Task at Hand
Crafting a YouTube clip from scratch.
Good branding is key to making a solid memorable experience for people. Having an intro and an outro is essential for branding yourself in the online world. Making who you are jump right out and greet your viewers is not only essential, but it’s an enjoyable and sought after element of branding. Companies such as McDonalds, Farmers Insurance, Arby’s, Kit Kat, and many others are defined by their signature jingles. Films, radio shows, TV and many YouTube series are instantly recognizable by their use of music and building atmospheric presence.
Inspiration
The opening credit sequence from John Carpenter’s Halloween 3 was the inspiration for the style of the intro. The low synth hum with the layers of digital pumpkins being displayed on an old CRT TV. Miming that style and tone was the main goal with the intro. The style of music selected, synth, was a genre that was essentially created by John Carpenter scoring the first Halloween film, so referencing and taking inspiration from the source was the intention here.
Storyboard
Text Copy
The text “A Video By:” appears as music and colors blink onto the screen.
Noise, color distortion, and a wave effect give the video an old pre-internet technology feel, to match the old synth style music, and the CRT TV from Halloween 3’s opening credits.
“Vytality Productions” appears on screen as the colors stop appearing, and the effects clear up. The final seconds of the clip are completely clear from noise and effects as the logo is the only thing visible on screen.
The audio fades to silence as the intro ends, readying the viewer for whatever video will come next.
Style
The color choice for the intro is based on fall colors. Oranges, yellows, and pinks are chosen to make the viewer think of fall. Colors have an important relationship with the thematic meaning of what a person is looking at. Sometimes colors can be shared and borrowed amongst brands, such as Xbox and Monster Energy using the same colors to get to the same market of teenagers and gamers with a male preference. Here the colors are borrowed from fall iconography, being trees, pumpkins, scarecrows and other orange and yellow items like cornucopias.
Process and Assets
Using colors taken from an Adobe Colors palette that I found to match the themes and aesthetics of my brand, I had the four shades flash on screen in time with the music to create a moody and thick atmosphere for the clip. The track, Black Tar, is under creative commons, meaning as long as I credit the original creator of the song, I can use the song as much as I would like to without paying or giving royalties to the creator. The song sounds great and has a great presence to it, so I will be sure to use it in the future, as well as with this project here.
The Brand
Vytality Productions is not going to be a used brand for YouTube moving forward, however, the skills and knowledge I have gained from working on this exercise have helped me advance my editing skills. Several similar styled projects have been created since this, and the skills gathered here will only help me improve more and more as time goes on.
Table of Contents
Make sure to check out my channel bellow, and see my short films as they release, thank you for your support!