Harry Potter and the Final Film...

 

So here it is, the final advert. It ended up a little longer than I originally intended, and some changes were made for the client, but these were only very slight. The NSS light beam from the castle was added to make the NSS theme run through the piece, and the end slogan was changed from 'Problem with your tutors?' to 'How are your tutors?' so that it didn't seem like the piece was inviting people to think of problems with their tutors to give in the survey, more personal ones, and so it ended more positively and left them wanting to put any comments down- good or bad. But in the end I think it still became the piece I set out to make, if not better.

It still feels wierd and unreal that in just a week a 40 second piece has been made, but Im really happy with it, and hope that the NSS group are and possibly lead on to using it for their campaign...

 

 

Harry Potter and the Background creation...

 

These are the backgrounds that were used in the film, created in Photoshop before beign imported into Flash. Im really happy with the Hogwarts image- its got enough detail to show clearly what it is, but keeps it linear and basic enough to not over complicate the scene.

 

When attempting to create the astronomy tower background, I wanted to keep the basic theme going, using the same colour as a base for simple line work and slight colour shading. But here, it didn't seem to work. it seemed too basic, and the colours don't tend to fit the theme. So I kept as many of the original colours from the Hogwarts scene as possible for the final backgrounds and they worked alot better.

Harry Potter and the NSS animatic...

 

Now with the characterd designed, and the story developed, it was time to see it in action, but here in a simple animatic form to test that the timing and the shots work together, and that it is understandable to viewers...

 

Harry Potter and the National Student Survey...

 

The castle of Hogwarts that the films are based in is incredible- the detail and wonder of the building is striking. It seemed to lend itself to a nice establishing shot, with subtle cloud movments and lights to birng it to life...

 

I then wanted to use actually shots from the scene to lead up to the twist to make it more recognisable to viewers and to make the twist that much more unexpected...

I wanted to keep the characters simplified, but as they would only use simple, subtle movements, I wanted to make the most of the chance to give them a little more detail than usual...

The Magic of the NSS...

 

I decided on going for the Harry Potter scene, from 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince', in which Professor Dumbeldore- the headmaster- dies at the hands of Snape, another Professor. I felt that it was a scene a lot of people know and love, and would hoepfully therefore grab the attention of those passing when they see an animated version of it.

 

I wanted to use shots from the scene itself to give more recognition for those watching...

 

...the scene then takes a twist when the falling Dumbeldore lands on an unexpecting Harry Potter doing magic tricks at the bottom of the tower. For the Snape and Dumbeldore scenes thoough, I needed to ake sure the relationship and status of the two was clear to those who don't know the characters, so decided to give Snape a reason to zap him- at first thinking that Dumbeldore was trying to fire him, but then it seemed to come across clearer if Snape was trying to fire Dumbeldore, leaving Dumbeldore to then smugly remind Snape that he is the Dean (changed from headmaster to give more of a link to universities) before he blasts him from the tower.

Its then revealed that the advert is for the NSS, and that this particular segment represents students problems they may have with their tutors.

There are some shots in here that I thought would work nicely in Flash- such as that with the full shot of Hogwarts Castle, working with floating clouds and flickering lights to use limited animation to create the best effect.

The NSS Live brief...

So for the second week of the specialist animation module, we were given a 'Live brief' for a client, who was the NSS. Those at the University who are a part of the NSS (National Student Survey) team wanted us to come up with new, fresh advertisments of about 15-30 seconds in length that could be spread and played across various campuses and universities, to get the message across to leaving students who will fill it in about what it actually entails, what it does and to try and persuade them ultimately to fill it in.

The process begins with the collection of ideas...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I, and luckilly the person leading the project who is a part of the NSS team, liked the idea of the film clips, and saw its potential to become something thats different and attention grabbing for passing students- Using well known scenes and giving them a twist to catch audiences off guard and hopefully create a memorable ad that will help them to keep in mind the NSS.

 

 

Third year begins...

So we're back! and to say we're back in at the deep end, well, that would be an understatement to say the least- but I wouldn't have it any other way...

So to kick us off, were into Flash. Having used Flash to create an E4 sting, and to complete my final film from year 2, I thought I knew more about Flash and what was possible in it than I did. But this project gave the chance to discover as much about its features as possible. By giving us a week to explore tutorials and basically teach ourselves how to use Flash it was a whirlwind, quick paced tour of the software, but it was very worthwhile. It opened up the software and its features and gave much more of an insight into what is possible and what I could use it for in the future.

This then led on nicely to the second week of the project, and the first 'Live project'- in other words, one thats actually for a client...