Client:
ERR (Estonian National Broadcasting)
Premiere: September 2022 on ETV2
"Meie kirjanduse lugu" (The Story of Our Literature) 2022
4 episodes (40 min each)
Motion graphics team lead: Kadri Nikopensius
Motion graphics team: Kadri Nikopensius, Aavo Teder, Oleksandr Horodylovskyi
Director: Raivo Maripuu
Editor: Kai Väärtnõu
Producer: Hannela Lippus
The new program series The Story of Our Literature tells stories about Estonian writers and analyzes the best works of Estonian prose and poetry.
Firstly, me and the client established what kind of style was necessary for the documentary series in terms of design. The client wanted something youthful – the TV series was also meant for schools and educational purposes. Later on, when the docu-series was shot and edited, it turned out that the whole series was much more traditional than expected. So the designs had to be transformed and adapted accordingly.
- 80 minutes of motion graphics total,
- 4 beginning segments for each episode,
- green screen backgrounds,
- name titles designs,
- end credits design
The project preparation process was quite time consuming, because the project itself was edited in Avid. I imported Avid AAF project file into After Effects with all the included media. Then I manually replaced up to 400 files per docu-episode. Afterwards I prepared parts of AE projects for my team to share the workload. The preparation itself took 1 day in total. One day to import the Avid project into AE, replacing missing/offline media and then preparing the AE projects for my motion design team.
The workload was huge and very challenging. I decided to hire a motion graphics team to deliver 80 minutes of motion design in total. In a course of a few weeks I finalized the first design drafts, up to 7 days on total. Then it took 45 days in total to create motion graphics for the historical parts of the series with a team of three.
It took 3 working days for a team member to finalize 10 minutes of motion graphics. And another 3 days for another designer. Additional 1 1/2 days we spent on revisions per episode. In total it required 8-9 days of work to make 20 minutes of motion graphics per episode.
The work process itself was quite time consuming. We worked with archive materials that needed to be cut out and altered accordingly. There was no way of automating the process as the initial materials were in very different states and qualities.
We used pictures of writers, books, incerpts of texts, poems and repros from paintings and drawings. The docu team had prepared a document with brief notes with titles and names with timecodes. After the feedback, me and my team made revisions, i.e if there were any errors or parts that needed to be changed.
Then the mo graph sequences were exported separately for the docu editor. There were up to 50-55 sequences of motion graphics per episode.
For the producers and directors who are working with a huge post production load, I suggest to think about the post production workload firsthand. For example, how much time post production specialists (editors, vfx artists, compositors, motion graphic artists and animators) need time to finish the project according to the director’s artistic demand. Producers and directors alike need to be aware of the costs that come with post production house services and freelancers' work.
All specialists have monthly expenses that need to be tended for, such as:
Abode Creative Cloud software subscriptions,
After Effects and Premiere Pro plugins subscriptions,
Computer and other hardware expences, such as tablets,
Hardware renewing costs (such as extra RAM and SSD installments),
Telecommunication costs (such as Internet and phone subscriptions),
Other paid software subscriptions, i.e 3D programmes or antivirus software,
Hardware maintenance costs,
Office rent and communal fees,
Desktop fonts purchases,
Music bank subscriptions,
Transportation costs,
File storage fees,
Server fees,
Domain fees,
Electricity fees,
Accounting fees,
Payload taxes,
Social taxes.
I hope more and more producers and directors realize how much additional value motion graphics and animation give to projects. But I also hope producers are also considerate on the matter of production costs. And I truly want for the media, TV and film industry specialists to value the work of post production workers: i.e motion graphics, animation, vfx, editing and compositing specialists who are working day and night to put hard work and effort into your awesome projects.
Watch the TV series here!
