Focus - Design Report

Major Project Disseration Response (20 credits) Report

Georgios Pefanis

Project Overview My purpose in this project was to develop part of my dissertation’s subject (Film Title Sequence) as a visual outcome. My initial thought was to create a news video for the deaf, but I felt uncertain about the actual interest that this might have for this target group of people. Then I decided to make a commentary video on the overabundance of news and the lack of real information from media. Inspired by significant title sequences, I used split screens to emphasise the image context. I also used a Noam Chomsky’s quote as text. I combined and developed some of the techniques from existing title sequences with typography and sound in my attempt to communicate a strong message through the video. I named the video ‘FOCUS’ to state the importance of critical thinking and essential information to both the media and the audience.

*All the images without a caption are either photos taken by me or originally designed by me.

Contents

Introduction

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First Concept

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First Concept Experimentation

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First Concept Reflection

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Final Concept

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Influences

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Experimentation

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Video’s Structure

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Sequence

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Concept Reflection

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Concept Development

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Typography

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Typography and Colour Development

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Sound

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Title

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Reflection

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Dissertation Response | 20 credits

Introduction My starting point was the various techniques by some seminal title sequencers that I had the opportunity to explore in my dissertation. Also by watching title sequences of different movies, I was influenced by their aesthetics and also by the use of symbolism and summarisation, as expression means to involve the audience in a very limited time. For this project I intended to produce a video, using techniques inspired by title sequences. The result would not be a title sequence for a specific movie, but rather something that I would be able to use in a wider media context i.e. for a reality show, a TV series, an introduction to news etc. I had in mind a short and intense video to involve my viewer. I also wanted this video to have a social or political identity.

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First Concept My first idea was based on the influence I had from two very important title sequences, ‘Intolerance’ by D. W. Griffith and ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ by Pablo Ferro.

Intolerance (1916) Title Sequence

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The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) Title Sequence

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First Concept Experimentation My idea was to create 1-minute world news for a specific target audience, the deaf people. I wanted to use the split screen technique, influenced by Pablo Ferro’s work in the Thomas Crown Affair, to make my world news interesting and eye catching. Also by using the aesthetics of split screen, I felt I would improve aesthetics and I would be able to limit my world news to the 1-minute target I had set. My screen would be split to allow the different news to be presented simultaneously and in a time evolving matter. The presentation of the accompanying text for each different line of news was influenced by D. W. Griffith.

His black and white title sequencing was perfect for my idea. On this and the next pages there is some of my digital experimentation (still images).

WELCOME TO

ABC

WORLD NEWS THE MAIN GOAL IS THAT THE TEST WILL GIVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ALL

ECONOMICAL BACKGROUNDS OF STUDENTS

CHANGE

BIG IN AN AMERICAN 80 YEARS OLD TEST. THE

SATS IS CHANGING TO

BEOME MORE MODERN,

RELEVANT AND FARE.

THE REDESIGNED WILL FOCUS ON

WORDS THAT STUDENTS USE OVER AND OVER AGAIN. THE CHANGES TAKE EFFECT IN 2016.

SINCE THE COST OF PREP COURSES MAY RUN UP TO 20.000$ THE COLLEGE BOARD IS MAKING VIDEO

TUTORING AVAILABLE FOR FREE.

THE TOP

SCORE FROM 2.400 POINTS IS BACK AGAIN TO

1.600 POINTS. THE 2 YEARS TIME FRAME IS NEEDED TO GIVE PREPERATION TIME TO STUDENTS AND

TEACHERS.

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First Concept Reflection All this time I was exploring the world of deaf people and I was trying to understand if my titles sequences’ influenced presentation of the news would suit their needs. I watched the documentary ‘In the Land of the Deaf’ by Nicholas Philibert, which is an excellent work about children at a school for the deaf. I realised that my assumption that the deaf might prefer to see written text than the sign language was not based on solid ground. It was somehow an arbitrary assumption.

I had ignored the fact that deaf people receive a special education that allows them to use sign language in order to communicate, hence ‘hearing’ the news my way might not be right for them.

Since I did not want to be ignorant of the real needs of the deaf people, my next idea was to continue working on the same concept, to let it evolve, but not for the deaf. I would target the general audience. As I begun again working on my idea, it became apparent that by using the Ferro / Griffith approach, large parts of the screen remained black / empty and hence I was losing lots of space for my presentation. In fact the integration of the two ideas seemed uncertain. So I changed direction completely.

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Final Concept As I was examining different news contents and their impact on audiences for the video that I wanted to create, I realised that nowadays there exists an abundance of material relevant to the news. Different competing media (TV, radio, internet) are in a constant struggle to grab the attention of the viewer who is bombarded by diversified content. My point of thinking is that the news presented to us by various media in every day life sometimes fail to inform and educate.

Sometimes they may just remain on the surface of events. Sometimes they may be manipulative.

Broadcasting and the media industry often target to other aspects than our information. When we are presented with scenes from the Ukraine crisis for example, the emphasis is usually on the speed of the facts’ transmission. We are in reality not encouraged to get behind the scenes or understand deeply the real situation in the country. We, on the other side, as viewers, most of the time do not have the time or the interest to dig deeper. We are only interested in getting updated and not much beyond this. We are consumers of news around the globe.

So I felt I wanted to deliver a social commentary on the lack of real information and show that, by being provided with tons of surface level information, we lose interest in real knowledge. We feel we are updated and know what is happening in some part of the world without really knowing. I started thinking to create something that would emphasise exactly this idea, by taking it to the extreme. I decided to use a video with various world TV channels’ broadcasters speaking simultaneously, producing incoherent noise, that nobody can understand a word: too much information that guides to lack of information. Combining the multi screens technique with intense words and meanings, I would evoke to the viewer the impression of news’ manipulation and deviation from the news’ appropriate role.

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Influences When I watched the title sequence by Saul Bass for the movie ‘North By Northwest’ I liked that it started with an abstract image that was gradually transformed to a realistic image: a grid transformed to the reflective façade of the C.I.T. Building in Manhattan. Scrolling credits appear on this gridded background and contribute to the sense of movement and perspective.

So I decided to use a similar grid, but without perspective, so that it works like a frame for the split screens.

North by Northwest (1959) Title Sequence

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Influences I needed to build my image’s structure and shapes’ and colours’ combination, in a way to direct the viewer’s eye to the most important part of it. So I made a research on abstract painters like Mondrian and Kandinsky. In Klee’s paintings I found the most inspirational abstracts, and closer to what I had in mind.

Ancient Sound (1925) Paul Klee

Maibild (1925) Paul Klee

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Experimentation I made different hand-drawings using colours and composition of forms and I examined the colours’ and shapes’ modifications caused by motion.

Then I started the digital design of my video, using Adobe After Effects. I put the broadcasters’ images in their original (natural) colours and I experimented with different filters.

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Video’s structure Now that I had decided about the context and the image of my video, I started reflecting on the use of lettering. Since I wanted to bring a message through the video, I decided to add written context in my work.

My initial idea was to design something close to a title sequence, using image and typography. Text would facilitate the understanding of the video and even would amplify the video’s effect. It would summarise in a way the essence of my work, even by creating contrast. I had to choose between my thoughts on the subject and a personality’s quote. I made some research on interviews, texts, books by famous philosophers and intellectuals. I focused on Noam Chomsky, because he has dealt with the specific subject of media control and manipulation. Also he is one the most important philosophers of our era and among the first philosophers with a broad recognition.

I found a quote of his that is very close to the video’s concept and central idea.

‘The real mass media are basically trying to divert people. Let them do something else, but don’t bother us (us being the people who run the show). Let them get interested in professional sports, for example. Let everybody be crazed about professional sports or sex scandals or the personalities and their problems or something like that. Anything, as long as it isn’t serious. Of course, the serious stuff is for the big guys. “We” take care of that.’

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Sequence I further experimented with the video and different rhythms, movements, colours. I made a video by creating a grid, where the split screens (different broadcasters) were appearing consecutively. At the same time the text (Noam Chomsky quote) was rolling on the screen.

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Concept Reflection The outcome that I had created so far was not so interesting. It did not succeed to evoke the sense of chaos, generated by the over information. The combination of image and sound was not reminiscent of confusion and disorder. It seemed too structured and organized and finally did not fulfill its purpose.

Also the quote’s length combined with the way of text’s presentation (kinetic type) did not facilitate the reading (long intervals between words and phrases). Moreover, the synchronisation of two different movements (the text’s type in motion together with the multiple screens turning on and off) had a non-focus effect, as the viewer’s eye cannot concentrate and goes back and forth between the two movements. I tried different synchronisation (more words in the same screen). I was still not satisfied, because this was minimising the image’s role, without emphasising the quote of Noam Chomsky.

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Concept Development I had to elaborate further on my video and I took the following decision.

I wanted the quote as the protagonist of the video.

I decided to use a simple presentation of the text, without scrolling. I chose to put colours in the text and not in the images. I proceeded to the images’ transformation to black and white. I used different levels of gray to achieve the intensity and tonal balance that I wanted for each image. I considered that, leaving the multiple screens’ images in black and white, as a background and having the text’s letters as the foreground, would attract the viewer’s eye.

The title sequence of ‘Enter the Void’ by Gaspar Noé gave me the idea of flashing letters. I liked the combination of the sound with the letters’ flashing, creating a sense of electricity.

I adopted this technique, in order to captivate the audience’ attention in the Noam Chomsky’s quote’s meaning.

Enter the Void (2009) Title Sequence

Dissertation Response | 20 credits

Concept Development I gradually put all the broadcasters’ screens into the grid and kept all of them turned on, playing. I did the same with the sound, creating a confused noise of multiple broadcasters’ voices (After Effects).

The screen was then full with information and so was the sound. By the end of the video I added an earthquake’s composed sound that covered all sound layers. I wanted that the sound is in concert with the intensity of the letters’ flashing and that it acts as a soundtrack, setting the tone for the image and the quote.

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Typography In my initial attempt I had realised that the quote’s meaning was downgraded by the images. This was not complying with my aim to set the quote as the video’s protagonist.

I used the ‘Enter th Void’ flashing technique to reverse the effect in favor of the quote. I designed all letters in Adobe Illustrator. I decided to use bold letters, ‘Arial Black’. At a second stage I experimented with letter’s size. I first tried to design all letters in the same frame, so that all would have the same size. I did not like the result, as I preferred that each word have a special impact.

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Typography and Colour Development I designed different sized letters for each separate word. I used Premiere Pro for the final editing of the text. I used different frames for words to be displayed in a single line than for those to be displayed in double lines. In cases of words with many letters I intervened to adapt letters’ design so that the word would fit to the screen. Some letters are small, some are big, depending on the words’ significance.

As I wanted to put the emphasis on some words of quote, I used spacing in a creative manner. For instance I separated ‘like that’ in two parts, in order to show the ambiguous meaning of the phrase. I also used a dash to separate different sentences, so that the reading and understanding is clear.

Always focusing on the viewer’s interest and fascination, I chose warm colours (i.e. red, orange) for the primary sentences and their opposites (i.e. blue) for the complementary sentences.

Finally the text is presented with words and phrases, each in different colours and size, according to their meaning and importance; dominant words are written in big letters and have intense colours.

I considered that the outcome with the non-uniform typography might not be technically correct (utilitarian), but it was better serving my communicational purpose, being attractive and persuasive to the viewer.

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Sound I used as a soundtrack the multiple voices of the broadcasters’ to create confusion and chaos’ sound.

I needed an extra repetitive sound with increasing intensity, to amplify the quote’s meaning. I found the earthquake’s hum in the website ‘www.freesound. org’. I further worked on this sound, so that it gradually increases in volume as the video’s progress. The sound gets very loud by the end of the video and covers the broadcasters’ voices, dramatising and giving the sense of ending. In the pick of the sound I put Noam Chomsky’s name, which is left there flashing for a while, before the video stops.

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Title I chose the word ‘FOCUS’ because it means just the opposite than being disorientated, distracted.

People are confused by excess of information and this commentary video asks them to focus, to extract real information, to judge. So ‘focus’ asks us to concentrate on Noam Chomsky’s quote, to what is essential and critical. Media must focus on important and in depth information and the viewers must be critical, must think. I used many colours and I left ‘FOCUS’ flashing for some seconds, to let the word be the video’s single social message, the final word for the viewer.

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Reflection Although this project is my first step in acquiring competence in moving image, I feel that this field is very interesting and involving. I find very challenging that image can be transformed to a sequence and make a story. Also I find interesting the use of graphic design in moving image in an integrated approach.

I faced several difficulties in each stage of this project. The most challenging part of my work was to coordinate image with the quote’s context, in a way that one supports the other and to benefit from this result to create something intense that would communicate a strong statement.

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