So i want audio but im not sure what, iv gone through my mind of whether to try and find a decent version of the quotes from the films, so the type would move and appear in time with the spoken quote itself, this although time consuming will give me structure and direction how to animate the words of quotes!
I've also thought of just using some music which represents the film itself, so for example, Semi Pro, set in the late 70's references funk and soul music a lot so some generic funk music to play during that ident, the problem with this is, well the quote might not work without the audio and the music itself might not be that easy to find!
So at this moment in time (before i have started the animation itself) i have planned to use the actual audio from the films mostly because i believe it will be more effective with getting my audience to want to watch it! So far i have got two/5 quotes at a reasonable quality.
FINAL AUDIO DECISION...
. Jackie Moon - Love me Sexy
. Audioslave - Cochise
. Vampire Weekend - A Punk
. Billy Squier - The Stroke
. The Cornelious Brothers - Treat Her Like a Lady
each one being in the film it is representing in the ident.
When i started producing the more finalized assets for the quotes i lost a bit of confidence with some of the quotes i had chosen, in terms of comedy value as just a quote and also finding ways to illustrate the quote in any way, so i decided to re look at some other quotes, with the idea that im going to want to illustrate the quote in some way or another.
So now i am using,
"Everybody panic! Its just like the titanic, but its full of bears!"
- Semi Pro
"mmm i look good, i mean really good! Hey everyone! come and see how good i look!"
- Anchorman
"Maxim, Last issue...Chazz Michael Michaels IS figure skating...BOOM!"
- Blades of Glory
"I didnt want salmon! I said it 4 times!"
- Step Brothers
"With all due respect, that idea aint worth a velvet painting of a whale & a dolphin getting it on!"
- Talladega Nights
Re-occurring theme of animals to illustrate i feel could work well!
The crit was very useful i found, Took the feedback sheets and summarized the strengths and weakness to form my next plan of action.
One of the strengths i had was the direct bold type approach of the idents, so il be keeping that in my final idents.
I also received some good feedback about my designed logo however i was told on a negative note that it was too small and there should be more focus on it.
Taking this advice on i have come up with a few different ideas on how to make the logo more distinctive and become a larger focus point of the idents.
Some more negatives i received,
Lack of imagery
More storyboards
Lack of experimentation
SUMMARY
I will create more storyboards with ideas of imagery, emphasis on the use of more imagery with the type, within this experimenting with the different ideas and everything!
Other ways forward!
Issues with Audio. What will i actually be using!? Just music or the actual quote audio.
design final assets for idents.
Assess movie imagery to help decisions with design ideas.
The designs i made for the chosen quotes are very loose and don't look a part of a set. This being an important deliverable of the brief, so i need to find ways of making them to appear to be in a set.
So i gathered look at existing imagery from the movies in the shape of movie posters and dvd covers and what not. Doing this to see if there are any similarities and what kind of imagery they used, the colour schemes and typefaces etc!
These are the kind of images i was looking at, focusing on the typefaces used, colour and imagery.
So i collated the info together (above) and i found...
There was actually a lot of similarities! Throughout the posters and covers and what not i found that pretty much only 3 typefaces were used, Helvetica, Impact and arial black. The difference with them being different fonts of the type, so bold/italic etc!
In terms of colour it was a little varied but something that occurred in the vast majority was that main text was white! Other colours that were oftenly used were yellow blue and black.
Summary:
So from this i have decided to use the following colour scheme,
Main text - white
Any sub text/objects - Yellow
Background - Blue
& for typefaces i have decided to design my assets in both Helvtica and Impact and see which one works and suits the subject more.
After sifting through the vast quotes i shortlisted them down to 6 lines. Being usable in terms of no profanity or anything!
1. "I like to think of Jesus as mischievous badger!"
-Talladega Nights
2. "You have the voice of an angel! Your voice is like the combination of Fergie & Jesus!"
-Step-Brothers
3. "Mmmmmmmm...I look good! I mean really good! Hey everyone! Come and see how good i look!
-Anchorman
4. "I'm a sex addict. Its my cross to bear. Its a real disease, with doctors & medicine & everything."
-Blades of Glory
5. "Everybody panic! It's just like the titanic. but it's full of bears!
-Semi Pro
6. "Get out of my face! or i'll roundhouse your ass!" / "I feel like im taking crazy pills!" / "Personal philosophy: Clothes optional"
I've chosen to at this point work with these six, the worst one, or rather the one that has less to work with i feel will be thrown aside. But yeah this is what i am going to be working with unless i find a perfect quote to use!
From here i need to go away and start designing this quotes, both as words and in their entirety. Hand drawn and Illustrator crafted.
Founded by Mr.Ferrell in 2007, the website funnyordie.com is a comedy video site, the material of which is a mixture of originally created and user generated. A team of comedians, writers and directors including Ferrell have uploaded many videos, the biggest and most known one being pearl the landlord.
In terms of a context for my idents i think this could be a good place alongside a TV station, as obviously people on the website will no doubt be fans of Will Ferrell style humor.
During this research phase of the brief i found many interviews with the man himself the best of which was from the singer/songwriter Beck, its not overly relevant but its a good insight into how funny will ferrell actually is, as himself no less.
The task is to create a series of idents. so im going to design them to look like a series. The above video is a good example of a series of idents working together, these being very general and will be used for all sorts of movie genres.
What i want to take from this is mostly the idea of a logo or design grouping the idents together and also showing what they are for.
These are just a few idents i found for comedy based channels / seasons
The first, i really like, a clever way of portraying something for a comedy season, shows there are different ways of advertising comedy other than being out and out funny.
Ident for Comedy Central,
An ident for Sky Comedy, nothing really related to being funny in it, nice movement within the scrolling of type,
Another ident for Comedy Central, starts off for one with a comedy show / stand-up show -picture of a mic. Then one for South Park, focus point being voiceover, with schemed background design, What i like within it is the flashing and movement within the Comedy Central logo.
- Something to use in mine, create a Will Ferrell logo, flashing the works!
From this video i have decided to try and create my own logo for a Will Ferrell comedy season, i feel the logo for comedy central is a main focus of the ident, and the main focus point of my idents will be promoting a Will Ferrell movie season so having a logo as evident as this should work in my favor!
Seeing as my videos will be focusing on quotes from the films accompanied by audio, they will essentially be kinetic typography. From the past brief i have already looked slightly into kinetic type, but here are some more examples of some really good kinetic type...
What i like about this example is the border within the actual screen, obviously there to make it appear to be a television screen. But it works well to keep the text within a readable area centering focus and what not.
This video shows a good use of relevant typography, stencil army font for a army/soldier based film, what i also like and feel works well with this is the kind of simple imagery used to illustrate some words/actions. Take note.
The first bit if this video is awesome, the warning sign thing, being pretty complicated swirling and rotating shows the kind of thing i could create if necessary to my subject which at the moment i cant see a need for.
Theres one little thing that i like about this is the shadow around the frame of the screen, i think this could enhance my animations to give them a bit more depth and feel.
As i previously stated i want the main focus point of my idents to be absurd remarks/statements taken from Mr. ferrell's films, with this in mind, i went through the scripts of my favorite films and the films that i think are the most funniest/ have most potential...
I have pages of quotes from the films but to get an idea of what im kind of getting at here a few examples from each film...
STEP-BROTHERS
"I'm going to take a pillowcase and fill it full of bars of soap and beat the shit out of you!"
"You have the voice of an angel. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus."
"Get out of my face, or I'm gonna roundhouse your ass!"
"Mom, I honestly thought I was gonna be raped for a second. He had the craziest look in his eyes. And at one point he said, "Lets get it on."
OLD SCHOOL
"You're my boy, Blue! You're my boy"
"Fill it up again! Fill it up again! Once it hits your lips, it's so good!"
"We're... We're going streaking! We're going up the quad and to the gymnasium."
BLADES OF GLORY
.Personal philosophy, clothes optional
.Get out of my face. I'll get inside your face.
.I'm a sex addict. It's my cross to bear. It's a real disease with doctors and medicine and everything!
.Nancy Kerrigan. You an official here? Cause you've officially given me a boner!
TALLADEGA NIGHTS
.I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger.
.The room's startin to spin real fast... cause of... cause of all the gayness. Cal... I love you
.Here's the deal I'm the best there is. Plain and simple. I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence.
.Being a crack dealer. Not like a mean crack dealer, but like... like a nice one. Kinda friendly like, "hey, what's up guys? Want some crack?"
The genre of comedy is very broad and within there are many sub-genres, what sub-genres best describe Will Ferrell's films and his comedy stylings in general?
.‘Fish out of water’ comedy.
The main character (or characters) finds himself in an unusual environment, which drives most of the humor.
-Taken from Wikipedia.com
This kind of comedy isn't a great representation of Ferrell's film, it perfectly describes one of his first lead roles, the film, Elf. In which he plays a human who is raised by elf's, is then taken to New York to find his real father.
It is often that in Ferrell's films his character receives a serious "reality check" falling from a high position. This relating to the 'fish out of the water' style comedy.
.A Parody or Spoof film
A comedy that satirizes other film genres or classic films. Such films employ sarcasm, stereotyping, mockery of scenes from other films, and the obviousness of meaning in a character's actions.
-Taken from Wikipedia.com
Instead of parodying another film or genre, Ferrell's films tend to parody in general, American culture. Most of his characters being a low brow representation of America's every man. These men however being in some form of authority/power. Furthermore his films often parody specific parts of American culture, notoriously of Ferrell, sport and also specific era's.
Examples of this:
Blades of Glory- parody of figure skating/sport
Anchorman- parody of an era, culture/ cultural satire
Talladega Nights- non-informed parody of a sport/ southern people
Semi-pro- parody of an era/ sport and an organization
Zoolander- parody of culture/satire/ fashion world.
From this i have tried to briefly describe the comedy stylings within Ferrell's films...
"Ferrell’s films mostly derive humour from parodying an era and or sport within American culture. Many of his films often including Cultural satire, and a tounge-in-cheek take on the subject of the film. Ferrell has become known of late for his sport comedies. Films parodying late 70’s basketball, NASCAR racing, Little league soccer and the world of figure skating. His comedy in general tends to take the body of yelling, public nudity and erratically spurting ridiculous remarks and statements, his characters often being dim-witted, self-involved sexual deviants."
- Mitch Gibbons, 2010
I think this is a pretty spot on explanation of his humour, in terms of the task ahead it is the 'Eratically spurting ridiculous remarks and statements' that i want to really focus on and be the selling/focus point of the idents. One of the greatest qualities of Ferrell's films is the 'quotability' of them, in the way that all these humorous random comments that come out in the films are easily applied to real life, and it is what the majority of people remember from the film.
So my idents will be mostly type based.
This is a short video which i think represents Mr. Ferrell's type of comedy...
And this video shows Ferrell's skills in impersonation and a different side of comedy than his films...
Born and raised in Orange County, California and of Irish descent, Ferrell first came to fame through the highly popular american TV series, Saturday Night Live of which he was a cast member of for 7 years. It was during his 7 year stint on the show where he was nominated for an Emmy for one of his Skits where he played George W. Bush. (The only person to be nominated for such an award on the show). It was also during his time there where he first started to star in movies, A Night at the Roxbury, being his first lead role (Originally taken from a skit of SNL) also landing cameo roles in Austin Powers 1&2, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and more notably the role as Mugatu in Zoolander. It wasn't until 2002, the year of his departure from SNL, that saw him become a real big name from his appearance in the film Old School where he played 'Frank The Tank Ricard' a lead role stealing performance. Since his time at SNL Ferrell has bought us timeless characters such as Frank the Tank including, Ron Burgundy- Anchorman/ & wake up Ron Burgundy. The Lost Movie, Chazz Reinhold- Wedding Crashers and Brennan Huff- Step-Brothers.
