Artist Logo

An important element of my ancillary tasks - and my main task should I choose to include it - is the artist logo. This reveals the identity of the artist and, in most cases, becomes the one image a fan or even anyone can look at and immediately know the artist.

Logos vary immensely; I carried out a small amount of research before beginning the task, but only to grasp an idea of what has been done as it is important that they remain original. I then began mocking designs, playing with the artists name, Daniel Lewandowski, to find a structure for his name:

Once I had done this initial planning, I moved on to experimenting in Photoshop. I had already formed the idea of what I wanted to create so it was up to following my plans from here. The most important element of all of my designs was the specific way in which I designed the lettering so the first port of call was to create that. My favourite, san-serif font is Helvetica and the slightest version of this is Helvetica Neue Ultralight so that was the end choice. The font needed a fair bit of editing, however, so I converted the letters to paths in photoshop and reshaped them until they resembled what I wanted. The image to the left is the original font where the right image is the final result: 

After this, I worked on my first draft. This design involved a crumpled piece of paper - in-keeping with my website -  that the text was formed to. To achieve this result, I used a displacement map in photoshop. This involved altering the contrast and brightness of the background image to make the contours much more obvious. The map is then applied to the text which then forms itself to the paper and appears to be written on it. This process created:

Logo 1

The second design involved the inclusion of a Polaroid picture background with a signature caption for a bit more personality as the first design wasn't overly complex or revealing of the artist/brand. The font I used was Jellyka Saint Andrews Queen as it caught my eye as a very detailed, personal font that could be mistaken as true handwriting, which is rare. Utilising the way the font alters characters to drawn images, I added some extra characters for decoration:

Logo 2

The design didn't look quite right to me and I even asked for feedback too, which a final idea flourished. I offered up the idea of a background image that was slightly blurred so as not to take away from the logo, but add colour and more of a persona. The logo then became:

Logo 3

I really like this logo as it feels like it contains all of the elements I wanted and serves as a memorable brand identity. Finally, I put the logos up for a vote amongst my peers to ascertain which was the best when my audience was concerned. Luckily, the final logo reined as champion and I agreed with my demographic. This design, therefore, will be the logo I will use in my tasks.

Green Screening and Rotoscoping

As part of my initial first video shoot, I incorporated a green screened shot which meant I could securely film my action without the shake or risk of being in a moving car. To embellish the chromakeyed area, I rotoscoped masks over the window behind the actress - having to form a mask around her facial features. 

Due to the complex movements she made, tweening the keyframes was not 100% effective so I manually altered it for every frame of the 6 second clip which amassed to over 150 separate frames. The end result does look professional and I'm very proud of the effect it produces. After changing my actors, however, and after receiving feedback from peers, I have decided not to use green screen for the refilming of the scene or for subsequent shots. The process if very time consuming and I do believe the achieved result may not be worth the time it will take away from the projects schedule. 

Audience Feedback on Initial Footage

After filming, I decided to ask some of my colleagues what they thought of the footage to receive some feedback on what I had done and what they felt I should do for future shots. Asking three colleagues and one of my teachers, I received a varied range of comments on my shots. Below are some of the screenshots I used in the initial footage recount with comments from them:

Shot 25

Colleague 1: "I think you did the right thing, by swapping characters; the driver storming off and throwing the keys to indicate she wants to leave seems more believable than the one who is not driving leaving and having to wait for the driver anyway."

Colleague 2: "The framing works well, and you did well to re-imagine it after the initial frame didn't work.

Shot 26

Teacher: "The focus on the keys is very nice and it is clear you did this before starting the scene."

Shot 34

Colleague 3: "This shot works well and, having seen the edited footage already, it works really well, but I would advise you use green screen as little as possible from here on out because removing the undesired elements is a lot of work."

Teacher: "The movement is nice and smooth which utilises your dolly well."

Shot 34.5

Colleague 2: "Like Colleague 3 said, the green screen does still look good, but it is obviously a lot of work which could be avoided. If you were planning again, it may have been better to film with an actual background though steadiness is compromised."

Shot 37

Colleague 1: "I really like this shot, though the focus could be slightly sharper; the emotion really shines through."

Teacher: "The closeness to the character and his sheer emotion is almost eery - I feel your choice of actor was well done as they have really committed themselves to the performance."

Shot 49

Teacher: "Using steadicam, you have followed the character well which was your intention - the turn could be longer though due to that the shot doesn't last too long."