Evaluation - Module 2

1. your ability to select develop and evaluate a range of appropriate source material gathered through a breadth of appropriate research methods.

I feel i began the module too broad, starting with superheroes as a whole so the first few weeks of the project is quite weak. Once we had our initial crit with each other i decided to narrow my idea down to just one superhero. I began by researching across the net and asking people what their most memorable quotes were from superhero films. This was how i chose Batman there seemed to be more opportunity and information available for me and to make the best of my idents. The next stage i took was to watch the films and note down times where there was good audio or image. I struggled to find a way to cut audio from the films and couldn't really find the one's i wanted online. I lack in computer skills, so this module has brought to light two new programs for me which i found extremely useful in the making of my idents, these were audio hijack and VLC. Other sources of research have been through popular imagery and batman fan websites. I feel i have used quite a variety of research, i would have liked to have found more external video clips or idents on Batman as secondary source research but i found this area quite hard and it is a weak spot in the module research. However i do feel i gathered a lot of research from the films themselves once i began the Batman process. I did intend to collect research from at least 2 other films, which you will see commented on my Design Context blog, but i ran out of time completely to keep research whilst trying to make. 

2. the level of investigation and experimentation into appropriate production media processes and technologies. 

i feel i did quiet a lot of secondary research into other idents i like, i did find some superhero idents but not many. I would have like to find more related to Batman to get a feel for what other channels or professional industries supplied for the films. Now looking back i think it would have been beneficial for me to investigate stop frame animation using film clips, once i had decided this is what i wanted to use for my idents.

I feel i began experimenting quiet weak, i initially only made a few test idents that dont use stop frame and i feel it i had persisted then the use of type would have worked really well and i would have felt the final idents were more my own work. I could have possibly spent more time on testing different screen grabs, but they themselves took quite a while to produce as i had to screen grab at least 100 images for it to run smoothly never mind have enough for the 10 seconds. I do feel i investigated into the Film 4 ending well, with story boarding shown on my DVD and various tests shown on my blog. I think teh end result works really well as i got quite a lot of feedback from other people on this.

3. the breadth and quality of practical skills, ideas and design development. 

After finishing my idents i am not convinced i have pushed myself to my limits to expand my skills in after effects however i know if i had gone onto use after effects and not screen grabs i would have run myself into the ground and never finished the module! I have never made a stop frame animation before and think i have developed a skill and understanding to do this in the future using other methods and hopefully my own work. I cant say i haven't developed any skills in after effects because i have i animated the Film 4 sequence and some of the finals and tests have effects on them such as spotlighting and fadeouts. I feel the design development of storyboards and screen grabs is a strong area and hopfully backs up the tests and finals i have produced.

4. the documentation, organisation and presentation of your work for this module. 

I feel my work is well organized and labeled, i have commented and evaluated almost everything posted to my blog. I think i have followed this through well on my DVD i have seen some peoples DVD menus and find them quite confusing to follow. 

I have documents my process from story boarding to tests to finals in order running through my blog which makes it less confusing. The DVD background process could probably be ordered and presented in a better way but time has not been in my favour sometimes and i forget it is an assessed area.

5. the success of your final products in relation to the briefs.

I do feel i have created some good final idents, i do now looking back feel as though i have cheated a little by using stop frame but as mentioned earlier i did this for a reason. As a set they all seem to work really well, but when i look at them individually some one of them 'rooftop' i feel stands out as the weakest, but for some reason i had lots of problems with this. I lost my original final and all the links so i had to resort to using an earlier test and now it for some reason as a flashing message on it every now and then. Aside from that i am happy with what i have produced especially the DVD packaging :)

Rationale

Subject & Rational.

A set of 5 idents promoting Batman Film week, they will mainly be influenced by The Dark Knight and Batman Begins. 

They idents will be for film 4, and the audience will be familiar to batman films already. The idents will show the deeper and darker side to batman so the idents will be aimed towards adults rather than young children.

Design Direction.

The tone of voice will reveal the darker side to batman, i will use existing batman audio and stills to do this. i shall use memorable imagery and lines for the chosen films in hope of drawing a larger audience in.

The design concept will mainly be stop frame, this will give be the best effect when considering my skills and tone i want to fain for my outcomes.  The film 4 will be animated and will follow the theme of batman. Currently my choice of colour for this is limited to black, white or red, these are consistent with batman films and film 4.  

DVD intro?

- i have seen everyone doing fancy things to there DVD's and mine seems very bare i have a bit of time spare so thought i better

add something. I have asked a few people and they prefer the first one i just need to alter it slightly so it blurs out into black as the

transition from that the the background looks a bit odd.

Final movie and screen grabs

final movie and screen grabs

final movie and screen grabs

final movie and screen grabs

Final movie and screen grabs

Final DVD Menu's

- Just to mention the final buttons are not displayed in this way anymore, now on the main pages the buttons will fit within the grey grey line and the button name will be underneath the button. The type will be in white and when the button in highlighted it will turn white. When i put my DVD backgrounds into dvd studio pro i had problems with the buttons, you could barley read the type on the buttons because they were so small so i decided to change them and they work really well.

 - the buttons for the menus representing finals and test will be presented as above however when highlighted the main central buttons will turn white. 

I have also changed the buttons to the right of the page (home and other menu) they are also now presented in a grey box and work in the same way as the others, they are black and when highlighted turn white. This way all the buttons follow a theme and nothing gets confused. 

DVD background ideas

- this is just a quick post to see another development for more feedback in crit, above i have change the bat to a solid colour which works slightly better that the blotted one shown previously and the bottom i don't like the bat (although i do like the textured background created) the way i have presented the buttons here has given me an idea for the final button display. 

Final Crit Evaluation.

Brief Title
Batman film week for superhero film season.

Subject and Rational 

The dark and deeper side to Batman. The theme for my idents will be the the layout of the film - a scene from the films - sound track and film 4 ending. I also intend for the audio and film clips to be memorable moments from the films. A second theme running throughout will be that i use stop frame animation for them all, this way they will all run as a set.  

The idents will be for film 4. The audience is not gender specific, the will be for adults not children as the idents are specifically for showing the deeper and darker side. I have tried to avoid the fun and joke side which some of the films have. The audience will also be familiar with Batman films as i have used memorable quotes to trigger them into wanting to watch the film again. 

DESIGN DIRECTIONS
The tone of voice is informative and dark. It will play on the audience’s existing knowledge of the Batman films, and high light memorable areas of the film where something exciting is happening. The design concept for the idents will be stop frame, i have chosen this because my skills are not very wide and i am trying to play to some strengths?! The idents are influenced specifically by two films The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, originally my intention was to include a larger variety of films but i ran out of time. The way i will incorporate colour is with the film 4 ending, after feed back it was decided i should use red as it represents Film 4 and makes the logo look more like it is to be used in the real world. 

ACTION PLAN

Change the Film 4 ending to red.

Make more DVD backgrounds.

Storyboard all different Film 4 endings.

Screen grab or Time line idents.

Create draft motion graphics for all 5 idents

Make ident 1 smoother.

5 Questions.

1. What do you think behind the idea of my idents (them being almost like clips from the film) do you think they work?
2. Which Film 4 end do you prefer the red or white?
3. What improvements could you suggest?
4. Do you think i need to add more or better storyboards?
5. Do you no how i can upload just mp3 sound clips?

After my crit i have decided to consider all the points put across to me and test them even though i may not agree with them all we can still see if they look better when finished. My next step will be:

- make more story boards to show my final developments

- it was suggested i use screen grabs to represent my final movies in a story board or time line.

- change the film 4 ending to the red blocks moving inwards.

Potential finals.

DVD backgrounds and buttons.

- i have added some buttons, just to see what it looks like, however the least amount of buttons on one page is 3, some of them have several more. I am very undecided in one aspect it really adds to the theme of the DVD but in another it really doesn't work. I'm going to raise this in my next crit.

more dvd backgrounds

- as promised a few more design ideas for the DVD background, i wanted something plainer and darker. I have added the Batman symbol but i think it is perhaps too much, when i add symbols and type i think the page will be too full. Before i make any decisions i need to test out these pages with buttons.

development for finals.

- this ident mixes the two scenes, the bats are ment to be symbolic for when he says "as a symbol.." i don't really think it works very well. Im going to look at other scenes i have collected an see if any of those mix well, as a lot of film advertisements show more than just once scene from a film, i just want to show a bit of variety.

- i mentioned earlier i really wanted to use a scene from batman including the joker, this one has always stuck out in my mind from the dark knight, i think it works really well. A few people have asked if they are all in fact separate images or i have copy and pasted twice, well i have but only for the last 20 layers when the Film 4 comes onto the screen as i ran out of images, but i don't think it matters too much or its too obvious and i have been looking at it for hours :)

- i have added the bottom 3 not just to show different scenes but also different film 4 endings. I am not sure which i like best but at the moment i am swayed towards the black and white, i want to get feed back from other people to see which they like best.

Ident tests.

- posted a little late, but better late than never! these were my first design ideas all i have to say about them is awful!!!

- the first test on how my screen grabs would work as stop motion its only short but i feel its much more successful that the first three. I have decided to go with this idea and develop other images. After speaking to other people they also agree this is a much more fluid idea and represents the darker side which is what i want from my idents.

Interim Evaluation

Evaluation.

What is the problem?

creating 5 idents.

What subject/area of study are you focussing on?
Batman film week for Superhero film season.

To what depth are you investigating this area/subject? Is this sufficient?
I have look at existing batman films, there most memorable moments and quotes from each film. Imagery from Batman films i think it would be beneficial for me to investigate popular batman film clips and idents.

What is the form and amount of your research to date?
I think i have spent a large amount of time looking at lines in films, as at the moment i want this to be a key part of my ident i want the quotes i end up choosing to be really strong and draw someone in who hasn't seen the film. I think its fair to say i need to research more batman related film imagery or film clips to see from others views what they think are most memorable other than quotes.

What visual material do you have to work with? What media/format is it?

Mostly film, but i also have imagery and stills from films. Silhouettes and symbols.

Is there an appropriate amount of work for the time you have had to develop it? 

I think so, because i now have all the background information to begin my idents and a deeper understanding of the films. I don't have much imagery or development work of storyboards at the moment so move forward with.

If there isn’t why is this? How could you improve your work-rate?
I think because i spent so long looking deeper into the films and looking for really good action shots to use and audio clips, perhaps it would have been better to look at creating my own motion graphic images rather than film stills, then i would have been able to storyboard more? But then i have tried to work from the beginning to my skill level.

What is your timescale? When is the deadline?

In 3 weeks, i plan to have story boarded a lot lot more as its the area for me to gain marks as well as helping me plan. I plan for the second week to have pretty much finished my idents and to have my DVD backgrounds completed. Then my final week i plan to update my blog as i no i fall behind, redo anything i strongly dislike an make my DVD and packaging.

What is achievable in the time available? 
Everything 

What methods are you using to evaluate the progress of your ideas?
Crits and feedback from peers. 

Evaluation

What are you identifying as areas worth developing further?
DVD backgrounds, sound clips and film clips.

What are you trying to communicate?
The deeper and darker side to Batman.

What audience have you identified?
Film4 adults who like superhero films.


What problem(s) have you identified?
making something that looks good, gets your attention in a small amount of time with very limited skills :)

How do you intend to solve this (these)?
by playing to my skills, so using stills and making my idents stop motion and using some memorable audio and film clips.

What is your intention?
To make them look professional and not cheesy.

Development

Have you moved on from your initial starting point. If so how and why?
Yes. Originally i was going to create idents advertising superhero film season, but i struggled to come up with anything to inspire me as i was constantly thinking well i wont be able to make that etc so it was suggested to me in the very first crit i narrowed my idea down to make it less complicated so i did to Batman.

What methods are you using to document this development?
My blog.

What processes will you need to use to develop your work?
Try and try and try again.

Do these processes require workshop access?
Yes i will be using allll the software at college.

When do you intend to access these workshops?
As soon as i possibly can.

Feedback

sooo i never got the feedback as i almost left eeeek but i think its ok iv spoken to people and i pretty much now from my work what i need to improve.

DVD background

- I couldn't resist trying out the buttons :)

 I need to work on the type before i add any other information, i think i will use this as the home page. I don't want to use this for all pages, something plainer which is my next step i also need to look for batman themed type as mentioned earlier.

DVD background

 I began with experimenting with some paint and ink (the top one) scanned it in and developed it into the second one, which i quite like. Because i am using screen grabs for my idents i wanted to make my DVD pages hand made and more of my own work, plus i enjoyed making them. Im thinking the batman symbol for the buttons, but first i'm going to design some more backgrounds.