DESIGN INVESTIGATION DESIGN MOTION GRAPHICS POST-PRODUCTION
Research
POST-PRODUCTION Post Production is an important process within video’s and filmmaking. It can also be used within a variety of mediums from TV advertising, Radio, photography, motion pictures and many more. The process usually involves video editing, editing soundtrack, adding visual effects or CGI and colour grading. All these aspects contribute towards the transition from raw material into a finished product. Throughout the years digital software has developed dramatically through the integration of post-production software. In todays Digital Industry it is common for editors and composer to utilize the programs Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effect, Final Cut and Avid. These are all individually developed to achieve professional and great quality edits. Usually along the process of post-production there is three stages that occur, which involve the Editor’s cut, Director’s cut and the Final cut. This procedure of collaboration enables the whole process to run more smoothly and much quicker. Despite the extensive editing process, it is often that clients later request for further edits or addition scenes to be filmed. The development and influence of digital technologies has pushed the boundaries of post production enabling more creative and dynamic outcomes to be achieved. As an editor you have an important role in the contemporary storytelling process. There is also a significant difference in the style of editing for television broadcasts and film, which can be identified through the techniques and colour grading. As an editor you are part of a team that work closely with the director or client to achieve the desired end result. Being an editor you have the opportunity to collaborate with people from different creative background who all specialize in different techniques. I particularly chose to look into post production as I often enjoy producing short video’s for the briefs as a final outcome. My experience with working with editing software has also encouraged me to seek a career within this field.
MOTION GRAPHICS Motion graphics existed since the 1800’s, but it wasn’t until Saul Bass, a graphic designer and filmmaker, was acknowledged for his iconic title sequences and credits in the drama film ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ which released in 1955.Motion graphics is essentially the use of video footage or animations to create the illusion of motion. This technique has become increasingly effective and common within the Digital Industry. As this works closely with forms of editing and post- production it is common for creative design company’s to offer both services to clients. It not only is technically challenging but the result can often be memorable for the viewers. This is always a key aspect in broadcasting and advertising as it is the brands recognition and reputation that any business requires. As a motion designer you are capable of creating inspiring, beautiful, artwork through passion, collaboration, and a forward thinking approach to new mediums and technologies. Motion Graphics can only be determined via computer technology. In particular programs such as After Effects, Maya, 3DS Max and Cinema 4D are used to produce a piece of motion graphic. These methods can also be combined with skills in illustration, graphics and 3D modeling to create an extremely effective motion graphics. Motion graphics can involve animations of characters, graphics and typography, which exists within a significant amount of film and television, broadcasts today. Although it is a technique that is reliant upon a vast toolkit of skills, the possibilities can be endless through experience in working with the software’s. It is often that production companies collaborate with motion designers and editors to work as a team in the production process. As both fields work close together I would benefit from exposing myself to each indivudual role to ultimately decide on where my passion in visual production lies.
CONTACT REPORT When receiving this brief I initially found the idea of defining my career pathway daunting as I had yet been made to put great thought into it. However, knowing that this would be a great opportunity for me to discover a field and potentially discover a aspect I can work towards was exciting. My experience in New Media has opened my eyes up to a whole world of potential outcomes and possibilities for new ways of producing original products. Although I have enjoyed this aspect, I have also been consistent in my passion for producing videos. This led me to look into the broad field of Post production. Through investigating this particular field I became exposed to the variety of roles that fall under this field. As I have also experimented with motion and creating objects of characters through 3DS Max I felt that the role of motion graphic was one I could relate to. As I continued my investigation I began to discover a variety of production companies who are made up of a team that specialize in editing, colour grading, motion graphics and 3d modeling. This instantly caught my eye as I was finding it difficult to decide on a particular role I’d like to discover, as many of them were unfamiliar yet interesting to me. After attending a tutorial and advised to narrow down the field of motion graphics further I was determined to do this through work experience. I started by improving and adding to my C.V to illustrate the skills I now attain after utilizing more programs through this course. I then proceeded by researching numerous post production company’s within London that I could apply to. This was a long process of gathering contact info from each company website and also viewing their work and familiarizing myself with what they do that I like.
I then wrote individual cover letter and attached my C.V before emailing them to each company. I was aware that I would be competing for a work experience position against many other students and therefore kept my options open when applying. Once the emails were sent I waiting patiently for replies and in some cases rang them up to check the progress of my application. This served to my benefit as speaking to them on the phone allowed me to get a quicker response than I would have through email. Scorch London was one of many companies I applied to who were based in the Centre of London and specialized in Motion Graphics for TV Commercials. My decision to apply to work at their company was the inspiring work they’ve produced that revealed their talent in 3d and 2d animation as well as also producing more video production projects for TV. Their client list was impressive and showed that they produced work for a variety of companies which appealed to me as I personally enjoy the creative aspect of variety. After a week I was delighted to receive an email from the production coordinator informing me of my successful application to work with them for a week. I then emailed back to confirm the dates and began preparing through research into the projects they’ve previously produced and learning about the background of how Scorch London was established. This was to ensure that they could see I was passionate about the Industry they work in and that I took the time to do my part in learning about what they do. Working 9:30- 6pm allowed me to not only experience the working life of this particular Industry but also develop an in-depth understanding of the process of production.
Contact
Day One
Today was my first Day working within the environment of Scorch London. It was quite daunting at first to sit amongst a tight professional team from various creative fields, but also inspiring at the same time. During the corse of the day I helped around the studio assisting with client database, shadowing particular designers as they worked on current projects and listening in on the weekly meeting. The weekly meeting was in particular an fortunate opportunity to get an insight into the projects they’re working on at the moment and the deadlines. This itself was surprising as all together within a small team they had 31 projects to finish within the month of May. Later on in the day I had the chance to speak with one of the post-production editor who was currently working on a 30 second promo for Subway and editing footage for Sesame street Kinect game. His role as an editor was to work alongside the producers in cutting the scenes to not only fit the time scale of 1 min from 2 minutes, but it was quite challenging with the clients wanted him to follow a strict storyboard and include the majority of the script. He mentioned that working within a company is exciting as your constantly producing for different clients but the pressure of working within a tight deadlines can be challenging. However, this can encourage you to become quick at problem solving and also make you faster at achieving particular outcomes. Today led me to understand the important relationship between the client and the motion graphics team to achieve the intended vision of the outcome. It’s vital to have good and clear communication between the team and the clients to essentially provide a satisfied result. I also understood that working as a team not only means you share responsibility but also creative talent and expertise in different areas of post-production.
Day Two Today was a productive day as I had the opportunity to take on more responsibilities. The first task involved me sending over some work to another production company within the same area for analysis and feedback. I was then asked to help with finding 4 corporate female voice overs that could be pitched to their clients. This was an area I had yet been exposed to and as I only had ‘female’ and ‘corporate’ to go by it was quite challenging, however I managed to send over my recommendations which were then used to pitch to the clients. Once that was attended to I moved on to further doing research on a location in Frankfurt that would essentially be a traditional and historic villa that the production team could stay at as well as film. As Frankfurt is a city and therefore quite modern and refurbished I had to look for bed and breakfast villas slightly out of the city. I then transferred the results and possibilities onto a word document and sent it to the production manager. Later on in the afternoon I had the opportunity to shadow the post production editor who was still struggling to meet the Sesame Street clients adjustment suggestions as its quite challenging when they are particular about what they want within the sequence. As I explained my background and experience with working in Adobe Premiere Pro he suggested that I have a look and point out anything that may have been missed out to edit. This was a great experience to not only get involved in a current project of theirs physically but also understand the intricate details that go into the process of editing. As I watched the sequence I mentioned a few sound issues that he had overseen due to several times of watching the same scene. We also discussed his past jobs and how he got to his current position. It was very insightful to understand the individual process that goes into teaching yourself skills within programs and learning to problem solve. It was also great to get advise for how to plan future projects and make the most of the time and resources I have available to me at this stage.
Today actually felt quite intense as it seemed that the deadlines for a few projects were expected to be done for today. I observed the team work throughout the day multitasking 3 projects in order to meet the deadline for each client. To be in a tense atmosphere made me realise the sheer hard work they put together to meet the clients expectations as well as keep on track. It can be a demanding and tough process but ultimately the outcomes were inspiring. Today the production team were working on a promo for Rimmel (makeup), 3 santander sponsors and an iPad mooting graphics for HSBC. Alongside the desperate attempt to get each project complete, the production manager also had arranged meetings with other clients to discuss their requirements and feedback. It was interesting to overhear these meetings as I was able to observe how they pitch ideas to the clients and how they present their skills and work to them. Alongside this I also volunteered helping with researching a green screen studio that the production team could rent in Switzerland when they shoot for one of their projects. This was quite challenging as I had to translate my search into german or french in order to find what I was looking for. Researching locations , prop hire and equipment can be quite time consuming which is why the team depend on a production manager to help control the day to day arrangements, finance and necessary research that contribute towards the overall flow of a production process.
Day Three
Later on in the day I continued to help the production assistant and manager with finding flight tickets to Switzerland and China for the team to shoot for a project. This was exciting for the team as it will be a big project that involves all of them and a lot of time. It was also challenging as they had a budget to stick by that involved flight tickets, accommodation, equipment rental, and many more elements that needed to be considered.
Day Four
Today I got the opportunity to tag alongside the new business development manager to the shoot for Levi. Scorch were involved in producing the promo video for their innovative new commuter clothing range. They installed a set of bikes into the Oxford Street Selfridges and Regents Street Levi store to promote their optimistic approach to urban commuters whilst linking the theme to the upcoming Olympics. The event will continue for a week and will invited people to show off their cycling skills in a test to win the crown of Sprint King of London. Each person will cycle as fast as they can for 500m and their record will upload onto the Levi Facebook page that will reveal the quickest speed. The winner of the competition will get an all expenses paid trip to Paris and given a head to toe Levi Commuter outfit. Scorch were involved in hiring a freelance photographer to collect footage for the post production stage. It was interesting to watch the process as everyone worked together to achieve a successful event.
As today’s my last day I took the chance to speak to the team as a Tristan Ramsey “Russell joined us recently to help get our name out and whole about the Industry they work in and answer any questions I had. publicize our company and what we do. As a new business manager he will also attend to the clients and inform them of the process and any changes to always keep them in the loop. But yeah our team has very much evolved What is your role within this production team? each year but so have our project requests, clients and quality of work.” Steve Jay: “Theoretically Tristan and myself are the creative directors. Thom, Garth and Farid are motion graphic designers, Abby is the production manager and Russell controls the new business development and managers the accounts, Ashlan is the producer/production coordinator, but our roles tend to merge together depending on the project.”
How did you get to where you are now and the roles you play? Thom Haig: “Jules and I graduated in Audio and did the same course in sound art and design, I also studied graphic design briefly but I enjoyed audio more due to my livelihood. But when I got my first job in graphicsI began getting more into it and experimenting with After Effects.”
Abby Blackmore: “Producer and production manager are very different. Production managers make sure everything is in its place.” Ashlan: “I did film an TV at uni, I didn’t really know what part I wanted to go into when I left so I moved to London and started What do your roles involve you doing? getting jobs in costume designing, working with directors and took all the knowledge from that and applied it to my job now.” Ashlan Dowling: “Whatever needs attending, such as getting involved in shoots, organizing dates for filming, equipment hire, accommodation, Steve: “Yh ,I did editing for 3 years at year and then developed into finding suitable set locations, sourcing, researching, voice overs, music…” director since then. It pretty much is a mixture but it’s certainly helpful to have a range of skills that can be used towards projects, so it’s only a Abby: “These tend to be the roles people at university don’t hear to much bonus. If you can have more assets the better you are. For example I about because graphic design is very specific, but people forget there’s a graduated in editing and although I was theoretically good at it I didn’t range of stuff you go through to get to producer. Like people usually work do anything else and because of the way software is developing and up from being a runner, then production assistant, production co ordinator merging all techniques its good to be able to utilize them as well.” where your in charge of organizing the right shoots at the right time and you have the right people/crew , everything, booking the location, and then If theres one piece of advice you could offer an aspiring designer what production manager oversees these to make sure all the various ones are would it be? coming out of the budget . Within an office you have a production team to be taken care of as well, which means making sure everything’s running Steve: “Develop a stlye, Tristan’s definitely got a style, but its good that to make life easier for them to concentrate on the work for the clients.” they have different style because when it comes to collaborating we can achieve more. Also put together a show reel that grabs your attention, How did you all come to become the team you are? includes 3 or more projects and shows off your skills and abilities”
Day Five
Steve: “Well it was Tristan and myself for four years and then a guy called Neil and Ryan joined to help with the production process and scriptwriting, and then when we moved into London, Abby joined us after freelancing for a couple of our projects. After that it was more about working out what we needed next to produce better work. Still we only have one full time editor and me because our work is more graphics at the moment. But even so we still need to get another motion graphics designer on board in order expand our skills and to take on more projects. As the graphics team grew it opened up the potential to take on more jobs.”
Abby: “There will always be jobs that your style isn’t perfect for but if you find the one or two jobs your styles perfect for then your set.” Ashlan: “Also try networking events, there’s always loads of sites that you can sign up to were you can meet people from the industry and get contacts. Also try attend computer graphic screening events.” Thom: “Twitter is also useful if you use it right, for finding out event that are happening or getting in contact with people.”
Experience Overall my experience with working at Scorch London was inspiring to understand the working environment of this particular Industry. Whilst working for them I developed my knowledge in the skills and roles that intertwined within a production team. I also became more aware of similar company’s situated around Oxford Street during running errands. This opened my eye to a whole competitive Design Industry that I aim to be a part of in the future. Working in the heart of London however can have its advantages in that you have higher possibility of becoming recognized and requested by clients, it also enables the team to have more material and locations accessible and close by. Although it is a busy location it can be extremely inspiring and influential and everywhere you look you are bombarded with creative designs, posters, events and technology. My experience with the company enabled me to understand the essentials that go into building up a production company and becoming successful. As Scorch is still growing, it has the potential to become more established and recognized for their work. They also mentioned that they will be moving to a larger studio to accommodate their expanding team. It was clear from my end that this company was on its way to becoming a recognized global company who will potentially offer more creative talents for clients to utilize. After the interviews I began thinking about how it initially built up from 2 individual creative producers who collaborated with freelancers to get an initial portfolio of clients going, and as they took on more project they expanded their team. I gained a lot of insight into the development of a production business as well as the jobs within it. During the week I also shadowed a majority of the team learning about each of their individual roles and the different software they specifically work with. It was assuring to find out that a lot of the program are ones which I currently utilize, and also encouraged me to experiment more as there was so much potential outcomes that can be created. The overall experience allowed me to investigate this career pathway and develop my knowledge about the Industry as a whole. I also benefited from the advice I got from those who have been in the business for several years now. After evaluating the different roles they play, I feel more convinced that the narrative editor position is one I relate more to in terms of the responsibility to transfer raw material into a finished product. It has also inspired me to seek more experience in this area to find out the potentials of this particular role.