Blinded by Starz

Through watching and analyzing motion graphics, I have become more aware of the art. From watching television to browsing the internet, motion graphics is vital to our society. I find brand identity the most interesting area of the field. Without a creative, strong, and impactful brand, a company would be nothing.

This being said, Troika excels and specializes in brand identity. They bring the company to life through animation, text, and special effects. More specifically, the “Starz” brand caught my attention the most. Troika’s description of the montage is, “The Starz brand reflects our emotional connection with movies. They energize, fascinate and inspire us.” The montage beautifully portrayed what Troika and Starz were aiming for…

The brand identity is fierce, beautiful, passionate, radiant, and especially inviting. The minute I watched the video, I immediately wanted to change the station to Starz. The montage promoted the channel while illustrating the purpose, elements, and characteristics of Starz. Throughout the montage, the video displayed clips of movies that were being aired on the channel. However, the clips did not dominate the video. Instead, the video was promoting Starz and what it is about while including what it airs. I really liked it was more of brand identity that was powerful on its own, but brought to life by the movies. Personally, I took the promotion to be movies through the “lens” of Starz. Through the channel, the audience can capture the essence of popular movies from their own home.

The graphics are extraordinarily brilliant! However, they are complex yet simple and crisp. My favorite element is the lens flare effect. It adds a fantasy type feel to the video that is so inviting and open to the audience. Also, there is a limited amount of graphics, but they enhance and add “sparkle” to the video. There are uses of lights to capture the viewer’s attention. More specifically, the little boy is catching “fireflies” in a jar as if it symbolizes Starz being the home of movies. By watching the channel, the audience can “capture” the comedy, edge, and cinema of Starz. The graphics were based on light and lens flares. It is as if the movies were being shown through a Starz view of a camera. I also like how Troika played the “stars” concept but did not make it cliché. They could have added animated stars, but that is too simple and straightforward. However, they put their own take on it. It reminds me of when you look up at the sun and feel the warmth but the beauty of light. Actually, it reminds me of a kaleidoscope in some ways.

Personally, I feel the colors truly accentuated the entire piece. The warm colors coordinated with the bright atmosphere of the brand identity. However, they also used cool colors such as purples, blues, and mauves but they allowed the yellow to be the prominent color. Also, the animation was striking even though it was a simple zoom out and rotations and movements. There was nothing extraordinary about the movement of the text, but the elements brought together by the brightness, colors, storyline, and especially the music…

The music was engaging. It was very light and peaceful in the beginning and began to pickup momentum when the “premiere” was announced. It lead anticipation to the viewer and excitement.