thesis: due date countdown – motion graphics

nobody@vox.com(keith) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:52:42 -0400

So with four days away until due date, I'm going to start doing a run down of the elements in this film. Mostly to show what they are, but also a bit of discussion as to how these pieces fits (or doesn't) within the project.

Per_capTV_1web

First off the motion graphic pieces that shows up on the TVs and jumbotron in the film. These were definitely the hardest elements to lock down. I originally planned to create up to six versions to be mapped on to the CG screens, but with production time for the CG elements taking up more time than I had hoped, I decided to cut down the number of screens to three.

The most difficult thing about the production of these screens comes from the fact that everything was all based on the same "brand" 'The number one product', I wanted to keep typography consistent thought out all three spots, but that created a quit difficult situation in terms of designing them, since to have each screen holds it's own in the scene, they have to be stylistically very different spot.

The three themes I went with were, a pop culture based spot, a product/infomercial spot and a personality/celebrity spot. The idea behind these spots and actually the whole film are based on a lot of Asian advertising styles, where advertising literally only feature the brand and an A-list celebrity spokesperson and most of the time, the celebrity really have nothing what so ever to do with the product. I've always found this concept to be very interesting where a brand is purely driven by celebrity tie-ins. Especially compared to western advertising where the focus is associating an emotional attachment to a brand and less about having some celebrity vouch for a product.

Of all the elements I created for this film, I really hoped to have more time to develop the design of these spots. Personally I really want the designs to be a bit more thought out and more elegantly put together, but not having these spots built were really holding up the CG rendering, plus given it only shows up for about 1 and a half second or so in the whole piece, this was a compromise I am happy to deal with.

At the same time, I really do like the somewhat over the top boldness of the moves and treatment. In a way, it fits the very Asian corporate design sense. They want it loud, they want to show that they spend a crap load of money on the spots, I was definitely thinking of my art director when I was working in web design in Hong Kong, I remember the very line I got was "Keith, your designs are too American, you have got to add more to it, the clients are not going to be happy to see they paid all that money for a few lines and blocks. Needs to be louder."

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thesis: due date countdown – motion graphics