IDD 400 Analysis of 'The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio'

"The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" was another film that the main title sequence was done by Imaginary Forces. The music in the background sounds very light and natural. It has a very light melody to it. The background of the title sequence is an old piece of paper with water stains on it. The animation is simple and seems more like a slide show. The text for the credits are done the 1950's script-like font as well as a wide serif font. The main actors are done with the script type font for their first name and the serif font for their last name. The other credits have the job description in the script font and the names in the serif font.

The beginning of sequence has coins falling, but they aren't falling smoothly. They start in one location and then fade to a slightly lower location to give the illusion that they are falling. The fades are slow and smooth. Then there are bunch of kitchen appliances that appear and then all line up next to each other. The kitchen appliances are from the 1950s. Then other things start to fill the screen such as the coins being stacked, old radios, and other vintage items. There are other words that say, "Win," "Prizes," and "Enter Now" giving it the feel of a contest that you should enter because these are things that you could win. Then the title of the film appears with the screen filled of what looks like luggage, radios, cameras, and a record player peels away from the middle in a slow fade revealing the title. The title has the word 'Prize' in three different colors and in all uppercase letters to keep in the scheme of things. Eventually, old contest flyers that appear for many different contests that could be won. At the end all the items that could be won are showed on the screen and slowly start fading away one by one until the last item left is a chair with the director's name next to it for the last credit. The chair is still on the water stained, old sheet of paper background.

IDD 400 - Analysis of Masterpiece Theater TV Main Titles

Imaginary Forces's TV main title sequence for Masterpiece Theater consists several key features that it maintains during its sequence. The music is a capella and has a quick beat to it but is melo as well. We first notice an upclose shot of a book with pages turning. This pages are hand written and in a scripty font. The color palatte is very warm with an almost sepia feel to it with some dark shades of blue. We can see the old style pen writing in the pages of this book. The transitions to this are smooth and long. Page turns in the book are often transitions. The shots for this are always panning slowly in one direction or another and it feels like this is almost all one long smooth shot. There are silouttes of what appear to be excerpts from different stories in the background. These silouttes have an American feel to them with one of the first silouttes being the Statue of Liberty. Others include farm land, steam boats, and people interacting. Even the pen that is being written with has a star on it which adds to this American feel. It definitely continues the theme of books throughout the titles as there is a visible bookshelf as well which opens up into the siloutte of a city and people talking.

About 2/3's of the way through it we start to see titles. The first title being the "American Collection" followed by the show's sponsors. This sequence has a very calm and soothing feel to it almost and is very relaxing and easy on the eyes. The end comes back to that pen that we first saw and writes out the final sponsor, "Viewer's Like You" and ends there smoothly.

IDD 400 - Analysis of Nokia 8800 Commercial

Over at Nexus Productions they have a nice selection of reels from their works on their website. After viewing several of them, the commercial for the Nokia 8800 left an impression to me in my mind. When I started to view it I felt as if I were watching a commercial for a high-end luxury car. The black background and the highlights of only certain surfaces of the object make it look sleek and luxurious. The shots are close up and the object is presented as a fine piece of machinery. The color palette is almost monochromatic in black and white, but with a neon blue. The movement has some slow pans and quick movements to transition to the next part of the phone. Part way through the commercial instead of making a highlight on the phone, the letter O in the Nokia logo gets highlighted and this is when we start to associate the logo as to what this object they're showing could be. At the end of the commercial the Nokia logo and the model number come onto the screen and then just the Nokia logo and slogan come on to screen after the previous one slides out. The music is slow and suspenseful in the way it gets the viewer to wonder what this sleek and beautiful object is. It sounds like a keyboard with a slow techno drum beat and modern and futuristic sound effects.

I like this commercial because the first time I saw another one on television that was the same style and just a different model phone, I thought it was a commercial for something completely different such as a luxury sports car. This commercial completely changes the way that we are looking at cellular phones.