Vote Now!

Matt Frodsham, our talented graphic design student who worked on this Traceur Tag video, has been shortlisted in a Panasonic design competition. Show your solidarity and help him win. Go to www.nextgenerationtalent.co.uk/vote/ and vote. He has reached the final six entries and deserves the recognition of his abilities with a win.

The blog has ended

As promised here are some photos of the launch of Traceur Tag at FACT last night. A big thanks goes to Stas Krakiewicz for taking the photos.

This blog is now officially complete and is a publicly available document of the entire project from beginning to end. To read the blog you will be time-travelling backwards as the most recent post is first and the first post is last. So if you wish to read it in chronological order use the archive links below.

The Future, Fiction and Fantasy Liverpool Biennial 08 Schools Project exhibition that Traceur Tag was made for begins today and goes on until 20th November. It is at The Blackie in Liverpool's China Town, next to the Chinese Arch.


Most of the team, both from De La Salle and St Helens College


Freerunners Dom and Aaron and co-director Adam Hamilton


Adam Hamilton, Dave Bentick and Matt Frodsham


The guests (you know who you are)


L-R Dom, Aaron, Adam, Dave B., Matt, Jo, Ste & Dave W.

Traceur Tag launches tonight

The day is finally here. Tonight the video is launched in The Box cinema in FACT to an invited audience and the last six months of planning, pre-production, production, post-production, DVD creation, website building has now finally come to an end.

The website www.traceurtag.com also launches tonight. On it is background information on the project and it will be updated up to Christmas with more content as it becomes available. The video can be viewed on the main page after the Biennial exhibition opens on the 30th October. The project blog is available to read through the archive section.

The video will tomorrow be exhibited as part of the Future, Fiction and Fantasy Liverpool Biennial Schools Project.

I would just like to acknowledge the the following people who have given some/a lot/all their free time, skill, creativity and expertise along the way:

The core biennialFreerunner Productions team - Dave Bentick, Matt Frodsham, Adam Hamilton, Jose Flores & Stas Krakiewicz

All the pre-production contributors (every contribution helped the project progress) - you know who you are

Toxteth TV for the facilities

John Eyre for the score (and Adam on guitar '-) )

Ste for the printing of the invites

Alan Bridge of Creative Griffin for being a CSS and Flash maestro

Anna from FACT for tonights event

The FACT bar staff for keeping me in caffeine whilst I worked on their very comfy sofas as if it were my office

St Helens College especially Marianne McCracken for seeing this project as a valid academic research project and supporting me in it; and Paul Allen for releasing Matt to work on the project's considerable design. Shabba!

De La Salle School for the actual project and Sophie Bower for putting Jo and me in touch 7 months ago.

In fear of doing a Gwyneth Paltrow and gushing I think I've covered everyone. If they come out the last post on this blog will be photos from tonight.

No thank YOU :-)

Hi Jo and lads,

Risking the dangers of this becoming an escalating luvvie-fest I would like to thank you guys for dropping into our collective lap a project that sparked so much creative energy.

Every member of the core team put in an amazing 200%. I was concerned about exhausting the team's goodwill but they were always up for more.

I have never worked with such a team before. You guys, Matt, Dave, Adam, Jose and Stas are stars! Jo you may in years to come be the catalyst that launches their careers!

We all know that what we achieved was 1000 times more ambitious than we initially conceived. It is good to hear on viewing of the video you all stating how it could (if we started from scratch) be improved again by 1000%. This doesn't devalue the outcome everyone (including you DLS guys) achieved, but illustrates the confidence that this project has instilled in each member of the team. You are all voracious creative animals. I just now need to find a way to unleash you onto the industry so you can realise your potential on paid work.

Respect to you all.

I was going to post a different blog to begin the final wrapping up but I thought I'd say what I felt instead. The other info can wait. I need to catch up on my sleep.

:-)

Thankyou

To Dave and the AMAZING St Helens College Creative Arts Team,

You are all incredible and from the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank you for making this project something far bigger, and better, than we ever dreamed or imagined was possible. Your time, dedication and passion for the arts is so overwhelming and inspiring,I feel privileged to have worked with such brilliant professionals and am so grateful for what you have done for our school. We owe you big time so if there is anything we can ever do for you, please don't hesitate to ask!

Looking forward to the PV next week, you are all fabulous...keep me updated on your next adventure because I am sure there will be something huge for you all around the corner to engulf you once again!

Thankyou,

Jo and the Biennial Freerunners!!!

Matt's workshop

A huge thankyou to Matt for his workshop at DLS, some fantastic work was produced. If you can invoice us(send it via email to me) we can get you sorted out.

DVD rush job - content needed urgently

Hi guys,

Due to last minute remedial work on the video (last minute keying, new scenes, corrections) my time on compiling the DVD has been cut short. Can you use www.megaupload.com to mail me over the weekend any content you want including. Zip up files of videos, images, screenshots before emailing. Time is short guys.

I've spoken to the DVD duplicators and want to get the DVD to them on Wednesday. Jo I will need to arrange handover with you too. I'm in Edinburgh from Monday-Tuesday night so Tuesday is out. If you can arrange with Adam on Tuesday to pick your competition copy up? I'll hand the FACT DVDs in on Thursday as they need to be different to the freebie DVD. This will be the same as the BLACKIE copy. Should I arrange to drop 1 off to Sophie then too?

That's it for now. The eleventh hour guys, the eleventh hour. We're nearly there, then I can sleep :-)

DVD menu screens (working designs)

Hi all,

Here are the proposed DVD menu screens. Matt, I have repurposed your DVD label design, mixing it up with assets from the website for continuity. I have a few more ideas to enhance the design, but I'll keep that quiet until I know I can do it in the time left. On the project page Jo you have five sections. I have only shown three possibilities for now. Confirm what you need to have.

Background


Main Menu links


Project Menu links


Team Menu links


Extras Menu links


Matt, you've earned your spurs! It's your turn to crit the critter. What's your thoughts on what I've done? C'mon you know you want revenge on your lecturer :-)

Also I have put up a placeholder page for www.traceurtag.com. Check it out across different computers and let me know if there are any technical problems with it.

I'm in my Edinburgh hotel as I write this. No reason for telling you that piece of useless information except its fantastic up here.

exhibition statement

The following is what I have sent to Sophie but it will be edited down. I though I would put it up here just so that you can have a nosey! If you think I should change anything or add anything just let me know today if you can and i will let Sophie know. Also, Dave, have a look at the acknowledgements-are you ok with it quite general or do you feel it should list all of the individuals?(it will be under the statement next to our piece? Oh and who has been your financial support at College? Do you want to mention their name?

Thanks...

Traceur Tag
De La Salle School in collaboration with St Helens College


The theme for the schools project, Future, Fiction and Fantasy, seemed to instantly form a connection with our idea to produce a piece of work using Parkour and the virtual world as the concept. This film was a collaborative effort between De La Salle School and St Helens College and it was only through this collaboration that the desire to create a film based on the computer game genre was realised. It was at the initial stages of the collaboration that contemporary artworks such as Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle proved influential along with the film Jump Britain and a variety of computer games such as Halo and Unreal, which helped us to establish the kinds of environment that could form the basis for the film.

Without a doubt the vehicle which supported this project’s creative growth and encouraged clear communication throughout was the Biennial Freerunner’s Blog, instigated by Dave Wood. This blog became a hub of activity which maintained consistency in content during the six month period. Ideas, thoughts, concerns, artistic references and discussions were posted daily, hourly and often by the minute in pursuit of our collective goal. The most interesting element of the blog, from an educational perspective, was the innovative approach to formative assessment, providing rapid responses to creative problems in a contemporary manner aiding motivation and communication. Both De La Salle School and St Helens College are now exploring ways in which blogs can impact upon student’s development and bring assessment methods into the 21st Century.

This film explores a passion for an activity that in society can be considered as subversive or anti social and channels that enthusiasm into a creative medium. From a school’s point of view the boys were given an opportunity to express themselves in a language that is comfortable to them but in a safe environment, they worked with students witnessing the creative process in action but also what vocational links art can provide.

Finally, working on the School’s Project with the Biennial team has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to investigate contemporary approaches to schemes of work, work collaboratively between different institutions and the community and develop effective forms of communication, all of which have supported our personal development for the delivery of new initiatives such as the re-launch of the Secondary Curriculum and the introduction of the Creative and Media Diploma.

Acknowledgements
Aaron Ross, Dominic Andrew, Matthew Fitzhenry and Phillip Smith, the freerunners, Dave Wood and his Creative Team at St Helens College, Matthew Frodsham for his creative lead with the Graphic Design, Jo Millea and De La Salle’s Art Department, Beryl Simmons and Paul Ross for financial support.

DVD Structure

Hi Jo,

Here's the structure for the DVD. It follows the website structure but naturally has different content. The textual content of the website won't be suitable for a DVD. The Extras section translates well but the Archive section wont. The Team and Project sections will need slightly differing content.

I propose to add course showreels and a college video to the Team section. I suggest we add all of or a cut of the video Adam has been doing for DLS and anything else you've got from the art department. What do you think?

Here's the suggested structure:

Jo: Workshop on wed

Hi Jo, while you're thinking about who you want to invite...

Can you ask the lads to each find an image they want to composite with, as large as they can find but it's not that important. Some sites they might find free stock photos on:

www.sxc.hu
www.morguefile.com
www.public-domain-photos.com
deviantart.com

google images is probably the place to start looking though, without copyright restrictions they can use all the images I wasn't able to. They can be as obscure as they want, but if they have some sort of obstacle in them that would be cool. If all else fails I've still got the images I used but it would be nice if they have a bit of involvement in the process.

I'll bring the photos from the blue screen shoot that I used for the concept art for them to cut out and I'll put together some sort of reference sheet for the tools used.

My mobile number is xxxxxxxxxxx

cheers, matt


Dave Bentick - did you get your business cards printed yet?

Invite List (so far)

Hi Jo,

Here's my invite list so far…

Industry: Sony Computer Entertainment, Evolution, Brahm, Alexander MacGregor, Palfrey Greer, Sparkle Media, Smiling Wolf
College: Marianne McCracken [CRM], Brian Dean [Director of Arts], John Frodsham [Director], Carmen Wills [Dep. Principal], Pat Bacon [Principal], Millard Parkinson [CRM]
Other: Mark Smith [ICDC], Gary Peploe [MMU], Dr Chris Speed [ECA], Dr Sophia Lycouris [ECA], Dr Mark Wright [ECA], Ivan Drummond [Napier University], Tracy Lannon [University of Huddersfield], Justin Thompson [University of Huddersfield],
Ian Jackson [Art in Liverpool]

That covers about 25 invites in all, 2 per invite = 50 people (but not all will come). Who do you want to invite?

Endgame

Hi Jo,

Just a quick progress report…

• Rendered footage handed over to Adam for editing
  
• Adam has someone lined up to score the video
  
• Invites should be ready by Tues at latest. Send out by end of next week.
  
• FACT technical stuff is sorted. 14th is good to hand in the video to them.
  
• I'll start on the DVD itself this weekend whilst working on the website.
  
• How is your content coming along?
  
• I'm behind on some of the academic work I intended.
  
• We can still add content after website launch. It will ensure people visit the site again and again.
  

I think that's all for now :-)

Don't be square daddio…

Hi Matt,

As I said earlier the definition of the divided blocks of colour needs breaking down, like with the white paint explosion effect used on the invite.

The logos need to be bigger so maybe move them up to the space on the left. The current text byline is visually ok but needs rewording/expanding into the space now vacated by the logos:

A CG video for Liverpool Biennial 2008 created in collaboration between De La Salle High School's art department and undergraduate students from
St Helens College's degrees:

BA(Hons) Entertainment Media Design
FdA Computer Game Design
FdA Graphic Design

Here's a suggestion with the text below but use your instinct…



I'll call in to see that guy tomorrow to sort out invites. What's his name?

Argh, why can't DVD's be square?

Any thoughts? Don't feel like I'm getting very far, off to a photo-shoot for this band now so I've took a screen grab of where I'm up to...

matt

Hello from Edinburgh. DVDs are sorted.

Greetings from Auld Reekie! Day 1 of my MPhil/PhD and I'm writing this from one of my favourite cafes "The Black Medicine Co." This is what I'm looking at…



I may be 230 miles away and studying but work doesn't stop. The last bit of Photoshopping is being performed with 24 hours to go before hand over to Adam for final editing. I've just sorted out the DVD duplication with MediaHeaven (Matt's recommendation).

Deadline for final video is 13th October (or before if poss)
Deadline to post DVD for duplication and DVD for FACT launch is 14th October
DVD duplication will be quicker than 7 days if artwork is sent prior to the master DVD.

So Matt, your back on. If we get the disk artwork to MediaHeaven early they can turn the DVDs around quicker. Visit their website for the template to work to.

That's all for now. Back to Photoshopping windows.

company's

Hay, Im very excited, when Dave W told me about the invite's we could send out to relative company's, i was curious what company's i would find, didn't really think I would find something so close to home, but Hay Liverpool is the most up and coming place for digital arts if you ask me. 

Going to carry on looking for some more, now that's got the ball rolling

Invite feedback

Hi Matt,

Looking good. I think the format is fresh and stands out as an invite. Your decision on no images is sound and the typography and grunge look adds attitude to the invite. You're right about the extra tagline. I've only one minor amendment and that is to give more space between the itinerary and the Blackie text separating the 2 different bits of information (see image)



Jo, what's your thoughts? Maybe the tagline should read
"your invited to the premier of
Traceur Tag
a student video"

Invitation

The type still needs tweaking a bit (just noticed looking at this thumbnail version that the title's falling off the top) but what do you reckon?

The format is a 75mm x210 (A4 folded in 4) I found a tiny sketchy version of the de la salle logo on google that's big enough for this, I could try and create a vector version from it if I have time for the credits.

I've tried it with images of the lads but it's not working on such a small format, turns out looking like a cheesy brochure for a themepark or something, if you really want image then I can have a play and try some high contrast black & white stuff but I think it's best left typographical - Do you think it could benefit from having some sort of description that it's a short film or something? Or is this implied strongly enough by the 'premiere of...' line in the itinery?

Let me know anyway and I'll get back onto it, best get some college work done now though
























Oh my business cards came, they're really nice. The card and print quality is great, textured but vibrant.
cheers, matt

Revised end scene schematic

Hi Dave,

Here's the schematic for the final street scenes.



The set needs constructing. I've given you sides to the main buildings but no roofs as the shots should be low. Once the basic shots have been set up and shot we will need to add debris and street furniture. Can you set up and render test shots based on this schematic for Thursday?

Final Render Codec

Dave/Matt/Me

Just had a word with Adam and he recommends

H.264

Sorted!

----

Matt, I forget to ask could you email me the Illustrator file inFINity Sign.AI? The link on your blog has expired. I need to rework Stas' neon sign in Photoshop.

Fact info

Yes they do use the projection room and big screen so we are ok with that. However, they do need two copies of the dvd two weeks before the date...does this sound realistic?

DVD information

Please find below the costs for dvd's...
DVD duplication: £1.18 per disc
On-Body print: £0.20 per disc
Cover print: £0.20 per cover
Amary case: £0.14 per case
So in total the cost per disc will be: £1.72 (+VAT)

Do we want to go ahead with this? I would imagine they need time to do them aswell, I'll check how long. Oh and I will enter the blast comp but will need a copy so as long as its before the 17th we will get it in on time...... :)

URLs bought + new email addresses for all

Hi team,

I've purchased 2 URLs for the web site: www.traceurtag.com & www.biennialfreerunner.com. We can use the first to advertise the video and the 2nd to advertise what we have done (and can do).

As a lil' pressie to the team every core team member now has a fresh new email that points at your own original email account. We all now have the following emails you can use (or not):

jomillea@biennialfreerunner.com

adamhamilton@biennialfreerunner.com

davebentick@biennialfreerunner.com

mattfrodsham@biennialfreerunner.com

staskrakiewicz@biennialfreerunner.com

joseflores@biennialfreerunner.com

davewood@biennialfreerunner.com

There are 2 other general email addresses that will be forwarded to both myself and you Jo:

info@biennialfreerunner.com
&
traceurtag@biennialfreerunner.com

Have fun.

BBC Blast

Hi just wanted to check that we will be ok entering the blast comp as the lads have only really starred in it and formed the narrative. Its actually been made by older students, hasnt it? Just thought I should clarify before getting too carried away!!

Fact Details

Howdy,

We have the Box from 6:30pm with a view to start at 7pm and finish at 8pm. I have said we need a projector and dvd player, can you think of anything else?

Regarding the invite, I think it should include:

• The film title and that it is a collaboration between DLS and SHC.
• Fact 29th October, 7pm
• That it is part of the Biennial schools project exhibition entitled Future, Fiction and Fantasy showing at the Blackie, Great George Street, Liverpool, L1 5EW from 30th Oct-20th Nov 12-6pm.
• Maybe the web address? Anything else?

Dave and I also spoke about a possible itinerary on the inside or back of the invite so that people need to know that they need to get there for a certain time and that there will be opportunities for Q&A. Ooh not long now!

Fact confirmed!

Hi all,
Fact is now a definate so we can relax on that one, the woman who was sorting it has now left and that was what was delaying things. Dave I will give you a ring tomorrow sometime to go over dates etc and I will look into enteing into that competition you have posted below. Also how are we working the finances? Do you want to send money to us or our school to you??Just need to let Fact know details but we can talk about that tomorrow.

Byeeee....

Cloud descent storyboard

For Jose's reference…







Last panels cut into the following scene…

Final post-production deadline to launch

Hi all,

I've met with Adam and Dave this week and from discussing what needs to be completed in time for launch I propose this as the final deadline schedule:

18th September - all 3D digital sets to be completed - [art direction & Photoshopping = Dave Wood]
-------------
Then sets handed to Dave Bentick for completion of digital shots and rendering out of final rendered comps.
=============
30th September - completion of all rendered scene comps including all digital effect shots, end credits and 3D animations [Dave Bentick, Jose Flores, Matt Frodsham et al]
------------
Then all final rendered scenes supplied to Adam to edit, colour correct and score.
=============
13th October - Finished video signed off.
=============
Wrap party where we all (well at least me) can get blitzed before sending the DVD file off for duplication (if time is too short to get these back for the launch we can produce a freebie launch version in-house as a taster and sell the proper DVD through the website).
=============
17th October BBC Blast deadline
=============
29th October - Launch event in FACT (unconfirmed) [screening, Q+A, website launch, MySpace launch, FaceBook launch, DVD launch, book preview] [after launch BLITZ party I ]
=============
30th October - Liverpool Biennial launch at the Blackie. Private view. [after PV BLITZ party II]
=============
31st October - hangover/exhaustion/nervous breakdown/gibbering plus satisfaction of a job well done.

Blast Film Festival

Hi Jo,

Matt has emailed me this link to a Film Festival by the BBC that you could enter the film into for the lads.

www.bbc.co.uk/blast/film/

Deadline is 17th October. Watcha think?

3D corridor dynamic run test

Nice to see you our creatively recharged Dave, I myself have been feeling a little bit more relieved, has I have managed to create a test shot, which has given me a little confidence that we can make some interesting shots in after effects.

The scenes dark, we all know that it can be adjusted to the final render.

Look through the windows, notice the clouds and the horizon, I hope the interior has a nice enough blue colour cast, I think so.

Anyway, hope its dynamic enough, I want to get some nice volumetric lighting coming in through the windows soon, and I would really like to see what else I can do, apart from rotoscoping, so sit tight and I may surprise you.

enjoy!

Yo, i"m back from Prague

Yo all, I'm back from Prague, elated, knackered and inspired. I've just quickly caught up with everything but will get some sleep to recharge and pick up the art direction, direction, producing sweeping, ironing etc. tomoz. I am creatively recharged (and now in my 4th decade) so will get on with the last push.

DLS....They say YES!!!!!

Yeeeeah!! There is no probs with the money from our end. What is the best way to do this, shall we send you the money following an invoice from you and it gets sorted your end? Or do you want me to sort all the dvds, paying FACT etc and so I invoice you for the dosh?? I dont mind either way but clearly you have done so much that it should probably be me who does the paperwork!! Worringly, Fact arent returning my emails so I will ring them Monday instead.

Matt, I could pay you £xx for a 2hr workshop after school (3-5pm) to work with the 4 lads from this project. The idea would be to make some of the poster type images that you have created so that they can further their Photoshop skills, we have PCs or Macs. Are you up for it? If you are can you let me know what nights are best for you over the next few weeks please and if not don't worry.

See you all soon....

College, they say yes!

Hi Jo,

My Director has agreed to fund our side of the deal. Hope that helps in your negotiations with your side.

When is your school half-term week. Does it correspond with the launch and would it be a problem getting the lads and their families to attend if it does?

What's the opposite of somnambulist? Well it's 4am and I'm IT right now.

Yo all,

End of my summer leave and it's back to work in 5 hours and you've guessed it… I can't sleep 'cos my body clock is screwed! Never mind here are some screen shots of rendered scenes from the final video. They still need Dave Bentick's skilful post-production colour manipulation but they are looking really good with Jose Flores' emotive skies in place behind Stas Krakiewicz's fantastic 3D set designs.

The last push to complete the post-production is here. It's been a hard slog but we're nearly there guys!

Launch night and DVDs

Hi Jo,

Just to clarify some points we discussed last Friday…

--------------------

FACT launch

Wednesday 29th October - can we get FACT to pencil that date in and we'll sort out the payment soon as possible? (see below)

--------------------

DVD authoring

I'll supply an authored DVD to duplicate. Can you ask for a quote for 250/500 DVDs and if they will be printed?

I have a quote from Matt's recommendation. Their price is:

Specification: 12cm DVD offset printed and duplicated
Qty: 500
Price: 79p per unit exe VAT
That is a total of £464.13 without P+P.

--------------------

Just on the price so far the cost for the venue and 500 DVDs will be £565, rounding up to £580 to cover P+P costs. That would be at least £290 to beg off each institution. At the very least we will need £50 each to hire the venue (the important cost).

What's your thoughts?

Dave Bentick... Business card

yo, do you want me to design a card for you so you have something cool to give out at the launch? I just spent a couple of hours doing one for myself and have found a good specialist printer online. Depending on if you want single or double sided it's between 15/25 per 100 and they have quite a few types of card to print on, I've ordered a sample pack. Just email me with the info you want on it (what would your general job title be?) and any ideas/imagery etc. if you want one doing. I won't charge you ;-p
cheers, matt

Fact launch

Hi Dave,

Fact have been very supportive and are keen on having the launch there. Thay have two available dates - Wed 8th Oct or Wed 29th (earlier one may be best as the other one is the same week as the Biennial preview??)

There is a £100 charge for technical assistance and an usher, we could probably add this on to the dvd charge when we go hunting for funding. She will get back to me about the dvd price but she needs to know what format the film will it be in eg/ will it be mastered?

Also there is a young persons event next week showing District 13 and she asked if the lads would be interested so Im getting details from her and I'll post it up here so hopefully they will see it!

See you tomorrow.......

A little taster of the final digital sets

Here's some of the digital sets for the final film. A mix between Stas' fine 3D work and a little Photoshop art direction by me. They are full size and so watermarked to prevent any body in the future Knicking our IPR.

Last Couple

The extras sub-page now has a header, I already had this screen done though,



































So I have completed:

[Main Template including all background tints, header, menu etc]
-Main Video Page
-Project Page + 5 sub page layouts
-Team Page + rollover states for each box/member (minus photos)
-Extras + Subpage template
-Archive (+ 5 layouts from projects)

Titles and credits are rendered at medium quality photo JPEG for editing so I'm set for handing everything over on friday

You took your eye off the detail!

Whilst you were pasting the layouts up on the building I think you missed something. Too busy focussing upon beermats eh! Pff!


Ok I've had enough Photoshop fun, now back to business… :-P

Good job so far. Here's my feedback…



Ensure all pages have page title. For sub-pages use the page title of the parent page.

1&2 - Cool. Just move Jo to the last box.

3 - Yep make the boxes shade difference a bit more obvious. Just move them all down a bit to add Extras page title.

4-end - The layouts are fine. No extra work needed here. Alan can now use them as a guide when coding.

Archive main page links - Good call, you've made me rethink this page. Use the video page layout replacing the player with a text box. Re-use the info box layout but limit the colour to one consistent tone based upon the page colour. In the box, we will place a page title and a one sentence summary. (rough the copy for now). Image wise just put in some placeholders. Maybe a PDF icon will do for now.

Extras subpages with a video box and thumbs underneath - you're nearly there.

I think that's all. Let me know if I'm not clear. Back to my tightrope walking!

Pff, beermats

Look where I drew these layouts up! Luckily my experience in manchester allowed me to get a pretty good straight on shot so you can see without flying to NY.

1&2 - Not sorted the images for the un-rolled-over boxes, probably wait til I've got everyone's and do it in one batch so all the treatment's the same
3 - think this looks ok, might make the boxes shade difference a bit more obvious
4-end - some layouts for project & archive sub pages, was pretty liberal with the grid as the thing as a whole is so wide but the columns are so narrow. I think they're a good start, once you have the content I'm sure you can tweak them to fit better.

Let us know about the Archive main page in terms of links.
I'll knock up a layout for the extras subpages with a video box and thumbs underneath and then I think I'm nearly done!

Two can play at that game

I think the pages in red are the only physical pages that need laying out by me, it'll probably be less confusing if you duplicate the relevant pages once you have the document and re title them etc. incase any changes are made to master layouts for the sub pages.

One last thing I'm unsure of, links from the main archive page to the individual sub pages... are there any or is just from the drop down nav menu? if there are links on the page itself what format would be best? Boxes above/below the content similar to the 'extras' boxes with rollover images as to what's inside?

Credits

I think rendering lossless for editing was a daft idea ha, I started it going last night and it informed me that the file would be bigger than my hard drive! so I just rendered it as photo JPEG codec overnight and got it to under 2 GB. What codec will you use for the final version? If you need it lossless/animation I can just render it out to an external once everything's finalised but at this point it's a lot of space for a placeholder, I know this isn't that important now, just letting you know that everything's ready for friday, I'll render out a 1080 version of the titles tonight with the same compression incase any changes need to made to that before the final cut.

Charmin' doodles

Hi Matt,

Hope this clarifies things more...

Project page - will there be content in the three spare boxes eventually?

Thanks for bringing this bit up as this is certainly something I forgot to state. Each of the boxes on this page will feature, like on the team page,a brief profile of the DLS crew. 1 box for each lad (alphabetically I think) and the last for Jo. (Take the lads photos from the roof top shot where they're all standing together and you can get Jo's on Friday.) Links to the sub-pages will be available from the dropdown menu and as hyper links in the initial text introduction. The lads (being only 14) wont have any links but a quote about freerunning. Again lorem ipsum this bit.

Jo is writing the content for the 5 sub-pages and I didn't write down the working titles. All 5 pages will have content but as explained (hopefully) above these are different to the main project page's boxes.

Yes I know that was some really important info. Whoops!

Project Sub pages - (see below)

These are the same as the archive page layouts.

Archive Page - Same layout as Team & Project?

I think for the main page layout it needs enough room for text to put this section into context so maybe this page needs to be like the 1st sketch on the right hand column of sketches (a 1-column image, 1 blank column and then text spanning 3-columns).

Archive sub pages - Do you just want a variety of grids with placeholder images and lorem ipsum? will these also apply to the project sub pages? How many variations? good old 5? :)

5 of the best I think. Yes these are the same as the project sub-pages. I didn't make that clear.

Extras main page - would this not be cleaner using the grey boxes from the team page rather than 10 very textured boxes? (could have 1 shade for SH and another for DLS)

I saw this as using a simpler form of those main page boxes, maybe not with so much angularity or edging. One row of 5 on top of the other. The top row would have one tonal variation for DLS whilst the Team row would have another. The header text in each box would be a simple title with a informative image chosen to appear inside it to sum up what will be seen. Try it with placeholder images and rough text. I'll add the content into the PSD file before giving it to Alan.

Extras sub pages - am I right in thinking most of these will be image galleries with a similar layout to the video page? Shall I just provide 2 template layouts: one for vid and one for images?

I think in this case only one template will be needed. Just include a row of thumbnail images below the screen area. Just so we can have them in case that's the way we want to do it, include a forward and back triangle like on the video controller. Alan has demonstrated a viewing method using code on his website I think we'll end up using. We may use the triangles, or not, but it's best to have them in the artwork just in case.

I think a linear check list of each page I actually need to would help me so I just go through and tick them off as I go through and keep the photoshop document organised.

That's a good suggestion and something I've used in the past myself. I won't be able to get on to that until tomorrow evening so in the meantime can you have a go at implementing my attempts at clarification above.

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Motion graphics

Did you listen to the track I e-mailed to you? I've managed to get all the credits running at a legible speed to fit in with the 4 mins(ish), there might be another couple of seconds added when we have the track info but I can just time remap the comp and shave them off again, spread across 40 odd layers of text you won't notice the extra speed so the time of the rough edit will be exactly the same.

I think its best to sort this out on Friday.

Do you just want lossless QT files of the titles and credits?
If you mean for Friday yes that would be fine.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes :-) If in doubt use placeholders and lorem text. I will have to do a lot of the finishing off myself before giving the PSDs to Alan. As you'll find on future (paid) jobs the client (me in this case) hasn't got their act together and is making it up as they go along. '-) Clients eh? Bastards!

Nice loo roll doodles...

There are a few bits I'm unsure of...

Project page - will there be content in the three spare boxes eventually?

Project Sub pages - (see below)

Archive Page - Same layout as Team & Project?

Archive sub pages - Do you just want a variety of grids with placeholder images and lorem ipsum? will these also apply to the project sub pages? How many variations? good old 5? :)

Extras main page - would this not be cleaner using the grey boxes from the team page rather than 10 very textured boxes? (could have 1 shade for SH and another for DLS)

Extras sub pages - am I right in thinking most of these will be image galleries with a similar layout to the video page? Shall I just provide 2 template layouts: one for vid and one for images?

I think a linear check list of each page I actually need to would help me so I just go through and tick them off as I go through and keep the photoshop document organised.

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Motion graphics

The credits are as finished as I'm going to bother with until everything including scoring is locked down, so I can render out the sequence with white fade at the start and black at the end for editing purposes then just swap it out when I have all the info.

Did you listen to the track I e-mailed to you? I've managed to get all the credits running at a legible speed to fit in with the 4 mins(ish), there might be another couple of seconds added when we have the track info but I can just time remap the comp and shave them off again, spread across 40 odd layers of text you won't notice the extra speed so the time of the rough edit will be exactly the same.

Do you just want losless QT files of the titles and credits? Don't forget to bring an external drive or make sure your macbook has plenty of space on friday, I think there's going to be about 5 or 6GB of stuff including the sfx

Website structure diagrams and alterations

Hi Matt,

Here's the alterations I mentioned, mostly superficial.

The main changes I'd like made to the design is to the links and adding another row to the team page.

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Links: Where you've moved the links up to the banner as I suggested, the next step needed is to remove the boxes so that they integrate into the logo masthead. The edges can be now indicated by simple white lines. The bottom edge will have to be increased to accommodate the text. The text colour doesn't have to white.

[Alan these links will also need to drop down into menus to accommodate the sections pages.]



Click image to enlarge

Team: The page looks great, but another row needs to be added to accommodate Jose and the others. Jose's block will contain some simple overview. The other block will just be a list of names. This is obviously just a mock up, spaces and box sizes will need manipulating to make the layout still work. Jose's box may be better at 2 columns wide, with the other 3 columns.



Click image to enlarge



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The Site Structure


Click to enlarge

As you can see from above there are quite a few pages. Each section's pages are based upon sets of five. The Extras page has 2 sets of 5 pages; 1 set for DLS and 1 set for the Team. Every page will be accessed from drop-down menus so this means every page will be accessible from every page.

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Project Page

This is essentially the existing Team page without the other row.

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Extras Page

The main extras page needs to have 10 links (see diagram above). There are 5 extras from De La Salle and 5 from the Team. That's 10 pages using the layout below. On the main page use the little boxes from the main page as containers to introduce each page. At this stage don't you worry about the wording. Just supply the PSD file with text layers unrendered and I'll fill them in later.



Extras Sub-pages


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Archive Page
range of page layouts

Using the 5-column grid layout for this section can you supply a visible grid upon which I can work with Alan to place the content. These sketches are just some combinations on how the grid can be used to make the pages interesting.


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Email me if the above isn't clear and I'll expand Matt. Use the lorem ipsem body text for now so that I can get an indication of how many words are needed per text box. Any long pieces of text will be made into downloaded PDF files.