Evaluation | AF105

With this project over I thought I'd write down my thoughts, feeling, achievements, hardships that i've been through in the last 5 - 6 weeks.

I'm relatively happy with the final outcome, the video itself turned out how I wanted it too, but by running myself out of time towards the end I didn't have enough time to concentrate on finding or recording my own high quality audio to go with it which I think would have bought it up another notch. I also think that my kinetic type has been slightly effected with the lack of time too, as I could have done with some more time to focus on learning how to operate After Effects efficiently and come up with some more interesting ideas of what to do with the type. But none the less I'll be happy to hand in the final product tomorrow and see what everyone thinks of it.

I'm really glad that I did everything myself in many ways, as I like the feeling of teaching things to myself, or being able to reuse skills I've learned in previous productions I've done. I think for those class mates of mine who made videos by using pictures and special effects with kinetic type over the top they have achieved the most in some ways by using the least but producing some of the most effective videos I've ever seen. Something to aspire to be able to do in many ways.

I feel very disappointed with my storyboards for this project unfortunately. The printers I got them printed out at decided to print them in A4 not A1 so they're tiny in comparison to what they should have been, but hopefully I'll be given some time to resubmit them shortly after the hand in tomorrow and get them reprinted in the proper size, and get the overlays mounted properly to show development of my ideas.

Overall though I'm happy with how I've done in the project, and I have definitely learned that I like having tight time constraints to produce work in, something I'll take into consideration with other projects. I can be happy that i've achieved what I set out to in After Effects which is something I can take with me through all other projects i will encounter from now on.

Final | Video completed

With my video finally complete I thought I'd post up some images of the kinetic type in their final places. I decided after talking to one of my lecturers that placing some of the type on walls and the floor was a good idea, as well as having the non- motion tracked final kinetic text on a canvas of its own.

Development | Colour tint

To begin with i wasn't sure what filter I was going to use over the top of my footage to give it that 1960's feel i knew i needed. But after much deliberation I've decided to go with the really desaturated look, that isn't quite black and white but its almost there. I think this gives it that old feeling, whilst still retaining some of the colouring that gives it a cold feel. Screen shots below show the colour grading I've done in Premier Pro so far.

Development | Typography

I've thought about how to display my kinetic type a lot over the last day or so. Some people use the traditional way of doing it by just plonking it on top of a nicely filmed section but others, like the ones inspiring me, use tracking and anchor points in After Effects and other such software to track text to a moving feature on the video. This is something I'd be really excited to explore as most of my shots have moving objects in them that I could track to. Its also something I'd love to learn anyway so it would kill two birds with one stone as they say.

I found this great free tutorial on the internet that I can use if I get stuck over the half term too:
http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/tutorials/05.Motiontracking/

I think by using a mixture of the more commonly seen kinetic type, and the motion tracked form I could create a more dynamic piece with more variety than others.

Decisions | Typography

After discussing a few ideas for typefaces in my sketchbook and trialling them I've finally come up with a final font i want to use. 

The choices were between Optima, Trebuchet MS and Futura. I felt that Trebuchet MS and Futura were great fonts, blocky and they had a 1960's feel that I wanted to go with, but they are far too comonly used and I knew I wanted a font that was based upon these but not exactly the same. Possibly something with a bit more exaggeration when it comes to the serifs. Optima has exactly that, and below you can see how I've decided to lay out the Kinetic type for the final section of the speech.

Photoshop Screen shot of Kinetic type

Feedback | Critique

The feedback from my critique was mostly positive, with constructive criticism to help me with developing my video and kinetic type.

Unfortunately I hadn't actually put in any of my kinetic type, but i had mocked up a few still frames to give my class mates a good idea of where i was going with it.

The parts that were strong were the shot types, a good variety and interesting/ mysterious lighting. The pace of the music was well received and everyone thought it matched the video really well which I was very glad about.

Some points to improve upon -

Editing was good to start off with, but 3/4 of the way through it started to become a bit boring, too many of the same shot type back to back possibly? Quicker, more choppy editing could give the video the lift that it needs.

Obviously the lack of kinetic type needed to be addressed so that was also a common improvement from everyone.

Overall I'm very happy with how things are going, and I look forward to seeing how far I can take my piece with the suggestions and improvements sited above.

Research | Sound

I've been thinking about adding in more audio than just the speech and music I've selected to go with it. This is because after listening to the audio I've created over and over, visualising the shots I'd like to marry up with it I think it seems very thin. Some mundane background noise would add valuable layers to this.  I'd like to have a go at recording the sound myself using either my in camera mic, or a professional directional mic if I can get hold of one.

But if worst comes to worst and this doesn't happen I've found a website with high quality free sound samples that I could use: http://www.soundsnap.com/transport/bicycle

Research | Kinetic Type

One of the elements that is essential in my trailer is Kinetic typography; literally translates as moving text. Kinetic type is a more commonly used term which refers to the technique and art of expression through the use of animated typography. 

I've found a create example on YouTube of kinetic type and how it can be used to express emotion,  and add a lot of atmosphere. The audio used is from The Dark Knight (2008) in which The Joker is talking to one of his many victims. 

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL2IIpNkSKs

Here are a bunch of screen shots taken from what I thought were the most creatively interesting parts of the video.

The word Dynamite had a moving fuse going toward it that the camera coherently followed for the next few words which were also related to burning and explosions. I really enjoyed this part because it allowed movement, without moving text. Its like a negative use of the word kinetic type. 

This next screenshot is of a part where the two characters paths cross in the audio; The Joker's victim being the red text and The Joker's being white. I love the thought that went into blending these to be one where they cross over literally in the video, and then again in the audio. 

I really like the literal sense of burning in the audio, mixed with the burning of the text but instead of having the predictable flaming text there is a thick heatwave style filter over the top. I think the literal "...only burning...half" is really well pulled off when it could have been far too literal. 

Inspiration | Storyboard

Whilst starting my storyboard today I thought it'd be worth while looking at some examples of what others had done before me for theirs. Although I'm not much of an artist, some simples sketches and outlines of what I want to do will be greatly valuable to anyone looking through my work wondering how i got from A to B. 

This storyboard was found through a simple search on Google. The first thing that intrigued me was the art style, and then going further in to have a better look I noticed the arrows that obviously showed the camera movements for each shot. I really like this style of storyboard, no text, just shapes to illustrate what is needed for each shot. Something I think i'll use to illustrate my movements as i go along which will make it easier to visualise the final pieces.

Source:http://www.ianmccaughrean.co.uk/
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