The strength of an audio

At this stage I am starting to realise the difference a strong piece of audio can make, at this stage I am looking at mainly eery music, seen on my context, consisting of classical music. Bluntly, music that will create a scare factor, combined with recognisable images and informative type.

However, I am not sure this is going to lead to a high level of creativeness, I want to continue with my experimenting, which will hopefully lead to more interesting ideas.

With the audience and channel I am going for I don't want my idents or tone of opening sequence to be overly serious. I think it is more important to excite people and inspire them to watch the program.

THE PROGRAM: TOP TEN HORROR/TOP TEN THINGS ABOUT HORROR FILMS

I am concentrating my program towards an audience that at the moment I am not terribly sure of, obviously, both men and women that might already be interested in horror films, but also I think the use of facts would entice others that are not overly interested. By pitching them the program in the right tone, it would not scare them (literally) away from watching the program, but show them that typical horror films are not all the stereotypes.

What scares us?

Horror films take our deepest fears - those ideas and thoughts that are just so scary that we can't contemplate them becoming real - and ask the question "What if?" The fear of the unknown has to be the strongest human emotion and a good horror film can make us feel like we are experiencing our worst nightmare.

In my opinion, the human imagination will always be able to outdo any special effects and it is the suggestion of something terrifying that really scares. Seeing the monster in a film actually makes it a whole lot less scary that a shadow moving across that little gap beneath the door or a creak on the stairs. Deep down, we all know that monsters don't really exist – it takes a big suspension of belief to really feel scared by a horror film. When the film makers attempt to create something truly terrifying, they often get it a bit wrong – too unbelievable and the spell is broken.

A film that can unsettle us, which can invoke our deepest fears and revulsions, without relying on blood and gore tends to be far scarier than watching twelve disembowellings and a few decapitations. The lack of realism in such a film can also be a problem. When the monster gets blown up by a nuclear weapon and still doesn’t die? Yeah, by that point I am rolling my eyes and waiting for the credits. The fear of something terrifying happening to normal people in a normal setting is far scarier than something that attempts to shock the audience with litres of blood and guts.


Discussing this with peers I began to become aware that evoking this desired affect was something that I thought might be too big a challenge. 

Trying to progress.

I realised that the next step I needed to take was to add audio. This was something that would dictate movement and pacing. I was working on one of my idents and hoping to use the psycho soundtrack to pace the speed of the increased size of the expanding type.

I also thought that I needed to add an effect over the top of my type to add to the depth of the texture.

Here are the obviously unfinished videos.
I think at this point I need to spend and entire afternoon working on idea development and storyboarding, expanding on ideas and getting them on paper. I will focus on the idents initially, and concentrate on getting ideas from storyboards to aftereffects.

An improved version of the channel 4 logo, beginning to consider movement of the logo

Channel 4 template trial improved from Chloe Wilkinson on Vimeo.

The simple change in the way the channel 4 logo comes into view is a good progression I think, its amazing how much strength a logo has. Obviously it is obvious that that strength is within the motion and graphics but associating the program idents and opening sequence is key as if they do not relate then the whole thing will appear inappropriate and just won't work.

Further development and analysis of channel 4 logo

I started looking at an advert for channel 4's Shameless 2012, concentrating mainly on the movement of the 4 logo. I started by playing the advert through.

 

This allowed my to see the timings, however I wanted to mainly organise the movements and key frames that occurred within the sequence. The screen shots show the movement quite well, however, I then wanted to try and interpret this within a storyboard. From trying before, the process of putting something on paper, I realised it helped me work out how to interpret it to my own piece of motion and also so I could transfer it to illustrator.

Trying to break down with storyboards

A progress crit 18th Jan

Strengths

• Engaging subject, gripping theme that appeals to wide range of people. 
• Soundtrack considered - using already existing horror movie soundtrack 

Areas for improvement

• Colour considerations, maybse use much more gloomy dark shades of black and red to express theme of horror. 
• Experiment with typefaces that communicate horror, distorted/eroded text could work. 
• Narrow down audience 
• Look at how channel 4 logo comes into shot. 

Considerations 

• What media are you going to use? Digital/Analog?
• Is the theme going to remain consistent?
• Is imagery already existing or are you going to draw/vector?
• Look at existing typefaces used on horror films.

Type in after effects workshop

Red pan across top10 horror from Chloe Wilkinson on Vimeo.


During a workshop in aftereffects we were shown how to use offset with type and making it relevant to my piece was interesting, this was the first time I was started to use an effect that was more than just a simple movement. It started to make me realise the possibilities of after effects, and inspire me to go back to  my silent movies and add to them more. What I am beginning to really enjoy with regards to this project is the new software, although it is difficult to apply design to screen and then animate it, it is something that I am interested in (surprisingly) being able to expand on my interest and love of films. It makes me want to start considering this line of work.

Despite initially feeling that print was where my passion lies, this seems like the module than has really struck a chord.

Applying type to Channel 4 template

I started to realise during this development that storyboarding for me was most useful to simply work things out, especially with logo movements such as these that sequentially planning out the movements and noting down colours, and way things move. 

Quick trial for channel 4 fright night from Chloe Wilkinson on Vimeo.


I decided to start this idea with some storyboards, I wanted to work out composition and typefaces etc.  and felt that if I went straight to aftereffects I could spend too long trying to achieve this simplistic piece of motion, especially as it was to just see how the channel 4 logo can be used.

In my crit, this piece was seen and the point was raised about looking at how the logo comes into shot, a very valid point I thought, it is obviously very simplistic with the opacity suddenly shooting up from 0 - 100%.

Another thing that is clearly not working is the timing of the piece, it goes through everything far too quickly and ends up too fast to read.

Despite this piece not being fantastic, it feels great to have started thinking about an ident that has been designed for an audience and channel, it begins to give it some sort of justification and story behind it.

It is also really good to start to use the software and become aware of problems early on.

Audience: Top 10 Horror Films

When designing for this project it is important to decide on the intended audience so that the intended message is delivered in the most effective way. As I intend to make three stings for the program that indicate what the programs will contain, (obviously not the top ten but that there will be a count down and more information) then the title sequence the way in which these are produced is decided on the audience. It would be foolish to use a style that is irrelevant. Therefore I am going to clarify my audience, broadly I am aiming this at both men and women that have an interest in horror films and also films. I hope to incorporate unknown facts about the films mentioned and some more. This will add substance to my program and will ensure that it is not simply a countdown with nothing else, as from personal experience, these do not grab my attention. With regards to age I think that the audience must be over 18, as some of the films mentioned are over 18 advised. It is tempting to say that the audience would be intense film fans, but I think this would be an error due to their own opinions being so strong and the possibility that they may know the facts and stories about the films made, so I am going to suggest that this is a program for adults with an interest in films but not a knowledge that is so extensive that they will be bored or unimpressed. Another problem with the program being for film fanatics or more specifically horror film fanatics this is a very niche group, and a small target audience, by making it much broader it can have a potentially larger audience and be seen by more people, which in my opinion is much more important.

 There are a lot of things that are important when designing for a tv program, one of these is how many people see it, surely the more viewers the better especially with regards to advertising and success. Something that I feel is a big problem is my personal response to seeing 'TOP TEN' or 'TOP 100' on television, it doesn't grab my attention, it does the opposite. I watch for perhaps ten minutes but I am never that interested in the opinion of someone else's top films, or toys, or children's games etc. So I think by adding interesting facts I will make the program more interesting.

 I will take this decision and interpret it it by making the stings high impact with mention of the 'facts you didn't know' or perhaps even use one of the facts, as well as trying to provoke the reaction of fear or shock by using strong images and eery audio.

Aftereffects workshop

Concept boards and crit feedback

After creating these boards, we presented our ideas to a group of 7. I explained that I wanted to take inspiration from title sequences such as True Blood and Hills Have Eyes due to their use of flash images in a sequence that arranges obscure photos with type. I found showing people these easier than explaining it myself. (Which proves how important still frames and storyboards are)

I intend to begin the design/story board process by considering the stings to begin with, allowing me to decide on high impact pieces then building them up for the longer clip. This will hopefully allow me to decide on a relevant tone of voice and tenor to my clip. I immediately thought of channel 4's Big Brother stings, by using little information and an element of suspense they created an excitement to the program. The recognisable audio and image from the program allowed a simplistic but still effective piece of advertising.

CRIT FEEDBACK FROM CONCEPT BOARDS 
DAY 1


It is key to know what you are going to concentrate on promoting, the content with determine the tone and information given.


What top ten are you working with? Questionnaire? Fair outcome.


Could it be part of a scary film/horror night on a channel? Fright night?

We were then asked to go away and decide our specific intentions, to clarify, like the 'what is good' brief our aims through one specific sentence.

DAY 2


I stated that I wanted to use the top ten horror films, but this wasn't going to be my title. I wanted to concentrate on advertising a program that was about informing the audience of facts they probably didn't know. 


The feedback to this was:


A strong ideas of desired visuals.


Interesting facts. 


Gain more opinions on top ten films 


Considerations: 


Eden Lake 
Comparison through research - questionnaires. 
Survey
Se7en title sequence (Kyle Cooper)