Choosing music

For my trailer I think it was very important the music I used was crucial and had to fit the speech and the video. After outlining my theme and proposal I visualised in my head that the music piece was inspirational, an instrumental piece of music. Preferably a piano.

Because I didnt know any kind of this music from the top of my head I had to research on youtube some already made inspirational videos. After looking at a few I found the song Everyday by Carly Commando, instantly after hearing this I wanted to use this in my video. I really liked it and visualised in my head my proposed video clips with the speech and this song and I thought they all made a really strong connection and would work very well.

So I played the speech with the song just to explore a taste of the paces between the two to see if they fit and they fitted very well. I was very pleased and excited to start putting clips together with this song.

The song just sounds inspirational and really does fit well with the speech.

Font research

After kinetic text research now I move on to see what font I want to include. I am going to look at some fonts what were around in 1960's to convey my theme more consistently. It would be nice and satisfying to find one which is blocky and which I think would suit. But if that is not the case I will use a serif font which is blocky. Its hard for this though, because right now I don't know the exact footage I'm using so I wont be able to see what it looks like on the screen so after research and when it comes to making the video I might change the text when i'm experimenting on the footage because another font may end up looking more ideal just from seeing how it looks on screen. For now though I will visualise as I know the rough idea of what video clips I want and where in the timeline.

Fonts in the 1960's

Helvetica, Courier, Univers and Letter Gothic were the most popular fonts of the 1960s.

These fonts are a bit too formal for what I am looking for, to fit in with 'inspiration' the font has to have a feel to it. Fonts in the 60's were just so simple and boring.

After looking around online for fonts I think would suit my theme of inspiration, historic and war I found these:

These are more the type of font I want to use. The serif symbolises historic which fits in with my theme more but still my theme of inspiration; I don't think this is font is 'epic' enough, I thought of having the font in italic styled. They are normally used in inspirational styled videos. I will experiment with fonts in motion to see which I prefer best.

I tried this font first and I really liked it so I will probably use this one.

Kinetic text research

As the brief states we need to include kinetic text in the trailer, I thought I would do some research on existing videos that include kinetic just to get a feel of how they work, the motion of them, the font, the font size, positioning etc. This will give me ideas of how I will use it in my trailer

First of all I looked at 'Nick the greek', this was the first one I looked at and I already got a good feel and inspiration of what I can take from this to put in my trailer. The text is lad out randomly when spoken; there is no right or wrong where the text is positioned. The text sizes for each word are all different which creates a nice dynamic effect. The colour of the words are different which can be good for emphasis, this idea of using colour to emphasise word is something I would like to use in my trailer. It has given me the thought of using the americas rich famous red and blue to use as the colour to emphasise certain words, this contrast effect will go nicely in my video too as my trailer will be in black and white.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mnvvVi4HaI

The next video I saw was 'Say what again' the way the video is structured is pretty much the same as the other video in how the words flow across the page in a randomised order. The angles of the words are played around too so they could be vertical, horizontal and even diagonal. In this screen capture there is nice effect where the words are vertical against a giant horizontal words, then the transition tilts. 

Here is a nice example of playing around with positioning again, using the circles in the 'O' as space for other words. An element from this video which is different to the other is font. Even though both videos use very blocky font, this one is serif compared to the sans serif in the other one. I think for my video a serif would be more suitable, purely because my proposed idea for my trailer is basing footage and events from around the 1960's. A serif font would suit this old historic theme because they are more historical looking, a sans serif is more modern font.

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw6uZNz3i1g

Whilst researching I actually found an existing john K kennedy speech kinetic text video. I didn't really think it was that good in my opinion. The theme looks modern, and the choice of colour isn't appealing to me. The orange background looks to warm and hot when the speech is and inspirational speech and very powerful. It just looks boring, I think using americas colours or an older looking colour would be better and more effective. The text doesn't change colour, and there is a lack of dynamism to emphasise key points. From looking at other kinetic videos you can tell what ones are better from how the text is played around more, the colour used etc. 

 source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwrECXcKeMM

This video is called 'A few good men' again its pretty much the same as the other videos just a different theme. But I also saw that this one includes symbols which work pretty much as text to signify something, which I thinks a nice and good effect in kinetic text. I dont think I would use it in mine though because I don't want symbols to disturb the main focus of my inspirational/emotional video, I want full focus and a serious theme on the emotion I want my video to bring. Adding in a symbol for example an american flag, will add to busyness on screen and distract the main points my videos trying to make.

Overall after researching I find pretty much every kinetic text video is the same, theres no real major differences in each one. But after researching I have got some nice ideas and feeling of how I can structure more text in my video: how I can play around with movement, layout, colour, text sizes etc.

What I want my trailer to portray

After researching the speech, what part of the speech I want to use. This has given me my interpretations of what I feel from the speech. For me it is inspirational, so that is why I am going to focus on this aspect for my trailer.

I want the trailer to be inspirational, that means my choice of music and clips have to fit this theme.

I want my trailer to be short, epic and actually build up a good momentum of tension to a good ending. After seeing some of last years students work, most of them had a poor ending to a good build up which is disappointing.

Also my trailer, I want to reflect what was happening in the times in america when Kennedy was in charge which is the 1960s, so I want my video to be all black and white. I want to involve a clip from the film of to kill a mocking bird because one, it was the most popular and famous book at the time and secondally conveys the civil rights movement which was also going on at the time and Kennedy supported it. I want to include clips from the Vietnam war too, to provide inspiration and refrence again to the 1960s. I think showing clips from the war expresses emotion, and relates to the speech which  have brainstormed up in my sketchbook, breaking down the speech into segments.

I have a nice overall feel of what I want my trailer to portray and feel, now I need to conduct some research into what music piece I want to include, also I need to spend good time picking out clips. I will conduct some small research onto existing kinetic text videos aswell because it will help me when creating my kinetic text, I know which parts im doing in my trailer what are having kinetic text, how approach this will need research.

The part of the speech im using

This is the transcript for the speech I am using in my trailer. I made this choice purely on the ending of the most important quoute of the speech 'Ask not what your country can do for you. I also wanted it to be as short as possible, because a short trailer in my opinion is a more effective trailer. It is better of building that tension right up to the last clip or scene which is normally in a trailer. Long trailers can cause dullness and may make the audience bored.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

The time of this speech to be spoken is 59 seconds. Adding that to the 5 second leeway in each direction will make my trailer 1 minute and 9 seconds

Research - JFK

This research is going to include information on JFK himself, the speech and any political and cultural circumstances in the current era the speech was made.

Who is John F Kennedy?
 JFK was the 35th president of the United states. Born May 29, 1917 and died November 22, 1963 (46 years old). He became president from 1961 until his death. Kennedy was the only catholic president which inspired his strong warm hearted decisions as president. During his reign he created/followed these remembered events: the Bay of pigs invasion, the cuban misssile crisis, the building of berlin wall, the space race, the african/american civl rights movement and the the early stages of the vietnam war. Kennedy was ranked very highly in public opinion ratins of U.S preseidents.



JFK was assassinated on november 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. And his murderer was shot and killed before any trial could take place.

What was his speech, what was it about, when and where was it?

His inaugural address was called Ask not what your country can do for you. It was delivered at 12.51 Friday, January the 20th 1961 at the white house. Against a backdrop of deep snow and sunshine, more than twenty thousand people huddled in 20-degree temperatures on the east front of the Capitol to witness the event.

The speech was mainly about delivering the word to his fellow US citizens to create peace around the world, asking them to help the country by helping others around the world. He sought both to inspire the nation and to send a message abroad signaling the challenges of the Cold War and his hope for peace in the nuclear age.

What many consider to be the most memorable and enduring section of the speech came towards the end when Kennedy called on all Americans to commit themselves to service and sacrifice: 'And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.' He then continued by addressing his international audience: 'My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man'. I want my trailer to end on the most important part of the speech because its important the last heard message and the build up of the trailer ends on the most important part of speech, the words summarize the whole speech.

The cold war

American people were fearful of the long, drawn-out cold war. The cold war was a just a relationship between american and the Russian soviet union from 1945 - 1980. Neither side ever fought each other, because both sides feared how the consequences would fall out. Why were both countries so distrustful of each other though?

Both countries wanted to be the most powerful and didn't trust each other because each country did things secretly, each country thought the other would have secret nuclear weapons. They both were in the race to launch satellites first into space and to get a man into space. Russia was the first to get a man into space but America was the first to get a man on the moon.

Kennedy wanted to end the cold war, by declaring how he wanted peace. He forced  Khruschev (Russian president) to withdraw soviet missiles from Cuba in 196.

What was the main purpose of the speech?

The main purpose was to inspire his fellow american citizens. Telling them to work together to keep america strong. Kennedy evoked a sense of security and a spirit of idealism which reassured Americans of their nation's strengths and inspired them to serve their country and the world. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man," Kennedy said in his inaugural address. Dazzled by his poise, moved by his eloquence, Americans proudly embraced the vigor and vision of their young president.

Civil rights movements

The African-American civil rights movement was outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and restoring voting rights to them. Kennedy wanted black Americans to have the same rights as white people. When Kennedy became president black Americans in the south were denied the right to vote and were bared from public facilities. Which subjected to insults and violence. In the north black Americans faced discrimination in housing, employment, education and many other areas. Kennedy declared his backing for these rights.

Vietnam war

During Kennedys reign the Vietnam war was going on which was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or "Viet Cong") against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its alliesnotably the United States military in support of the South, with American combat troops committed from 1965 to 1973. The war began as a civil war fought to determine the status of Vietnam, as either a unified nation or as one partitioned into two independent states. The north side was communist and the south side wasnt. America got involved in this war to stop the spread of communism. Kennedy tripled the amount of American economic and military aid to the South Vietnamese and increased the number of U.S. military advisors in Indochina. He refused to withdraw from the escalating conflict in Vietnam because, he said, "to withdraw from that effort would mean a collapse not only of South Vietnam, but Southeast Asia. So we are going to stay there."

What else was happening in Kennedys era, what was the cultural background and other strong facts? 

During the 1960's half the population was under 18. Which is madness. Kennedy's speech was influential to this young generation, it would bring the youth up to be good, kind people grown up to help the country and keep america strong what was Kennedy's main prospect.

To kill a mocking bird became the most popular book and most selling at the time. Which was a powerful story about discrimination of a black person, who was convicted of raping a white girl. Even though it was a blatent lie of the white girl, she still won the case. The story was about a white lawyer who supported the black victim and did everything he could to support him, which conveys the civil rights movement. In my trailer I would want tot try fit in a clip from the film of this book. I think its so powerful, and relates perfectly to the times in america at the time and portrays Kennedys support of the civil rights.

In the music industry, the beatles were the most popular band and top of the charts you could say at the time.

Barbie was around in the 1960's too, which became a most wanted toy for young girls.


The birth control pill was invented in 1960 as well which was a big thing at the time.

Introduction

The brief gives us 8 famous speeches to chose from. They are:

• Franklin D Roosevelt: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
• Winston Churchill: We shall fight them on the beaches
• Harold Macmillan: The wind of change
• Nelson Mandela: An ideal for which I'm prepared to die
• Jawahharal Nahru: A tryst with destiny
• John F Kenndy: ask not what your contry can do for you
• Martin Luther King: I have a dream
• Margaret Thatcher: The ladys not for turning
• Earl Spencer: the most haunted person of the modern age

At first look of them none of them stood out for me for any inspiration. I am very unfamiliar with all these speeches. 

Kate asked the class to pair up and create a presentation on research of one of these speeches, so we could all learn about the speeches from the class mates presentations to save us researching them all individually which would be a timely process.

I paired up with Liam and we researched John F Kennedy, and in doing this I learnt a lot about him and his speech. After all the presentations I knew what speech I wanted to do. John F Kennedy's. I didnt chose him just because it was the one I had to research, I found his speech very interesting and inspiring and it has motivated me to use it for the trailer. I knew nothing about him before researching it, now after knowing it I get visualisations in my head what my trailer can potential be. 

AF105 Time Based Media

The Brief

Our next project we have been introduced to is Moments in Time - speeches. Which is creating a tv trailer for a new radio 4 programme called 'Moments in time - Speeches'. Which is about a selection of famous speeches from the 20th century.

We have been told that the trailer should be just over a minute, shorter the better. (5 Second leeway in each direction)

The trailer will be a short film about the speech I have chosen, combining the speech with film footage, images, text and graphics.

Things not to do

• avoid using original footage
• film literal interpretations of what is being said in the speech

Things to do

• use footage what demonstrate a flavour of what the political/social circumstances of the period in time when the speech was made
• feature text elements to emphasise words spoken in the speech (kinetic)
• use music and can use sound effects

What I need to produce in this project:

• Storybaords illustrating the trailer in images, with a timeline aswell.
• Sketchbook with research to visualisation of concepts

Deadlines

28th January - Pitch idea

11th February - Crit final trailer

15th February - Final submission

Evaluation

To conclude this whole project, I enjoyed it. It was definitely more of a challenge than the af102 propaganda poster assignment due to more work had to be produced and my design was more detailed than the propaganda poster.

I am happy with what I have produced, I feel my designs have matched the brief well and look nice as a design in their own right. Since pitching my proposed idea I always had a good feel of what tone of voice I wanted my design to communicate. I matched my proposal in that my design gave a good spooky atmosphere, the characters look worried and the design itself tells a story due to key element of the footprints. I like the style of drawing I used, I never have used that style before, as i'm getting more use to illustrator my drawing skills are adapting well from it which I am glad I have learned.

My book cover went well, I spent a lot of time getting the gradients right and and playing around with different textures but decided I wanted to keep the trees as they were. I had a good think in what contrast I wanted the spine to be, my first draft was black text on the snow grain but in my feedback the majority suggested having a dark background with white text. After doing the change, the white text stands out so much more, and strongly compliments the brief in which I have said in my statement about how my design matches the brief.

Things I would do next time, If I were to re approach this project is probably try use the sketchbook more and complex my design even further. My idea generation just comes to my head and isnt that much influenced by other existing pieces of work, same goes for my art style, I don't really find trying to copy someone else art style helps me, I like to picture what style I want to use in my head. The image I used as a example of what my art style is going to be like didn't really match my design. I used the gradients and colour inspiration from it as the trees got darker, like mine.

My poster I really like, I feel it would work well as a poster, it would draw peoples eye, and is very clear when you look at it that it is promoting The wind in the willows due to how dominant the text is emphasized by the positioning and dark tree surrounding it. The falling snow and snowflakes give that charm which is good to have when designing for an audience which is children, it can attract their attention. Things i would do next time to the poster is probably add more animals and detail to do with the trees, like squirrels etc.

Branding guidelines, I had never heard before I approached this. My branding guidelines I think were okay, but I think they could be improved by making the layout more proffesional and have more in depth detail of content and strictness on elements. Im not too keen on my branding guidelines to be honest, there simple. Maybe more research into more different ones could of given more more inspiration to produce better ones.

Final designs

I have made the minor changes from the feedback, and is ready for submissions which is 11/01/2013 by 4:00pm

Feedback

The feedback from the class from what I can remember was very good, here were some of the quotes:

'I really like the footprints'
'The drawing styles of the trees are really nice, I really like them'
'The balance in the poster from the two trees is perfect'
'The designs has a real nice charm to it'

The feedback from which I could use to improve my designs was
'Move the blurb more to the right to make it more central'
'Make the authors name bigger on the front cover'
'Put white text on the spine on a darker background instead of vice versa'
'Make the top line in the poster, staggered to give it more balance and fill up negative space.

After getting this feedback I then made the changes to the designs...

Crit

After finishing my first draft I critted it to the class, as well as the poster and this is the two designs I made.

Crit went well, I got a lot of positive feedback from the class and only a few tweaking negative feedback which was very minor.

Making the illustrations

I started off by creating the characters, using the pen tool i constructed the outlines of Ratty and Mole.

I made an art stroke, to give the lines a pointy effect then applied these to the paths I drew up with the pen tool.

After drawing them I filled the paths with colour gradients, and added patterned textures from the swatch menu.

After finalising the characters I imported them into the template file for the book cover.

I drew up the front cover first, then spine, then back cover.

I used the pen tool throughout, constructing the trees and backgrounds.

After I done the trees, I done the snow on the ground by creating a gradient and adding importing a photoshop effect by creating a 'grain' effect to make it look more detailed and look like snow.

Then I simply added the other details such as holes in the tree which are blured into the tree, the evil yellow eyes which I copied and resized and re position them arouned the trees.

I added snow onto the branches and created falling snow by making a white circle and copying and re positioning it around the top, I created the snow flake by using the pen tool and copying and re positioning.

I done the footsteps using the pen tool again and decreasing the opacity on the ones closer to the back of the book by 4% each footprint.

Poster

I first of all drew up the trees, and all other illustrations in illustrator to use as template which I then imported into photoshop for further editing.

I drew it up using the pen tool, using the same techniques as for the book cover filling it with brown/black gradients. I used the same characters from the book cover onto here. I done the text in illustrator because it comes out better than text in photoshop. After I finished this in illustrator I then opened it up in photoshop...

I made the snow grained using one of the filters. I then downloaded a snow plug in, which creates a falling snow effect, I made one for the whole size of the page. I then made a another layer of snow for just the top half to make it look more realistic as more snow will be higher up. The snow flakes were a brush I downloaded which i simply applied using different shapes and sizes.

Written statement

First of all in my proposal/pitch I broke down the brief into four main points as a reference I could easily remember in my head what the design should achieve these four points were: 'A striking cover design, imaginative concept, a strong use of typography and eye catching'.

I am going to write how I think my design has achieved these four points.

To begin with I feel my design is definitely a striking cover design. It has avoided the existing cliche designs of having a friendly atmosphere with all four characters happy in a field next to a river. Mine is pretty much the opposite in that it is focused on a dark phase of the book where mole is lost in the woods and ratty s looking for him, mole looks scared and lost on the front book cover, surrounded by darkness and evil eyes glaring him. It gives this horrifying mood across, it makes you look at the cover and think oh what could possibly be in those woods. It gives mystery to it. Unlike the other covers where there's not really anything questionable going on in the cover. My art style of how I have done my trees, in a curved 2d pointy style to give that spooky and sophisticated look, makes the cover look striking.

The penguin brief wanted an imaginative concept which I think my design comfortably fits with this point, there's no other book cover for The Wind in the Willows like mine, mine is themed on a dark side of the book whereas every other is on a happy side. My cover emphasizes this by the range of dark colors filling the book, with dark gradients giving that edgy look, if the cover was plain block colors then it wouldn't give that as edgy look than what gradients give. The time the cover is set is at night which automatically gives a spooky mood. The element about my cover which I think compliments this main point is the footsteps from mole which follows through from the back cover to the front cover. The footsteps fade gradually from the front to the back to show that the foot steps are getting older and older. These footsteps are like what strings the front cover and back cover together, it is the main focal point of the book because they are the tracks for ratty to follow to find mole, so without these footsteps there wouldn't really be a story or scene in this cover. The front and back cover wouldn't have an as strong design as there wouldn't be as much relation between them.

I'm very satisfied with my typography on the book cover I think it is very strong and again comfortable fits the brief. First of all before I chose what type face I wanted I already had a feel of what I wanted the book cover to communicate to the audience, I wanted a spooky and dark mood. The type face was so important to fit this as it is what the audience are going to be looking at first when looking to buy the book in a book shop. So I had to consider, was the font clear to read? did it fit the design/theme? Did it stand out? and I feel strong that my font achieved this. My typeface looks spooky and the serif on the font suits well with how I designed the trees. How I laid out the type with having 'The' much smaller sitting on the 'W' of 'Wind' and then having ' in the' in the same size sitting on top of each other on the right of 'Wind' then having 'Willows' in the same size as 'Wind' sitting underneath it gave a nice look, it looked dynamic and symmetrical. It was still clear to read and the color of it being black and on the white/grey snow stands out and contrasted nicely. My secondary typeface I took a lot of consideration choosing, I wanted it to match the primary typeface as much as possible, and after a lot of research the one I chose I was very content with. I think it matches very well, it looks spooky but not as emphasized and is clear to read as a small piece of text on the blurb.

Lastly the final point was 'eye catching' I think if my book cover was on a bookshelf with others around it, it would be eye catching. The colors stand out a lot, and nice contrasting on one another, night scenes stand out more from a daytime scenes because they are less common, just like mine. I think people would look at it and think 'oh, thats strange for wind in the willows' and will take more notice and consideration of it. The evil eyes glaring from the surroundings draw your eye to see whats going on, and the falling snow and snowflakes give that little charm to the book which makes the artwork look more pleasing to the eye, book covers are all about audience and satisfying the eye to the customer and overall I am happy with how I have think I have matched this.

Branding guidelines

In this project part of the brief is creating branding guidelines. I have never heard of these before and have no knowledge on them what so ever. I will research what they are, why companies use them and what to include in them to help gain an understanding what I can include in mine.

What are branding guidelines?
Branding guidelines are like a set of rules of what to do and not do when designing something for the brand. It is displayed as like a visual booklet displaying information. It summarises what the brand stands for.

Why do companies create branding guidelines? 
They make a set of branding guidelines to strictly set out rules so the company maintains a consistent identity across all marketing channels. So designers can get a good feel of the brand, understand the tone of voice so their work has a higher chance of being more efficient for the brand.

What is included in branding guidelines?

• The brand summary, short description of the brand and their message as a company. 
• Logos, the logo has to be clarified what you can and cant do when using the brand logo. such as size variations, kerning between letters, colour, font, character styles etc.
• Examples of what you can and cant do to demonstrate the rule
• Spacing around elements. For example at least a 5mm space around the logo at all times.
• Colours, A palette should always be included giving the hex number and other information n each colour, it should say what the colour is used for.
• Fonts, defining the typeface is essential. Providing font size, line height, spacing, colours and what font is for what purpose (title & body)
• Tone of voice, this is what the brands style is summarised in this projects case it going to be my art style, giving a clear summarisation of the brands art style is key to keeping consistency. 

How I am going to aproach my guidelines?

I have looked at some examples of branding guidelines to get a more clear idea what I am going to put in mine. I am going to set my branding guidelines so it has a nice smooth consistent layout and design throughout. Using less text on screen as possible. 

My plan for what content is going on what page for my branding guidelines is going to be:

1. Title, screen saying branding guidelines with my name on

2. A summary saying what my project is about, making a design for the penguin competition which is a book cover and poster.

3. Contents

4. Show the puffin logo, and saying it cant be manipulated, giving examples of what you cant do

5. Show the colour pallet, defining the hex decimals and where the colour is used in my design

6. Font, primary font saying what type face, size, spacing around letters, colours.

7. font, this time for secondary font.

8. My art style, defining it giving examples of my illustrations.

Simple colour scheme, white with black text throughout. Clear and consistent layout.