Brief 06 _ Xl25 cover sheet

EXTENDED PRACTICE MODULE BRIEF COVER SHEET Module Code: OUGD603

Module Title: Extended Practice

LEEDS COLLEGE OF ART

Student Name: Abbas Mushtaq

Studio Brief Title: Brief 06 : D&AD Entry: XL Recordings : Collab w/ Sam Lane Synopsis: Illustrate landmark events in XL Recordings history, from 1989 to now.

List of deliverables

Evidence

(boards, resolutions, apps,etc)

(Series of business cards, posters, website etc)

Design Boards

Series of Design boards showcasing process and research, with stills of final campaign films and idents.

D&AD Entry CD

CD version of all content submitted to D&AD. Includes: 2 x Campaign Films – 01. Viral Video and 02. #XL25 Campaign Video 8 Supporting Images

Evaluation: Positives and learning curves throughout brief The main positive of this brief was how much I enjoyed it. We both wanted to step away from simply doing layouts, branding and print. We needed a break from it to test ourselves. We had never done video work, and art direction before but are both increasingly inspired to make progress in this area. This brief was a great opportunity to do so. It was a huge amount of fun, to storyboard scenes, source props and make each scene full of references. Filming was a lot of fun, as was editing in a strange way.

The final pieces gave us a lot of satisfaction, mainly so because we achieved work we’re proud of in an area we had no experience in prior. The brief didn't feel like “work” which is the best compliment you can give.

A learning curve throughout was sourcing the props, some of the props were easier to find than others but for example finding a spinning ballerina music box in the style we wanted proved to be difficult, we didn’t give ourselves a lot of time. We didn’t anticipate finding some of the props to be so difficult, in the end we had to make some adjustments to the video to allow different props. Rehearsing and filming was a learning curve, we spent a lot of time and confusion figuring out the most efficient way to figure out how long each scene will last for, and what will happen in each scene, in the end we played the music in question and rehearsed with our hands and mock objects, it took a long time and probably wasn’t the most efficient way but worked for us.

Difficulties faced throughout the module Editing post-filming was a huge difficulty. At first, we got in touch with some film students to help us edit, but in the end we decided to learn and do everything ourselves. We ended up using Premiere Pro, which isn’t the most industry standard piece of software but it worked the best for us, our workflow wasn’t as efficient as it could be but again it worked for us. We created a lot of animated gifs in Photoshop, an area we are comfortable in. Exported them as movie files and patched them into the video in Premiere Pro. This workflow is overcomplicated and we could have made things easier if we gave ourselves more time to learn the software.

Filming gave us a few difficulties in terms of getting the lighting and quality right, we gave ourselves the benchmark of achieving a video the same quality as those by agencies like BBH and Wieden and Kennedy. Doing so is agood positive thing, but it perhaps gave us unrealistic expectations for our own outcome. We are still really happy with our final version, but it’s not a a razor sharp as we wanted it to be, and a lot of post-process editing and colour adjustment had to take place.

What I would do differently next time Next time around we would spend more time, or gain outside expertise in terms of lighting and filming. I think the one area that let down our work, or slowed us down was the lighting and quality of the filming. It’s still pretty good for afirst effort, but we wanted it to be as good as the Honda adverts we were inspired by, and it's not quite there.

Learning the industry standard software and correct workflow in terms of animations and typography would have saved us a lot of time and confusion, and probably led to a sharper and more crisp final outcome.

Final Comments Overall, this brief has been one of the highlights of the year, and we produced a piece of work nothing like what we’ve done previously and had a lot of fun shooting it, hopefully the finals show this. The brief didn't feel like “work” which is the best compliment you can give.

Ratings (Very Bad) 1 - (Very Good) 5 Quality of work _______ 4 Quantity of work ________ 5 Attendance ________5 Punctuality _________4 Motivation _________5