Video and film are beginning to play a more important role in design. With the advent of video sites like YouTube and Vimeo, and micro-video sites like Tik Tok and Facebook reels growing in popularity, there has never been a more important time to understand what video can do in design.
Title Sequences
The title sequence for Balderdash Academy was a lot of fun to put together. The project required a clean introduction to the members of the performing company, integrated motion graphics in shots within the stock footage, namely the addition of the school crest and mascot on the walls in the stock footage, and synchronization of their custom theme song from ThinkFishTank. Stock video and on-location video capture were required to produce the video.
One particular challenge was in the introduction of the STEM host, Nate Greene. The desired shot would show a drone crashing into Nate from a great distance and freezeframing on his face before impact. For the safety of the talent, I had the drone operator start next to the performer and shoot the sequence at a slow speed in reverse. For the finished segment, I reversed the footage and increased the speed by 200%. The resulting sequence got the required shot and kept the talent safe.
Opening Title Sequence for Balderdash Academy
In addition to the standard opening, we also required fun Halloween openings and transitions. To accomplish this I reedited the regular opening with a new color palette, title graphics, and redesigned their crest to match the holiday. In addition, stock graphics were used from ProductionCrate to bring a fun element to transitions in the piece.
Full Projects
Balderdash Academy's video series introduced a number of challenges. The episodes were filmed on Zoom with participants across 4 states and often two time zones. Online calls can suffer from a number of issues that had to be planned for. There is often a delay of up to three seconds between when one person speaks and the group can hear it, Zoom fatigue from viewers can be a real issue, and Audio quality can be an issue depending on web lag. To overcome these issues, I established easy-to-follow protocols.
To overcome delay and counter Zoom fatigue I record the episodes in both Gallery and Speaker views. Once synced, this allows for me to cut between both to create the sense of movement and introduce a more dynamic show. this also allows me to use close-ups to help mask times in which the participants became out of sync with each other on the call. I also introduced the concept of running comedy commentary to keep the viewer engaged in the program, which helps to counter the main complaint about Zoom fatigue, - repetition and an unchanging screen.
To counter the audio issues I have each performer record their own audio separately while I also have the service record as a backup. Each performer has a high-end microphone and all wear hidden earbuds to counter mic bleed.
In the end, the ability to introduce different medium close-ups and high-end audio synced with the video allows for a professional end product all while masking sync issues, combating Zoom fatigue, and ensuring that the audio is synced and professional.
Social Media Video
AEMC Instruments was looking for a way to reinvigorate their social media feed. I introduced them to the concept of motion videos and stories. Using their current run of print advertising as inspiration and drawing video from their stock image service, I successfully increased their followers and interaction by over 120% in two months.
National Dig Safe Day Promotion
Power Quality Promo
National Preparedness Month Week 1
National Preparedness Month Week 2
Motion Wayfinding
HighQuest Partners LLC was looking for more dynamic branding for their Women in Agribusiness event and wanted to take advantage of the displays on their podiums. I designed a subtle motion background overlaid with the logo that I also designed for them. They were so impressed with the graphic that they also requested a motion slide for their PowerPoint display. Both are designed to loop.
PowerPoint Motion Graphic.