Negotiated Groups
Ravensbourne prospectus DVD

Design brief:
The first stage of the project will be to define the project and write a brief for it, including the aims and objectives and a personal learning agreement including specific individual objectives and assessment criteria for each individual within the group.

Project Objective:
To create a short (4-5 minutes) DVD of student work to publicize the college. For use at recruitment events and trade fairs. The product should be in a style that will sell the college to potential students and lecturers.

I worked with RaveMedia and Marketing to produce the promotional DVD. After receiving a rough brief I spoke to both Marketing and RaveMedia to find out exactly what was needed. My role was to create a master DVD as in the information design/structure presented in sections, departmentalized and also to produce stings that would play out before the actual course promo.

I started by getting a copy of the old promo DVD which I realized needed updating drastically; not just with content but the whole construction of the DVD, including the overall concept. My analysis of the old show reel was that it was too corporate, hard to navigate, and a preset/PowerPoint style. Edward Tufte would hate it! I also looked at the Ravensbourne prospectus and compared it to other universities and colleges. I looked at the whole DVD construction and layout to help with my planning.

The idea behind my concept was to not overpower the actual promo pieces but to use an embryonic style/look for both navigation and intro sting which leads to the final students’ work segments on DVD.

I took photographs of many areas of the college, including detailed close-ups. These were useful as i was lucky enough to find my background which was a piece of old wood in a skip.

The DVD look:
After deciding upon the final layout with simplified navigational segments for each department which used the wood texture as one of the main backgrounds along with different paper textures and styles that include graph paper made with Adobe Illustrator as Vector artwork. The colourway used is CMYK which subtly references what the college is, in terms of design and print.

Intro stings:
Foundation: Camera, pan, from stop motion-esque, ink splats, end reveal on course title. Made with After Effects utilizing 3D layers and camera. Graph paper visible as background texture. Colourway still in keeping with concept.
Broadcast 1: Shot using HD camera in viewing gallery within the college/broadcasting area. I set this up with Paul’s assistance, to be able to view the autoprompt/autocue output on numerous broadcast monitors with scrolling type showing the word BROADCAST. Different angles and zoom were taken to give me the ability to mask out broadcast monitors. This was so I was able to add glitch/interference to certain monitors from the source footage I shot. The final composition was colour graded using Magic Bullet Suite.
Broadcast 2 / Sound Design: I used the Nikon D-SLR to produce a stop motion piece shot from above with a gorilla tripod that gripped a garden parasol. Shots were taken by using 2 second time lapse connected with USB to see my output on the laptop as the camera was out of reach. I shot audio cables spelling out the word sound design, then pushed the cables out of place, footage reversed in after effects and background keyed out.
Animation: The course title is revealed after we see a simulated flip book effect, not as simple as it sounds to produce as I used a page turn effect for one frame, then used Expressions to loop the sequence after duplicating the layer numerous times.
Design for Moving Image: Stop motion using Nikon D-SLR for the opening few seconds in which we see a green screen in the background and studio lights animating from in shot to out of shot. Chloe footage with rainbow, blind pulled down becomes sky/stars. The green screen transforms to the keyed out area. Course title flies in from out of camera shot into final position.
Graphic Design: Again using the Nikon D-SLR I produced a stop motion piece shot from above with a gorilla tripod that gripped a garden parasol. Shots were taken by using 6 second time lapse connected with USB to see my output on the laptop as the camera was out of reach. I shot vintage printing press blocks that spell out the course title, had to use masks and keying so that I could use a graph paper background so it was in keeping with the rest of the stings. End of sequence reveals graphic design and ink splat representing the ink from the printing press blocks.
Fashion: Stop motion-esque completed with after effects and a vector illustration of a screen printing press end reveals course title.
Interior design environmental architectures / interaction / product design (3 courses as 1 sting as marketing didn’t have enough content to represent each course individually). Marketing added this to my brief at the last minute so the solution was quick and glitchy, this piece works as it is fast paced and dramatic. I used scale for the type and a glow for extra colour.