DVD Interfaces and interactive menus
There are several reasons why film production companies like to put in an animated interface on their DVD's, one of them is to entertain the viewer and show clips of the film which give the audience who have never seen the film a look into what they are going to watch. The interactive menus also help the viewer make their movie experience more to their required taste. I have found a few different examples of DVD interfaces and menus which include Slumdog millionaire and Ratatouille.
Title and Credit sequences
There are many films that will blend their titles into the start of the film for example they will put names of stars and contributors at the bottom of the screen, but some films such as the James Bond series have a history of making eye catching opening titles. Many films choose to put some outtakes at the end of the film and in some cases there is more clips from the film, things like alternative scenes and added scenes to the end of the films (More common in comedy films).
Animated captions
Animated captions appear a lot more these days on programs such as the news when we see an interview with a person when the news report is on a specific subject. They also sometimes appear at the start of a program to tell the viewer who the host of the show is and maybe what their profession is. There will also be the names of the crew for example the director, the producer and other important members of the production team.
Stings and Idents
Stings and Idents can help promote a channel to an audience because they are sometimes used which there is a commentator telling the viewer what program would be coming on next and also an ident will usually show what kind of audience the channel is aimed at. The BBC has a great history of making eye catching and entertaining idents which were usually for BBC 2 but recently BBC 1 has received more of the ident attention. For example for all of ITV 2's idents they all feature young people in thier idents and the announcer is a young person too and this is the most obvious example of showing what an ident is and how it is aimed at its organisation.
Musical Idents
An musical sting that would be popular to many would be the X factor sting and the Britain's Got Talent sting. Also with these shows they use graphics in the lower third of the screen to show what number to call to vote for the contestant and it is read out by the presenter. The video below is an example of the lower third graphics.
Web Banners
Web Banners are a good way of advertising a television show which can reach out to an audience. When a person would click on a website some websites would have banners on the top and down the sides advertising a show or film. Commonly these adverts are found on websites such as TV guide and various cinemas websites who will try and promote their films. A lot of time is spent by the advertising companies making these animations or pictures at the side of the screen making them as eye catching as possible. you can see the advertising of the show Ugly Betty on the link below and this was on the TV guide website. http://www.simrendeogun.com/next-level-online-banner-ads/
The characteristics of motion graphics and composting video
There are three main characteristics to motion graphics and video composting these are; graphics, movement and visual effects. All three are integral to making something eye catching worth watching either on television or in a film.
Graphics occur in so many programs and films now that its is harder to find a film or show that doesn't contain special effects ranging from Coronation street to the more obvious end of the graphics spectrum with programs such as Doctor Who. Programs like Doctor Who lead the way for Sci Fi fans who are a fan base that enjoy the special effects of a show or film. Graphics are also key when it comes to the posters and adverts that are sent out on all forms of media to advertise a show or film and when these are produced they are layered and put together to create an experience for a possible movie goer.
Movement in animations are still made using the same tools in the basic stages for example to make the animations they have to be drawn out first but that's when 21st century technology comes into play as the computer software then would do the rest whereas before it was down to coloring film now less time is needed and given to this subject. An example of a company that has learned a lot from their experiences is Disney which is still leader in moving animations.
Visual Effects are key to many Hollywood blockbusters with films such as Life of Pi and Transformers make the action of a killer robot and tiger become a real and entertaining view. These visual effects are expected now to be great and are expected not to make an audience question the reality of the situation they are watching. A company working on many of the big films coming out of Hollywood is Industrial light and magic who are owned by George Lucas and re part of his film empire. ILM have worked on many films that have broken the records of visual effects with films like star wars, Pearl Harbour and Star Trek. A link to the website of ILM is below and on their homepage you can use the mouse to see their visual effects before they edit them and add the magic to the shot that we as viewers assume is already there. The video below also shows how the visual effects were made for The Avengers film.
http://www.ilm.com/
Technology issues
Software
The types of software used by both professionals and amateurs range in price and in quality. One piece of software which is used by both professionals and regular animators is Adobe After Effets. This is a piece of software that i have used and isn't too difficult to use and does all of the jobs you would expect from a piece of animation software.
Frame rate
The standard frame rate for television is 24 frames per second and this has become the norm and has been the same ever since the birth of cinema. The reason we see film in 24 frames per second is that any quicker or slower and the film would appear jumpy. Many motion graphic sequences are worked on frame by frame and in the early beginnings of motion graphics there was a lot of problems to work out and it was made easier by the fact that they could work through the film frame by frame.
Video Format
There are about 20 different video formats and they all have different uses in the world of film and television. The most common video formats are MP4 or .avi and they are used by both the professionals and amateurs. I have used formats such as .avi when im on things like Adobe Premiere Pro and when im watching a digtial copy of a film or television program. An .avi file can be cut up and moved around easily as it is a versatile format and therefore suitable for programs such as Premiere Pro. On the link below you can find out what the different video formats are and how they are used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_file_format
Screen Ratios
Screen ratios also known as aspect ratios have been around ever since the dawn of cinema. There are several examples of different types of aspects ratio range from the first 1.25:1 ratios and then the widescreen view of 16:9 that is still used today. The video that i have put in below is about the history of the aspect ratio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)
Resolution
The display resolution is done in pixels and these are the pixels that would appear on a television and computer screens. An example of a display resolution is one that many if not all will have encounted and that is 1080p. 1080p is the display resolution for the 16:9 ratio and this is why this resolution is one of the most common. This is most commonly used in motion graphics because it has the widescreen qualities. The link below is a history and explanation of resolutions used through out films history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution
Digital Compression
Digital compression is when an image is squashed up and broadcast out to the veiwing audience. This was first done in the 1930's and when first done was only done using colours but by the late 1940's scientists in america were able to transmit images of objects and people around their country. Motion graphics and video composting is more easily broadcast using digital rather than analog transmissions. With digital television it makes the graphics made by special effects look better and appear better to an audience rather than the old analog television transmission. The link below contains a deeper and more detailed explaination of what exactly digital compression is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television
