Week 4 - Pre-Production

Final IdeaAfter spending a lot of time reworking my idea, I reworked it consider previous creative criticism of my final idea. I liked a lot of the visual ideas within my last "Falling paint" idea and discussions had told me that I needed to glorify the American culture I was trying to represent. I thught about American design and imagery that I was interested in and were also immediatley identifiable as American.

All American: Mels Drive In from American Graffiti 

Sticking with the food based idea, with burgers and fries as something I thought was iconographic, I considered the diner setting. Inspired by movies strong, all-american movies like American Graffiti. George Lucas. USA. 1973 which celebrated everything about American youthculture in the 60s. This was inspirational as it was visually bold, and represented a dreamlike perfect view of America. It also a movie made for a youthfull audience, similarly to my Pulp TV channel.

From this, the setting of a diner came to mind, and i thought about different aspecft, the food, the menus, the jukebox etc. I also knew I was limited in that I wouldn't be able to get access to a diner, so I took previously considered elements, and maintained the previous ideas firstly having faceless characters (only hands) and the strong image of American food infront of an American flag (the use of the American flag represents how in American sitcoms, the settings and mis-en-scene are false representations of what producers want the world to see as a perfect American setting, and also could substitute for the need to have a diner background).

I still hadn't really let go of the falling liquid, and I also wanted to keep the Flash Animation Idea, whereby the logo would suddenly appear as if being filled withliquid. To make a compromsie of different ideas, I decided I would have a glass accompany the food, and be filled with a thick, vibrant blue liquid. This way, the blue still looked shocking tothe audience, and I could simultaneously fill the glass and the logo. But I needed more content.

I had a ccess to an old Wurlitzer Jukebox. This was perfect, as again it was instantly American to me, would fit right in in a diner and would make some interesting, original footage. I also liked the idea used in the Napolean Dynamite opening, where information is applied to real world objects. I decided I could list programmes on in the evening, coupled with a voice over as an original way of presenting the information. The design of the Pulp Diner menu would also build on the diner asthetic and create a setting. With all this in mind I built up a range of events that should seemlesly flow into one another. From a Juke Box Selection, to readingn a menu, to presenting the food. It will be shoted and edited to give it a seamless feel with moments running into each other and being thematically linked.

The idea was feasible, celebratory and was well recieved by the client.

Week 3 - Development

My ideas have been through a long thought process since my initial ideas stage, evolving because of things like feasibility,  audience reception, colour changes, different messages, different content etc. There are many things to consider when attacking an idea. Too often, I think I come up with an idea, get my heart set on it and am too stubborn to change. This year I have really tried to push my ideas further forward, making mental and physical drafts of ideas over and over again.

I always knew I was going to to use Pulp instead of any of the existing brands so I would have the least creative limitations. Straight away with Pulp I got all kinds of connotations and different directions I could go in. My first thought was to play on the fruit/juicy kind of angle. As previous work will show you, I like splats and visual collisions and liked the idea of just getting some fruit, and smashing it up, let the juice drip from the walls etc. The theme was to be "fresh new channel" and would be vibrant and fun. However, obviously, there are multiple reasons this couldn't work:

• Feasibility: I'd have to spend a lot of money on a lot of fruit, and try and avoid damaging my rented equipment etc
• Structure: I found it difficult to put any kind of structure or development into the ident, it was just one visual gimmick
• Limitations: I could imagine it in slow motion, and we don't have the resources to shoot stuff like this.

In my initial burst of inspiration, I also thought up a logo that I would use for the remainder of the project. I like quite bold, simplistic typography, but wanted a logo that still had detail and relevance. I was inspired by a font I had seen on a number of EP covers by Glassjaw, and the mix of bright colours and the simple typeface inspired the fruity thoughts for my first idea and later work.

Coloring Book: Typography and Colour

With this in mind I started using Alte Haas Grotesk, a typeface which is pretty much a free version of the famous Helvetica font, which is used on the Glassjaw covers, except it is slightly rounded off on the corners. I tried to add something that would very quickly and easily bring up connotations of the world itself, so I tried adding various splats or liquefying the font slightly on Photoshop. However, in the end, I decided to add a single drip to the P. This looked simple yet appropriate, so I continued with this, including a little "TV" add on, which made it look more official I think.

Logo Progress 1

Logo Progress 2

With my ideas on branding the channel growing, I got more ideas based on my initial inspiration and other parts of the brief. After looking at the type of programmes Pulp was supposed to produce, I saw that an American season of programming could be appropriate. Not only would it fit with the channels programming schedule, but also had the opportunity for a wealth of styleistic/design choices. I have always been heavily inspired by American design from sports logos, Art Deco to even things like Diner logo designs. It's mostly bold and eye catching. Witht his in mind I brainstormed American Iconography, looking for something I could interact with creativley as an object.

I liked the idea of using food as a metaphor for the over indulgent, full fat American spirit I wanted to be conveyed in the advert. I thought about trying to merge this ideas with my previous themes of freshness, returning to my thoughts about an anarchic, paint splat idea. I also wanted to boost the American visuals into overload, to suit the over the top visuals. I sketched out my idea, which involved a plate of huge, American fast food being placed infront of an american flag background which said "all you can eat." in the stars. After a moment, thick, blue paint would fall from above and cover everything on the small set.



Ident Breakdown: Frame One



I thought this was quite strong visually, and liked the mixed themes of freshness and indulgence. However,m again, after consulting others and going over Production Documenttation etc key issues arose with the idea.

• Feasibility: Similarly to the "fruit" idea, it would be hard to control the paint and also try to avoid equipment and set damage etc. Although contingencies had been planned for instance to put an angled sheet of cling film infront of the camera to protect the equipment and a layer of cling film in the 3 wall set to allow for more takes, it was still quite
  a challenging task.




Ident Breakdown: Frame 2


• Audience Reception: The visuals represented the themes quite clearly. However, upon pitching my idea, it was suggested that perhaps instead of promoting the American season Idea it showed American culture in a derogatory manner. Some viewers felt it more closely represented someone being sick from over eating etc. It was suggested I try and celebrate the American themes instead.

SPIKE
Opening Title
www.spike.com
Spike Full Episodes Spike Video Clips Spike on Facebook

After this feedback, I was a bit stuck fo ideas. My lecturer had said that certain aspects of my design had reminded him of the opening credit scene of Napolean Dynamite. Jared Hess. 2004. USA which used the idea of putting the information of the credits onto everyday, physical objects. I should look at this an similar, as well as trying to show the American themes in a positive light to create a more effective Ident.