TCM Lights
This music or background sound in this clip has a sound that is a combination of a vibrating electric quitar combined with a rythmic beat that has a metallic sound effect . The music and beat are very slow and produce a lonely, desolate feel for the piece.
In my opinion the sound is similiar to an old western film where a dangerous character slowly enters a darkened scene leaving the viewer with the feel that something unpredictable is about to occur.
With the feel set for the viewer with the use of this mysterious sound, the creators of the clip enhance the mystery by leaving the initial screen a vaste empty black canvas. Just then a close up shot of a hand lighting a match enters the darkness. The strike of the match is timed along with one of the metal like twang sound effects in the background music. Shortly after the match is lit, the hand pulls to the background, as the hand itself completely blurs out of the view the match flame is muted into a soft circle of light. This softened circle of white light morphs into the headlights of an oncoming car. The car is approaching in time to the music and just as it approached close enough to have to leave the frame, instead it morphs into the light at the end of a flashlight. Then rather than leaving the frame the position of the flashlight stays in the lower left corner, yet the direction of the light emitted from the flashlight lifts to the upper right corner of the clip.
As the flashlight is pointed to the upper right corner, the hue of the light changes to a small white bright source of light that is emmitting a blueish green/grey light. The length of the light has shortened and is eluminating a small section of ledge that outcrops from the side of what appears to be a curved mountainess roundway. The light has again morphed into car headlights approaching around this bend, but this time as the lights approach they morph into the head of a lit cigarette. The red head of the cigarette drifts off into the background and morphs into a red tail light of a car driving into the darkness.
The tail lights drive off into the distance and eventually become nothing more than a white spot, or metallic hi-lite. The white spot splits into head lights that are again approaching. This then becomes a shot of two red gas station pumps, each having a light overhead, with the far off headlights of the oncoming car seen in between the gas pumps. The image of the gas pumps is very similiar to the previous image of the red car tail lights. This time the car comes clearly into view as it approaches the gas pumps, and then the TCM logo appears near the car.
This entire piece offers the viewer just enough visual information to make out what light source or object they are seeing. The morphing is very smooth, and although the items being morphed make no sense, it occurs in a manner that holds the viewers attention and keeps them interested and guessing what is next. The play on minimal imagery and morphing is very well put together.

The Travel Channel
This clip begins with a sound effect of a falling object or sound waves vibrating. As this sound is played a visual is shown which has the earth to the left of the words 'break away'. Almost immediately the earth begins to fall into the distance. At a certain point it hits the background, which until now was just a flat dusty rose colored background. However, when the earth hits a certain point, the background becomes a liquid surface and the earth breaks the surface tension and splashes into the liguid and out of view. The disturbance in the liquid that is caused by the fallen earth spins and morphs into a very close up tight shot of the top of a stick of cotton candy. As the cotton candy appears a very eerie song begins to play, it has almost a haunting sound to it. The cotton candy is being held by a kneeling child on a beach. The camera shot quickly changes to this same young girl walking with her family hand in hand. They are walking at an almost dancing type of quick stepped pace as they excitedly approach an amusement park near the shore.
As the family approaches the board walk the young girl lets go of her parents hand and runs into a sea of bubbles that are floating through the air. She has broken away from her parents, similiar to how her parents chose to break away from routine to let the family enjoy some quality family fun time on a vacation. The family continues off into the distance together, as a clown with an oversized bubble wand waves his wand as the logo for the Travel Channel appears. A very formal male narrator then states , " The new Travel Channel......break away. "

W Network at Spark Creative Inc
This clip has five distinct sections. The first section begins with a bell like sound that chimes out the W Network theme song while a drum rythm beats in the background. The first visual you see is a bullseye target like graphic in the center of the screen that appears to be emitting waves outward. As these waves grow a planet or star drifts from the foreground into the distance and it is then immmediately joined by numerous stars or planets moving through space. The color of the clip is almost completely made up of shades of a greenish grey with the exception of the bullseye like graphic which includes an area of bright red and very little white. The background has many softly squared lights that fade into the picture. They give the illusion of city buildings in the distance. Just as the building lights enter, one of the heavenly spherical objects lands into soft sand. This sphere has the W logo on it and it lands exactly as the final bell tone is chimed.
The second section uses the same musical lyric, only played with completely different instruments producing a much softer sound. The bell sound is higher pitched and sounds more like wind chimes. The background drumming sound is absent and in it's place there is a heavenly soft classical soothing musical background. The picture opens with the same bullseye target in the center of the screen, with large oversized snowflakes floating around the entire screen. The camera zooms out as the target fades and the snowflakes are now seen to be encased within a snowglobe. As the snowglobe moves to the distance the familiar lights appear that resemble the lighted windows of city buildings. Then as the snowglobe moves into the distance it eventually becomes a sphere with the W logo, again this is timed perfectly to the last note of the accompanying music.
The third section of this Holiday clip for the W Network begins with a very tight shot of a red christmas light as seen through the branches of a christmas tree. The music is the same theme, again the instruments have been modified for another sound effect. The bells are very high pitched chimes but are played with more notes that produce a lighter faster sound. The background sound effect isn't as noticable, but there is a hollow wood percussion sound effect that can be heard at the end of this section. It is not as powerful as the previous drums or heavenly musical background sounds that were used. The screen shot zooms out until the entire tree is visable. Again the target is present, and it fades out soon after being displayed. Once the tree is fully visible it begins to rotate at an angle leading the viewer to look down the tree from the center of the treetop. As this occurs the familiar city lights come into view, and the tree moves into the distance. Once zoomed out from the tree, the tree becomes nothing more than a red sphere, in which the W logo is placed. Again, timed perfectly with the final note of the musical accompaniment.
The fourth section, begins with a tight shot looking at the top of a red christmas ornament. As the shot zooms out the angle is pivoted so that you are viewing the front of the ornament. The background is made up of barren deciduous saplings with very few random red christmas ornaments strung on a few branches.The theme song this time is played with a flute or woodwind instrument and has a funky kind of rythm playing in the background. The color background this time is white and the previous lights described as lighted windows are now shown in green and red. The final shot has the ornament at a distance with the W logo within it, which is timed to the last note of the music perfectly, of course.
The final section has a white background, with red poisettas and petals floating from the foreground into the distance. The music is a bell chime sound that has a few deep bass notes held in the background. As the petals and flowers float into the distance they are all gathered into one location and morph into a red sphere with the W logo in the center. As the logo appears a final electric sounding note is played.