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Project Assignment

Motion Graphic Title Sequence

In this project, you will create a title sequence for a fictitious television series of your own devising. This title sequence is composed of a short, slideshow, between 1 and 2 minutes long, saved in a web-compatible video format.

This title sequence will comprise a set of still images prepared in Affinity Photo (or Photoshop, or equivalent) and then edited together in Open Shot Video Editor (or iMovie, or equivalent) with effects such as panning and zooming (without revealing the edges of the source images), and transitions between shots. The sequence be composed of 12 to 30 images (with a standard, 4:3 aspect ratio shape) and timed with music.

The sequence should include text (typically, a title and credits) either layered into the photos using Affinity Photo before composing the slideshow, or using Open Shot after importing the images into the video-editing software.

I will ask you to export the completed slideshow as a web-compatible video file, and upload that file to Google Drive with open permissions. Send the URL of the video file to the forum "Motion Graphic Title Sequence URL."

Movement and Layering

Composing this title sequence will give you an opportunity to learn and apply two complementary sets of visual-design principles:

Movement and layering are two dimensions of visual representation which your title sequence will use together to achieve its effects and suggest its meanings.

Premise for the Series and for the Sequence

The premise of your TV series can be entirely original, or can be adapted from, or inspired by, a published book, short story, song, or other non-visual narrative. It may be something in between adapted and original. You may also have multiple inspirations that you combine creatively into a single premise.

Whether original or adapted, the premise should be detailed enough to provide you with the essential topics, themes, tensions, conflicts, symbols, etc. from which you will compose the content and create the styles of the title sequence. However, avoid simply surveying all these topics and themes. Effective title sequences often choose very specific and selective situations, objects, or themes which stand for the larger, more numerous experiences of the show itself.

I will ask you to use McCloud's 6 Steps from Chapter 7 to describe your inspiration and vision of both

Note that--unlike movies, novels, and stories--the essential conflicts in a television series are usually never resolved (until the series ends).

Narrative Movement in Time or Space

With this project, you will learn and employ visual narrative principles variously known as editing, cinematography, montage, visual style, etc. to create a sense of movement and/or progression (movement of a character, the apparent movement of the viewer through space and/or time, etc.). McCloud's book Understanding Comics provides a detailed guide to many of these.

We will also discuss a number of sample title sequences in class to see examples of narrative and layering techniques.

Hybrid Media Layering

Together with the techniques of narrative movement, you will also get to know and experiment with techniques of Hybrid Media Design

These techniques include, for example, the mingling of 2D and 3D realities, the explicit layering of different media styles and languages into a single visual experience.

We will look at this phenomenon in many sample title sequences, music videos, and other contemporary visual forms.

Your commentary will give you the opportunity to explain the instances of hybrid media layering in your project.

The Structural Logic ("Plot Phrase")

Your title sequence should have a structural logic or "plot."

For instance, this plot might take the viewer from one place, time, or condition to another; or follow a character performing some action or experiencing some change.

This so-called plot might be defined by literal, physical movement (then to now, outside to in, out-there to home), or by a metaphorical/symbolic movement (dark to light, denial to acceptance, forgetting to remembering, uncertainty to clarity, etc.).

Generally, the structural logic will be expressed by narrative choices, with additional meaning and implications achieved through the non-narrative layering of hybrid media effects.

To help you envision the structural logic of your sequence, I will ask you to come up with a "plot phrase" to define it: examples: "Falling" for Mad Men or "Going Home" for The Simpsons

Two Plot Formats to Avoid for this Assignment:

1. Avoid simply telling the backstory of your premise. Instead, your title sequence should introduce your series/movie's essential tensions, themes, and tone See the Gilligan's Island title sequence as an example of a simple backstory.

2. Avoid simply presenting a visual list of characters/actors without any narrative structure or direction.
While these are common formats for title sequences, they won't serve well as models for this particular assignment.

Commentary

In addition to fulfilling the requirements of excellent commentaries, your Title Sequence commentary should:

Sample Narrative Title Sequence Project

Examples of Professional Title Sequences

Other Resources