Thursday, February 4, 2010

KCTV

A couple of interesting spots from KCTV in Kansas City.

The producer writes:

Yeah, another promo where i didn't have a lick of video. Well, that's if you consider that I can't exactly use video of a police detective walking into and out of his cubicle. So, again, I have to find a way to make promo magic. Ok, this might not exactly be a magical spot. But I got it done in time. That's something, right?




Ah, don't you love making promos for stories where you have video, but you're not allowed to use it for the promo? Yeah, this was one of those. I originally had video of an 'almost victim' off the top, but was told I couldn't use it since he didn't finish up the scam, if you know what I mean. He wasn't a victim yet, but he almost was. Not good enough for this promo. So, he was out and I was tasked with starting from scratch on this promo. After a few minutes of head scratching, I gave up and went with kinetic text. But, hey, kinetic text works for anything where you don't have video. This is a very quick and dirty take on kinetic text, though. Don't judge me.


5 comments:

chris said...

The first spot is super slick. Is it all aftereffects? Trapcode particular? What else you got going on there?

Mark Olson said...

Yeah, it's all ae. I threw the particles in there from particular to give it some atmosphere. I bought the new VC Optical Flares and figured I'd sneak a little of that on top. It's kind of cheating since I took a typing animation I built one or two years ago, but it worked for this spot. Add some glow, a venitian blinds, and a lens blur, then call it done. Wait, I'm giving away all of my secrets of how I slack off when making promos...

PhotogSteve said...

Nice Job, the typing animation was really cool! The second one started out nice but I did not like the video. Great job turning Chicken Sh-- into Chicken Salad!

Anonymous said...

As a graphic designer first, and a working television professional second, I love the art of typography. But, I think these spots are good examples of how TOO MUCH TEXT can kill a spot.

I sympathize with the producer's lack of video. But, there's a lot that can be done with even still images to promote a story. I think even having a typical reporter stand-up would be more effective in the first spot than all that text.

And, I couldn't agree less that "kinetic text works for anything where you don't have video." I just feel that sometimes there are too many people out there trying to force new techniques learned in After Effects into spots, instead of focusing on an idea that is more effective.

Anonymous said...

Text looks great. First half better than second half but you can only work with what you've got.