By Staff, March 31, 2004
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Manhattan's Editional Effects took up the challenge from Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. to craft 20 on-air promos and interstitials publicizing a special episode of "Blues Clues" in which Blue talks for the first time. Each of Editional Effects' departments worked in a coordinated effort to produce the series of spots for "Blue Talks," one of Nick Jr.'s pillar events for this season.
"The objective was to make a splash promoting Nickelodeon's newly added show segment in which Blue goes into a special room and is able to speak," said Amanda Hughes, senior Avid editor. "Blue always barked, but now she will be much more interactive with her audience. Kids will get to know what she's thinking, and they will be encouraged to talk back."
For the series of interstitials, Nickelodeon shot Blue against greenscreen. Editor Hughes then keyed the puppet into her own environment, where she answered questions from kids. In addition to assembling the collection of interstitials, Hughes also edited promos, overviews, online solicitations, billboards and ads for a post-launch Q&A session with Blue.
Vice president and creative director Christina Vircillo Barry and designer Liam Harrison collaborated with the Nick writers, producers and graphic artists to provide animation and compositing for the pieces. The Editional Effects graphics department used a variety of software to complete the spots. Compositing was completed in After Effects; the magical sparkles in Blue's special room were created in Illusion.
"We also completed all the sound effects for the promos and recorded the voiceover for Blue with a 12-year-old girl's voice," said Roy Harter, senior audio engineer and co-owner of the audio division of Editional Effects. "It was a challenge replacing the puppeteer's voice with the girl's voice and working with pre-existing music from the show. Nickelodeon's promo producer, Dema Hanna, gave us a lot of freedom and trusted our musical instincts to have fun with the way the program sounded."
"It was a big project with a lot of elements, and I needed a facility that could handle all my needs for this groundbreaking campaign," said Dema Hanna, producer, Nickelodeon On-Air Promos. "Editional Effects understands our brand and adapts to it brilliantly. I was extremely happy with the outcome. The best thing about Editional is the people who work there
. They are down to earth, professional, and they are the most talented people I've worked with in the business."
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Love is N the Air
In the midst of working on the "Blues Clues" project, Editional Effects was called on by The N, Nickelodeon's nighttime network for teens, to produce a comprehensive graphics package for its Valentine's Day programming, the "I (heart shape) Love" marathon.
The Editional Effects creative team, led by creative director Christina Vircillo Barry, produced the entire Valentine's Day marathon packaging -- including the logo, open and graphics animation -- in a style inspired by pulp comic books of the 1950s. Barry says her facility's level of versatility and responsiveness allows it to accommodate concurrent projects in one seamless process.
| CREDITS |
Client: Nickelodeon |
Producer, Nickelodeon On-Air Promos: |
Dema Hanna |
Editorial and Audio Studio: Editional Effects, New York |
Senior Avid Editors: |
Mike Gutowitz
Amanda Hughes |
| Avid Editor: |
Liz Burton |
| Senior Audio Engineer: |
Roy Harter |
| Audio Engineer: |
Ken Harter |
| Vice President/Creative Director: |
Christina Vircillo Barry |
| Designer/Animator: |
Liam Harrison |
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