First Things First
Welcome to the Film/Media Studies Production Practicum! This semester, we’ll be exploring title design, typography, and motion graphics. I think that this is an area of the production process that is often overlooked. I hope that by the end of this semester, you have a new appreciation for the ways that text and graphics can used creatively – and, of course, you will develop new skills to create compelling motion graphics of your own.
Before we get started, there is the usual course housekeeping to take care of. This is a half-credit course, which means that we will meet for roughly 90 minutes each week. If you are enrolled for .25 credits, you will need to talk to the registrar to change your credit value to .5 (I believe that everyone is currently enrolled at .5 credits).
We are currently scheduled to meet on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 9:52 am. If there is another time that works for everyone, I don’t mind reworking the schedule, but I would like to stick to a single 90 minute class (as opposed to two 45 minute sessions).
I know that you hear this in every class, but attendance is important – especially because our in-class time is so limited. Do your best to attend each class on time, so that we can get through as much material as possible. If you have to miss a class, please let me know in advance, if possible; if you can’t, please touch base with me afterwards. Attendance is factored into your final grade.
Since the best way to learn a new technique is to try it for yourself, you’ll be working on many small projects throughout the semester, as well as a few larger scale pieces. Most of the time, we’ll look at everyone’s work together and give feedback as a class. I will post your work on either YouTube or Vimeo using unlisted links, so that it can be shared on this website. In the future, your work may be used by Film/Media Studies – for example, it might be posted to the program’s YouTube or Facebook pages, included in a montage of student work, or publicly screened during the end-of-semester showcase. If you do not want your work (or a particular project) to be shared in this way, please let me know.
Your most important resource for this class will be this website. I will post written versions of each lesson here, so that you can review the material or catch up if you miss class. You will also find instructions for each project, an archive of completed work, and optional content that doesn’t quite fit into the weekly lessons. This website is essentially your textbook for the class, so be sure to keep it handy. There is a class Moodle page as well, but I generally only use that for grading purposes.
In terms of materials, everyone in the class should have an external hard drive of some sort. We’ll be splitting our time between the video studio in Marts Hall and the Digital Video Editing Lab in the library. An external hard drive will allow you to easily move your projects between different computers. I recommend an external hard drive with a USB 3.0 connection and at least 500GB of storage. I do not recommend trying to use a thumb drive or an SD card, since they generally do not have enough storage space or fast read/write speeds. You can purchase an external hard drive from the tech desk in the library, rent one from Equipment Services, or buy one from the retailer of your choice. If getting a hard drive is a problem for you for any reason, let me know and we’ll figure something out.
For more details on upcoming lessons, grading, policies, and goals, check out the links to the schedule and syllabus at the top of the page.
Coming Soon
This semester, we’ll be covering a variety of specific topics related to typography, graphics, and design. If there are any particular techniques or areas that you would like me to go over, please let me know and I’ll do my best to incorporate them into the lesson plan. That being said, here are a few of the things we’ll be learning over the next several weeks:
- Title design
- Lower thirds
- Logo animation
- 3D motion graphics
- Photo manipulation
Tantalizing Titles
This week, I’d like to start our journey into the world of typography and graphics by looking at some examples from throughout the history of movie title design. One of my favorite websites – and one we’ll be referencing often this semester – is Art of the Title, which looks at title sequences from film, television, video games, and more.
As you can see in the video above, title sequences have changed a lot since the early days of cinema. Today, title sequences in films and television shows run the gamut from simple text on screen to elaborate animated mini-movies. In the coming weeks, we’ll take a deeper look at the work of pioneers in the field like Maurice Binder and Saul Bass who helped propel movie titles into an art form unto itself.
