Four Variations on a Theme

SINGLE-FRAME IMAGE FROM DIGITAL VIDEO - 2011 PSYCHOTROPIC FILMS LLC

A motion-picture logo for my film company precedes each film.  In a way it's kind of a 10-30 second 'micro-film'.  Most of the time I use an artistic moving image that has no home in any of my current projects.

The image above is a frame from a completed concept using a recently discovered 16mm industrial film and re-crafted ambient sound design riffs selected from electronic musicians A PRODUCE and Robert Rich.

Some of the readers of this blog know of the passing of A PRODUCE this past summer.  Some of the projects we were working on together continue to move forward. It really saddens me to think will not see some of these projects, but I know he was looking forward to getting his music out to an expanded audience.

I created four pre-visualizations of this logo, mostly changing the music and editing the imagery to work with the sound design. From that group I will pick the video-logo that works both artistically and one that meets some personal criteria that these logo ideas parallel efforts that are going into the feature films in development.

In this case, the video-logo will replace an outdated video-logo from the film Man Trap which was selected for this past year's Arizona International Film Festival.  The film has been going through a mastering and finishing post-production process since that screening (April 2011) and applying this fresh video-logo will mark the effort to bring Man Trap to its full artistic potential while preserving the original concept and intent that inspired the film.

As part of the process to decide which of the four variations in the video-logo to choose, I made some notes on what I felt were important considerations in the design of each logo film.  These considerations are not absolute, but each has weight and relativity in the decision.....

> Does the logo compliment (in style and impact), the film that will follow?

> Did I learn something new and/or innovate in the creation of the video?

> What artistic risk was taken in the creation of the video-logo?

> Does the piece work as a 'micro-film'?

> Does the video move the bar forward artistically in the creation of these logos?

> Will the viewer gain some insight on the structure and craft that symbolizes a Psychotropic Film?

When the final version of the logo is decided, a link will be posted to the site hosting the film.