KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY INTERESTING EXAMPLES

In order to develop my idea of creating some kinetic typography I wanted to examine lots of examples for inspiration. I gathered a load of my favourites here to act as a resource moving forward and to inspire and get my creative juices flowing.

• The basic elements as a whole I have taken from these are. Links to sound and text import and contrapuntal or parallel.
• Use of image (moving or still) alongside the text adds real punch.
• Fast enough to not bore you BUT slow enough to read.
• The use of font is important a variety to emphasise words works best.
• Colour is hugely important and juxtaposition of it.
• Working on one place is fine but working in a 3D space adds real dynamism.

ANDY GLYNNE: ANIMATED MINDS

The following are all films by Andy Glynne an animator. he specialises in social issues and in particular mental health. he was behind the award-winning series Animated Minds. Commissioned by C4 and directed by Glynne it uses real testimony from survivors of mental illness, combined with engaging visuals, to climb inside the minds of the mentally distressed. The first series won the award for Best Animation at the Banff World media Festival 2004 .

The works are a real insight into the tenderness and subtlety that can be used to address big issues and are inspirational. I want to take some of these ideas into my own work dealing with the global warming issue I am looking at.

The animations here are to act as food for thought and inspiration for what is acheiveable and interesting ways to address issue led works.

















https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeyWqcg8Vk0

1-1 TUTORIAL: MOVING FORWARD

Currently I am still toying with several ideas and a 1-1 tutorial is a good time to catch up with all of these and take stock of where I am and how to move these forward. Currently I have lots of ideas on the drawing board with some on the back-burner and others brought to the front. I feel I need to push on further with these but as of yet none of them have me fully fired up to concentrate solely on developing them.

GLOBAL WARMNING
These is the idea that I have been researching and spending the most time on to date and have created an outline test for an installation. However I am not all that happy with it as it is and it needs further development. There was some good feedback from my peers concerning this though andI am currently working through this. However one issue I have continually had is doing a lot of research for one project and then only creating one piece of work for it. What I intend to do as well as looking at developing the installation idea is looking at other ways to communicate the message. This will fit in really well with the modules aims which is to create a body of work too but the central theme will be global warming.
One of the issues levelled at my installation ideas was that the message has become dull and laboured and what is really needed is new and interesting ways to communicate it to an audience. I will explore this and possibly online virals, micro-docs, fictional or semi-fictional works, spoofs, TV adverts and motion graphics to see what other ways may be able to communicate the message effectively and interestingly and perhaps entertain and engage the audience first and foremost but also inform and educate second.
I was recommended some interesting artists and filmmakers to look at (Phil Coy, Bruce Conner, Terrence Davies and Cory Archangel) films Plastic Ocean and exhibitions such as Offshore in Hull to look at by my tutor.

JANES WALKS
A collaboration with another student (Sara) on the course to create a record of an Art walk she is doing. I will be acting as camera and documentarian of the walk but more discussion is needed as to the true nature of the piece being created. A simple document or record of the walk? A homage to Jane Jacobs the academic and writer on urban life and living which the walk is part of a celebration of her ideas? A documentary on what walking as art is and could be using this walk as a window into the world of walking as art and practitioners? An art film piece in itself dealing with and celebrating all of the above possibly.
In terms of what I could get out of it simply recording it and editing it are not what has got me interested but I feel I could use the walk to create an art piece celebrating a lot of the above. Possibly using IV's, commentary, Sara as a presenter and guide to communicate what the walk is all about. This will also open lots of opportunities for creating a visually and aurally interesting art piece and not just a run of the mill documentary. It would allow use of studio footage, possibly green screen kinetic typography and interesting use of motion graphics to create the documentary which are all ideas I am keen to take to the next level.

ANONYMOUS
This started off as a documentary idea around a character who wanted to remain anonymous (graffiti artist) so the film would rely on lots of interesting filming techniques, effects and motion graphics to keep them anonymous. It was more about exploring these techniques but marrying them with a subject matter that suited them. I still like the idea of this but have been looking into taking it further and either making it a scripted reality documentary.
Another possibility is to simply find an interesting character and explore them using some of these techniques to push the boundaries of documentary filmmaking and explore the "truth" and the grey areas between fact and fiction. I like the possibilities of this and possibly exploring the multi faceted educations, ideologies, morality, belief system, loves and hates of one character may also suit itself well to this multi-faceted technique.
I have approached a friend who I think would make a really good subject matter and we are in very early primary research discussions on how this piece could work. Possibly some sort of visually and aurally stimulating scripted reality style doco. This idea is a little on a back burner but I will continue to ruminate on it and research and develop it in the background.

CINEMATIQUE
The purpose of this piece is once again to push the boundaries of what constitutes a documentary by creating a site specific work celebrating the joy of cinema going. I envisage lots of little screens replacing the heads of the audience in a cinema auditorium and each one being a mini documentary of one audience member and cinema going fan from somewhere in the county. The audience could then move around the auditorium and build their own personal documentary by choosing who they wanted to hear from. I have started to draw up rough visuals and to explore the questions and mood and tone of the piece. as well as this I have been investigating how technically (iPads, mini screens) it could work in the cinema environment. I have also been considering what could go on the big screen and researching the ideas of audience, group sharing of texts and notion of looking.
Moving forward I will aim to move this idea forward by doing a visual mock up of how the piece could look, develop the questions and look to film some tests and get an iPad working or possibly even e few

AARDMAN: ANIMATED DOCOS

KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY: OVERVIEW

The dictionary definition of kinetic typography is: noun [uncountable/countable] an animation technique involving moving text, usually accompanied by corresponding speech. '… Motion typography (or kinetic typography) refers to the art and technique of expression with animated text.

This pretty much sums it up but an excellent example and Dan Palmer, winner of a Student Design award from Canterbury Christ Church University. This makes excellent use of kinetic text, layout, size, colour, images and animation to communicate the speech on creativity. Bold colourful and creative it really shows off what the technique can achieve



The technique quite often works with speech using type and animations to illustrate what is being said in a complementary, fun and inventive way. It may also be just text but it tries to bring the words to life. The technique can be a little time consuming and you certainly want to have a basic storyboard and idea of how it will work on screen creatively before you get down to the technical aspects of creating it. It is a technique I have used before and created in Adobe After Effects and feel may work well with both the Anonymous piece and Amen Pieces I am developing. I have a little graphic design experience and training and as long as i do not stretch this too far feel that this will serve me well. Below are a collection of kinetic typography work that I feels works well for reference.

The piece below uses Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator speech and makes good use of effects, filters, movement and also imagery and animations to bring this to life. The timing is bang on and it really shows what is possible. It also demonstrates that if the speech is too fast then the typography can be a little overwhelming for the audience so something to watch here.




The video below is a clip from a movie about the snowboarder Travis Rice, Thats It, Thats All. As you can see it demonstrates how moving video and kinetic typography can be used in tandem. Truth be told not a great example but it does give some idea of how (and how not to) use the technique. The typography often obscures the images underneath and could be more sympathetic to them and work in tandem with them as often it is just a heavy handed overlay. Also it suffers on occasions when the visual and typography create overload in the audience and there is far too much to take in. Perhaps highlighting a few key words would be better. They have also avoided images my guess is because there are images underneath but I feel these could have been used and avoided a lot of the words on the screen. In places it works but if I decide to use this technique of typography AND moving image perhaps a clearer screen with room for this to happen, the images and typography working together and greater focus on composition are the lessons to take forward.

INTERESTING FACTUAL WORKS

PAUL FIERLINGER

Paul Fierlinger

Paul Ferlinger is one of the most consistent creators of this form of animated documentary today is His films from the late 1980s-onward typically feature recordings of people talking about certain topics in their lives (such as alcohol abuse or loneliness), accompanied by Fierlinger's animation which mainly illustrates the stories in a realistic way.

I am looking to work with larger less personal topics in my global warmning piece but I loved the simplicity and cleanness of his work.  The piece below is a recorded voice over from someone who is recovering from mental illness. The use of animation alongside this frank voice over to tell the story and not filmed talking head doubtless freed her up to be more honest and to bare her soul. The animation works excellently generally by adding scenarios to the story and cleverly not just providing picture to exactly match the voice over but they enhance it. There is a tender quality that I really admired and it could also be applied to the piece I am still working on with my grandma possibly with animation or just shot footage.

MULTI FACETED DOCO IDEA

I want to try and create a documentary that shows off the different sides of a persons character. The aim is to to show them as a sum of varying and different parts and to not be typecast or pigeon holed as one thing. I want to make this very stylistics to be representative of this idea and I am looking to shoot highly controlled footage possible on location and in a lit studio space to do this. I may get some shots of the dialogue being delivered by equally may use none of this and settle on other imagery to depict what their story is.

Rather than shooting a traditional talking head one stylistic idea is a fractured multi faceted face to show this complexity of who we are, what we do and all of the peccadillos and quirks that make up a well rounded individual. Stylistically I have been looking at a lot of photography for inspiration and how to depict this on one screen or a multitude of screens.

I want the piece to be a documentary style but I am happy for it to be contrived to get the best telling of the story. Realism is less important than character and narrative.

The piece may even work best by blurring the lines between factual and fictional and rehearsing and doing a script after a more formal interview in the style of scripted reality shows to experiment with what works best.

As always it will be content over style but the style will be really important. I want to try and create stylistic interpretations of waht the subject matter is and not be too literal and simply show images relating to what they are saying in the documentary.

Currently I have approached a few people wo i know have stories to tell and I will do some recorded primary interviews and take it from there.

GW: BIG CRIT & FEEDBACK

The big crit was an opportunity to get feedback on my Global Warmning piece from my tutors and peers. the format worked quite well a screening of the work and then 3 questions posed by me that my peers and tutors discussed whilst I took notes. As mentioned earlier the Global Warmning piece that I screened is really just an experimental sketch and outline of the finished piece in terms of possible content and testing of the ideology and message I want to communicate. Style was not a huge consideration and I will be developing methods to evolve the aesthetic but the hierarchy and use of multiple elements creating a collision of images and ideas and use of appropriation were an approximation of my intentions. The piece was a little too short, explicit and not as far reaching as to  what my eventual aims were but the aim was to provide a basis for discussion.

GLOBAL WARMNING 01 from Jon Saward on Vimeo.

The questions I posed for those present at the crit were the following and also there are there responses underneath as well as my own thoughts for moving the piece forward.

1: Is there a hierarchy of elements that allows you to follow the piece?

• The clips of Obama and Trump are the top of the tree as far as hierarchy goes and really attract most of your attention. Could these be audio only as the voices are so recognisable to not draw quite so much attention and allow more focus on the visuals. Other speakers would be good too. This is the idea though as this is just a rough sketch of a version.
• Could the video clips play at the same time or be cut more together?
• Many missed the slow dissolves of images such as the Mountain top with snow from the past becoming one that had much less snow on it today.
• There is a good mix of images and content covering a varied spread of issues surrounding climate change.
• Lots of the images were a little too obvious and archival ones that have been seen before.

I agree with most of these statements and will address them all moving forward. it does need more content as it is just a sketch so these were comments I expected. It was interesting to see how focus was drawn to the talking presidents to the detriment of the other clips and this is something I will need to work with . Too much happening at once, adjust pacing, use audio only of speakers and hierarchy of elements will need to be explored. Also I will need to try and find new images or facts to try and grab and inform and educate the audience more. Possibly use some kinetic typography.
2: Does it matter that all of the content is "appropriated"?

• Generally the feedback was that the appropriated content worked well, unlike the early versions of Amen Brother. It was mentioned that in particular the video content of Obama and Trump had a clarity and directness of message.
• It was commented that the clips were not all that original and examples of this nature had been seen too many time before though.

This was a positive and I like the "appropriated" content. It will need to perhaps be less obvious and not tread too familiar a path and add other content, stats and facts and figures to grab the audience though as mentioned above.

3: How important are the aesthetics of the piece?

• It was all little too neat within the boxes. Possibly consider a more interesting framework OR be more experimental with the size, shape and layering of the images.
• Hierarchy affects aesthetics. Could use audio only of Trump etc and therefore concentrate audience more on the visuals. More use of other sounds to accompany images and create more of a soundscape.
• Possibly too many images happening at the same time. Slow down and keep shifting focus and let images etc breathe and the audience digest them.
• The music was a little clunky and a better more subtle choice may be worth investigating.
• The aesthetics ARE important as they help influence the audience to decode and interpret the message. Could be more engaging.

The aesthetics do need work as they are currently just a collection of ideas. Even if the message is strong the style, look and feel have to be engaging, entertaining and hook the audience in too and help deliver the message to them. All of the above are good points but ones that I was already very well aware of.

Other thoughts that were discussed during the crit.

• Going over old ground is there a new slant that could be taken over the issue? Do we not know all of the climate change argument already? What is the purpose of the piece? A call to arms? Exploring the hypocrisy of politicians? Expose the "spin" used over the debate over time to get to a point where "global warming" is acknowledged as fact?
• Is the piece a little too explicit and "on the nose". Could it be more implicit, vague and leave room for the audience to have to do more work?
• Some of my peers had seen better harder hitting Greenpeace content similar.
• The title and typeface at the start writing Global Warmning met a really mixed response. A few liked it, most were confused and a couple really disliked. It was felt it was a little clunky which it was as this was a test and could easily be given a polish. There was confusion over it writing Global Warming, then changing this to Global Warning before settling on a mix of the tow and the actual titles Global Warmning. The font was thought to be very computer orientated in style and even a have a computer game feel with the way the letters appeared adding to this. Perhaps this is something that could be exploited within the piece.
• Presently as to what it is and where it sits some said it feels like a viral online type piece. It has documentary form though and
• The purpose was clear but as to the content most agreed that it did inform and educate even if labouring a well worn path of information most were aware of and a little too on the nose. However the most interesting factor was that it did entertain and got titters from trumps brash outlandish sound bites.
• Look at Koyaanisqatsi mentioned by one person again. Images., motion effects of nature set to sound and music but no VO. Could provide inspiration and ideas to unlocking the piece.

All of the above were really interesting points and I will be looking into further. Again nothing super-enlightening but it was good to have some of my concerns confirmed and some food for thought from some comments.

Other thoughts moving forward.
The crit was very enlightening and raised a lot of questions in developing the piece further.

• A more personal link to engage the audience. They are still one step removed from the global scale of the piece and the message that has become hackneyed. I will look at mapping the global message to local or even individual audiences. Applying it to peoples everyday lives more personally so it is not a topic too big to tackle unless nations do it but by pointing out what individuals can do.
• Explore what exactly is the event, the piece the dissemination? Is it an installation, viral, mini documentary, infomercial for Greenpeace. I feel I need to explore all of these and possible re-purpose, recycle content and re-design the message for each of these platforms. It could be one of these or use the theme to create multiple messages that will work across ALL of these platforms and genres.
• I still like the idea of using multiple images that are ever-changing and the "collision" of images as mentioned by the Soviet montagist editors but concurrently not consecutively. Just the flow has to be right and more "conducting" and guiding the audience through the piece.
• Greater clarity from myself as to what is the purpose of the piece! I will explore the following and want to avoid simply going over ground that has already had lots of exposure. Is the piece a "shock" and call to arms challenging us to do something about it? Should it as my peers said attack complacency and inactivity or lack of education over the issue and set about addressing it? Exploring the hypocrisy of politicians? Expose the "spin" used over the debate over time to get to a point where "global warming" is acknowledged as fact? I am presently swaying towards the call to arms and what "individually" we can do rather than collectively as nations etc. However I may be able to as mentioned above cover all of these by re-purposing the content for different messages on different platforms.

C4 RANDOM ACTS & 3 MINUTE WONDER

I have been looking at the short form documentary as part of the development of my work. This is the ideal format for online content but being old-school I also love the idea of getting my work on broadcast TV and the credibility that this creates and the contacts it will create. I also want to start looking for more commissioning and funding for my work and this is a good place. I looked at strands that would allow this to happen and that also provide an online curated platform for such works.

One of the first I researched was a strand called 3 Minute Wonder and it used to go out just after the C4 news at 7:55. I really enjoyed their output on this strand and generally the films shown on the series are primarily documentaries that tended to highlight a current issue that is not in the public eye, for instance. Its aim was to broadcasts first time directors' three-minute TV programmes in the middle of the channel's weekday primetime schedule. It was part of the Channel 4's 4Talent initiative to help new talent break into the very competitive UK television industry and Channel 4 offers new directors £4000 and their assistance in making their shorts.

I would have loved to try and get a piece commissioned for the strand as I feel my work would fit with its aims and objectives.but it is no longer running as it ended several years ago. However it was good to look at some past episodes and to get a stronger overview of what could be attempted, covered and ultimately make a successful micro documentary 3 minutes.

http://www.channel4.com/search?q=3+minute+wonder

Random Acts is the C4 scheme that replaced 3 minute wonders BUT not with the same broadcast time slot. It looks like it is an avenue that may be worth pursuing although there does seem to be a slant towards younger filmmakers. They also provide a slightly different programme within Random Acts called First Acts for 19-24 year olds.In their own words (obviously aimed at younger filmmakers!) here is their mission statement on their website here is an overview of heir remit.

Hi there. You’re on the internet, so first of all, congrats. The internet, if you remember, used to be quite good before getting really overwhelming and difficult to filter through the big black hole of content, making schmucks of us all. So we decided to make a thing on the internet that wasn’t just commentary, gifs, Vines of people shouting, think-pieces about what makes a great piece of video art… Instead, we decided to create a space where artists can actually just create, using the TV as a canvas.
So we made this website, which you are now on, called Random Acts. Unlike the rest of the internet though, nothing about it is random. We only show you the best in original short form creative content. We showcase all the films that we commission throughout the year, and also share films that we didn’t commission but wish we had.
We handpick the best artists from around the country and beyond, presenting you with short films that display bold expressions of creativity, films that are pushing boundaries, provoking thought and debate, playing with your minds and making you ponder your existence. We spend a lot of time finding people who are breaking ground in the medium of film and work with them to make the sorts of videos you have never seen before. Watch out for the Random Acts TV show on Channel 4, bringing you the best from the strand and highlighting them in an original compilation TV

The films commissioned get a TV airing and so do other selected works that the editors at Random Acts appreciate. It looks like it is certainly worth applying for funding and also worth submitting my Amen Brother piece to.

programme. http://randomacts.channel4.com