**UPDATE** 06/01/10

Due to the severe weather conditions, the final stages of filming has been halted. Travelling to the chosen destination has been limited due to heavy snowfall and no grit on the roads. Hopefully it will become safer later on in the day, otherwise editing the narrative may have to begin.


**UPDATE** 06/01/10
16:49

Snow has continued to fall and is getting quite bad, filming will have to be postponed as today as all the actors needed for the video production cannot drive to our designated meeting point as it is too dangerous to drive. Again, hoping the conditions will improve by the weekend.

Final Logo Design

Phase 8 - Logo Designs (Production)

I started of creating the font on Adobe Illustrator, I feel that using this program provides freedom with what you can do with effects, especially with 3D and positioning. I then transferred this into photoshop to begin the editing. I decided to rest the logo on the back of a wooden texture. I have seen this done on house numbers and feel it gives that house a professional and sophisticated look, this is what I was aiming for. I found a similar texture to what I was looking for, hence imported it into photoshop.

After choosing the elliptical marquee tool I drew a circle in the middle of the image and changed the layers blend mode to overlay. This allows to get a sort of brushy effect on the actual circle. I then bought the logo back and wanted to create a shadow on the text. This meant I had to use the magic wand to select the side of the text and create a new layer with it. After bringing up the 'Curves' tab I began testing with it until the inner sides of the text became black.

Creating the shadow at the back of the whole text was quite tricky, I created a black box and placed it behind the text selecting the layer mask tool. Then after picking the erase brush I began giving it a more natural look as shown in the screenshot. The I found the texture on http://lostandtaken.com/2009/01/11-old-grungy-film-textures.html. To make sure that the texture goes over the logo I aligned it over the text and then changed the blending mode to multiply so it multiplies into the logo and started the process of elimination with the brush.

Phase 7 - Logo Designs

Logos usually consist of a single, double or joined symbol (i.e letter, number or both) that is central in the logo with the designs around with. Below I have outlined some examples:











After looking at many logos, they all either use a symbol or word as form of identity, this enables them to place their logo anywhere and the audience will know who is it, what they do and what their promoting. As my company is called 'Niche Designs' I would prefer the N and D to be central in my logo so it can dominate the page. I feel using words or letters in a logo enables quicker awareness, when someone sees a letter you automatically associate it with a word henceforth N D will be associated with Niche Designs.

I came across many tutorials which helped me with the logo designs:

www.garysimon.net/logotutorial

http://www.denisdesigns.com/blog/2009/01/glowing-circle-logo/

http://www.denisdesigns.com/blog/2008/12/glowing-text-in-space-scene/

http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/tutorials/3d-logo

By incorporating all of these tutorials I learnt a range of new skills which helped me design the final product.

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Before starting to create my logo, I drew a number of different sketches in order to get an idea of what I wanted my logo to like, by drawing various different designs with different symbols, and connecting two letters I was able to understand the kind of 'personality' I wanted to give my company. This would then ease the process of choosing the font in Adobe Illustrator, and creating the design.

Phase 6 - Campaign Inspirations 2

Additional inspirations came as I was casually watching a film called Pulp Fiction. The opening 20 seconds of the film starts of with the usual logo of the film company and is then followed by the definition of the term 'pulp'. There are many reasons why this has been done, the Literature Network Forum (2005) suggest that the "definition of the term "pulp fiction" is displayed at the beginning of the movie, as if to say This movie is a piece of pulp fiction (so it probably shouldn't be taken too seriously)."

If this is how other people view the use of defining key words, then I thought if i was to define the term 'Racism' then I will be setting the tone of the piece right from the start.

Racism /'reɪ.sɪ.zəm/ noun

1a. A belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this.

b. antagonism towards other raves, especially as a result of this.

2. the theory that human abilities etc, are determined by race /Racist noun and adj.


Daniel Lima is an artist who has produced a wide range of works. He's a worldwide traveller and has created an anti-racism video in which was very helpful as it strayed away from the norm. He targets his audience with the use of his creative mind and provides the audience with a different approach to racism.

http://www2.sescsp.org.br/sesc/videobrasil/site/dossier014/obras_en.asp

In order to understand and prepare for production, I wanted to know the work that was continusly being done in order to stamp racism out of football. By reading websites, and and keeping up-to-date with news I wanted a more opinionated understanding henceforth used social networking sites to do this. Currently, Facebook is one of the most known social networking sites with millions of users, I joined an anti-racism group to listen to other people's views:

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=44422340574&ref=search&sid=512618836.4255780534..1

This then inspired me to create my own group and get the views of my friends and try to get a debate started. By creating an online survey I was also able to to get that one step closer with my target audience:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=app_2361831622#/group.php?gid=198811797504&ref=ts



Allen, R (1990) The Concise Oxford Dictionary (8th ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Literature Network Forum (2000)Origin Of The Term 'Pulp Fiction'. Available At: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3992. Accessed 5/01/10

Phase 5 - Campaign Inspirations

When thinking of ideas for the campaign my mind was flooded with different ideas that I could use, some where very flamboyant yet some where very simple. Whilst I was tilted towards the idea of lots of special effects, audio aid, and technical brilliance I came across numerous videos that showed that one does not have to create such campaigns in order for it to be effective.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7Rn-hgwRY

The PES 2010 gaming product is a good example, while it tries to boast the new specs and techs of the game the simplicity is one that I have been inspired by. The opening scene is one that I may decide to follow in the near future. It is not the whole clip that interests me it is the first 30 seconds. It introduces the company, the logo, the game and the game logo which cements the game into our heads by the of the trailer. Using slow motion allows the audience to capture the game and hooks us onto watching the remainder of the trailer.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do9J0KQeKxs

The video above broke a boundary that I feel one could not do when referring to subject like this. Before viewing this video it was drilled into my head that I had to create a campaign that strays away from the fun of football. It had to be hard-hitting, something that would move the audience and encourage them to help with this cause. The use of mellow audio and dark colours would aid this, however the video above is the official video for "One Game, One Community" campaign and they have produced a video with bright colours, a friendly narrative voice and the use of pictures of fans at football matches. This shows that my piece does not have to be touching, or a serious campaign. It can be full of colour, with fans smiling but it has to maintain the ideology we aim to achieve.

What stood out for me in this video is the use of typography in beginning of the clip, it brings another dimension to the campaign. After researching for other clips, typography may seem comic in one way, but it does bring something different to video clips as shown below:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mnvvVi4HaI

So after analysing various different video clips, I have concluded that I would like the following in my final piece:

1. Typography
2. Slow Motion Effect
3. A Range Of Different Camera Angles.

**UPDATE** 27/11/09

Just to outline the seriousness, of racism within football only last night 'Mario Balotelli' was subject to racial abuse by his own fans. The President admits that racism is a problem and that they are trying everything to stamp it out, however, he feels that "collaboration of everyone, starting from the fans," is needed declared Jean Claude Blanc. (For full story: http://www.kickitout.org/news.php/news_id/4594 )



An incident more or less in our own back yard occur ed recently during a derby match between Blackburn and Bolton. An Asian man and his two nephews where racially abused leaving all three victims extremely distressed and upset. An investigation has been launched by Police and are now looking for the offenders who are originally from Blackburn. (For more info: http://www.kickitout.org/news.php/news_id/4593 )

After reading about these two incidents, I started to wonder whether football fans and the people themselves understand the seriousness of this particular issue. Do people know there are anti-racism groups out their fighting to completely eradicate racism out of the sports, if so what is their view on the groups and in order for my campaign to be a success, what do I have to do as a producer in order to reach this goal. To find out these queries created a survey in order to answer these questions.

The survey can be found at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RGPY8DJ