MIHIR LELE
VOTES UP ELECTION SPECIAL (2019)
Motion Graphics. News Design. Live Graphics.
Other backgrounds that were created for these segments.
Client
VotesUp
Creative Direction
Devaiah Bopanna
Design Lead
Mihir Lele
Studio Director
Joel Pereira
Copy
Devaiah Bopanna
Vishal Dayama
Synopsis
'Votes Up', a one of its kind election prediction app, collaborated with YouTubers and political commentators Dhruv Rathee and Akash Banerjee along with stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra to put together a live show, on the 23rd of May 2019 that covered the 2019 Indian elections results. The show, anchored by the names mentioned above, also featured panelists from NewsLaundry & The Ganatantra Podcast, Gul Panag, and journalists like Snigdha Poonam, Niha Masih, Shoaib Daniyal and spokespersons from leading national parties. The 8 hour live stream began at 8 am and went on till 4pm in the afternoon.
Brief
The brief was to create a visual design for the election special show. This would include everything from the opening sequence to video transitions, segment stings, news ticker and information bands, video jackets, bugs, astons, backgrounds required for green screen segments and video loops for backdrop LEDs at the studio.
The design (in terms of its colors and aesthetics) was to be in tune with popular Indian news channels as the opening packaging was a parody of these news channels and their over the top boisterous propaganda. So all other designs followed the packaging.
Timeline
The timeline was the trickiest part of the entire show. The show was given a green signal 10 days before the election results. I began work on it a week before the show went live. So, I had one week to deliver all graphics required for the show along with familiarising myself to firing 'LIVE' graphics.
Live Graphics
Once the graphics were all designed and delivered, they were loaded onto a program called 'Vmix' which allowed us to fire the graphics live, real-time, as the show progressed. During a couple of trials and test runs before the show went live,
we ironed out any errors in playtime and coordination.
Segments
Owing to the length of the live stream, a number of segments were scheduled, each of which required a separate opening sting and/or a transition of their own.
30 Second Opening Sting
This was the show opening, a longer version of which, was used as a promo for the show's marketing on social media. (Click here to watch the longer version)
Cut-to-ad break Transition
This was used as a transition to go from the show to an ad break.
Breaking News and Just In Transitions
These transitions were designed to be used every time a big story broke while on air. But not without integrating a little comic element. The "Just in" graphic was elevated with the use of the last names of all the famous "Justins".
Various options for the same graphic.
'Explainers' Opening Stings
A series of videos, wherein artists like Dhruv Rathee and Gul Panag, briefly explained election related topics (like Lok Sabha seat reservations, politicians jumping parties, etc.) were pre-recorded for a wholesome understanding of the subject. These videos were played in between the live commentary, as breathers. These explainers had their own customised opening stings, called "Gyaan"(meaning knowledge), followed by the name of the person featured in the video. For instance, an explainer video by Dhruv Rathee was called "Gyaan Rathee".
'Best of Hosts' Opening Stings
Since the show anchors are well known stand up comics and satirists, a collection of some of their funniest videos were featured on the show. The sting below was used as transition into Kamra's video montage.
(Similar ones were created for the other hosts- Akash Banerjee and Dhruv Rathee.)
'Special Moments' Opening Stings
These stings were designed as quick transitions to introduce a story that had just broken, while on air.
Pre Recoded Telephone Calls
Owing to an 8 hour runtime of the show, some fake telephonic conversations were pre recorded to be played in between the live coverage
to break monotony, lighten the mood and add a bit of humour to an otherwise serious show.
(The joke here is that Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was pushing for full statehood in Delhi as one of it's primary agenda, will only answer the phone when Delhi is granted full statehood. Similar phone calls were created for some other major contenders.)
Live Telephone Calls
The show also included interviews of prominent journalists, celebrities and political experts. These audio and video calls were connected live via Google hangouts. A template was created to show these phone calls (video or audio) on air. Images were changed realtime as the call went live in case of audio calls.
Apart from their images, astons were also created realtime for people who got on audio calls.
Green Screen Backgrounds
A special correspondent, Chavish Kumar (popular YouTube mimicry artist who parodies NDTV News Host Ravish Kumar ) was featured multiple times on the show as comic relief. Pictures of multiple venues were photoshopped before the show and the artist was made to stand against a green screen, and as his segment went live, the green screen was replaced with the pictures, realtime, to give the illusion of him actually being present at the venue. (Below is a cut-down from the live show that the sponsors have put up on their YouTube channel.)
Candidate Photos and Slug Astons
Whenever a candidate was discussed on the panel, a photo of him/her showed up on the screen with information about the constituency they were contesting elections from, their party name and whether they were 'trailing' or 'leading' in their constituency.
(The last picture is of the slug aston (blue band above the news ticker) that was used as a way to feed important information live and also to push trending hastags and online contents.)
