NEW YORK – Trollback + Company (www.trollback.com) recently completed work on two :45 promos for HBO showcasing some of its fall line-up. One of the promos touts the new seasons of “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “One Night Stand,” while the other showcases the World Championship Boxing Super Featherweight Double-header. The studio designed and edited the two spots in just a two-week time frame.
For the “Real Time/One Night Stand” promo, Trollback juxtaposed the two programs’ often hot-button, brutally candid subject matter with graphics that play off the subject of censorship. The graphic transitions incorporate gritty, black-and-white contact strip-like photographs of the shows’ performers.
The stills are drawn on with slashes of red and white marker, as if a censor were highlighting material too controversial for broadcast. The Courier typeface lends suggests the look of an over-the-top script under strict scrutiny by a rigid network censor.
For the boxing spot, the studio created bold ring-inspired graphics to promote the Super Featherweight Double-header of boxers Pacquiao vs. Velazquez, and Morales vs. Raheem. The bold, all-caps titles energetically fly around abstract boxing-ring rope graphics. The spot’s color palette and lighting mimic those of a sports arena, with the intense reds, oranges, and golds resembling hot spotlights and camera flashes.
“Since we were animating while editing, we designed in such a way that the graphics could always adapt to revisions in the cut,” notes Todd Neale, the Trollback + Company art director who oversaw the spots’ design.
The studio used Adobe After Effects 6.5, Photoshop CS and an Avid Media Composer to post the project.
Jakob Trollback and Joe Wright served as creative directors. Maria Rapetskaya served as designer. Cass Vanini and Greg Slagle edited the promos.
