The News intro

Now that the channel ident has been submitted I can fully concentrate on my news program. I have identified the key themes that make up news intros.

A lot of channels use radiating rings to use as wipe to introduce images.

The walk through where images are shown of people in up and coming broadcast.

Point to point this is where the image has place names linked by lines new with new names added

Lastly a globe motif are used either the world or in the case of local news a sphere.

Most intros last between 7 and 10 seconds. with that in mind I have experimented with these elemnts and added the idea I had of the shadow images to create this video.

Finishing up ident work

This coming Monday we must submit our ident packages. I had a small but important break through. All of my animation ident was created using illustrator files in after effect. I could not understand why the final outputted image was so unsharp, I knew I must have been doing something wrong some ware down the line. I retraced my steps made sure that the Ai files where RGB and gave them a 300dpi setting. Still no difference it must be some thing in after effects after some internet searching I discovered that I had to check Continuously Rasterise this meant all Ai files would be sharp at any size.

Continuously Rasterise

The second thing that was a big help was to output a video with an alpha channel. This would allow me to generate my lower thirds and they could be directly played over a live image. The only draw back was that the files are uncompressed and so a few second can generate very large files.

Example of my lower third using alpha channel to drop in video.

For  my complete package I have submitted 5,10, 12, second version. I have done this by adding or subtracting locations. My flying post card has been adapted as  a coming up next and a logo to be used as a lower third. Lastly a new version of my running man.

The 10 second Bike video

Monday Pitch

This Monday we were going to pitch our program ideas to Val Aviv, due to other commitments her time with us was short. She only wanted to see our finished idents. I showed the complete version with new bike and post card. After the presentation I asked Andrew who had been taking note if he could provide a summary of what she said. I found it very hard to remember how she felt and her suggestions as to what tweaks I might make. Val said she liked the beginning of the rough version shown at the original presentation. She was happier with the new ending but felt the card should spin in a different way as well as having the logo inside a stamp rather than sitting on the cardand losing the black line of the card at the end. There was some discussion about different massages on the card and whether the messages space could be blank and the message added later.

1st version of bike video

I also showed the second concept video of the running man. Val's reaction was she like the concept and that it looks very different, I assume she meant from the animation and felt the logo did not blend in with their backgrounds and she preferred the other logo I had used. She suggested that it could be used a head of  an upcoming who done it type program.I had created a piece of music using Garage band and added to the finished film.

 The Running man video

It was unfortunate that Val's time with us was short as I felt I would have been able to discus the changes easier on a one to one basis rather than across a room full of other students. After our meeting in discussion with Andrew I expanded on the concept and he added some other avenues I might like to explore for example runners instead of bike, other locations in Brighton, Seven dials, Viaduct on London road, Palmeria and Adelaide Crescent. I now have many more idea to think about.

Completing idents

This last week has been a combination of finishing up our theory essay and completing the idents so Val can see them on Monday, the meeting is primarily to see the presentation of our individual programs and see work in progress for the finished idents.

New drawings for animations

 

I have finessed my bike idea, I have created a complete bike and a series of back drops for it to sit against. Buildings include the Pavilion, Brighton pier, a new version of the Big wheel which now sits on a stand. I am also thinking of location on the edge of the transmission area. This will include the race course and Shoreham airport. I have had a thought of expanding the idea changing the bike for a seagull which fly's over various locations. At the moment I have the Pier, The Lanes and the railway station. I have decided to drop the idea of the ice cream and adopt the idea of a post card as a way of introducing the channel ident/logo I have made. The post theme fits well with the flat drawings as they could be from post cards. I have placed the logo in place of a stamp which during the animation fades just leaving the logo as the final image.

Postcard with logo

 

Most of the group feel that their work is being held up because we don't have any music. Andrew as in class if anyone could come up with some music and Mike generated some while we were in class and pasted them to a site where we could all get copies from.

This is an example of the music Mike has created. 

Analyst of title sequence for local news

I have done an analyst of the South Today the BBC local news programme opening titles. 

Start
1, 4fr 1st image stats to reveal.
2, 1sec 21st frame end of first image ( image of a ship which is static and rings reveal image through gaps against white background. 
3, 1sec 22fr 2nd image starts to reveal ( film of helicopter flying revealed through rings and shapes)

4, 2 sec 20fr new shape and image and place words

5, 3 sec 18 fr last part of image and words ( more rotation of image than before)

6,  3 sec 19 fr 4^th filmed imaged of bikes with ball shaped image revealing image underneath. 
Named places.

7,  4 sec 09 fr end of filmed sequence.

8,   4 sec 10 fr 5^th image of light house rings of white /images bigger. 
9,  4 sec 12fr 1^st indication of BBC News logo fading in.

10,  5 sec 17fr BBC News logo and BBC South Today at their sharpest.

11, 6 sec 16 fr studio starts to fade in.

12

 12, 7 sec 11 fr titles completely faded out, presenter about to talk to camera.

The total sequence last for 7sec and 11frames approximately 7.5 seconds.

Lower Thirds

1,  Last clean frame before lower third.
2,  1 fr start of lower third fade in.
3,  6 fr lower third completely in.
4,  4sec 5fr last clean frame of lower third.

5

5, 4 10fr fade to clean frame.
Lower third on screen process take 4 seconds and 10 frames.

 

 

Location Filming

I have set aside the last week of our two week break to travel to Brighton and shoot the film sequence for the running man video idea. I have been a hostage to the weather with had nothing but rain and wind so as soon as there was a break in the weather I set a day aside to travel to Brighton. I had initially thought that I would use random people to walk pass the areas where I wanted to put the Latest TV logo, along with the weather I thought I would leave nothing to chance and persuaded a friend to walk in front of the camera for me.

Location sample

I have cut together a sample of the days location filming before I choose which shoots to use for the final video.I will incorporate the new logo in the final film.

Logo Development

I've had to put working on this project to one side as we have had an essay to hand in so time management has become important. To break up my day from essay writing I have set about only designing a logo, something I had over looked with my initial presentation. I had just used text on the ice cream to indicate the channel name. Jamie's work brought into strong focus the need for a logo. The logo helps tie things together links everything. Val said we could create a new logo however she seemed keen to keep the font Verdana that they have been using. 

Logo workout with their original

 

My initial designs are a reworking of the red box and Verdana font. Its soon became apparent that using the flat colours did not work and there needed to be an element of 3D and or some shading.

3d logo and shading

I have adapted my design and add a shadow. The logo incorporates Latest TV and Channel 8 which is the channel it will be broadcast on. The style of logo can also be adapted for the news programme intro that I am going to make and is in keeping with a corporate theme.

Channel ident with shadows

I have also played around in after effects and made a basic channel 4 logo type animation just to see how the idea might look.

Channel four type 3D animation