Evaluation

Blog Address: niche-designs.blogspot.com

Evaluation

During this project, students were given the task to conceptualise a project whilst relating it back to a theoretical framework learnt in the module. Whilst it may seem like an easy task to do, the thought process, planning, research and production required for this project is immense. This evaluation aims to reflect on the project as well as, bring in Howey’s (2005) theory on ‘Software Technology’.

When thinking back to the whole process involved, I feel that the work put in to the project is reflected onto the video produced. Huge amounts of planning were involved in just thinking of the relevant subject in this contemporary society. Being a massive sports fan, I felt doing something that one has a passion for, and can physically understand allows the individual to have an advantage over someone who requires to do mass amount of research for that project.

At the time of planning and choosing the subject, I originally wanted to tackle the subject of Asians in football, being a young Asian boy myself and seeing the lack of youngsters who are of Asian origin in the football is alarming, especially in a society which boasts multiculturalism. Being quite excited about this prospect, I set about researching ideas, stories and case studies. As I knew someone who had the chance to become pro, ideas started flowing in my head, but before I knew it I had several setbacks. In order this for project to be in any way a success, more than one person was needed to tell their account, additionally, if there was no set narrative, then the final product would convey a mixed message. Taking myself back to that moment, I am fairly annoyed that I threw away a good opportunity to express the feelings of a unified ethnic group. However, the new project that I had decided to do may be one the reason for small amounts of Asians in football and I felt it was an adequate enough ‘replacement’ for the previous project.

In my opinion, I feel that the beginning of the final video lets down the ending, by this I mean the typography that was created looks rather basic and I feel that I could have put a lot more effort in finding tutorials that tackle typography. Another aspect I was let down by was the overall video does not look ‘professional’ enough to be produced on a larger scale. This may be because of the software used, or the time frame that was given.

There are several parts in the video that I am particular proud of; I feel that the last half of the video made more of an impact on the audience than the first half. After viewing the video from an audience’s point of view, If I was given more time I use less typography and base the project around real time events as such in the last half of the project.

“Software is an extremely important technology to modern business and society at large.” (Howey 2005:65) Without the use of software within technology, some of the most fundamental aspects of life would not exist. Software technology provides users with the freedom to enable interactivity with media related products to take place and has become a central part of society today. “The world wide web is largely a software phenomenon.” (Howey 2005:66) Without the success of some of the top companies such as Microsoft, and Apple then software may arguably be not as advanced. Which means that developing movies, commercials, and images may not be as effective as it is today.

Too sum up, I feel that the project does meet its requirements that were set out in the planning stages of the blog. This is mainly to do with the design of the storyboard as it gave me a path which I was able to easily follow, even If there were some minor changes made having a storyboard can allow one to stick on the right path or, changes may be made which can affect the narrative. Given more time, I would definitely aim to make this piece more emotional towards the audience, however, when looking at the overall video I do feel it conveys the right message and the use of audio allows some emotional involvement.

Bibliography

Howey, R (2005) ‘Understanding Software Technology. In Clarke, D Theory Of Technology. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. (pp. 65-79)

Let's Silence These Racists. FINAL VERSION

Brand Identity

The main header in this blog in essentially the company logo, however, with every company at one point in time they will have to either present their product, or send a letter and even though we are in fairly modern society there are still instances in which black and white images are needed, if it's not for technological purposes then it may be for environmental purposes.

Henceforth, I have created an alternative version, which as you can see is not too different from the original logo apart form the background.

Whilst it may seem unprofessional to have more logo's than one, Murray (2003) explains that "new technologies and digital communication networks have put the world at our fingertips. We are interconnected via tens of millions of websites,Usenet newsgroups, message boards, chat rooms, instant messaging, short messaging service (SMS), weblogs, streaming media, peer to peer networks, and email." Therefore it may seem relevant that a more eye-grabbing logo is created as 'we' are now competing with billions of people around the world.

Considering we are still in the 21st century, it is only fair that an appropriate black and white version is created. I've just used N & D as these are my two central letters. After the audience recognize that ND is actually Niche Designs they will be able to interconnect both logo's under one central company.

Murray, B (2003) Defending The Brand. New York: AMACOM

phase 13 - Project Production Cont (2)

The last scene involved a video clip as well as the voice recording, after importing the voice recording similar to the videos and images, I dragged the video to the end and positioned it were it was needed. Similar to the voice recording, I placed it over a particular bit where the actor is going to speak, this enables a number of voices saying the phrase: "Let's Silence These Racists" to give the clip 'unity'. As I edited the music file in SoundTrack Pro, there was no need to move the music file as it had been edited to finish when the clip finishes.

The next process, was probably the longest process out of the whole project, making sure that everything is perfect. This process involves playing back the video over and over again making sure that every last detail is attended to. After adjusting timing, images, video's and positioning, the final product was now complete!

Phase 13 - Project Production Cont....

To enable the text to scroll across the screen you can either import a previously designed image or create a new layer by selecting Layer and then choosing Text, Solid or Camera (more options available) and choose your desired font and size, create a new keyframe, position your image to the points where you want it to move and then an automatic keyframe should be selected. This is the way I used to enable the typography to run across screen.

Uploading the video to the project is a similar process to importing an image, after dragging the file onto the editing space the video clip playback bar is usually at the beginning of the clip, scroll back to the clip and then place it where you want to place it.

After Effects also hold a variety of effects for text, solids or other elements. I wanted to use a text effect so instead of creating this on photoshop and importing single layers I decided to play around with some of the effects on AE and use one of them. I came across one particular one which suited my project.I altered the scatter so that it synchronizes with the end of the video along with the beginning of the other video.

Phase 13 - Project Production

The production of the final product took numerous days to complete, huge amounts of editing, thought process and tweaking had taken place therefore, the project may not be a carbon copy of the storyboard. Throughout the production stage there were several actions which I have only taken one screen shot off otherwise it may become repetitive. Some of these actions include; Importing, sound, image or video, editing video that have been shown below and create different layers.

I started off with a blank composition, after adjusting the settings I then set of to create the project. At first it was fairly straight forward, importing images that I have previously created on Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator

After creating the images in Illustrator, by choosing the 3D option and playing around with it till the desired effect is achieved, I then bought all the individual layers into After Effects (AE) and began adding key frames. The key frames allowed me to position the layers as well as use an effect such as Opacity, Scaling or Anchoring.

Most of the time, I would choose the area I wanted to render to ensure that the timing is right; not to slow or not to fast. If this was the case, then moving the key frames appropriately would allow the timing to be altered.

Continuing with the production stage, I found an silhouette of a group of people which looks like they are cheering, I bought that image into Adobe Illustrator and changed the stroke of the outline and began to fill the space with '70,000 Fans' randomly across the image.

The next step I decided to create a font of 70,000 Fans just in case the audience are confused by the image that I created in the previous scene. To do this I typed this phrase in Illustrator and bought it into Photoshop. I wanted to create a font that is 'out there'. I created this type of text by flipping it to the side and applying wind in all directions to get the jagged effect, then by going to Color Balance I was able to choose the specific color I wanted for the project.

Phase 12 - Voice & Sound Editing

After recording numerous male and female voices, I then uploaded the files onto the computer and picked the four best voices in order to use in my final recording. Below shows the number of people I used in order to get the right voice:

The next stage involved getting all sound clips onto the editing suite.


As you can see, they were not aligned, therefore to do this, I dragged each file to the beginning of the editing suite.


Some of the voices started late or early, or finished early and ended late this meant I had to cut down some of the voices and then align them accordingly. This process involved continuously playing back the sounds to make sure they all start and finish at the same time.

After that was complete I was left with a 2/3 second voice clip.

Before continuing, I wanted to get the music file ready and edited for the final production. To do this I chose 'Dual Of Fates' the Star Wars soundtrack to be music file. I chose this because it creates a tense atmosphere and may reel the audience in.

The music file was too long for the piece and this meant that once the video has finished, the music will come to an abrupt end. To fade out the end, I simply opened Soundtrack Pro and loaded the music file onto the editing space. After this was complete, I highlighted the part in which needs to start to fade out and then used the shortcut in the top right of the screen to drag the sound out, as shown below:

Now that all video and audio aspects were edited, it was time to begin the final production.