Summary of AF105

Overall I really enjoyed this project, having not worked with much video before. Learning all the software from scratch was a bit of a challenge but I feel that I adapted enough that my final product didn't suffer as a result. I felt that my storyboard wasn't that much help to me because I ended up changing most of what I planned during the editing process. I feel that my final clip satisfies the brief and provides a flavour of what the time period and circumstances of the speech were.

Final Changes

Before final hand-in I made some changes based on feedback from my classmates after showing them my rough version. The main things I changed were the timings of the kinetic text to improve accuracy and pace, as well as the font in the kinetic text being changed from Myriad Pro Bold to Myriad Pro Bold Condensed.

 

Filming

Even though in the brief it says we dont need to do any of our own filming, I thought it would be a much better experience if I included some footage that I shot myself. For this I went up to the Chattri war memorial and filmed a variety of clips that I could use in my final sequence. 

 

Premiere Pro and Motion

For this project, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Apple Motion 5 have been the software programs I've used for all my editing.

For all visual effects, motion graphics and kinetic text I've used Motion, making extensive use of the masking function for most of my text and video effects

 
For the general assembly of the clips and transitions, I used Premiere Pro CS5 to organise the clips I'd made using Motion. I also used MPEGStreamClip to cut up pieces of documentary film quickly and then export them into Premiere Pro using a lossless format.
 

 

Kinetic Type

For my kinetic type I've decided to use a much more simple approach than traditional kinetic text. A god example of what I want to achieve are the text effects used in the series Wonders of Life. I particularly like their use of motion tracking to anchor the text to the contents of the film and intend to replicate this in my final clip. I will still have the words coming up in time to the speech to qualify them as kinetic text.

Typography Research

For my kinetic text I decided to do some research into British fonts of the 1940s to ensure I capture the look and feel of the time period accurately. Most of the good examples I found are all hand drawn, one off fonts which makes it very difficult to find the exact font. I wanted to use a bold sans serif font to give a certain amount of impact, seeing as the kinetic type needs to emphasise the important parts of the speech and found these 'Dig for Victory' posters:

I decided that Myriad Pro Bold and Myriad Pro Bold Condensed would be a good enough approximation:

 

About Winston Churchill

For our research task we put together a short presentation about Churchill and his speech. In our presentation we included some facts about Churchill, the speech and the era, plus a mood board of the war and 40s culture. As part of my more personal research I decided to watch 3 documentaries about Winston Churchill and his role in the war effort.

Aspect Ratio

This weekend I did a bit of filming and stumbled across the problem of aspect ratio. My camera shoots in 4:3 by default as well as 16:9 so I was unsure which to use. I looked back at the brief and it says the piece will be for a BBC advert, and after some research I discovered that since the switchover the BBC have been broadcasting exclusively in 16:9, pillarboxing any 4:3 programmes such as Family Guy. With this in mind, everything I do from now on will be done in the 16:9 aspect ratio.
 

Speech Extract

After listening through the whole of Churchill's speech, I selected a ~2 minute long selection that I'm going to use for my project. The reason I chose it is because it contains the most famous part of the speech, as well as starting at a point that isn't in the middle of the paragraph. I also got a bit carried away while trimming down the speech and decided to add the theme from the 1969 film 'Battle of Britain' in the background. I may or may not use this music for my final piece.

Choosing a Speech

After listening to all of the speeches on the list, I've decided to choose Churchill's 'We will fight them on the beaches' speech for my project. I chose this speech because it's the one I'm most familiar with and I have a significant interest in the era and context it was made in. Normally I would use this opportunity to explore and discover a new subject, but being unfamiliar with the software we need to use I thought it would be better to concentrate more of my efforts that. There is still plenty I don't know about the speech and its context, leaving plenty of opportunity to do some interesting research.

 

AF 105: Time Based Media

The Brief:
'...For this assignment you will be producing a TV trailer for a new series of radio programmes on Radio 4 called 'Moments in Time - Speeches', about a selection of great speeches of the 20th Century.'

The list of speeches to choose from are as follows:

• 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 Kennedy: Ask not what your country can do for you
• Martin Luther King: I have a dream
• Margaret Thatcher: The lady's not for turning 
• Earl Spencer: The most hunted person of the modern age

Requirements:

• Combination of film footage, images, text and graphics.
• Minimum of 1 minute long and maximum of 2 minutes.
• Use text elements to emphasize important words in the speech.

So far I'm very exited to start this project because I really enjoy working with moving images and doing things like kinetic type is something I've wanted to learn for ages. I'm also very happy Churchill's speech was included in the brief as its one of my favourite speeches I've heard. 


 

Evaluation of AF101

Overall I really enjoyed this project and the development process my designs underwent. The main thing I enjoyed was the ability to use the skills I acquired on Illustrator for a different purpose and incorporating Photoshop into the process. I also learnt how to use InDesign which was a challenge but hopefully I can develop my understanding of it a bit more in the future. 

Working on a live brief was also quite exciting as it gave me the opportunity to see how what I was designing would be viewed in a real-world scenario. Working to very specific constrains within the brief also kept my focus on the overall objectives a bit more than it otherwise would've. The increased compatibility and cross-program issues were also a good eye-opener for me when it comes to working on different designs for the same project.

I think my increased understanding of the software I used has been very beneficial to me and I think that my furthered understanding translates into the overall quality of my final designs.