on SlideShare:

Tip#1. The KISS (Keep it simple stupid!) Rule. The main reason a video becomes viral is because it is quick and interesting to watch and can keep the ever shrinking attention spans of its viewers through humor. Many times, viral videos that have spread like wildfire are random and pointless, yet very memorable.

Tip#2. Avoid overpromotion. Videos should be aimed at entertainment rather than direct advertisement. Trust in the fact that people will remember your name when they enjoy your video. Portions of the video could be itched into their mental lobes, which will increase the recall capacity of its viewers. Even if they do not mean to store this information, they will unintentionally, which is a reason this type of marketing is so effective.

Tip#3. Make Video Accessible. Place your video where people can see it. YouTube and Facebook are not the only social networking sites out there. Look at places outside of the big name social networks. If the video is catchy, the more sites the video is on, the more clicks it should receive.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/dgrishman/viral-video-marketing

So what can I learn from all of this? Well, it seems as though Virals are forms of advertising as entertainment. It is much like the 'word of mouth' type of marketing but virals use technology such as the internet, email and instant messaging. A viral video is a video that makes the viewer want to show other people, and by the overwhelming number of examples this seems to be down to comedy, or impressive feats. The reason Virals are effective is that you don't have to worry about distribution, people do that for you. Also, because it is entertainment people will remember the entertaining video and along with that is the product or message it spawned from.

I need to make my video entertaining in capacity, in a way that makes people share it. Show it to friends, family or co-workers. The easiest way I might do this is to identify my target audience, and by appealing specifically to that audience it could capture something that they enjoy, and so would automatically want to share with others in that target audience because it would have universal appeal. Target audiences however seem to be largely a myth, as people are so diverse aiming something at a group could really miss the mark without knowing what each person specifically wants. This is why humour is so successful in Viral Marketing, because comedy is universal. Sure, some people have different sense of humour but if its funny people will laugh.

The problem I have is that I am a designer. Not a writer, or a comedian. Creating something that will be funny is going to be incredibly difficult. Another option is to create something impressive, that creates awe. Again, as a designer this will be incredibly difficult unless this 'awe' comes from the design, but I do not believe I have the capacity to create awe with my designs, especially since I am a student and in my modest opinion not good enough to create something that impressive that it causes people to share it. I could do something shocking, but the brief says not to scare people but to prompt them to action. I could intrigue people, by setting a challenge or asking a question.

Here are some examples of virals, and by looking at these I hope to get an idea of how I can make my video viral.

1. John West Salmon - Comedy

2. Kolla2001 - Impressive (little bit of comedy)

3. Afro Ninja - Comedy/Bad Accident

4. Numa Numa - Comedy

5. Sony Bravia Coloured Balls - Impressive/Beautiful/Spectacle

6. Guy Catches Laptop with his Butt - Impressive/Comedy

Earth: Amazonian Field

2010-01-19T00:10:00.011Z

Here is my chosen piece to write about: Amazonian Field.

'Amazonian Field' is a large collection of terracotta sculptures made by bricklayers in Mexico for the artist Anthony Gormley created in 1992. The official description in the gallery says:

Amazonian Field puts us in the uncomfortable position of being confronted by numerous figures made from the earth itself, all looking towards us questioningly. In previous installations the work has taken on strong identities of place and Gormley was intrigued to discover what sort of reinterpretations might arise in the context of this exhibition: 'From the beginning I was trying to make something as direct as possible with clay: the earth. I wanted to work with people and to make a work about our collective future and our responsibility for it. I wanted the art to look back at us, its makers (and later viewers) as if we were responsible -- responsible for the world that it, and we, were in.'

Looking at this piece of the first time was very interesting. Seeing the whole room filled with small human figures (up to 35,000 of them), all facing the same direction. Wherever they are displayed they are configured to the room, but always positioned towards the viewer, and the fill the floor like a carpet as there are no gaps. I definitely got the sense of them looking at me as the description in the gallery said. Their is nothing more to them, but you can infer a lot of meaning from the form they take. Thinking in terms of Climate change, their imperfections could be seen as the representing the unique beauty of the world. The way they fill the entire room, from wall to wall seems to represent some sense of scale of the earth perhaps, or even the billions of people on earth collectively staring.

Some of the figures look quite imposing. They are proportioned differently but large and wide figures stand out. The contrast created by the grooves that make their eyes draws attention, and as you look at them their eyes seem to fixate on you. Their stares could be a questioning, perhaps disapproving look from the world and even ourselves for what we have done to the planet.

Earth: Art of a Changing World

2010-01-18T23:02:00.012Z

Today we went to see the Earth exhibit at the Royal Academy.

The exhibit was split in to 6 categories:

External
Introduction
Perceived Reality
The Artist as Explorer
Destruction
Re-reality

These divide the art works in to categories that fit their meaning. For example, Kris Martin's '100 Years' is in the destruction section because of the nature of the piece, while the more literal 'External' refers to the few pieces of art displayed on the outside of the building.

The Curator's foreword in the booklet given at the event describes exactly what Earth is all about:

The work of 35 artists brought together in 'Earth: Art of a changing world' represents a cultural response to the way that human activity is affecting the natural balance and physical cycles of our planet. A wide range of subject-matter is covered with the overall theme: from planetary equilibrium and perceived security, to the role of the artist as interpreter, recorder of disaster and provocateur, holding up a mirror to mankind. Each work is a narrative on a human scale -- emotional, eloquent, often interventional -- and each offers a unique vision.

I will take you through a couple of my favourite pieces and their description in the gallery.

Sunlight in an Empty Room - Spencer Finch
Date: 2004

By attempting to capture the ephemeral and formless, Spencer Finch's art investigates the imprecise nature of perception in relation to memory. This site-specific installation re-creates the moment when a cloud passed overhead as Finch visited the home of the reclusive American poet Emily Dickinson. The cloud's presence evokes mood and memory, while simultaneously reminding us of the thin, fragile layer of atmosphere that protects Earth's environment.

Paper Bags - Chris Jordan
Date: 2007

Chris Jordan draws on statistics in his examination of contemporary American culture: 'My underlying desire to affirm and sanctify the crucial role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.' In this work he depicts the 1.14 million brown paper bags used in American supermarkets every hour.

Tide - Darren Almond
Date: 2008

576 Digital Wall Clocks.

With immediate visual and aural impact, nearly 600 digital clocks register the relentless progress of time. Time is a regular preoccupation in Darren Almond's work, which draws our attention to the fact that we are all bound together by its passage: as he sees it, time is a mark of reality -- the present -- as well as a portent of what is to come -- the future.

Almost all of the pieces on display were far too abstract and metaphorical for my current project. I need to keep my piece focused on real, literal things so that people understand what they must do to take action, and using abstract images or metaphors would undermine that. I can take away the meaning from these pieces though, and each of them relates to the issue of climate change.

Royal Academy Trip

2010-01-17T17:13:00.011Z

On Monday 18th January 2010 we will be visiting the Royal Academy to look at their 'Earth: Art of a changing world' exhibit. It runs from 3 December 2009 - 31 January 2010 at 6 Burlington Gardens. The supporter GSK has this statement published on the website explaining what it is all about:

This second year of GSK Contemporary is an important collaboration between GlaxoSmithKline and the Royal Academy that builds on our long-standing support for the arts in the UK. Creativity and innovation are critical to our business of improving health and well-being, so we want this year's topic 'Earth' to encourage debate, discussion and creative thinking and the role art can play on the relevance that climate change has on our daily lives.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gsk-contemporary-season-2009/

This mention of climate change already makes these exhibits very relevant to my current project. Information on the website is scarce but there are pieces of information on the people who will be there as well as a small sample of the best of the exhibit. My favourite piece of the ones I can see on the website is 2 glass orbs that have mini iceburgs in them no doubt representing the polar caps. Below is the information on the site:

Mariele Neudecker, '400 Thousand Generations', 2009.

Steel, fiberglass, water, salt GAC100. 153 x 113 x 55 cm. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Barbara Thumm. © the artist. Photo courtesy the artist

I will keep an eye out for this piece when I arrive on Monday and may feature my review on this piece.

Review: The Age of Stupid

2010-01-16T12:03:00.006Z

The Age of Stupid is a film made by Franny Armstrong, a drama documentary released on 2009. The focus of the film is on climate change, addressing issues such as global warming, world conflict, poverty and fossil fuels. The film consists of 2 elements; a framing device involving actor Pete Postlethwaite who plays an archiver living in a tower situated near the Arctic containing all of the worlds art and knowledge set in the year 2055. The second element is the archived videos, real news reports and documentaries being played by the archiver asking the question "Why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?".

In terms of my current project there are things I can take from this and feed in to my work, while others might not be appropriate.

For instance, the opening sequence of the film is an incredibly bleak visualisation of the effects of climate change. London is under deep water, Las Vegas is buried under sand. Skeletons littering India. Australia permanently ablaze. It is certainly an apocalyptic version of our future. The brief stresses that while climate change can scare people we need to prompt them to take action so using this kind of bleak imagery to scare people would not be right to use in this project, so I will have to steer clear of using this.

The rest of the film uses real footage and a few animated sequences, and this is where it uses facts and figures which are scary but also highlight the excessive nature of society, and I could use this to highlight to people why they should take action.

Here are some of the statistics from the film:

'Is there still doubt that climate change is partly man made?'
Scientists: less than 1%
Public: 60%
China builds a new power station every 4 days.
1/4 of China's energy makes products for the rest of the world.
America consumes 2x energy an EU, 9x more than China, 15x more than India and 50x than Kenya.
If the whole world consumed the same as Europe we'd need 2 additional planets. America would need 4.

The film also provides some other interesting information that I won't label under statistics, it's just information. Almost everything we buy and use involves oil (for fuel and the literal materials of the things we by). It is a fossil fuel, contributing to climate change, but the main problem there is that it is running out. Without oil we have nothing, and that is a real concern. The film goes on to mention the alternatives and has a section on wind farms. The people in the video say they support wind energy but do not want the wind farm near their land. What I take from this is that maybe my video can emphasise that people have to start with themselves and not expect other people to take the first step towards reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.

The film also raises the issue of 2 degrees. It claims that every major power and group in the world recognises that we must stabilise global temperatures below 2 degrees (above pre-industrial era levels). Above 2 degrees it would cause activity on earth that would excel climate change beyond our control, as carbon would be released from trees and soil, methane deposited under the oceans and glaciers could rise up in to the atmosphere and accelerate climate change. This would push it to 6 degrees, and by the predictions in this film it would lead to the elimination of life on earth.

Another thing the film does that I could use is relate the personal or global nature of the problem. You see people get emotional about something that is important to them but also you see perspectives from around the world. I could appeal to their ideas of self preservation and what taking action can do for them, or I could go with what action could do for those less fortunate.

I have found this film very useful in helping me understand the issue further and given me useful information that I can use in my project. The creative animated sequences in the film have also given me some ideas about animation and visual style.

Resources:
http://www.ageofstupid.net/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300563/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Stupid

New Project: Climate Change

2010-01-15T19:32:00.004Z

We have started a new project with the subject of Climate Change. Eastbourne council has asked us to produce 2 or more 15 - 30 second shorts using video, motion graphics or animation to encourage people to take action against the effects of climate change.

What my videos must do is:

Create a shift in attitude
Introduce concept of 'Carbon Diet'
Express that there is no prescribed method for this, it's up to people.

Conclusion and Review

2010-01-03T20:36:00.005Z

Now that I have finished my project I feel it would be helpful to have a conclusion and review decisions, analysing parts of the project that went well or anything that went wrong so I can improve next time.

Starting Point
I really struggled at the start of this project. I always find idea generation and the creative process very difficult, as I tend to panic about whether it's good enough or whether it fits the brief. My tutors helped me with this by suggesting research points and direction that proved useful and while ultimately I didn't completely use these it did help me get started, which always feels like the hardest part. I did write a schedule at the start of the project which helped me chart my progress and set myself small deadlines.

My Idea
Looking at it now I don't really know what my idea is about, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I used slightly abstract ideas of text from my old idea but not on the same level, as there were clearly some tangible and recognisable elements. Stylised might be a more apt word for what I have produced. The visuals and music are very vibrant and more modern than what Magners is associated with, which is why I thought it would be a nice challenge to try and take it in a different direction with fast paced music. I still wanted a representation of heritage and age in there, so I came up with the idea old old wooden barrels and old ships taking the barrels from Ireland to England and this became what you see in my sequence. I'm not really sure if this works in the final result, but it seemed moderately popular among my peers at least.

Mistakes
I didn't make any 'mistakes', but there are things I should have done that I didn't and small things that might have helped me. One of the biggest things was that I had a hard time with the pacing and timing of my sequence. When I storyboarded the sequence I couldn't think of how it would work with the music until I started actually doing it, but as one of my tutor Giles pointed out making an Animatic would have really helped with this. It would have allowed me to get a feel for the pacing in time with the music without actually making it, just doing a rough using illustrations and elements adapted from my storyboards.

Best Parts of the Project
My favourite part in the project, and the part I enjoyed the most was preparing my files in Photoshop and getting to grips with After Effects. Animating a camera in 3D space really opened my eyes to the possibilities and my piece only used a fraction of the potential.

Changes I Made
After the class crit I had a lot of feedback to work with so I could improve my sequence. I already commented on this in my original blog post but now at the end I should talk about what I did change.

I fixed the glitch with my sea not appearing, I improved the movement and look of the waves and I made the sea to drink transition faster. I changed the boat sequence by making many boats at different depths so there is more of a sense of 3D (one close to the camera, one far away), I added motion blur to make it look better and I made some of the animation more wild so they rock back and forward as they move. I changed the barrel scene so it falls differently, never leaves the screen, I made it fall sideways so when the camera turns the barrel corrects its orientation. I improved the timing and positioning of the typography throughout as well as matching it to the beat more. I changed the way my sequence worked so I could have the background move with the camera to give more of a sense of movement, so it is no longer static. I also improved some of the camera movement. I didn't add a splash when the barrel falls in the sea.

There are several other minor improvements made all over that will likely go unnoticed and I can't remember them.

Conclusion
Even though I had a very slow start with this project, and completely changed my mind half way through I believe I have created a satisfactory piece. As always there are many things that I would change if I could do it again but I have to present a finished piece even if I don't feel as though it's finished.

Finished Products

2009-12-28T01:56:00.006Z

Video

Magazine Ad

Billboard Ad

These are my final pieces.

Visualisations

2009-12-27T23:04:00.000Z

Here are my visualisations, putting my adverts in to the real world.

I have done 2 billboards and 1 magazine page.

Is it Handmade?

2009-12-27T22:49:00.005Z

In this post I will attempt to evaluate my work compared to the demands of the brief, and justifications for design decisions I have made. The project is called handmade, and starts off with:

In recent years there has been a growing trend towards introducing and incorporating hand drawn and handmade, rough elements to design and advertising.

This intention has been clear to all of us from the beginning, as it is the title of the project. Nearing the deadline I think it is important to look at whether or not my piece fits this description. The focus here seems to be creating a piece that has the appearance of being handmade. This might often entail actually being made by hand and photographed, scanned or recorded as video. There are many examples of this on TV and online as mentioned in the brief.

First Idea
The first part of the project had us develop abstract pieces of art using traditional media. From this I began developing my first idea, focusing the work of abstract film makers from the 1940s. It was easy to see how these abstract pieces would fit in to my sequence as it worked well with the theme. After developing this idea with thumbnails I had doubts about whether or not I liked this idea, or thought it could work.

I had decided to drop this idea. Although the first step of the project focuses on an abstract ideal, I couldn't envision my work being an entertaining abstract piece. I then developed my current idea, which still uses abstract elements but much more tame and thematically linked with real world objects. I decided that the handmade aspect was the most important, as the abstract style seemed more like a suggestion and not a requirement on the brief. My piece still doesn't read in a completely tangible way, as there are words on a textured background and 2D sea forming a drink, so there are some slightly abstract elements left.

Second Idea
Starting out with this new idea I had to make sure I emphasised this handmade element using objects designed to look like handmade stage props, or styled in that way. As you will see in my sketchbook I have stuck in some of the props I made myself. Going along with the theme, I thought what better way to show handmade then for it to be handmade. These elements are comprised of materials and paints forming shapes that resemble objects (such as my pirate/cargo ship).

There was one major problem with my hand created pieces. They were bland. The waves I had painted were flat and boring. I had cut my ship out of cardboard, but the cardboard was very plain and uninteresting. I had experimented with making the cardboard rougher, making marks but this just made it look rough in a bad way. My pieces just weren't what I wanted. I could have brought these on to the computer and used digital manipulation to make them look better but I felt as though I couldn't achieve something satisfactory or organic.

Instead I had remembered and researched some textures from stock photograph websites and deviant art that were royalty free, and were far more interesting than what I had created. Although it would have been nice to use my own creations I felt that visually it was better to use these textures as the basis for my manipulations instead of trying to turn my hand made elements in to something more workable. My experiments with these textures turned out to be very rewarding as I got much more visually pleasing results and I could use my physical experiments as a basis so I did not waste any time or effort.

The decision to use sourced textures instead of my own crafted elements begs the question: is it handmade? Based on the requirements of the brief and the results I would say, yes. The brief seems to place an importance on the result, the aesthetics having the appearance of being handmade (even specifically mentioning rough looking elements) and I believe I have achieved that through manipulating these textures. They give the appearance of hand crafted, hand painted, or just looking rough (my background).

The main criticism I can see me receiving for this decision is that I have taken the easy way out. I am too lazy or untalented to produce my own work. It is hard for me to defend this as it has a point, but I just want to make it clear that my use of these textures is for the benefit of the finished product and not to hide any deficiencies in my own abilities or effort put in to this project. I explain these issues with faith that my decisions might be understood by someone other than myself.

If you look at my sketch book and at the PSD files it becomes clear that my digital creations are far superior. Even though I tried with my physical creations they just weren't good enough or what I wanted.

Class Criticism

2009-12-12T12:47:00.003Z

On Thursday we held a class criticism session, in the middle of this project to gain feedback on our work so we can make modifications. I rushed to make sure I had a complete 30 seconds, even thought it was not perfect so that I could get sufficient feedback on the overall theme and then make refinements according to the feedback.

Here are some of the negative points made:

Sea
The transition from the sea to the drink needs to be faster.
The waves are broken at high quality, they need fixing.
Improve the movement of the sea.
Reduce time at sea.
Boat
Make the boat faster.
Time focused on the boat needs to be shorter.
Movement animation needs to be more wild.
Barrel
Focus more on the barrel as it falls (fill screen?)
Don't let the barrel leave the screen.
Make a splash when the barrel hits the water.
Text
Improve some of the timing/positioning.
Improve the timing to the music.
Background
Background is too static.
Camera
Improve movement

Here are some of the positive points made:

Good graphic style
Good textures
Good font
Good music

I will aim to resolve these issues using the rest of the project time.

Problem Solving: Camera Movement

2009-12-05T12:42:00.000Z

I wanted to use 3D in my piece, and that meant animating a camera. The 2 main properties of the camera are Position and Point of Interest. Position comes the location of the camera, and the point of interest is what the camera is focusing on. This is especially useful when you need the camera to move along a path but look at different things while it is in motion. For the purposes of my project however I will not be needing these kind of camera movements. I will not need the point of interest to change, but I will have to animate it to keep up with the position of the camera.

I picked up a useful technique for controlling the camera in the manner I want to from a tutorial, and I decided to employ this in my sequence. The process is very simple, I create a null object and I parent my camera to this null object which means the camera is now bound to this null object, and instead of moving the camera I move the null object instead. Another advantage to this technique is that I can use an effect which splits the x, y and z axis so they each have their own space on the timeline and individual keyframes, something you can't apply to the position keyframes on a camera. Because these axis are now independent I won't have to make adjustments across the timeline if I edit one value (for example: if all the axis values are on one keyframe changing a value on one would require editing of subsequent keyframes that held the same value when another axis was edited instead).

This technique I learned from a tutorial has been very useful, but I also went a step further. I need to change the orientation of my camera in the sequence and the parenting of the null object does not effect the orientation of the camera so I would have to keyframe the orientation on the camera, meaning my position and orientation keyframes are in 2 different places. To make things easier I created an expression using the pick whip to link the orientation of the camera to the orientation of the null object. So now, when I rotate my null object my camera rotates.

I believe using these techniques I have made the operation of the camera much easier and more easily controlled.

Overlay Effects

2009-12-04T12:02:00.000Z

When I was putting together my sequence I found that it looked flat, and perhaps not very aesthetically pleasing. The colours were all bright and in your face, the tonal range across the screen was very flat and more like a graphic than a moving image sequence.

Here is an example:

I decided to solve this issue by introducing some Overlay effects. Layers in the sequence which effected everything below it to adjust how it looked. I used highly feathered masks to create a vignette effect around the edge of the screen which gave a great variation to the flat colours that existed before as you get further from the edges of the screen. I then created an inverted version of that mask to form a ellipse in the centre of the screen and instead of black use white to create a spotlight effect. I lowered the opacity of these layers to a low level so you could clearly see everything on the screen but enough to created a shaded effect.

I also wanted the areas in the Vignette to be less saturated than the rest so I used the same mask but changed the blend mode to Saturation so that it would turn it black and white, then adjusted the opacity to get the desired amount of de-saturation. This stops the colours on the edges from being too vibrant and draws focus to the centre.

Here is the same part of the sequence but with the added effects:

I believe these effects have really made a difference in how my piece looks. To save space on the timeline I put these effects in a pre-comp and this sits on top of all the other layers in my main composition.

Problem Solving: Colours

2009-12-03T11:44:00.000Z

Early on I had already picked my colour swatch and made it in to a graphic in photoshop comprised of squares of colour. When it came to my sequence I had to keep switching between various colours, but also my colours from my swatch and since they were very specific I needed to use the same hexadecimal code. I was not able to remember these so I decided to import the graphic I had made in to my sequence and I placed this at the very top of my timeline (bypassing overlay effects that I had placed).

I could then use the eye dropper tool to pick whatever colour I wanted to use right on the preview area. This gave me easy access to multiple colours without hassle.

Handmade Props

2009-12-02T20:11:00.000Z

This weekend I decided to make my props for bringing in to After Effects. I cut out all my shapes from a cardboard box and some acrylic paints to give them colour. In the case of my waves I wanted them to look painted, but in others it was just to give them colour and I don't think coloured pencils would suffice.

The results where disappointing. My skills with paint are basic at best, and I couldn't get the sea to look good. The waves certainly look painted, but the more I tried to make them look painted the more messy they looked. I used white as an under coat them did blue on top trying to get some of the white to come through but it didn't work, more like smudges of white than streaks. I used a rough cloth to try and bring some of it out but it didn't work.

The background just become a smudge of orange and yellow. I tried to texture it using different brush strokes and thickness's of the paint I applied which gives some variation but it just looks so drab. I didn't really want it to look painted, just rough but aesthetically pleasing.

My pirate ship turned out OK. The cardboard just looks so plain, it's not detailed but then again it is cardboard. It just looks a bit more plain than what I had originally planned. The same with the barrel I made. It's just not what I wanted it to look like, and not because I did something wrong but because I can't translate what's in my head on to the cardboard or through the brush.

I will view my digital options as an alternative while I think about this.

Brand Slogan

2009-12-02T14:21:00.004Z

Having look at some Magners advertising there is definitely a theme of time, and they even admit this on their marketing page on their website.

Naturalness, Tradition, Heritage and Craft have always been at the core of Magners. Over the years, the brand continues to emphasise that quality and craftsmanship take 'Time' and that emphasis on 'Time' becomes evident in the communication of 'All in its own Good Time' and more recently 'Time Dedicated to you'.

Source: http://www.magnerscider.com/great-britain/about-us/default.asp

I will use this idea of time for my advertisement. In one of the more recent advertisements the voice over says "At Magners we've long understood the importance of time." which goes with their ideas about marketing but also says something about the product. The brief doesn't mention inventing new slogans so I will use this in my advertisement.

My main concern about using this is that the music and pacing of my animation is quite rapid but the words imply slow, taking your time. I will add an extra piece on to this saying "what better time than now?" which should counter this idea but still keep the theme of time and fit with the pace of my advertisement.

At the end of every advertisement I have found, the voice over says "Time dedicated to you." and so I will use this in my advertisement, since it fits with the existing marketing and can work with my animation.

Here is an article analysing the ending slogan 'Time dedicated to you', it makes some good points:

With Magners and a vast advertising budget, Irish brewer C&C has revived the whole cider market. Cider used to be either electric soup for the Asbo generation or the summer tipple of straw-chewing farmhands. But by inventing a simple (and televisual) drinking ritual of filling a glass with ice and pouring the stuff all over it, Magners has made cider hip. Part of Magners' appeal is its slogan, devised in Ireland in 2000 by C&C and brand agency Young Euro RSCG, which effortlessly straddles the regulatory hurdles. These rule out any suggestion that alcohol makes you more attractive or less lonely. Instead, the slogan makes an appeal to selfishness, tapping into the vogue for 'rewarding yourself'. It's also intended to be gender-neutral, like the product itself. The slogan could sell chocolate or cappuccino, because it's not really pushing drink. It's selling 'time', specifically Irish time; a golden-hued interlude tailored to cheer up our hard-pressed British lives.

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/search/article/665279/slogan-doctor-magners-time-dedicated-you/

Typography

2009-12-01T23:24:00.000Z

Based on my initial design ideas, the feedback I have received generally involves the typography. It is too sharp and clean to fit in with the project, as it doesn't look 'handmade'. With that in mind I have experimented with several different typefaces to make it more compatible with the project.

Here are some examples:

I have not chosen my final typeface yet.

Typography Experiment Continued

2009-12-01T22:14:00.000Z

I have continued to develop my experiment and made many changes to what was already there. I concentrated on the pacing and composition. I also added a static Vignette and white glow effect to introduce some subtle lighting effect

Typography Experiment

2009-12-01T21:30:00.000Z

I decided to experiment by making a motion graphics typography sequence. It took me 2 hours just to animate a 3 second long sequence but I learnt a lot in the process that would make it much easier to do in future. I have repeated it a couple of times in the video to make sure you see it correctly.

Preparing for Smart Phones and the Web

2009-11-30T13:31:00.006Z

In class today we learned a lot about video formats, and how we should be preparing our video for use on Smart Phones such as the iPhone and Android phones. Here is what we must include with our project folder:

Other Platform Folder:

VFE (Video For Everyone):
- MP4
- OG
- index.html

Share:
- iPod
- iPhone
- index.html

Video For Everyone
With HTML 5 comes a new tag <"video"> that allows for embedding of video content without the need for external plugins or applications, it plays straight from the browser providing you have a browser that supports HTML 5. If it can't do this, then the video defaults to quicktime, which allows it to play natively on the iPhone. If it cannot do this, then it falls back to Adobe Flash Player. It finally falls back to an image with a download link to the video, so in no scenario is the user left with a broken web page. As the name suggests, it is to provide video for everybody.

VFE uses MPEG4 (MP4) to play in Safari, Flash and the iPhone, while OGG is needed for playback in Firefox version 3.5. These files must be encoded to work with all the relevant platforms, and then simply linked to in the HTML for the <"video"> tag.

Source: http://camendesign.com/code/video_for_everybody

Here is a component to export OGG from Quicktime:
http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/

Motion Graphics Research: Typography

2009-11-23T21:33:00.002Z

I have always been interested in motion graphics videos that just feature typography, usually set to a piece of music. I want to incorporate some text in to my advertisement to convey some of the themes of Ireland and being natural so I will look at some Typography sequences to get ideas of how I can display Typography is a stylish way.

Let the Drummer Kick

This video feature the song 'Let the Drummer Kick' by Citizen Cope. The background is a static coloured background throughout, and writes the lyrics out as they are sung. It starts with text being written out in the distance, so small you can't even read. When the main beat starts all the unintelligible text jumps forward in time with the beat and you can read it but some of it is overlapped, perhaps in the style of unconventional typographical designers such as David Carson.

Some of the keywords move or interact in a way that represents what the word means. For instance, the word substitution comes after another word and instead of the word just appearing, the letters of the previous word disappear and it leaves the letters that are in substitution where they are, and new letters fill the spaces to form the word.

Still Alive

Portal - Still Alive typography from Trickster on Vimeo.

This video writes out the lyrics word by word as they are said in the song and so the typography has a sense of rhythm. There is a lot of camera movement, and it has a good sense of flow between the elements as they are placed in different spaces on the background and the camera flips and moves to them. There are also some simple graphics that help emphasises the meaning of the words at points, and sometimes just to make the typography looks more interesting.

Challenge Create Change

This sequence focuses on a simple speech rather than a song. The typography looks quite rough because the typefaces used are reminiscent of grunge and graffiti with paint drips. The animation compliments this because a lot of the elements twitch about or move rapidly creating an unrest. It also uses photographs and other graphics at different points of the sequence.

MTV Advertisement

This is a motion graphics advertisement for MTV based on Typography. This is more like what we have to do and it has a really nice, smooth flow to it. It is very minimalist, which just a background and clear type although there are some small vector flower graphics introduced but they do not overcrowd the scene. The pace is sharp although a little bit too quick on some of the sections because you don't get much of a chance to read the text.

Second Idea Research: Little Big Planet

2009-11-23T20:13:00.000Z

Little Big Planet is a videogame for the Playstation 3, made by British developer Media Molecule. It is a sidescrolling platforming game that allows users to make their own levels. The aesthetics of the game are highly handmade. Videogames traditionally either aim for a realistic perfect look or a high stylised artistic look. Little Big Planet has elements of realism it is display like a hand made project.

The character you play as is called a Sackboy which is like a sewn together doll so already there is a handmade theme in it's design. The levels are constructed by elements that look like magazine cutouts or stuck to card and them held together by string. It is a very pleasing and refreshing look for a videogame. Some of the animation is crude and the background elements look painted on which adds to the charm.

Here are some videos displaying the visual style:

This video shows the games opening credits. The ground you walk on looks made out of cardboard and has tears, tape and worn areas that look really rough. Elements that come down from the top are actually suspended on string/rope so it has a real prop feel to it.

This video shows a boss character and it is clearly handmade with different elements stuck together and joined with rope and poles. The animation on it is very crude which works with the handmade design.

Second Idea Research: Fable 2

2009-11-23T19:37:00.002Z

My second idea is to make the Magners brand look more modern, but I also want to use handmade elements that make it seem almost like an old stage show, contrasting old and new. I wont have any actors but I want the objects to look like and move like handmade props. I will have a look at some modern examples of this.

Fable 2: Theatre Show
Along with the game Fable 2, the marketing campaign featured a flash based story that looked like a show in a theatre. It has interactive elements to make choices but the scenes are pre-rendered video. It is all framed by a stage with red curtains.

All of the elements look handmade with cut up pieces of paper. It looks very handmade and has a very charming natural feel to it. It looks very layered with pieces placed physically on top of each other. There is one part in particular where it has a tiled floor and stained glass windows, you can really see the individually cut out coloured pieces of paper scattered around. The overall aesthetic is very pleasing and I would like to capture part of that in my piece.

Here are some screenshots:

http://fable2.xbox.com/experience.aspx?lang=en-US

Second Idea Research: A Series of Unfortunate Events

2009-11-23T18:13:00.000Z

The move 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' has an motion graphics credits sequence that I think is very impressive and has some elements that I would like to include in my work.

I particularly like the start of the sequence. The children are in a boat in the distance, and there are waves moving in the foreground that jump up. What I like about this is that the waves look like they are 2D layers moving in 3D, like a cut-out. The transitions between scenes is also very pleasing because it all flows very well.

New Project Idea

2009-11-23T16:54:00.013Z

Having developed and storyboarded one idea based on 1940s and 50s experimental films, I have decided to develop another idea and then choose between them. With my original idea I started with thinking about the animation and that was informed by my research. This time I have instead focused on the rebranding aspect and the look of the project rather than the animation which is a good amount of contrast between the 2 ideas.

Thinking about the brand identity that surround Magners I found it was very based in tradition and an emphasis on age. Taking this I decided to see what it would be like to rebrand Magners and update the look of the marketing to be more modern. The project does state about creating logo files and this being a rebranding so this idea is more about that aspect. Other elements from previous branding such as emphasising that it's from Ireland and that it is still natural and somewhat traditional, I will be keeping and incorporating in to my designs.

I created a mock up of my magazine advertisement in photoshop using the idea that I have including a new concept for a logo. I have tried to base the look of logo on a sleeker typeface, and handmade elements as if they were roughly produced props for a puppet or stage show.

I created the logo using 2 of the main colours (besides black, white and yellow) in the current logo on the bottles. I used Arial Black, as it's similar to Helvetica, one of my favourite typefaces and is very popular for modern corporate work. I used the pen tool to trace one of the barrels in the existing logo and made it look different. I used textured layers to build up a dirty textured background which is meant to look the same colour as the drink.

I created the waves by drawing the outline with the pen tool then using images of acrylic paintings to make a really handmade, stage prop look for the waves. If I were going to hand make these for my final project I would paint some board myself then photograph it for use in Photoshop and After Effects.

I also created an image with other things I would like to use in my animation:

I have created an old fashioned ship out of cardboard textures to make it look handmade and the sails are made from cloth textures. I would like to animate the waves and the ship in After Effects like a stage/puppet show which has a handmade feel to the animation as well as the look.

Music
I have chosen some music that fits with the Irish themes but with a modern twist. The music of Flogging Molly fits this description, even though they are primarily an American band one of the members is Irish, their songs ave a lot of Irish themes and the genre they are classified as is Celtic punk. I have cut down 2 songs to 30 seconds to see which would work with my sequence.

(can't upload videos at the moment)

Seven Deadly Sins

My main concern with this song is that the lyrics say "seven drunken pirates, we're the seven deadly sins". I cannot edit the lyrics out and I feel that this would not get approved by the ASA, because it might seem to be glamorising excessive use of alcohol.

Drunken Lullabies

ASA Response

2009-11-23T16:17:00.004Z

A couple of weeks ago I emailed the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ask them if there were any additional requirements for information or logos in alcohol advertising. They just got back to me, and this is their response:

Dear Alister,

Thank you for your e-mail to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). There are not any mandatory labels for alcohol advertisements, but I would recommend you contact The Portman Group for recommendations beyond what the Codes stipulate.

You can find out more about The Portman group here: www.portmangroup.co.uk

Kind regards, Olivia

I followed their advice and checked out The Portman Group. They had a PDF of their guidelines as well as some 'Best Practice' guidelines that are not mandatory but promote a responsible view of alcohol. The PDF of their code is almost exactly the same as the CAP code, just slightly more brief. It is available here:
http://www.portmangroup.co.uk/assets/documents/4th%20Ed%20of%20Code.pdf

Something interesting I pulled from the Best Practice guidelines is the promotion of 'Drink Aware', which is a website that educates and promotes safety in the consumption of alcohol. Companies can (as an option) promote the drink aware website on their labels/marketing to show a responsible attitude to drinking. To show the logos and links in the marketing and on the labels it requires the company contain a free license to do so. As far as I am aware Magners does not have a license for drinkaware as it is not any of their labels or advertising but there is a link to it on their website, so I will not use this in my advertising but instead just use the self regulated 'Enjoy Magners Responsibly' message.

http://www.portmangroup.co.uk/?pid=28&level=3

Pitch

2009-11-22T19:22:00.002Z

We held a session where we had to pitch our ideas to the class. This was helpful for a number of reasons, most importantly for me was to clearly establish what I was going to do. The project is called handmade, and I was unsure just what that meant. The idea is for the elements to look handmade and not digitally produced. I will give the impression of my pitch here which included a description of how my ideas were formed and what they are inspired by.

Development:
I have been developing my ideas in my sketchbook with drawings, thumbnails and storyboards. This is inspired by my research, primarily in to abstract film makers from 1940s/50s America. I have been looking closely at the work of Norman McLaren. His works are very simple yet pleasing aesthetically compared to other experimental film makers from the period. His work is more playful, as the films are not so erratic and have interaction between elements.

My favourite piece by McLaren is 'Dots'. The movement of the dots is quite rhythmic and builds up over time. It has a distinct handmade look, because the dots were painted on to the film and it shows that they are blobs of paint. The background is flat colour which contrasts the paint blobs. I have also looked at Len Lye and Harry Smith who made much more frantic, textured and arguably more abstract films.

Idea:
My idea is to use the key elements I have identified in these abstract experimental films. I do not want to directly copy scenes from their work but instead to produce parts of my sequence in their style.

Music Ideas

2009-11-18T20:08:00.002Z

With the experiment I posted before I had chosen a fairly modern piece of music with a good beat to base the movement of my sequence on. My ideas have evolved from there and I am now basing my sequence on experimental film makers from the 1940s/1950s like Norman McLaren so I have been looking for something more suited to the time period.

I have put together a test video that has a vignette effect and film grain just to try out some effects for my sequence but the main point of the video is to test the music that had cut together in to 30 seconds to fit my sequence. I have a few similar pieces of music in mind, mostly swing and jazz, but this is one that I like and wanted to see how it sounded.

After Effects Experiment

2009-11-15T16:07:00.002Z

To help with ideas I was experimenting in Photoshop, inspired by Norman McLaren's 'Dots'. I took a random song I like and brought it in to After Effects, made a solid for a background and made a circle shape. I then used the waveform to tell where to set my keyframes for the scale so it would appear and shrink to the drum beat.

This was just a quick experiment based on the ideas I had from my research.

Colour Pallete

2009-11-14T19:04:00.000Z

To get an idea for what colours I am going to use in my designs I decided to look at the Magners logo. I imported it in to photoshop and uses the eyedropper to pick out the key colours for ideas. I made a mini swatch of these colours.

Green:
The green forms a ring around the logo. The darkness contrasts the brighter yellow in the center.

Red:
The red is in a block surround the 'Irish Cider' line under the name of the drink. It's quite a deep dark red which contrasts the bright colour of the yellow.

Orange/Yellow:
This colour is in the centre of the logo. It is reasonable to assume that this represents the colour of the drink.

Blue:
I included this in my swatch because it is a contrasting colour to the orange/yellow (on the other side of the colour wheel). I can use it to create a pleasing contrast in colour in my work if I need to.

Brand Research: Magners Irish Cider

2009-11-14T11:32:00.006Z

Magners Original Irish Cider (Bulmers Vintage Irish Cider in Ireland) is a brand of Cider available in the UK. The cider was first made in 1937 in Ireland and has become a successful Irish brand of Cider. It was launched in the UK 2003 under the name of Magners, as the Bulmers trademark is held by a different company in the UK than in Ireland. The drink comes in 'premium packaging', which is a glass bottle with foil similar to champaign. It contains 4.5% alcohol by volume.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulmers_%28Ireland%29

I will be looking at some advertisements for Magners Irish Cider to get some ideas about the products image and how they promote their drink.

Spring 2008:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERsSxtjKkHw

The idea behind this advertisement seems to be promoting natural, healthy and traditional production of cider as well as vary traditional consumption of the cider. Although this is the 21st century the advertisement does not feature much sign of technology or modern architecture. Instead it appeals to a more natural period in human history and shows people all gathered around, dancing and laughing in a tent with people playing instruments instead of simply sitting in a pub and listening to a CD.

The beginning of the advert appeals to these notions even more. Instead of the idea of modern harvesting it shows people working together in an orchard picking apples on a ladder with no machinery. There are a lot of strong natural colours such as greens and yellows. Along with this is some footage of beautiful natural scenery such as fields and streams which add to the notion of nature that they are trying to get across.

The song used in the advert is simple and acoustic at the start which goes along with the traditional theme because it's just one man and his guitar. Later on it picks up with a faster tempo and a simple drum beat. The vocals sound very country and the instruments sound Irish (a lute or something similar playing in the background) which works well with the natural and traditional message in the advert.

It is very obvious the message they are going for and the image they are constructing for the product. It's not an abstract concept, since these things naturally lend themselves to the product so it is easy to create a convincing image of nature for the product. It also says at the end of the advert "Enjoy Magners Responsibly" which might be a mandatory message but appears in an informal way that suggests it is self regulation and they want to have a responsible image.

Summer 2007:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqC65nZ8pPk

This advert is very different from the last one but it uses a lot of similar themes. The sequence starts with cider being poured in to the bottom of the glass but this blends in to video footage of an orchard with a colour cast the same colour as the cider. The camera follows bubbles as they move around the trees. It eventually leads back in to the cider and then cuts to the cider being given to someone over the bar.

The camera moves quite energetically. It is floaty but not erratic, which fits with the bubbles it seems to follow. This links in with the music which is 'The Journey' by Fatboyslim and says "I gotta keep movin'" and you get the sense that the advert is following the music. The colours and the footage of the trees keeps up the natural image of the product but this one feels more modern and energetic, perhaps aimed at a slightly younger market especially with the modern music.

Summer 2009:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GinUq4I9_Uw

This advert is quite faced paced. It starts with footage of fields and then going through trees, an orchard then match cuts a bench to a seat on a boat out at sea. There is a strong yellow over all of the video footage that strengthens the theme of summer but also matches the colour of the drink to a certain degree. There is a lot of focus on the sun, sunlight and the colours of the sun which matches the summer theme of the advert and the time when it was shown. The music also mentions the sun in the lyrics.

The end of the advert shows people enjoying Magners on a boat while the sun sets with a strong yellow cast over the scene. It contrasts the hot yellow sun with the moist and thirst quenching look of the drink and the ice, with it fizzing and the outside of the glass dripping. Again the natural theme comes through strongly at the start but it also tried to appeal to the summer season and uses that as a gateway for why you should drink Magners.

Mark Watson - 2009:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJqmnHDH3IU

This is part of a series of advertisements for Magners new pear cider, featuring the stand up comic Mark Watson. The majority of the advert is based around Mark Watson walking around making jokes about things that aren't as they seem or some form of deception, and then mentioning that Magners pear cider is 100% pear and as he says "give it to me straight".

This is tying in with the natural angle, the idea that it's 100% pears and you know you are getting fruit which is natural. This ad also ties in with Magners marketing campaigns by sponsoring a lot of stand up comedy festivals, so they obviously see a lot of opportunity for selling to that market by using a stand up comic and an advert based on stand up comedy.

Printed Advert:

This Magners advert has been photographed at a train station, but would also likely appear on the side of a bus stop. It is very simple in design. There is a clear glass with the Magners logo on it, and cider being poured from the bottle on to ice. It looks refreshing, and the colours make it feel warm and inviting. The background is an out of focus patch of grass and some flowers, and some in focus flowers created a border around the glass and bottle framing the whole thing. The flowers and grass seem to be there to continue the notion of Magners being natural.

These adverts have given me an insight as to Magners existing branding and the themes they have used to advertise the drink.

Alcohol and Advertising

2009-11-14T10:13:00.006Z

The ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) and Ofcom are two independent bodies that enforce a certain level of control to advertising in the UK, through government backing to police advertising and make sure the laws are being followed by advertising agencies. There is also CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) which watches non-broadcast advertisement which has it's own set of codes and BCAP which also covers broadcast advertising.

A lot of legislation surrounding the advertisement of alcohol is aimed at the appeal of alcohol to minors and the positive/lack of negative effects from drinking alcohol. This has lead to banning of many adverts that put forward the idea that consumption of alcohol makes social or sexual situations more successful or enhanced.

CAP
This is what CAP say about themselves on their website:

Admired around the world for its creativity, the UK advertising industry sets the standard in successful self-regulation. Our industry is governed by codes of practice that are designed to protect consumers and create a level playing field for advertisers.

The Codes are the responsibility of two industry Committees - the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) and are independently administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Source: http://www.cap.org.uk/About-Us.aspx

On the ASA website they have an online version of the CAP code, and section 56 refers exclusively to alcoholic drinks. There are 15 main points to the rules, but I will only highlight those I feel are relevant and most important.

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56.2 Marketing communications must contain nothing that is likely to lead people to adopt styles of drinking that are unwise. Alcohol must not be handled or served irresponsibly. The consumption of alcohol may be portrayed as sociable and thirst-quenching. Marketing communications may be humorous but must nevertheless conform with the intention of the rules.

This section discusses the use or implied use of alcohol in advertising. The codees seem to accept alcoholic drinks as a legitimate form of hydration so advertising aimed at that, or being a regular social event, is acceptable. This rule seems to be to prevent advertisers encouraging dangerous drinking (either in quantity, type or method).

56.4 Marketing communications should be socially responsible and should neither encourage excessive drinking nor suggest that drinking can overcome boredom, loneliness or other problems. They should not suggest that alcohol might be indispensable. Care should be taken not to exploit the young, the immature or those who are mentally or socially vulnerable.

This is to prevent advertisers promoting the alcohol in such a way that it makes people want to drink a lot, or drink because they have problems. This, along with the rules that follows about young people, is to protect those who might be in a state or period of vulnerability with the potential to be exploited. It's about responsibility, and a certain degree of ethics.

56.5 Marketing communications should not be directed at people under 18 through the selection of media, style of presentation, content or context in which they appear. No medium should be used to advertise alcoholic drinks if more than 25% of its audience is under 18 years of age.

56.6 People shown drinking or playing a significant role should neither be nor look under 25 and should not be shown behaving in an adolescent or juvenile way. Younger people may be shown in marketing communications, for example in the context of family celebrations, but should be obviously not drinking.

56.7 Marketing communications should not be associated with people under 18 or reflect their culture. They should not feature or portray real or fictitious characters who are likely to appeal particularly to people under 18 in a way that might encourage them to drink.

This sets the rules for when/where and how the advertisement is presented. The aesthetics, audio or any part of the presentation must not be aimed at those under 18 years old. It also mentions not advertising alcohol if a quarter of the audience is under 18, which is a huge figure, and also relies on accurate viewing figures with relevant demographic data. This would be hard to prove in some cases, although a degree of common sense can be used to estimate when the audience would be less than 25%.

56.8 Marketing communications should not suggest that any alcoholic drink has therapeutic qualities (for example, stimulant or sedative qualities) or can change moods or enhance confidence, mental or physical capabilities or performance, popularity or sporting achievements. They should not link alcoholic drinks to illicit drugs.

This prevents advertisements from making claims about any irresponsible benefits from the drinks, as this may encouraged increased consumption. It covers a wide range of effects.

56.9 Marketing communications must neither link alcohol with seduction, sexual activity or sexual success nor imply that alcohol can enhance attractiveness, masculinity or femininity.

56.11 Marketing communications should not suggest that drinking alcohol is a reason for the success of any personal relationship or social event. A brand preference may be promoted as a mark of, for example, the drinker’s good taste and discernment.

This seems to be in response or to reflect concerns about sexual activity and alcohol. This prevents advertisements from claiming or implying that consumption of their product will have any effect on sexual activities, which can be seen as a way of preventing people being manipulated to believe that more consumption of alcohol will mean more successful social or sexual encounters.

56.10 Marketing communications may give factual information about:
a) product contents, including comparisons, but must not make any health claims, which include fitness or weight control claims. The only permitted nutrition claims are “low alcohol”, “reduced alcohol” and “reduced energy”.

This is relevant to my project, as it says 'may' rather than 'must' regarding factual content of the drink. This means that I will not be forced to include information about alcohol content in my advertisement.

Source: http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/codes/cap_code/ShowCode.htm?clause_id=2152

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The rules do not state anything which must be included in my advertisement but rather things that I should not imply or include, and restrictions on the aesthetic design of the advertisement. This is useful information but I cannot see this changing my designs, as I planned to take a very responsible attitude to the design of the advertisement so none of the issues mentioned should crop up. Also, the abstract nature of the advert implied in the brief prevents some of these points becoming an issue since we are not being literal about the function of the product.

Abstract Compositions

2009-11-14T02:25:00.002Z

In class we experimented with traditional media, using paint, ink and materials to make some abstract artworks. It was refreshing to be using traditional media but it quickly revealed my lack of skills in painting and inability to be creative on the spot. I had a go at making something but I had no idea what I was doing so I abandoned it and started on a new one which I was much happier with. I used some inks and the instrument used to draw the ink up to scratch out paths to form something that looks almost like branches on a tree.

As part of our project we have to produce 5 of these so at home I produced 3 more, only using acrylic paints as I have no other art materials available. I painted some abstract marks, shapes and patterns. I am not sure how my project will benefit from these by they got me thinking about shapes and colour.

Abstract Research: Harry Smith

2009-11-13T15:06:00.001Z

Harry Everett Smith was heavily involved in music, but he is also well known for his experimental films around the 1950s in America. His films were very abstract and surreal, with a lot of colour and shapes rather than anything tangible.

Here is a sample from his biography on Wikipedia:

Harry Everett Smith (29 May 1923, Portland, Oregon – 27 November 1991, New York City) was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic. Smith is a well-known figure in several fields. People who know him as a filmmaker often do not know of his 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, while folk music enthusiasts often do not know he was "the greatest living magician" according to Kenneth Anger.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Everett_Smith

Here is a compilation of 3 of his films:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYJ51nSXRQ

These films are certainly very abstract and surreal. It goes from distinct colours and shapes moving on solid backgrounds to heavy and complex patterns filling the screen. A lot of the elements change in to something else rather than cutting from one to another. The pace is certainly rapid and nothing is still for less than a second. The shapes and colours are certainly not perfect or smooth. They have a distinct roughness and handmade feel which is the type of mood I am trying to capture in my project.

My favourite part is where there are coloured circles moving across the screen. A big one moves left and right and from the top comes many smaller ones and this repeats but differently each time. It has a consistent and appealing flow from the movement of the shapes and the colours. The background changes are really erratic but the shapes move fluently and creates a nice contrast.

Abstract Research: Oskar Fischinger

2009-11-12T12:59:00.005Z

Oskar Fischinger, an artist from Germany, created many abstract film, animations and paintings. Here is a part of his biography on Wikipedia:

Oskar Fischinger (22 June 1900, Gelnhausen, Germany — 31 January 1967, Los Angeles) was an abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works is Motion Painting No. 1 (1947), which is now listed on the National Film Registry of the U. S. Library of Congress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Fischinger

Some of Oskar Fischinger's paintings and other work:
http://www.oskarfischinger.org/

Abstract Research: Len Lye

2009-11-12T11:54:00.006Z

Len Lye was an artist from New Zealand who moved to London in 1926 and joined an art group called the Seven and Five Society. He is known for his experimental work with film. Here is an exert from his biography on Wikipedia:

Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye (5 July 1901, Christchurch, New Zealand - 15 May 1980, Warwick, New York), was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives such as the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific Film Archive at University of California, Berkeley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Lye

Like Norman McLaren, his work often features abstract movement of shapes and colour. His work is a great example of handmade work, as he painted these shapes and textures directly on to the film with no need for a camera. One of his earliest works is 'A Colour Box' which he produce as an advertisement for cheaper parcel post was the first direct to film (i.e. drawn on to the film itself) show o the general public set to a piece of music by Don Baretto.

The textures and shapes move about very quickly and erratically. There are sections that feature a line (or several) extending vertically from top to bottom and they seem to move as if they are going with the music, and the whole pieces seems to be traveling by at a speed that keeps with the music. His work has a lot more rough texture to it than Norman McLaren, with some circles rough and incomplete. The paint is not smooth, there are gaps and bubbles that makes it look even more handmade. It also has a layered element that adds some depth.

Examples:
A Colour Box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3y1offmJ4Y
Swinging the Lambeth Walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGNfNYpfH74
Colour Flight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4A8gQRtBo

Abstract Research: Norman McLaren

2009-11-12T11:36:00.011Z

Norman McLaren was an artist from Scotland who took a handmade approach to film and animation. Here is an extract from his biography from Wikipedia:

McLaren was born in Stirling, Scotland and studied set design at the Glasgow School of Art. His early experiments with film and animation included actually scratching and painting the film stock itself, as he did not have ready access to a camera. His earliest extant film, Seven Till Five (1933), a "day in the life of an art school" was influenced by Eisenstein and displays a strongly formalist attitude.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_McLaren

He would scratch and paint the film himself by hand to create animation without a camera. His work would feature coloured shapes and backgrounds, with elements moving about and interacting. One such peace titled 'Dots' made in 1940 features a solid red background and blue blobs that look like paint drops growing, shrinking and moving around to the music. At times the music is rhythmic but it also becomes chaotic and not in a set pattern. The music sounds electronic, with beeps and squeaks.

In contrast, his other work features rock and roll (Boogie Doodle, 1948, although the title sequence for the film uses the same electronic sounds. Begone dull care in 1949 even has music that sounds like Jazz. The common theme between these is the handmade effects of shapes and colour moving about and interacting.

This idea of shapes moving with colour is a good basis for the ideas that my animations can be built on.

Examples:
Dots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-vsKwQ0Cg
Spook Sport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnLJqJBVCT4
Boogie Doodle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJ-yOhpYIM
Begone Dull Care: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svD0CWVjYRY
Synchromy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiJR1ET715M

Technical Information

2009-11-11T15:48:00.013Z

We will be producing several pieces of design as part of this project. A print advertisement to be used in a magazine and on a billboard, as well as a 30 second motion graphics advertisement to be shown on TV, internet and played on smart phones. All of these mediums will require different sizes and aspect ratios, so it will be helpful to know what I should work with before I start with my designs. After having done some research I have decided on the key information which I will need to use when starting my designs.

Magazine - Full Page Advert:
There is no fixed size for magazines. A lot of different publications use slightly varied sizes from others. I found a website for a magazine listing the dimensions that they accept for a full page advertisement (which is what I will be producing) and they specified 7x10 inches, 300dpi. Having create a layout this size in photoshop it seems to be a standard, decent size for a magazine page so I will be using this measurement. The aspect ratio works out as 1:1.42857.. but aspect ratio isn't really an issue in printed media.

Source: http://www.intermezzomagazine.com/pages/advertise.html

Billboard:
There are several different types of billboard, and they are defined by how many sheets make up the image. A billboard is made up of many smaller sheets of print put together to form a big image. I found a website listing the different types of billboard, as well as their sizes. We will not actually be producing a piece of work the size of a billboard, but it's good information to know.

4 sheet is 40x60 inches.
6 sheet is 1200mmx1800mm.
12 sheet is 120x60 inches.
16 sheet is 80x120 inches.
32 sheet is 160x120 inches.
48 sheet is 240x120 inches.

The brief doesn't specify what type of billboard, although it is safe to assume that it is the landscape roadside style billboards. As I have said, the size is not important here but the aspect ration is. As you can see, the very wide landscape billboards have an aspect ration of 2:1 which seems about right for a roadside billboard and is what I will use for my project.

Source: http://www.vinyl-banners.co.uk/billboard_poster_sizes.htm

Television:
TVs come in many sizes, and with the recent HD technology the shape is changing as well. Most TV is Britain is still broadcast for standard definition at a 4:3 aspect ratio, so this is what I will likely go with for my TV version of my motion graphics advertisement. We live in PAL territory so I will need to keep this in mind. I will have a look at some of the variations on that.

PAL: 25 frames per second
NTSC: 29.97 frames per second

Standard Definition TV: 720x576 resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio
High Definition (720p): 1280x720 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
High Definition (1080p): 1920x1080 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio

Internet:
The internet has been a massive source for video in recent years and there are many platforms and formats in place for distribution and playback including streaming and download. If I was going to create my video for the web I would consider using web friendly formats such a flv, but low file size is also key to video on the web because of data transfer speeds. Video size used to be a big issue because of file size but that is not such a big deal any more, but I still might consider exporting my video at a lower resolution for the web. Quicktime's export options has specific internet streaming options, which encodes the file to be optimized for streaming. I will keep this in mind if I am going to be using this video on the web.

Smart Phones:
Portable devices such as the iPhone and iPod touch are media devices capable of playing video. I will need to port my video to these type of smart phones so people are able to play the video on one of these devices and have it look good without distorting to compensate for the unique display. I will be concentrating on the iPhone and the iPod touch as they are the most popular. I have looked at some technical specifications provided by apple to understand how I must set up my video.

iPhone 3G, 3GS & iPod Touch:
- 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
- 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
- 3:2 aspect ratio

Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

Source: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Android Phones:
- Various screen sizes
- 480x320 resolution
- 3:2 aspect ratio

Source:http://justdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/10/video-streaming-with-android-phone.html#Getting_the_Right_Dimensions

These 2 platforms seem very similar so I don't have to make any real changes if I am going to worry about each smart phone platform.

New Project: Handmade

2009-11-07T13:58:00.002Z

For this new project I will be creating some designs, including a poster and motion graphics sequence, as part of a rebranding of an alcoholic drink. The choice for which drink is open, so I can choose whichever I want. My personal preference would be Magners Irish Cider but if I come up with designs more suitable for another alcoholic drink then I will change. An extra note on the brief states that the motion video must also be prepared for smart phones such as Apple's iPhone.

With Effects, Without Effects

2009-10-31T16:05:00.004Z

We will be submitting 2 versions of our video on the DVD. One with effects, one without. I have created a splitscreen video showing the difference between the video before I added things in After Effects and the final video.

Here is a preview:

For a full quality version, right click this link and save as: (30.5MB)
http://www.alisterbuss.co.uk/finalcompare.mov

Problem Solving: Aspect Ratio

2009-10-31T13:49:00.003Z

When exporting my final video for the DVD I ran in to some problems. We are going to be burning our videos at default PAL settings at 720x576 4:3 aspect ratio. I shot my video in 1280x720 16:9 aspect ratio so something needs to change before I burn the DVD. Converting my aspect ratio from 16:9 to 4:3 is not difficult but this is not a good choice to make because it will make the footage look squashed as it was meant for widescreen. I will not allow this in my project, so I need a different solution.

The other solution I can think of is to use 'letterboxing', where the video is scaled to the width of the screen and because 16:9 is longer than it is tall it leaves black bars on the top and bottom called 'letterbox'. This is usually associated with cinema but it allows me to preserve the correct aspect ratio and prevent squashing the footage.

Here is an example:

The trouble is I haven't been able to successfully export my video with letterbox in After Effects. Whenever I export my video as a quicktime movie it always converts it to 4:3 even if I set the aspect ration to preserve with letterbox. This is very annoying and is forcing something that I do not want.

I have come up with a quick solution to this however. In After Effects I made a new composition with default PAL settings and nested my composition in it then scaled the footage manually to fit and have letterbox within the comp so when I export using PAL settings it will automatically be correct without any conversion or scaling done on export.

Post Production - After Effects

2009-10-27T21:14:00.018Z

Camera Shake
With After Effects I simulated a camera shake using keyframes and the wiggler. The increase the sense of Crash, Bang, Wallop I decided to make the camera shake when the person in the video slams his feet on the floor. This makes it seem as though the force is so powerful it has shaken the camera amount.

I achieved this by placing 2 keyframes on the position property in the timeline; one where it would begin and one where it would end. I then selected these 2 and used the wiggler to generate a certain number of keyframes with random values according to the magnitude number. This shifted the position of the video around to simulated movement. The problem with this is that it leaves black bars around the footage on the offset where there is nothing underneath.

Here is a preview:
(You may need to watch it several times. It stutters while loading the first time so you can't actually see the effect)

Motion Tile
The solution to the camera shake problem with nothing showing when the position changed was to use the Motion Tile effect with mirror enabled and a slight bump in scale. This extends the outside of the footage. While it does make certain objects look really strange it is not noticeable when the footage shakes as quickly as it does. The main thing is that it cover the emptiness around the footage.

Glow
In After Effects I have added a very subtle glow effect to a section of the video, the clip where the toothpaste is put on the brush. This glow effect causes the highlights to bloom and go to their extremes as well as enriching this colour. It makes the paste look much more cartoon like and gooey, which enhances how it looked to begin with and matches the slimy cartoon sound I put over the top.

Here is an image preview of the effect:

The original is on the left and the effect is on the right.

Bleach Effect
When importing my video in to After Effects I noticed my footage still looked plain despite all of the adjustments I had made, so I decided to make a 'bleached' effect. I did this by using choosing Effect > Colour Correction > Levels on the composition. I adjusted the output black and white to make the contrast more extreme. This increased the colour however, so I duplicated the composition on the timeline, deleted the levels adjustment and set the mode of that layer to 'colour'.

This meant it forced the original colour of the footage on to everything underneath. This creates a high contrast look without increased saturation that results from using adjustments like levels. This makes my footage more interesting to look at. I have used keyframes to only show this layer in the POV shots to accompany the blur to create the sense of just waking up and maybe not seeing things properly.

Unfortunately this highlights the graininess of the footage, but it is still more preferable.

Here is a comparison:

The old footage is on the left and the bleach footage is on the right.

Blur
Following on from the bleach effect I have also added a blur to the POV shots to simulate a dazed feeling that you might get from waking up in the morning. I achieved this by applying a Gaussian Blur to my video and using keyframes to bring the blurriness out when it cuts to a POV shot. This combines with the colour part of the bleach effect.

Denoise
I have downloaded a Plug-in called 'Topaz' that has a Denoise filter and has removed some of the graininess from my video. While this does not completely solve it I have tried to respond to the feedback that I got from the class crit.

Post Production - Video Editing Recap

2009-10-27T20:20:00.013Z

I will list and described all of the post production I have applied to the video, including video filters and animation in After Effects. I will also explain how I produced each effect and why I decided to include it.

This is a form of recap and analysis of what I have done so far.

Colour Correction
I have used colour correction videos to improve the look of the footage I shot. Some of the clips had a colour cast and I removed this with colour correction filters. Here is an example demonstrating this:

On the left is the original footage but just with levels adjusted. It is very red, which does not reflect how it should look. On the right is the colour corrected footage. His skin is much more natural looking and the door is more green which is more in keeping with the actual colour of the door.

Levels Adjustments
My footage was very dark so I had to make a lot of adjustments to the footage to make it look more appealing and more like the morning than night. I used brightness & contrast filters as well as the '3-Way Colour Corrector' filter to increase the highlights and shadows, as well as adjusting the midtones. Here is an example:

On the left is the original footage and on the right is the adjusted footage. The filters have really made an improvement in visibility and makes it match some of the other footage in the same room which is at a similar brightness level. I have still retained the contrast with strong blacks under the bed while making the main parts light enough to see properly.

Time Remapping/Speeding Up Video
To make the video feel faster paced I sped the clips up by varying amounts (120 - 250%). Sometimes this was because I wanted to fit more of the process in to the short amount of time I had given to some of my clips because it would feel like it was cut off. It also makes this feel faster and more urgent, adding to the meaning of the video. This is much slower than a time lapse video but still shows a process faster than naturally possible.

Audio Noise Removal
Most of the audio I recorded contained noise which was distracting and made the sound cuts more obvious and hard than I wanted them to be. Using Audacity I was able to remove the noise from my sound effects and re-export them ready to be imported in to my project now clean and free from noise.

Pitch Adjustment
I had to speed up certain sounds for my video and this shifted the pitch higher so I had to make some adjustments to lower it. In the case of the brushing teeth I had written notes on my thumbnails about how I wanted each cut to have a different pitch starting with mid, low, then high. I was able to achieve this very well and I think the variations in pitch really seperate the 3 clips that might otherwise seem repetative.

DVD Intro

2009-10-27T20:07:00.004Z

While learning the functions and gaining skills in After Effects I decided it would be fun to produce a short and simple intro video for the DVD that I will submit at the end of my project to make it look more appealing. While doing this I gained more skills and learned about some features that I didn't know were there. Mostly involving text as I have not used any text in my video.

I am happy with the intro. It is simple and only 4 seconds long. After the video has finished playing the final frame will remain static and the interactive menu will pop up showing just text

Here is mock up of the menu interface:

Here is a preview of the intro:

Problem Solving: Noise

2009-10-26T19:36:00.000Z

Something brought up in the crit session was that my footage is too grainy because it has a lot of visual noise. As discussed before in my blog, I have determined this to be due to lack of natural light. Having tried some filters I couldn't remove the noise from my video but I did some quick research and found a set of plugins, one of which removes noise. At first glance this plugin really helps my footage.

The problem I have found with this though is that the 'Spatial-Temporal Balance' option is the best part of the filter, yet when I have it on anything above 0 it causes some serious artefacting in motion. With this option disabled the removal of noise is not as strong. I will still keep the remove noise on but without the option mentioned above. While this does not solve the problem it has helped it a bit.

Here is an image preview:
(click to enlarge)

On the top is the original and on the bottom is with the plugin.

Problem Solving: Audio Trouble & Colour Correction

2009-10-26T16:43:00.000Z

Having successfully imported my video in to After Effects I have noticed some problems arising from importing my raw project. A lot of the sounds haven't retained their editing meaning that the sound is not how I wanted it to sound. To get around this problem I have muted the composition in After Effects, and exported my audio track on it's own and imported that into after effects to lay over the top. It sounds exactly how it should do now.

Another issue I found is that not all of my colour correction carried over so I have had to make some adjustments in After Effects to the colour correction which was very simple as there are effects to do just what I wanted available.

Class Crit

2009-10-26T16:42:00.004Z

After the class crit I have received some feedback that I can put back in to my work to improve it. I will analyse these points and see how they might benefit my work. Here are some of the points raised:

The first two thirds are stronger than the last third.
The sound works well at the beginning.
Something needs to happen in the loo.
The handle is a good closing shot.
Too grainy.
Yawn works well.
The pacing is strong.
A Compressed(fast) feel to the film.
Tooth paste is a good shot.
Lacking camera movement.
It has the feeling of being shot in the morning.

Positive:

The sound works well at the beginning.
I take this to mean that the sound effects I recorded and downloaded were effective in enhancing the clips.

The handle is a good closing shot.
I was aiming to have a solid opening and closing shot, so it's good to know that the final shot is well received.

Yawn works well.
I really liked the concept of the yawn shot. Having one continuous shot interrupted by the eye rubbing and then returning to the same shot I thought was a good idea. It could have been shot better but I am glad the concept was well received.

The pacing is strong.
This is good because while the majority of my shots are 12 frames long I made some of them deliberately longer to change up the pacing and give focus to certain things amongst the fast cuts.

A Compressed(fast) feel to the film.
This is good to hear because the main point of the film according to the brief is to create a faced paced video with 20 cuts in 15 seconds. Knowing that I have covered the primary objective on the brief is comforting.

Tooth paste is a good shot.
I was worried about this shot as the camera I was using didn't have any manual focus options and it was impossible for me to hold the tooth brush and toothpaste at a decent distance from the camera and when I watched what I had recorded I was disappointed to find it was blurry and out of focus. I have edited the clip to look better and it is good to know that the clip doesn't look as bad as I had originally thought.

It has the feeling of being shot in the morning.
This is good news. I didn't get to film it in the morning because my model was not available until the afternoon and I had many issues with the lighting. I tried to correct this in post production and it is good to know that when watching it appears to be during the morning even though it is not.

Negative:

The first two thirds are stronger than the last third.
The final third would involve the going to the toilet, washing hands, drying hands and then going in to the door. It is a shame that people felt the final third is weaker, as you don't want to end on something worse than the rest. That part of the sequence doesn't have as much interesting things going on in it as the others which may explain why. It's too late to do anything about at this stage but it might have been more dramatic and interesting if he had washed his face and dried it than gone to the toilet.

Still, the final third wasn't said to be bad just not as good as the rest so there is no emergency.

Something needs to happen in the loo.
I disagree with this point. Although it makes sense for continuity, it is a bit obscene and unnecessary. I originally put in my thumbnails before my full storyboards for there to be a shot with liquid going in to the toilet but as I have stated it isn't needed. If you watch my Shaun of the Dead research which inspired my toilet scene it leaves out this part of the sequence.

Where I show the toilet seat being lifted, Shaun of the dead shows the characters zipper being pulled down. While they are different shots, they both serve the same purpose of establishing what action is about to take place. The next shot in both my film and Shaun of the Dead is the lever of the toilet being pulled. This is a narrative/editing technique called 'Ellipsis', which means missing out a section of the narrative leaving the audience to fill in the gaps. This is appropriate for scenes that might be obscene like the suggested 'Something needs to happen in the loo'.

Too grainy.
This is the biggest problem I have found in my own video. It was very frustrating to find that my footage was very grainy, full of noise. I thought there might be a problem with the camera but after looking at other people's footage with the same camera it seems to be down to the lack of natural light. For this reason, I can't re-shoot to improve it as the lack of natural light is a limitation of the situation I need to shoot. I have tried several filters and post production effects to reduce the noise but it degrades the quality of the footage in a different way so I have decided to just leave it and bear this in mind for future projects.

Lacking camera movement.
I agree. I had planned for a pan or 2 but my lack of experience with the camera proved to have limited compatibility with my imagination. The toothpaste shot was going to follow the toothpaste in an extreme closeup across the brush but I had trouble even getting it in frame. All of my shots are very static and I would have liked to have zooms on all the shots like in Shaun of the Dead. The problem there was that I couldn't zoom while filming without jogging the camera because of the way you use the zoom and adding zoom in post production means you have to scales the clip and this lowers the quality further so I decided against this in the end.

Video With Sound Effects

2009-10-26T16:20:00.003Z

I have now added sound effects to my video to increase the sense of urgency and drama.

Here is a preview:

Problem Solving: Can't Export

2009-10-26T11:58:00.002Z

I have had many problems trying to export my movie. I have searched online to try and determine what the problem is, but none of the solutions have worked for me. It just fails to compile at around 70%. This was a big problem for me as I needed to start working in After Effects and so temporarily I decided to use a slightly older 640x360 version of the video but the low res was not ideal to use.

Fortunately, I found my own solution. Since I have been using Adobe Premier to edit my video I thought there must be some compatibility between that and Adobe After Effects since they are both Adobe products. It was a simple matter of importing the .proj file in to the project and it brought with it all of the source files and the sequences as compositions for me to edit. This has effectively solved the issues preventing me from exporting my movie to be worked on in After Effects.

Finding Sound Effects

2009-10-17T11:17:00.006+01:00

As well as diagetic audio I am also adding sound effect to heighten the sense of drama. A few websites were recommended to me as great sources for royalty free sound effects and some I have used in the past. I found many useful effects for my project. I explored some websites that did not offer free sound effects, but I used the previews for research to get an idea of what sounds I needed and then looked for free alternatives

Some of the websites I used for research and/or downloading sounds:

http://www.soundsnap.com/
http://soundbible.com/
http://www.soundjay.com/
http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
http://free-loops.com/
http://www.mediacollege.com/downloads/sound-effects/
http://www.flashkit.com/soundfx/

Codec Problems: H.264 Gamma Bug

2009-10-13T18:57:00.005+01:00

Something that has caused me problems before and a lot of other people as well is a bug caused when exporting a movie with the h.264 codec. There is a shift in the gamma, essentially causing the image to appear much lighter than it should be. This is a huge problem because it makes everything looked washed out and the shadows, midtones and highlight loose all of their strength.

I made an example showing the effects in my video: (normal left, bug right)

I decided to find the cause of this bug and while looking for answers I discovered a solution to the bug, so I made it in to an easy to follow list guide that I will post here for others to use in their project.

1. Export your Quicktime movie with H.264 codec.
2. Open in Quicktime Pro and press ctrl + J to bring up 'Movie Properties'.
3. Highlight the video track then click on the 'Visual Settings' tab.
4. Look for 'Transparency', and select 'Blend' from the drop down menu.
5. Move the slider to 100%.
6. Choose 'Straight Alpha' from the same drop down menu.
7. Save your video.

I have also searched high and low for a solution to the "washed out" look. After an almost sleepless night I came across the fix without having to mess around with color profiles. I'm working from a PC so some of the commands might be slightly different.

After you create the QuickTime/h.264 file, open it up in QuickTime and select "Show Movie Properties." Highlight the video track then click on the "Visual Settings" tab. Towards the bottom left you should see "Transparency" with a drop-down box next to it. Select "Blend" from the menu then move the "Transparency Level" slider to 100%. Right after that, choose "Straight Alpha" from the same drop-down and close the properties window. AND finally, "Save."

So far, it's worked like a charm for me; hope it does the same for you.

Source: http://www.macosxhints.com/comment.php?mode=view&cid=83325

Sound - Capturing and Editing

2009-10-13T17:34:00.008+01:00

When shooting the video I didn't pay too much attention to how it sounded, as there was no dialogue. I planned from the start to record sound separately and then edit it over, as I will be introducing and manipulating sound effects over the top anyway. This week I recorded some of the sounds I need using the same camera I used to record the video (as I do not own a microphone) except this time not worrying about the video and just concentrating on creating the sounds I need.

I recorded the video and brought it in to the video editor, then cut it all up and exported each of the sound effects separately as .wav sounds. Something I noticed is that the camera picks up a lot of audio noise. I turned off all electrical equipment to lower this but it seems to pick up high pitched noises regardless. To combat this I have imported all of the .wav sound files in to an external audio editing program, Audacity, and did 2 things. The first thing was to remove the noise, and the second was to export it as an MP3, which is a very compatible file type.

To remove the noise I opened the sound file in Audacity and selected Noise Removal under Effects.

You then have to select a sample of the noise that needs to be removed. Luckily I left some silence before and after each sound which was filled by noise so I was able to get a good selection. With the noise sample selected I click 'Get Noise Profile'. You can then adjust the slider for how much of it you want to remove. The noise is present even during the main sound, so the more you remove it, the more the sound is going to be effected and in some cases this really distorts the audio. Once I had refined it to sound as best as it could I clicked the remove noise button and was left with my sound, noise free.

You can see the difference in the waveforms:

I made a short video demonstrating the difference this has made to the quality of my sounds:
(I can't get the full video to upload, it cuts it off after 20 seconds, but you get the idea.)

Colour Correction Improvements and Comparison

2009-10-13T15:22:00.006+01:00

In my last edit I already adjusted each clip. I used the Brightness & Contrast filter (to increase the contrast), as well as the colour balance filter (to remove any colour cast on each clip). After getting feedback from the class it was agreed that the clips still looked too dull and needed to appear more dynamic. The shadows weren't dark enough, the highlights weren't light enough and the midtones were bland.

To improve this I was told to use an effect/filter called '3-Way Colour Correction'. Using this I could increase overall saturation, and manually increase or decrease the shadows, highlights and midtones to create something that looks more dynamic. The increased saturation really makes the colours come out more and the increase in contrast is very noticeable. Some of the shots that had very dull lighting now look a lot more bright and appealing on the screen.

To show the difference I have put together a video showing both the original clips with no adjustments, and the new edited version. The left side of the screen is the new adjustments and the right side is the original clips. Watching it in this way really shows the difference these filters made to making the scenes look more interesting and vibrant. I halved the speed of the video so it is 30 seconds long, and allows you to see the changes better.

Download Higher Quality Version: http://www.alisterbuss.co.uk/comparison.mov (right click, save as)

Importance of Video in Crash, Bang Wallop

2009-10-12T15:33:00.001+01:00

Having received some feedback on my work in progress it was suggested that my clips looked visually dull, and needed some adjusting to make them look better. This made me think of the importance of how each shot looks in the project. The idea behind this video is associated with words such as urgency, fast pace, action, dynamic, exciting, speed, energy, high impact and many others. How is this created?

The main focus has been, for everyone, the fast paced aspect which I have aimed to achieve through very fast cuts and making the clips last half a second mostly. This gives a sense of speed through seeing the action sped up while not seeing every part of the action. Not necessarily a 'Jump Cut' but it skips through these processes to highlight key parts.

Another key element is the sound. While your eyes try to keep up with the pace of the video we have all aimed to use loud and sharp sounds to stimulate the ears. The sound not only adds another sense that can experience the piece but it also exaggerates and amplifies the effect of the visual aspect. A foot stamping down is more satisfying when accompanied by a great thudding sound.

Through focusing on these 2 elements it seems I have neglected until now another important aspect of the film. How it looks. Something visually dynamic draws attention far better than a plain image. Forgetting camera angles and positioning, I mean more specifically the elements of contrast and colour saturation. These things can easily be enhanced in post production through filters and that is something I need to focus on.

Fourth Edit - Video Adjustments

2009-10-10T18:19:00.003+01:00

A lot of changes have been made for the fourth edit. In the previous edit I had adjusted the length of all the clips until I was happy with the pacing and speed of the clips but in this edit I manually adjusted each clips brightness, contrast and colour balance to try to improve image quality and create some consistency between scenes. During the filming lighting was a big problem because of the awkward positioning of the camera and my model.

Most of the scenes were too dark, so I have tried to make them seem much more bright in line with the bathroom shots, as those are much brighter but obviously not as bright because the bedroom is supposed to be a bit darker. Some clips took more tweaking than others but I believe I have improved the quality of the videos considerably.

I have also added fades to the start and end of the sequence. The opening fade is 1 second, as 12 frames felt too short plus I can have the beeping start during the fade so it works out well. The final clip is 1 second long, and fade is 12 frames to give it a quick ending, as the first 14 frames are the door closing and the final 10 are the fade. I didn't want the fade to start before the door had fully closed so it is 10 frames instead of 12 to make it feel better.

Here is an image preview comparing the improvements I have made: (click to enlarge)

Here is a preview:

Third Edit - Length Adjustment

2009-10-10T16:47:00.002+01:00

After cutting down all my clips in the last edit to make sure they are all fast and fit under 15 seconds, I have decided to make fine adjustments to the clips. After watching my last edit repeatedly a lot of the shots felt too brief and the pacing was all wrong. I realised part of this was due to the speed of the activity in the shot. They felt too brief not because of the 12 frame duration but because not enough of the process was shown in that time to be clear so I sped up the clips from 100% speed to 120%, 150%, 180% or 200% depending on what worked best. I also shortened some of the longer clips to make other clips slightly longer and vary the pace more over the clip.

Based on some feedback I cut back on the yawning sequence, and spotted a continuity error with rubbing the eyes. The clip is cut between yawning shots but his hands were still on his eyes when it cuts back to the yawning but his hands are not in sight so I sped the clip up, shortened it then duplicated and reversed it. Placing them side by side it makes it look as though he has completed the action. I was originally considering making a jump cut but I think it looks better this way. It is so fast that you cannot tell it is reversed.

I also increased the length of the walking in doorway, opening bathroom door, the toilet flushing and the ending. I made a lot of room by cutting back on my initial shot and the toothpaste shot which were the longest parts of the sequences. This has made everything felt more tightly cut and improved the pacing considerably.

Here is a preview:

Second Edit - Edit Down

2009-10-04T15:29:00.006+01:00

Following from my first edit, saved as a separate sequence, I have cut down all my clips to fit them in to the 15 second limit. I cut all of the 15 frame clips down to 12 so they are half a second long. I have also adjusted some of the longer clips down. There are a total of 23 edit points, 3 more than the required number.

A problem with this version of the sequence is that some of the clips feel too brief. Some of them need to be longer than they are. Since I have 3 more edits than are required, it would be possible for me to remove up to 3 clips which would change the narrative and the pace so I can't take the decision lightly. I need to think of several other possibilities before I alter the narrative.

The reason why I think this problem has come up is that based on watching examples of work by previous students in this project I wanted my video to have a solid beginning and end sequence (something I felt they lacked) rather than just ending abruptly after a fast cut so those clips are much longer than anything else. It's also possible that a few of the processes I had scripted take longer than others so they require more time even though I have sped them up.

Here is a preview:

First Edit - Rough

2009-10-04T14:38:00.006+01:00

I have started editing together my video, and this is the first stage. I will stagger my project by saving out different sequences at different parts. The first edit is very rough. Just editing each clip down to the part I am going to use, placed end to end on the timeline.

All together I have 20 seconds and 4 frames worth of video, and I need to lose 5 seconds and 4 frames to bring it down to 15 seconds to fit the requirement in the brief. Most of my edit points are 15 seconds long, but the frame rate is 25, so if I edit down each 15 frame clip to 12 or 13 seconds I will shave more time off the total and make it seem faster paced.

One thing I have noticed is that while the way I storyboarded the sequence had a nice varied pace, some of the pacing hasn't worked out quite right and some parts don't feel right so I will have to experiment further with speeding up clips and adjusting their length to get something that feels more complete.

The sound portion is completely absent. All the clips have sound but in most cases I have removed it because it is not good enough for the project. I will have to record the sounds for the scenes later in the week, and since I will be focusing on the sound alone I will get much better results than I did with the sound accompanying the video portion. I will also have to research good sound effects to use on top of the diagetic audio to enhance the mood.

After sound will start editing the look of each clip. A lot of them are much darker than I expected so I will be editing the brightness of the screens as well as colour correction and any other necessary effects.

Here is a preview:

Shoot Review

2009-10-04T10:40:00.002+01:00

I just finished shooting all the footage I need for my 15 second film. I had originally planned to film myself, but I soon realised that this would not be possible and would result in a worse film so I asked my friend to stand in for me. Overall it went well. I learnt a lot of things and made some compromises.

The biggest problem I found was with space. When I wrote the storyboard I hadn't got an idea of how I would set up the tripod for the camera because my house is quite small. When I came to shoot it was very difficult to set up the tripod. A lot of the shots do not feature the same height and angle as in my storyboards because it simply wasn't possible (for instance, the toilet seat being lifted I had drawn as being from the right side, straight, but there is only 10cm of space to the right of my toilet).

Another thing I learnt was how useful it is to make a shooting schedule. I wrote down all the scenes I needed to film and divided them by which ones I needed my friend for and which ones I didn't. I chose him because we have similar arms, so I could get the most out of the shoots with him and shoot the scenes where I could use my arm later on. This made time easier to manage, because I could use the time I had to shoot him better and not worry about the rest of the scenes.

A couple of scenes didn't work out how I had intended due to my limited knowledge about cameras. I set up the shot for the toothpaste going on to the brush but looking back at the footage, it's out of focus. I had a hard time setting up a shot where I could get a good enough close up of the brush as I held it and to get the toothpaste spread across it. It's disappointing that after all that it doesn't look very good but I will try and proceed and re-shoot if necessary.

I also forgot to shoot a few of the scenes on Saturday, I had overlooked them on the list so I shot the remaining parts today. The light levels weren't too different so hopefully it will look OK. I'm going to be adjusting the lighting anyway so I should be able to balance things out.

Overall I did OK. I learnt some things, got more experience with camera and my first experience doing a tiny bit of directing. Now it's time to edit it.

Adding Effects - Ideas

2009-10-03T23:20:00.000+01:00

Before I start thinking of adding effects to my video I have to consider why I am adding effects and what they will mean. The brief specifies the use of post production on our videos, and here is what it says.

Post Production
Take the finished video and apply post production effects to add and extend the meaning of the piece. This must feature animated characteristics, and may also use video effects.

The effects I make and apply to the video will have to enhance the mood or the meaning, so I must first identify any theme regarding mood or meaning in my video. While I hadn't planned any complex themes there are certain moods implied by the way it is shot. For instance, the most obvious being that it is somebody waking up so presumably set in the morning.

When you wake up in the morning you are slightly disorientated. Your eyes haven't adjusted to the world yet and your vision might be blurry and inaccurate. I could use After Effects to animate an effect that would recreate this during the point of view shots that I had storyboarded.

Another idea I have had is to heighten the overall theme of 'Crash, Bang, Wallop' by adding a camera shake to the crashes. I don't want it to become repetitive so I will only add it to the 2 foot stomps at the start of the sequence. I will create this in After Effects although I do not yet know how I will do this.

Animated Animatic

2009-10-03T10:45:00.002+01:00

I have now animated my animatic. After setting everything up in After Effects using PSDs of my scans, I opened particular pieces in Photoshop and edited elements on to multiple layers, then right clicked the files in After Effect and chose 'Replace with Layered Comp' which switched out the regular file for a composition. I them opened up this composition and then added keyframes to various properties such as position. This allowed me to move layers over background layers.

Here is a preview:

Camera Test #1

2009-10-02T15:54:00.003+01:00

I am not too confident with filming, so I decided to get used to the camera by doing some test shots and editing them together to get a better idea of how the final product might look, along with the animatics. I filmed a series of 3 shots, enclosing the toilet part of the sequence. First lifting up the seat, pulling the lever and finally the flush.

I edited it down to about 2 and a half seconds, but to do this I had to speed up some of the sounds or clips but I also edited out most of each process so only a part of it is shown. The audience doesn't need to see the while thing. I also added some sound effects and manipulated the diagetic audio to sound better. The brightness and contrast, as well as the colour balance needed adjusting so I made some slight adjustments to make it look more dynamic.

Animatics

2009-10-02T15:47:00.002+01:00

This week we made our animatics this week by cutting up our storyboards. I will go in to detail about how we did this process and why they are useful.

To cut out our storyboards quickly and effectively we created an action in Photoshop that isolated each frame on the page using the marquee tool, crop it down to just that frame and save as a PSD named with a frame number. The action detailed the process for 3 frames on a page and since all of my pages had 3 frames on them I was able to use Photoshop's batch action feature to apply it to a whole folder. The action then processed all of the images I had scanned in and exported them all as single frame PSDs into a folder I had specified.

With all the PSDs I started a composition in After Effects and imported all of my files. Putting them down on to the timeline I used the Keyframe assistant to position all of the frames across the timeline so they were all 1 second and placed end to end. I then went and edited the timings of each frame to match how I wanted it to look in my video, keeping the pace very fast. I then exported this as my first, un-animated animatic.

First Animatic:

I then proceeded to add animation to the animatic to make it more visually interesting and more representative of what I want the final video to look like.

Camera Techniques

2009-09-30T13:57:00.000+01:00

I have learnt several things from my research in to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The 2 most important things that I picked up from the clips I posted on my blog are:

1. Make it clear. With the fast cuts it's very important that the shot is very clear. Nothing fancy, just very straight forward because if each shot is lasting 25, 50 milliseconds then it needs to clearly show the audience what it is. With the shots that last a second or 2 there is room to mix up the camera work because these shots change the pace of the piece but when something just flashes up on screen in needs to be clear.

2. Zoom. On each of the fast cuts there is a slight zoom on some of the pieces to amplify the drama caused by the fast cuts and also to give more of a sense of movement then just static shots cut together. You don't have enough time to do a decent camera pan in less than a second but a zoom (with some motion blur) can be really powerful in the blink of an eye.

Another different, but important thing I picked up from my research is the pacing. Having shots of varying length creates a feeling of realistic movement and progression. If it's all fast cuts non stop of the same length throughout there is nothing to focus on. Pacing can divert attention between fast moving and slightly slower footage.

These are things which I will put in to my work when I film it.