The problem I intended to solve was to promote a programme, The Top Ten Female Icons of Hollywood, in the form of a 50 second title sequence, accompanied by 4 promotional idents between 5 and 10 seconds in duration. This has developed from my original idea, 'Top Ten Best Female Icons', for one this is a little clumsy sounding, and as pointed out by my peers in a crit, this was incredibly misleading, I then decided to rename to, 'Top Ten Feminine Icons' before settling with my final title as visually I had more ideas, and found it more interesting, plus choosing Hollywood, gave me a bit more focus.
I feel my idents and title sequence really communicate the idea of Hollywood, and I incorporated a number of elements from this 'world' to really home in on the subject matter. The animations aren't very 'feminine' which may deceive some viewers, but I felt creating something subtly feminine, for example the Honey Script font, which is not as overpowering as flowers, bunnies and pretty colours. My main visual aim was glamour, this is Hollywood.
For this reason, I chose quite a serious tone of voice, but still light hearted as my audience is for young females, 16-25. I felt this would apply to them as this audience are interested in fame and glamour, and with the popularity of shows like 'The Hills', 'Sex and the City' and 'Laguna Beach' I felt this age group would be appropriate. The channel my programme is for, which I think is ideal is MTV, which shows television programmes like 'The Hills'.
Creating the animations was really exciting, and something I found a real passion for. It is incredibly rewarding to watch back, with sound included, after what can be a long winded job, especially with all of the technical issues that seemed to keep testing me, for example, the screen turning grey with a dialogue box telling me to restart the mac... an hours work lost. It could have been worse. Another knock back which I feel I overcame quite well was my lack of confidence in using After Effects, 3 months ago I had no idea how to open a new composition, I have learnt a vast amount in this time but still found myself wondering 'Is it possible to do this?' I found most things were possible, some just took longer than others!
Another issue relating to confidence was using cameras and lights, I really wanted to use these elements, especially with the Hollywood theme, but had no idea how to make the two work together, or just even make them work individually. I soon learnt it was handy to have multiple views to locate where assets are in comparison to cameras and lights, but it could still get confusing, especially when creating the ident with the moving Hollywood walk of fame, with the paparazzi flashes at the side, as this used a lot of layers, and trying to evenly space without looking too pattern-like did get a little confusing at times.
My main issue was I wanted to create a red carpet that rolled out, but this required another piece of software, Cinema 4D, software completely alien to me, I had planned to have a go at creating this but fell ill with a kidney infection, so I was forced to have a carpet already laid out, and use the cameras to create the idea of movement, I used a carpet texture too, so I still got a realistic outcome.
Another issue I found, mainly in the 50 second sequence was the layer palette, I had an awful lot going on in my animation, and although I colour coded all of my assets, for example, elements on the left were pink, elements on the right were brown and fixed assets, like the background, were red, I still found it hard to find certain layers now and again. It is something I will look into before I use the software again, but I would love to see if there is some kind of grouping function, to place them in a folder.
An idea I had which I was not successful in carrying out was a 360 degree rotation of an Oscar award, this is because I could only create a 2D object but animate in 3D. This would have been a really cool idea, and I dare say it is possible, but in another programme for 3D modelling.
This brief has forced me to be more illustrative, as assets have had to be prepared in Photoshop, an example of this would be my red carpet ident. Originally this was a red solid layer that the camera panned along, but then I downloaded a red carpet texture and created my own red carpet and it looks really realistic. I did this for the Hollywood Walk of Fame too, I took a small sample from the pattern of a photograph, and created my own pattern, again this gives a realistic look.
My music choice is from 'Sex and the City: The Movie' and is an orchestral version of the popular theme tune. From my other initial audio ideas, such as the 'Sex and the City' series theme and Lady Gaga, I can look back and honestly think, why! The orchestra really emphasises glamour and is that subtle hint of femininity as most young females should recognise the tune. It was incredibly handy that the clip I downloaded was 50 seconds too.
My packaging for the DVD was simply crafted, using black card, white card, glue and a split pin. I created a clapper board, which is a theme from one of my idents and features in the title sequence. I am not entirely sure if this promotes the idea of the 'females' but I am confident it conveys 'Hollywood'.
The research for this module has been fascinating, who would have thought watching television, can be classed as work!? I can't stop myself commenting on idents and adverts now, it really has brought about my awareness and appreciation for motion graphics, although I have always been a bit of a motion graphic geek at heart.
This has to be my favourite module so far, I have learnt so much, not just contextually, but I have formed a good foundation of knowledge and I will definitely be using After Effects again in the future!
