Irina Werning - Back to the future

I came across the photography of Irina Werning ( I have no idea where) and i have been meaning to put it up on my blog for ages. In a way it has a strong link to OHP because of the photography element but also it shows how a photo is a moment frozen in time. "Nobody ever takes a picture of something you want to forget." is a quote from OHP and its definitely true. everybody puts on a fake smile for a few seconds and you never go back to the exact same place/pose twice. This brief has definitely made me think about precious moments and has made me appreciate time as well.

Thinking about my end credits I could use a similar idea about someone when they were young and old,happy or sad. could make for an interesting credits which the viewers would stay interested with.

The work of director Mark Romanek

The reason I chose to do a title sequence for OHP was not only because of how deep I thought the film was, But after watching it I decided to watch the extras and an interview with the director Mark Romanek.

Before One Hour photo I had never heard of the guy so I decided to do abit of research and I purchased the dvd of his work. Not only is he a film director but has directed music videos for Nine inch Nails/Madonna/Johnny Cash and my most favourite music video, Jay Z - 99 Problems as seen below.

When talking about this video he says how he wanted to give rap music videos a new breath of life, a cool/non cheesey look. He has achieved this with the black and white video with fast cuts and slow-mo. He actually had to persuade jay z to be shot in his own music video, It is this decision which made the video as high profile as it is now.

I recently started to follow Mark Romanek on twitter where I asked him which music video is he most proud of making.

Although I was hoping for more of a reply at least he took time out to reply, hopefully he will answer more of my questions in the future. Looking at his work in more depth has really inspired me, I have always had a love for film/editing and directing so Mark has become a role model to me and someone I would love to emulate.

Music video - Seventeen. After effects parallax

I stumbled upon this the other day. It was produced by an american company called Thought division. One of my first ideas was to cut out the foreground from the background an in aftereffects I would make the layers parallax. Although I decided not to follow this idea I could use the music video as reference for any future personal projects that I may be thinking about.

I think the way scribbles/handwriting is used in the piece also works and gives the animation a warm(home made) feel. Maybe I could use this handwriting style in some way within my piece.

Comedy connections intro - 2.5D

When I went on my portfolio visit to stylorouge and spoke to teh creative team. They said how my style frames reminded them of a 2.5d piece where text and lines and image animate towards and away from the camera. They suggested looking at the intro to comedy connections on the bbc.

As you can see the camera never stays fixed in one spot...its always 'floating' which ads to the lively tone of the program. I guess once they have planned out where everything will move at the storyboard/animatic stage they can easily put it all together in 3d space and animate the camera to move wherever they want. Hopefully I can do this in my piece...setting the stage and moving my camera.

Agfa Montage - Soundtrack

This is the song choice I will be using for my titles. I decided on this track because of its gradually build and change in beat half way through. this enables me to show the change that develops in the film but in a more subtle way in in my sequence.

The soundtrack is used during a lab scene in the film and it gives off a certain level of eeriness which is teh emotion the film is trying to portray.

Portfolio Visit - Stylorouge

I emailed stylorouge before we went down to London. Besides working in the creative industry I couldnt pinpoint what they actually specialized when I looked at their website...their answer? ABIT OF EVERYTHING. What they said was that when a client comes along asking for a certain

thing they work all ends meet to try and adapt their company to meeting the clients demands.

Their work includes Music promos, Print design, tv advertisements, rebranding which is quite impressive of a company with around 10-15 members of staff. So I sat down with 3 of their members. Managing director, A member of the creative team and the video editor/tech guy.

They seemed impressed with my my showreel which showed a wide range of work and they recommended I learnt 3d just so I have another skill under my belt. The guy who studied in salford before moving down to london gave me input on my current project from the style frames I showed him. He suggested instead of designing in flat 2d why not use the 2.5d feature in after effects to give it more to look at and more visual interesting. I though this was a great idea and I could almost see my style frames looking 3d with depth between layers added in after effects.

The manager director mentioned how when a big project comes in they struggle towards teh end with only having one person specializing in video editing, she said that in the summer if I was willing to do a few weeks work experience I could join the team and maybe a full time job would come out of it which would be great for me!

Call of duty intro - Miles christensen

Every time I turn my xbox on I see this short activision intro. I wondered who made it so I did abit of stalking/searching and found out through vimeo that a guy called Miles Christenen a motion graphics designer had created the piece.

I love the fast paced cuts and the combination of video and text in the composition. It reminds me of the Rubicon titles and the focal sound really add to the feeling of high energy. Again I have to remember the pace of my piece has to be slower. So I cant just punch someone in the face with fast moving graphics;It just wouldnt work.

Portfolio Visit - Trunk

While we were in London Andy mentioned that he had been in touch with a company called TRUNK and that we could go for a joint visit. So I did abit of research by look at their site.

I recognised this piece of the tv THE WORLD’S… AND ME 2 I remember seeing it on channel 4 and loving the way it looked hand illustrated and composited together in after effects. When I got to the studio I actually complimented the guy on how much the piece inspired me for my office and euro 2012 title sequences.

The office was very small/ literally a converted studio apartment which I thought was really surprising considering the amount of work they have produced.

I her my euro 2012 piece which they seemed to like. she suggested maybe introducing live footage into the piece to make it more interesting to look at. I completely agree and if i was working for the bbc i am guessing I would be given some footage to include when design the piece. I also showed my style frames for my FMP. She suggested animating the camera and the buttons/dials on the camera....this is something I was thinking of doing anyway but I definitely think this will make my title sequence more interesting.

I found her feedback to be positive and constructive and it gave me few ideas for my fmp as well as tweaks I can make to my euro 2012 sequence.

London Visit - Tandem Films

While in London the hole group went for a pleasant visit to Tandem Films, A design studio which specialize in different types of animation from flash to 3D.

We were given a tour around the impressive studio which had a layed back vibe to the place(mainly due to the use of plants and umbrellas scattered everywhere.) The studio basement held a large green screen studio/editing suite and sound room. I couldnt help but wish stockport had a g/s studio that size for open use as it would encourage students to experiment different techniques as early as the 3rd year. Ive yet to try out green screen but its something I definitely want to use in the future in the industry.

The piece of work that I was most impressed by from tandem was Rockin & Rollin: Richard Jack/Daniel Greaves http://www.tandemfilms.com/#films/shortfilms/11 .

Being a lover of Stop Motion this piece grabbed me straight away. Not only the execution but the idea as well.... I found it interesting how this piece eventually led on to the Ribena adverts which hold the same characteristics as the snooker balls.

Tandem was a great studio, producing great work. Its a studio I could see myself working in from the different types of media they use.

Style fames - Visual look

Ive designed a few mock up style frames to I can get a better idea of how my piece will look. Ive decided to stick with the white and blue look to keep the colour palette contained and not to vibrant.

I now need to get an animatic sorted out so I can see how the animation will all be put together, I also neeed to picture how the title 'One Hour Photo' will appear at the beginning or end.

New idea - Camera manual style

Gaining inspiration from Dead man on campus. I have decided to design my title sequence in the style of a camera manual. This will allow me to present my titles in an information/diagram style.

Im hoping to use 2.5d to move past diagrams and use fades as a transition. Im thinking about using stop motion to animate certain parts of the camera to make my sequence more interesting rather than still images.

Rubicon intro - Motion Graphics

This piece I came across on vimeo, Its a short sequence for an american series based on an intelligence analyst. Without even watching or knowing about the series - the sequence paints the image in my mind.

The style of the intro is what I would like to aim for, The 2.5 d look is the technique I really want my piece to look like. The way that things are enlarged by sharp cut ins is also the way I want to edit my piece....The only thing I have to bear in mind is that my sequence needs to be slower to stay with the tone of the film as well as the music score.