Visual Effects and Motion Graphics-Evaluation

For this brief i chose to do the Fear season 20 second ident. i chose this as i thought i would be the most interesting one to do and also the one which i personally could be the most creative with. I started off by looking at existing idents for horror and fear seasons and quickly came up with my idea of a torture sequence in which someone was been made to watch a TV on which there as images related to fear and horror. I tried to approach this project in a professional manner by location scouting and doing test shoots to to make sure that everything was perfect when it came to the edit. I only had one hick-up when it came to the location of the first scene as when i filmed it the frame was too busy and i couldn't get the audience to focus on specific areas of the shot which i found out by showing the footage to members of my class. I soon came over this problem and shot a different location which turned out really well. I shot the first scene in the day and using a program called magic bullet i was able to make the shot look as if it was shot at night using a technique called 'Night For Day'. During the process i learnt a lot about Magic Bullet which i really enjoyed using. As i did test shoots for the next scene i thought that everything would run really smoothly but unfortunately the lights that i had planned to used had not been returned on the previous day there for i had to use the lighting rig that is set up in the lecture theater. I think that it turn out quite well though and i learnt a lot about the lighting rig so that is good for future reference. I shot the final sequence (the eye shot) on the same day using the same lights for continuity. when i had collected my footage i started the process in after effects which i was very excited about as i have been wanting to learn the software for many years and had tried multiple times but never understood it at all. I started by turning the day shot into night and then went about placing my sign onto the wall. This process was a nightmare as i planned to use motion tracker but as there was no good points for which to use i had to corner pin the sign on for every frame. This process was extremely difficult as the perspective of the shot was constantly changing and the shot was not that steady. I think that i did a good job with that and learnt a lot about the software during the process. As i had done the corner pinning in the first scene the next shot was a lot easier to superimpose. I shot it using a track and dolly which i am so glad about as it made the process of corner pinning so much easier. For the second shot i had to mask the head out of the shot which i really enjoyed doing just due to the fact that i had never done it before and was so happy to be doing it. During the edit time i had a change of idea for the last scene where i would place the channel 4 logo on the eyeball making it look like a contact lens or something. Using the techniques i had learnt previously i was able to do this quite easily and using blend modes, an effect called bulge and a bit of Magic Bullet i think that it sits quite well on the eye. When i had done the tweaks i exported the compositions and imported them into Final Cut where i did the sound track and edited the timing and sequence. i re-recorded the sound using a boom mic to get better clarity and also was able to give more direction to the actor about what to say which i had thought would bring more to the piece. Overall i am extremely pleased with the final product and so happy that i have learnt a basic grounding in after effect that i can develop on in the future. I think that if i were to do this again i would definitely make the sign and hang it up, even though i learnt a lot because i didn't.