TITLE

"Myths Orientation Series"

2019

WHO

For the International Students & Programs Office🡥 at UC San Diego!

WHAT / WHY

A series of short videos showcasing various myths and misconceptions that are commonly had about the Interntional Student experience at UC San Diego. Used in the International Student Orientation to engage with new students & on Instagram to garner engagement with prospective and current students.

📖 PROCESS

When an International Student comes to the ISPO Orientation, it's often their first time on campus, maybe even their first time in the United States. What might be feelings of excitement is almost immediately met with the first event that all students are required to sit through: the rules and regulations talk.

A wonderful staff member (Pauline!) had an idea brimming: a video that would pose a trivia question about rules and prompt students to raise their hands for yes or no.

THE ASK

She layed out a series of common myths in writing and passed the torch over to myself and David Yang🡥 to figure out how to execute. She wanted something short—under 30 seconds—and through discussion, something that could be used both in orientation and to promote it on social media.

storyboards

Master list of videos for the series.

STEP 1: THE MASTER PLAN

We were provided over 16 different myths to do, so we split them up fairly evenly based upon which ones we felt the strongest towards.

To tie the series together, I decided to also take responsbility for all of the motion graphic assets needed, such as an intro, question cards, true/false card, and others.

A wonderful staff member (Pauline!) had an idea brimming: a video that would pose a trivia question about rules and prompt students to raise their hands for yes or no.

STEP 2: THE INTRO MOGRAPH

In generating ideas, I focused around the connotations that the word "myth" generated: something mysterious, but also of intrigue. I also considered the feeling of guidance that ISPO was trying to play to an audience of mostly people new to UC San Diego.

I played with a design that focused heavily on navigation iconography and animating it in a lively, yet weight-y way. This version was ultimately deemed too "heavy," and I went down another path of something "lighter" and more playful.

The final design brought back solid circles in various shapes and bright colors. The smaller yellow circle with a horizon line in the center cyan circle emulated that of a beach scene, but ultimately sliding off the screen like that of a cartoon toy.

STEP 3: THE VIDEOS

With these shorts, a lot of the ideas came to life visually in my mind, so it was just a matter of mocking it up so that everyone on the team would have the same page: a previs.

I created several of these mockups in Cine Tracer🡥, and then brought them into Premiere to fuse both text and sample motion graphic elements. These were then brought to meetings where we collaborate to realize the final product.

STEP 4: MOGRAPH ELEMENTS & DIF. VERSIONS

Since all of the myths were posed as questions, it made it easy to create two versions: one with the answer (true/false) right after, or one with an engagement motion graphic to wait for answers. Following the art style from the intro, it was quick work to find something that suited the text and also added movement to engage.

STEP 5: DELIVERY AND REVIEW

Combined, David and I completed around 14 myth videos, each with orientation and social media versions. To my knowledge, the videos are still used for orientation, even for the online sessions!