Editing my Ident

Once I had the footage of Connie yawning I needed to edit it to transform it into my ident. 

I had to ask my teacher how to use the programmes and he helped me learn how to create the background which we could then layer over Connie in Final Cut. 

Firstly we found a picture of the MGM logo that was a good enough quality for my ident. 

We then saved it and uploaded it into photoshop but not as a Jpeg as we needed to cut out the middle of the circle. We did this by using the magic wand tool to select and delete areas of the picture. We then went around the edge of the more difficult areas like the leaves at the bottom of the circle with the line tool to make sure the cutting out was accurate. 

Next we uploaded the MGM logo into Illustrator to create the text. We needed to find a font that was as close to the MGM text as we could get. After looking on the internet we found Signature Light. First of all we created a text box and typed in the name of my studios then put it into the font we'd found. We then used the colour drop to 'pick up' the colours from the top and bottom of the letters because they fade from orange down to yellow. Once I'd got them I put a gradient on the text so they'd fade from one to the other, just like the original. Finally we warped the text so it sat on the same curve as the MGM company name. Then we saved this text and uploaded it back into photoshop. We positioned the text on top of the original to ensure it was in the correct position and then we turned off it's layer (so my text disappeared). Then we 'coloured' over the original name in black and turned my layer back on leaving, 'Schnauzer Studios' in the right place above the circle.

Then we needed to remove the original latin to add my own. We used the clone tool to 'colour' over the words because, unlike the black background, the circle is made up of a gold gradient so constantly changed. We didn't want to just block colour over this because it wouldn't have looked right. By cloning, We managed to keep the gold gradient looking as natural as possible. We then made my latin follow the shape of the circle in the same font as the company name but capitalised. It reads "Art for Dogs Sake" (rather than the original "Art for Arts Sake"). 

Once we'd finished in photoshop we saved the modified image then uploaded it into final cut along with my original footage of Connie. As I filmed Connie on a green screen we had to block out the colour so the background was black and then we checked the green screen had worked by adding colour bars behind Connie. 

We then layered the photoshopped image over her and adjusted her position so she was in the centre of the circle. We had to reposition her a few times because she lifts her head up before she yawns and we had to make sure she didn't go out of shot without her being positioned right in the bottom left hand corner of the circle. 

Once we had her in the right position we moved on to choosing sound effects that we could add when she yawned. We experimented with dog barks but they were all too short and high. Then we tried growls but they were too aggressive and the timings didn't fit with the way she moved her mouth. Therefore we decided to try putting in the original MGM lion roar. We downloaded the sounds of all the roars the different lions have made in every re-vamp of the ident and ended up going with one of the earlier roars as I preferred the sound and it fit perfectly to the shapes of her mouth. We put this over the video and adjusted the timings to make sure it looked like her making the noise. 

Once she'd roared I was going to leave the rest of the ident silent but after watching it back I thought that it went too long without sound and she actually looked like she was panting, like the roar had tired her out. We decided to try adding a panting sound at the end to fill the silence, add a slight comedic element and bring the ident back round to focus on the fact that she's a dog therefore linking it back to my company 'Schnauzer Studios.' 

I absolutely love the end product, I think it fits my company name and strikes the right balance between being lighthearted enough to carry the name 'Schnauzer Studios' but still serious enough to lead into my film opening which has a much darker tone.