Halle Nelson

In 2015, the WW100 Programme launched legacy project Ngā Tapuwae New Zealand First World War trails. Ngā Tapuwae explores the experiences and stories of New Zealand soldiers in Gallipoli and on the Western Front. WW100 wanted to create a video series to increase awareness of Ngā Tapuwae Trails and in particular the Western Front Trails and history. Their concept was for a five-part video package with each video telling different stories of those involved in the First World War.

As with any project, nothing is set in place in the planning stage. After submitting our work to MTV2, they told us that they wanted to go in a different direction that was a little more cohesive with their brand. Specifically, they wanted our visuals to have a more organic feel. We went back to the drawing board and came up with some intricate black and white, hand-drawn typography. To make it look more authentic, we felt it would be a nice touch to show a person drawing the logo onto a t-shirt. MTV2 felt that, while they enjoyed these title cards as well, that they appeared a little to artsy for their product.

Another unique challenge to this project was that we had to create a slew of varied transitional sequences. Due to the show being composed of very short clips, we had to make sure that every thirty seconds the audience wasn’t seeing the same graphic over and over again. Our transitions varied not only in content but in length as well. The showrunners were going to incorporate both long and short cuts throughout the program. We even got to throw in some dynamite for a little pizzazz.