The Idea

Originally, we wanted to create a Public Service Announcement on bullying. We were going to come up with an animation that would portray an issue and give a solution. Something unique about this idea was that we wanted to convey the positive things you can do to prevent/overcome bullying rather than focusing on the statistics. We chose to forgo this idea because we decided the topic was too depressing for us. After an extensive brainstorming session, we came up with a new idea focusing on NuVu.

We began by interviewing the students at NuVu during the Winter term 2013-2014 and asking them about their favorite parts of NuVu. This is makes our video unique: we used real experiences from NuVu instead of general information about the program. We incorporated what each person said in his or her interview into our animation.

The video we were inspired by was Move by Rick Mereki (http://vimeo.com/27246366). We loved how the person stayed the same, while the background was constantly changing. In our video, however, we decided that it would be more convienent if the background stayed the same and the people changed. 

Because our background stayed the same, we needed something else to be changing in addition to the people in order to convey a story. We decided on using Adobe Illustrator and After Effects to draw out animations that each person would interact with. We chose to keep all the animations white to ensure our video was cohesive. In addition, some of the objects transformed into other objects used for the next scene as a transition.

We had run into some problems when filming the students. One of our major issues was getting students to be in our video and cooperate. It was difficult to convey what we wanted because we did not have an animation to show them. Also, our animations were drawn all in white, so if someone in the video were to wear a white shirt, for example, it would clash with the animation. Also, communicating with everyone in the group was difficult. We had to agree on an accurate storyboard and the flow of the animations, which took some time to figure out. In addition, we had to decide on every single detail of each scene. A lot of us were new to the animation software, Adobe After Effects and Illustrator, which meant we had to learn quickly. Another challenge we struggled with was the music. We tried to get the perfect track that fit the video well, which took some time. 

In the end we all came together to create a video that we are very proud of. We think it really exemplifies what NuVu is about, and we hope that it will help NuVu grow.

NuVu Film is a short animation that features students at Winter 2013/14 NuVu. The students were interviewed about their experiences and interests at NuVu, and these responses were then incorportated into the movie. The film explores the effect of having an unchanging composition in which all of the people in the video are standing in the same place and the camera angle does not change. Any props and other components in the movie are animations created in After Effects.

This film showcases some of each person's highlights from the program and trully shows what NuVu is all about. For example, one person mentioned his enjoyment in making a videogame, so his animation revolves around a video game controller. Another student was passionate about coding, so his animation reflects this. In addition, some of the animations are more abstract and less about a specific aspect of NuVu but rather the overall atmosphere and experience of being there.