Final Movie. Positives and negatives

Here's a youtube video of my FInal piece, I'll explain developments as I go on.



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First of all you may notice there's a white border around it. I placed this in as it makes the piece look more complete. It seems to work well with the style. I thinks it makes it look more polished.

The First Scene

This I had to play with alot, to make sure the voice sinked with his mouth, I think this worked well eventually. This scene reminds me particulary of the old sci fi films I looked up in my research.

The second scene

This was done using shapes that I created in Illustrator at first they looked a bit bland so I added glows to them, earth itself was was quite tricky to get to work.
I lik how I faded the first scene into the second as it seems to make it flow more and make the narration seem more prominent. The Space craft was edited along a path and made smaller as it went along to earth, to give the illusion it was traveling.
The stars shrink and grow repeatedly to give the illusion that they're buzzing with light. I did this by making one of them do the action and then using it as a parent to the other layers.

he third scene

This is where the alien takes the camera, at first it didn't look much like an Alien, just a guy with a scarf over his face. So I had to key in some alien eyes which were black speres with a motion blur. I had to do this frame by frame and make sure they moved with his head, I seemed to get it quite right, this is a timely procedure. I like the way this scene looks, but I think the Alien could look more alien, but I'd need more time for this. I think it lives up to the slapstick nature of Sci fi in general like what I researched.


The last scene

Again in this scene I had to key in the eye, but it takes time which I've been running out of. So the eye seems to jerk a bit unnecessarily which I'm not to pleased with. I created a shape layer in the Tv to manipulate the area. I shrunk the first seen of the announcer to fit the TV and then flicked it to the sci fi channel logo as the remote was raised to highest point, this was so that it would look more realistic. Maybe I should of included an effect as the alien changed the channel. I don't think the timing is just right there could be more emphasis on the sci-fi logo , maybe it should of been made much larger.

The Music

I was rather pleased with the synth soundtrack which I created, I like how it builds up and winds down slowly, I made sure it fit the scene changes (the tempo corresponding). The voice over could be bettered though as its quite un-clear in parts , I like the voice and microphone effect though. I started the track with a light piano and then slowly introduced the basey middle part, which slowly faded to the light part again. I was pleased with how I compressed the soundtrack to 20 seconds, as there is quite rich. I had to tamper with the timing of the instruments to get match it up to the sequence.

Project effects development

Sci Fi ident techniques.

Here is an example of the effect that I should be using in my movie. I learnt how to do a key light effect on a movie of a person standing in front of a green screen. The green screen should be tight and brightly lit so that it doesn't interrupt with the person in the forefront. The person in front of the green screen shouldn't bet lit up very much, unsless you need to capture detail on his face, non the less there should be a good contrast between him and the Green screen. Ok so after you have filmed the shot you capture it in Final Cut Pro then you open up the movie files in After Effects In After Effects you drag the files into a knew composition (of which you have adjusted the settings to your specifications).

You open up the movie frame and make a mask around the area which you want to alter (in this case the moving person), then find I found key light in the effects pallete. When selected it you use the color picker to pick out the green that you want deleting. After you select the green edit the gain and it should all vanish leaving your man in the forefront.



I then made it ultra bright, added a glow and used a tool that softened the edges.

This is the style I will use for my ident, its just what I had in mind, as you can see from my animatic .

Sci-Fi animatic animatic

Sci Fi channel animatic.



Here's an animation of the piece I hope to create in after effects. You can see how it links back to my research with the old fashioned voice over and the vintage alien space-ship sequence. The voice over was recorded by me in the programme Garage Band , this allowed me to have a megaphone effect, though this could sound better I think if I recoreded it in the bathroom where there's a natural echo(this I will do for the Final version). I think this kind of style would indulge the Sci-Fi channel fans as its quite light hearted, stands out and is slightly paying homage to the old Sci-Fi movies in an styalised way. The humor to is a link to the old Sci-Fi films where, they seem to laugh at themselves.I may also add a soundtrack to it as it sounds a bit bland at the moment.

My story board

Here's my Ident story board.






I've just presented a storyboard for my Ident. People seemed OK with my idea although they wondered if it would fit in the time period. There is a lot happening in this animation, but it will have a comic style edge to it so the pace should be quick. So now its up to me to do an animatic and see if I can fit it all in well.

Past Sci Fi channel Idents

Sci Fi channel Idents/adverts



I thought I'd have a look at some previous Idents from the Sci Fi channel. Something very noticeable is the emphasis they seem to have on special effects. Though my Ident is for a more old school program so i don't thing it will need such an emphasis on special effects. I think my Ident will be based more on being graphical pleasing and sleek. So it will still have a modern edge that should captivate the modern audience. Another thing that seems to be very very prevalent in the Sci Fi channel Idents/adverts is that blue colour that surrounds the text in the Sci Fi logo. I aim to incoorperate this colour into my Ident, I think I willuse it heavily so that it defines its place, on the Sci-Fi channel.



One thing I've also noticed is that voice overs are not always completely necessary, I may consider not using one and just using music to create the atmosphere.

An Ident For Sci Fi Channel Romania

This Romanian Ident is rather interesting in itself. Its very different to the other Sci Fi channel ads , it has a tranquil feel to it, this shows to me that there's room for variation when creating for this firm. This makes it more likly that my Ident will be accepted by the audiences.

Visual Research. Techniques -Silhouettes

Silhouettes

I mentioned the other day that I'd like to possibley use silloutes in my ident. This apple ad is a good example of the kind of imagery I'd like to use.



Though in my film I'd like to use maybe just black and white, to keep true to the old fashioned theme I will be using. The main aspect of this ad that I' like to incorporate is the moving/expanding icons that interact with the figures and change the viewers perspective. I think these kind of things could look really good for lasers and ships. I could make some things in illustrator and then animate them in after effects.Or film people in front of a green screen, then delete the background and change the colour settings.