Background research
The T.V series I have chosen to do for my 30-animation is Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl
is an American programme developed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage
and is based on the Gossip Girl books, written by Cecily Von Ziegesar. The books
are actually based on the author’s real life experience, which gives a feel of
reality through the seasons. The books were more focused at adults compared
the programme which is more aimed at teenagers as it brings in other characters
and also changes some of the storylines to fit the audience more. The executive
produces Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Joshua Safran. It is a teen and
romance based drama series aiming mainly at teenage girls. It started in America
and has had many similar adaptations of the programme created worldwide. The
T.V series contains well-known actors and actresses such as Blake Lively, Ed
Westwick and Leighton Meester.
The series ran on The CW from September 2007 too December 2012. It had 6
seasons and over all 121 episodes. It’s first episode aired on TV on the 19th
September 2007 and it’s last was aired on TV on the 17th December 2012. The
series was based and closely followed on 5 close friends who live in New York on
what’s known as the “Upper East Side”. It follows their wealthy yet dramatic lives
through their school and college years. Each new season sparks a brand new tail
of rumours and lies that follow the characters. Gossip Girls identity is revealed in
some seasons but turns out each time it is only someone covering for her and the
mystery continues.
All six of the characters are given completely different personalities. For example
the two best friends Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald are complete opposites as
Chuck cares about girls and money where as Nate cares about getting into
college and doing well. These personalities are done to make the programme
interesting as every character is different and has different morals. Although the
programme follows all of the six main characters lives, it is hinted throughout
the importance of the character Dan Humphrey. Showing how different his life is
through the first season and how he manages to get a chance with the rich and
popular Serena and gives him an insight in the “Upper East Sides” wealthy
lifestyles does this. He nickname “lonely boy” sticks with him through all of the
seasons and in the end you finally see why he is called this and how he as a
character develops.
Gossip Girl is an anonymous narrator whose voice is played by actress Kristen
Bell. Gossip Girl runs a private website where she ruthlessly blogs updates about
the main characters secrets, scandals and rumours that causes fall outs,
arguments and huge amounts of drama. Each episode revolves around the
scandal that Gossip Girl creates and leaves viewers wondering whom Gossip Girl
is. The character that plays Gossip Girls role is hinted at throughout all six
seasons but isn’t revealed definitely until the final episode which makes the
audience want to carry on watching all the episodes so they can finally see who
this mysterious character is. As well as this Gossip Girl was always the narrator
of every episode from the beginning. This meant that her voice was narrating
recaps at the start of each episode to give viewers and update on what happened
in the previous episode. Gossip Girl was made to sound like she knew everything
and this was clearly represented by how she spoke to the viewers in a knowingly
sly voice. By only hearing her voice and not having a face to match it too it kept
the audience guessing and made the programme more interesting to watch.
My project
My project matches the original Gossip Girls existing style as the mysterious
theme runs throughout the opening credits. This is mainly done through the dark
coloured backgrounds and the use of the theme song. The theme song is the
same song that is used in their opening credits but without the words that are
spoken. I chose to use the ones without the lyrics because I felt the spoken part
didn’t fit in with my adaptation to the credits and feel that the tune itself sounds
catchy and keeps in theme with the original opening credits. I was originally
going to use the song with the words in but felt it didn’t match up to the
animation on the screen.
The dark background is used to show that it is a dramatic programme that has a
hint of mysteriousness in it. The background colour is a dark blue which in parts
is made to look like a dark sky. I preferred using the colour dark blue instead of
using black because I knew I would face problems with putting text or images
that are dark on top of the background. Another reasons my project matches the
original is that it shows that they are from the “upper east side” and are wealthy
so I decided to put in a skyline image of New York City and placed it over the
dark blue background for the beginning segment of my opening credits. I created
this skyline image on Photoshop but filling in an image using the rectangle tool
and applying white boxes over the top too look like windows. I thought this
would look better and more creative than just using a picture of the skyline.
As well as this I have created a part of the beginning to look as though lots of
flashing lights are going off to make it look like photographs are being taken.
This represents the characters wealth and popularity and also links in with
Gossip Girls website being so known. I created these flashing lights but using a
solid circle shape and colouring them in different shades of yellow and then
changing the opacity so that the flash appears quick then disappears again. I also
applied a fade to make the solid colour look faded round the edges, which looks
more realistic. I applied this effect multiple times to add in over 20 different
flashes of lights to go off at the beginning part of my opening credits.
The final thing that matches up with the existing theme is the use of the Gossip
Girl text. The text is in the style of a font that looks like it would be on a website.
The text I used was “STheiti”. It also transforms onto the page in the style of it
being typed out letter-by-letter. This ties in with the fact that Gossip Girl has it’s
own website and it clearly shows this through the way it comes up on the screen.
I have used this animation effect for all the characters and actors names
throughout the opening credits to make sure that a constant theme is kept
throughout. I did this animation effect by opening the drop down bar on the text
and clicking on animation. I then changed the opacity to 0% at the beginning of
where I wanted the text to start. I then clicked on the advanced settings and
changed the offset to 0 and added in a key frame. Lastly, I clicked on where I
wanted the text to end and changed the offset back to 100 and added in the end
key frame for that animation. The offset makes the text appear letter-by-letter
giving the effect that it is being typed out.
Another text feature that I feel fits in with the existing theme of Gossip Girl is the
animation used on the Gossip Girl title at the end of my opening credits. This text
appears by using an animation effect that makes the text appear slowly in lines
until the full text is formed. I feel this fits in with the existing theme as it looks as
looks like lights have formed the text which links in with the beginning of my
animation with the flashing lights. It looks sophisticated and sleek as I turned the
smoothness of the letters down to 0%, which fits in with how the original
opening credits look like. It focusing on the title and shows the audience exactly
what the programme is. To create this animation effect I used the effect block
dissolve. I again added key frames and the start and end so show when I wanted
the animation to take place.
When the characters are shown and the actor’s names come up I have used
different brushes on Photoshop to add in more detail to the background to make
it more visually interesting for the audience. I was originally going to use just
images but found that uses brushes looked better as the opacity wasn’t as bold
and looked better in the background. All of the brushes used match up with the
personalities of the characters, which fits with the overall theme. Whilst the text
and brushes are appearing on the screen I will have images of the relevant
character on the screen. I decided to edit the images to black and white on
Photoshop as I felt having too much colour made the clip look messy. I added an
outer glow to the images on Photoshop as well to make them stand out more to
the audience.
Storyboard
1. The opening credits will begin by showing a New York Skyline appears on
a dark blue background, which is meant to symbolise the sky. This sets
the scene of the programme I have chosen to do my opening credits on.
2. After this different coloured flashes of lights will appear on the screen and
be animated to look like they are flashing. This is done to represent
camera flashes as it links in with the theme.
3. Once the flashes have gone the New York skyline background will be
animated to look as though it is dropped backwards. I will use the 3D
effect to make this look realistic. This is done because I don’t feel the New
York skyline would look good with the text on as it may draw attention
away from the characters and end up looking cluttered.
4. This is when I will start introducing all the characters and actors that play
them. I will have their images on the screen. These images will be edited
black and white with an outer glow for effect. I have also used different
brushes to add more relevant images in the background to create a more
interesting visual look so that it doesn’t end up looking too boring for the
audience.
5. Once the images of the characters come up I will be writing out their
character name and the actor or actress that plays them. I will be using
animation on the text to make it look as though the text is actually being
typed out. I feel this fits the theme of blogging and also looks interesting.
6. After all six of the characters have been on screen I will be showing that
the series is based on books. I have put this in as I feel it is relevant
information that the audience may not of knew. I have also added in
images using brushes on Photoshop. All of the images keep in with the
theme and match the colour theme. Again I have used the animation to
make the text look as though it is being typed out on the screen to keep
the theme going.
7. After this cut outs of the characters will pop up and appear on the screen
one by one. The cut outs will be filled in grey so you can just see the
outline of the characters.
8. When the characters are all appearing I will have the signature XOXO that
Gossip Girl always signs her blog with appear on the screen. Again this
will use the animation effect of it being typed out.
9. Once that text has finished the title “Gossip Girl” will appear using an
animation that makes the words appear in lines until the whole title is up.
I will be keeping the characters cut out images on the page whilst the
animation is taking place.