DES 251 Digital Media Design III / Spring '22
DES 251 Digital Media Design III

5_2: Research

Collect materials related to the film, time period or message. This collection will serve as inspiration, visual reference and/or source material for the next phase.

Due:

Upload visual materials to the "W2 Visual Research" section by Thursday, February 27 (beginning of class).

You should research the Sound Effects/Music for your title sequence but you don't have to decide on one single song yet. We can discuss your selection and decide shortly before or after Spring Break. Consider combining sound effects with a music soundtrack. Sound effects can contain/express important (audible) information related to the film. The soundtrack can have a big influence on the mood/tone overall.

Mood/Inspiration Board

Create or/and collect visual "material" that you feel is related to you film choice or expresses an idea you plan to communicate. This is not to be confused with the Storyboard, we'll work on afterwards. This collection can contain, for example, abstract graphic elements (dot, line, shape), image material/photography of the time period portrait in the film, color choices/palette, objects, interiors, exteriors, clothes, textures, fabrics, self created image material such as drawings etc, video clips...

Prepare a Photoshop document (1600x1600px) and cop, paste and place images into it (similar to making a collage). Save it as a JPG and post this collection to the class website.

Next to collecting image material it can also help to collect motion/footage. It's just for inspiration, so stock footage sites have the most, best organized material. You can just grab clips from there (control-click the preview and save to your computer, then to the class website):
Pexels
storyblocks
https://stock.adobe.com/video

Examples:

Please read this chapter (visual footage/materials) from Jon Krasner's book.

Sound

The motion graphics designer considers both typographic and image movement in addition to editing decisions in response to the audio. All designers should gain understanding of the impacts sound can have, and should consider audio as integral to the message as type and image. Like imagery, sound can be categorized as literal or abstract.

Literal sound is referential and is necessary to support reality. It conveys a specific meaning. For example: voices (news or sport reports, children on playground, breathing...)

Abstract sound, such as a musical score, is not essential to the content of a sequence, does not point to the originating source, but can emotionally enhance the message. The mood that audio evokes is an important factor in how a viewer reacts to a typographic message. Two sequence examples may be identical except for the musical score applied—one attempts solemn, pondering state, while another may attempt excitement and energy.