Current uses of motion graphics and video compositing in television and film

Idents

Idents are motion graphics which are used as a type of moving logo for a TV network or other similar industries. Even in simple videos made for YouTube are idents seen. They show what you are watching through either a title, or some sort of animation for a TV channel or network. Motion graphics are used this way to bring in an audience. If for example you only had a black background with white text on the screen and nothing was moving then it would be pretty simple and quite boring. They are usually made to catch the eye of the viewer and make them thin “I should watch that” and if it is just a little bit of text showing the title for 5 seconds it is very possible that the programme or whole channel would receive less views because of it.

TV idents

In the TV idents the main image shown is the actual logo for the channel. For example there is comedy central. In theirs they have their logo seen in various different locations all throughout the world; London and San Francisco are some examples of this.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJS4nGhyms 

 

 

 

The technique used for this is very simple. They get the footage of the locations and the logo along with anything else they would need and have the logo being air lifted, rolling, dropped, driven or just conveniently placed into the locations usually causing some form of destruction that in some luckily fixes itself. It is difficult to know what software was used in making this ident, but from what I have seen in the different clips I would only be able to guess the possibility of it being cinema 4D. This is due to it being 3D editing software that is capable of bending or removing certain objects or even buildings in a clip. For example when it is being air lifted in and the logo hits the building, the building bends and springs back to normal.

Titles and in-programme graphics for music (related) programmes

This official UK top 20 (Viva)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M1oMkt4yqc

This music related show goes through the UK music charts and finds the top 20 to use each week. They base this on YouTube view count, number of downloads on things such as I-tunes, and just overall popularity. The Title for the programme reads "The official UK top 20." It looks good and has little movement but there is a small movement of the title by a few inches as it pans across the screen. The in-programme graphics used in this are when the music videos are playing it shows at the bottom the name of the song, the artist and the company they are signed to along with where it placed in the countdown to the top song of the week. It stays there for the start of the video and also for the end lasting possibly 3-10 seconds until it fades out. When going from music video to music video it cuts out and goes into a small motion graphic of the a number exploding onto the screen. For example if this track placed 15 in the top 20 then that would be the number that is shown. In the background of both the title sequence and the in programme graphics it is the same apart from what shows when a music video is playing. It is a black background with what appears to be a clock with the wording or numbers being the face of that clock.

Titles and in-programme graphics news and factual programmes

Daybreak uses graphics when moving from story to another aspect of news suck as weather. This is a good way to transition the show from the actual news stories to the weather. Instead of doing a straight cut to it gives the weather man or woman a few extra seconds to prepare along with the editors for what shows on the green screen. It is done by cutting away to the Daybreak logo with little motion within that much like a TV ident with a moving light that quickly glides across the screen. Then it goes to a short advertisement about a sponsor to Daybreak such as “Deep heat” and “Topps tiles.” It then goes to the full weather forecast where that plays out showing what you would expect. Behind the weather reporter there is a digitised map that shows air currents, rain clouds over various parts of the map, etc. When that is over it just simply cuts to a person off screen saying “For your local 5 day weather update go to our website ITV.com/daybreak" showing a weather map while this is being said. After that it cuts back to the news anchors and they continue with the news from there.

The use of virtual backgrounds in presented programmes

Channel 5 news
Probably the most obvious for use of virtual background, but still it provides a good example for virtual backgrounds. As the news anchors, weather person, etc, is reporting for the camera the background is made to provide a visual aid for those viewing at home. It provides a quick list of what they are saying and the look of the background is appealing, by this I mean not too dull or over the top.

In this clip we can see that the background is made to make the show look apealing, but not take any focus away from who is talking. It also provides a place for a video to be played that is related to the topic of discussion, or is the footage that sparked the news story.

Film Titles

Freddy vs Jason

In this horror movie cross over between the 2 most popular horror villains ever made the title sequence for it had to represent the both of them. In it we see right off a strip of human skin. Then there is one clean, straight cut across it as if it were sliced with Jason's machete we also hear the slashing sound as the cut is being made. Then it is cut into very small pieces and we hear the ringing sound metal being clung which is what is heard in every Freddy film at one point or another, and following the sound of metal and cutting is the famous Freddy laugh. As the loose pieces of skin fall away they connect once more in a different order to read "New line cinema presents" to which it then melts into blood as it moves back towards the screen. Then with a change of view the blood hits a wall (Or possibly the side of a furnace) it burns and reads "Freddy vs Jason." The reason this is an amazing way to make it like this is because it combines both the killing styles and the original deaths of both of the great horror villains. Jason died by water and that is what the blood is representing, when the blood burns it represents how Freddy died as he was burned to death. This was just the perfect way to make the title sequence in this film because it is a quick reminder to the fans of either Freddy or Jason they they have similar methods of killing people, and they both died completely differently. But when it comes down to it all there is, is blood.

Visual effects in Film and Television productions

Supernatural

Supernatural is an amazing show that has just entered its 9th season. In the show we see all sorts of creatures like Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, Demons, Psychics, Angels, and so much more. Making this show requires a lot of work on how it looks in terms of monsters. Now Angels didn't make any appearances until season 4 and how we first saw the angel wings was really cleverly and simply done. The makers of the show had it so human eyes can not look at an Angel's true form or else their eyes would be burned out. So they had to take vessels in order to talk to people. The first Angel we see is "Castiel" who when he reveals what he is there is a flash of lightening and on the wall behind him while the lightning is lighting the room his wings unfold in the shadows. This is done by 2 crew members stood behind Misha Collins (Actor who plays Castiel) and above the light used to make the lighning effect at either side lifting 1 wing each as the lightning flashes so it looks like they are unfolding from Castiel's shadow. The camera films Misha in a mid shot so the two crew members behind him out of camera shot and when the lightning effect starts they move the wings and the end result shows that he looks like he is unfurling wings from his back but you can only see the shadows.

Other, more simple effects used in the show are the demon eyes. There are 4 types of Demons in the show. Some have black eyes, some have red, some have white and so far only one has yellow. How this is done is when the eyes are changing from human to black, red, yellow, or white is the editors take the clip where their eyes change and edit it in After effects or in a similar software. Then for the next clip in the scene the actor who is playing the demon is wearing coloured contacts that look the same as the edited eyes do. 

(This video shows how to make the Demon eye effect in after effects)

These are just a few of the many effects used in the show and is what brings it to life. I decided to stick with the Angels and Demons in this section of the post because that is what the show has been revolving around for the past few seasons if you don't count 7. Demons have been in since episode 1 and Angels came into it in season 4 and since then almost 3/4 of all the episodes have been about stopping or helping one of the two types of creatures. You can however look at all the other effects they use with other monsters and more at, http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Supernatural_From_Script_to_Screen:_VFX_Supervisor_Mark_Meloche 

Case 39
Even though this is not a very well known film, Case 39 has a death scene that is truly terrifying. The film itself is about a little girl who gets rescued from her parents and adopted by a social worker who was hired to work on that little girls case, she was her 39th case she was working on. After about 1-2 weeks the girl was all nice and sweet but then things started happening. When certain people came into contact with the girl whether it be in person or on the phone they would either die by strange circumstances, or kill another. The first of her victims in the film is a little boy who is in a group therapy session with her, she makes him kill his parents. And most of the death in the film aren't as bad as this next one. This death scene scares viewers more than any other they have ever seen before and that is because it to do with something a lot of people are already scared of. One of the main characters Doug played by Bradley Cooper, who is also the main characters love interest, is killed by hundreds of Hornets. And how it was done was pure genius.

Now how this was done was very clever. What the effects team did was they got hundreds of dead Hornets and glued them on the back of his shirt for the shot where we see them all, the editors used their techniques to make them move and a Foley sound team used one fly and recorded its sound where they then multiplied that several dozen times and added them all together randomly. This took 2 days of shooting the scene out of the whole film and this is due to the Director Christian Alvart who when making films writes out at least 16 storyboards a night and for just 3 seconds of this scene there were 3 pages of storyboards made. When they had finished filming the scene there was a total of 52 different shots used in the clip above which is only 2 minutes 17 seconds long.

Sources:
http://jakelaurieunit64.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/understand-the-current-uses-of-motion-graphics-and-compositing-video/
Accessed 11/10/2013
http://dku64mgvc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/current-uses-of-motion-graphics-and.html
Accessed 11/10/2013
http://vimeo.com/categories/experimental/motiongraphics
Accessed 14/10/2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E0w-FCeTmI
Accessed 17/10/2013


Note
I would like to apologise to anyone is having trouble with the tv ident videos. I have tried to fix the problem but unfortunately it cannot be done. I hope you can understand.








 

Multi-camera case study

A multi-camera production is exactly what it says. It is a production that is filmed with several cameras. The minimum cameras required that would bring out the best results are 3. It can be done with 2 but that limits your choice of shots and the end result will not be nearly as good as a 3 camera production. The different cameras also have different jobs in the production.







      Multi camera in football

Multi-camera in TV programme (E.g. Big Bang Theory)




Multi-camera techniques are seen  a whole range of TV production. They are seen in sport, the news, soap operas, sitcoms, chat shows and more. And they all do this for different reasons. In sport, news and other live event type productions they are used because that's is what they are. They are live events and would be impossible to film such things with only just one camera. If you ever tried to film a live event with only one camera them you would miss something essential that you may be required to have caught on camera. In sport you may miss a goal. In live music/ comedy productions you may miss something if you were to take a shot of audience reactions or if that camera just suddenly stopped working. With scripted productions it isn't as bad. In shows like "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Ban Theory" they use multi-camera. For Big Bang theory it is because they have a live audience and need to play out the whole scene to acquire the right audience reaction. They couldn't film it by first shot of the day start of a joke, second shot of the day end of the joke from the previous scene. And in soaps they have begun to use it to get the best reaction from the actors in the scenes. For a sad scene all the way to a happy and fun scene. This is why multi-camera techniques are used and now more and more different types of productions are taking to them as there have been noticeable results from other production that have gone from single camera to multi-camera.

(A short video about what it is like back stage of a multi-camera production)

Depending on the genre of the show effects how many cameras are used in the production. In sporting events they use well over 20 as a whole so they can get footage from every angle of the game. This helps when thee is a difference of opinion on whether one of the players has broken one of the rules it is a quick and easy way to resolve it. Other shows like previous comedies I listed like Big Bang theory use 3-4 cameras and make it so much easier to get the episode filmed and edited, along with getting the sound reactions from the audience. Not only do sit-coms use this but so do talk shows and game shows.

Take Mock the Week for example. There are a possible 4-9 camera used in making this. 1 or 2 are used on either team and 1 is focused solely on Dara O'Briain. Then there are 3-4 used on sections such as "Scenes we'd like to see" and "News real" where select members or the whole of the groups go head to head in competitions away from the desks where they try to make the most fun out of a news piece or topic.

 

In a sporting event like a football game they do use many cameras so they can get a full coverage of the game and present the best experience for the fans watching at home. They have over 3/4 of the cameras set up around the stadium from different angles to get as many shots as possible. For example there are cameras that are on the floor on the edge of the field, Multiple in the stands and higher up to get a over head view of the game, there are some attached to special poles and other devices that allows the camera to move overhead of the crowds that came to watch the game which is useful for a moving shot of the players or to get shots of the exited fans, the rest are set up to solely record the fans and get their reactions for cut-aways when required.

 

 





Both of these productions are similar in some aspects but are also completely different. Mock the Week and sporting games both have many different shots used to make the show. Even though sporting events, once again I will say football, have possibly over triple the cameras used they are still both multi-camera productions. Mock the week is almost fully set up and they can draw out a more accurate camera plan as to what the people involved in that episode would be doing, where as in football you never know what the players will do next, who they will pass to, where they will run, so it makes it more difficult to plan out where to place the cameras. So when you get down to it they are pretty similar. In both all of the people taking part apart from the hosts are just improvising all the way through. They are going head to head, granted in 2 different genres entirely, to win. The comedians in Mock the week may have prepared some material they could use for the show and the football players would have thought up some sort of strategy they could try to beat their opponents. When you put all this together it makes setting up the cameras in these productions difficult on both genres. You cannot entirely know that one of the people involved will go somewhere or do something that will take them off of camera shot and there fore spoiling the shot. It is easier however on game shows as they do tell the contestants where to go and have areas made for them to stand or sit so they do appear on camera.

Doing it like this provides the best way to cover the action and is why more cameras are used in sporting events than anything else. In a live concert like the Eurovisions the acts are on a stage and therefore will require much less cameras than it would take to film a whole football stadium. And there are more cameras used on chat and game shows because it provides a larger variety of shots that would be available and has more than scripted multi-camera productions because in scripted productions you tell the actors where to go and what to do. Changing the shots can increase viewer interest as if you are watching a whole game show from one long shot, yes it can still be entertaining but you will get bored seeing it from the same angle constantly.

Britain's got talent
Britain's got talent is a simple enough show, its a talent show with 4 judges and people are competing and showing off their talent so they can perform at the royal variety. Some go on for fun but those who make it to the final are in it for the whole and are trying as hard as they can to perform in front of the royal family. And it is a multi-camera production. There are 3-4 cameras on the acts, 1-3 on the judges and 1 on the audience. The different cameras on the act is used to show different angles of what they are doing. For example the 2012 winner "Ashley and Pudsey" Was a dancing dog act where the change in shots had shown all the different things this dog could do that won them the competition. Then the cameras on the judges was reaction shots of that they were seeing and provided shot for when they were speaking their opinion of it. It is the same with the audience camera, it was provided to give a good reaction shot of the act. When this is being edited it is only 5 seconds before it is out on live TV so the editors must watch each shot closely and if they accidentally choose the wrong shot then that could change how the act looks on screen and could make the home viewers either vote for them or someone else. The cameras are located to the sides on the stage, 2 in front of the stage at different areas to provide a long shot that gets the act, the whole stage and the judges. The other provided a closer long shot so you can see the act closer and there are two of these located on the left and right sides.

How to setup a multi-camera production

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-camera_setup
Accessed on 09/10/13
http://boadigital.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/unit-23-multi-camera-techniques.pdf
Accessed on 09/10/13
http://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/tutorials/shooting-and-directing-a-multiple-camera-shoot
Accessed on 14/10/13
http://shenikaprincess.wordpress.com/multi-camera-techniques/
Accessed on 14/10/13