reasons to watch
Some more recent work here... This was the project I was doing all those allnighters on right before Christmas in order to get done in time to leave town for the Holidays! This was a fun project because I had all these great images to work with and a fair amount of creative freedom as long as it worked within the existing MGM-HD look and feel. I was glad to get back to doing some promo work, and I'm currently working on another promo project for them - more on that one in a few weeks.
"Reasons to Watch" is a series of promos for the MGM-HD network, highlighting films from its January lineup. MGM-HD is a new HD television network that features nonstop MGM films.
The campaign features still images from MGM feature films with minimal typography and graphic elements. Writer/Producer Doug Chalfant came to me with an idea to use stills in an almost Herb Ritts-inspired way for a script-based spot with no voiceover. Drawing on the Herb Ritts inspiration, our first round used only black and white imagery – but because the subject is film and MGM-HD is a movie network, we ran into a misconception that all of the films featured were old black and white movies. We ended up retaining the black and white as a base to keep the dramatic feel that it gave to the imagery, but added a full color panel that revealed not only the shots in full color, but also advanced the script through typography.
The script is a subtle wordplay, so the type stayed small and minimal except for the twist or punchline in each segment. Special attention was also given to the literal placement of the type to accentuate the meanings of the words. Type, color palette, and backgrounds are all elements of MGM-HD’s existing network look (which, by the way, was done by Grayscale Creative). The promos air continuously on MGM-HD throughout the month of January.
you can view a couple of the promos here: