A brief is a list of requirements that companies or 'clients' set for you to keep to throughout the production of the media text. Clients set briefs to make sure that whoever they hire give them exactly what they want. It is very important that the filmmaker pays attention to the brief so that they know what they can and can't do. if they do no pay attention to the brief then the client could turn it down all together. Briefs are used in competitions like this to see if people have what it takes to be able to follow instructions in the industry.
Commission
'To Commission' literally translates into 'to put in or make ready for service or use' this is what commissioning bodies do A commission is when the client you are working for, in this example, E4 is the commissioner. the commissioner is the person responsible for putting the media text onto a media platform. The text has to be 'commissioned' before it is put on a television or cinema screen. Commissioning bodies are companies like E4, ITV and Sky. Usually Commissioning bodies will pay the film make for their work, however the E4 competition doesn't because its more based on getting your name out there and not being worried about monetary gain.
Tender
A Tender is an opportunity that is open to everyone. Anyone and everyone can apply for the competition. Other competitions are usually only open to people who specialize in the media however tenders are literally open to anyone to take part. It is a great way for people to get some experience without too much pressure being forced upon them. however they will still need to keep to the brief even if they are completely inexperienced, otherwise it will not be considered by the judges whatsoever unless there are some very special circumstances. I managed to get an example of a tender from the website ideas tap. Here is the one I found;
Responding to the brief
A way of responding to a brief is getting involved in the competition that the brief is included in. Competitions are a great way to get a lot of people involved in the process. If it is a tender then the amount of people who can respond the brief is greatly improved as I mentioned above a tender is something that anyone can apply to so the brief can be responded to by a far greater audience. An example of a competition that people can respond to is the Blue Cat screenplay competition which is described as 'The competition to find the top screenplay in the world' here are the details of the competition.
Reading a Brief
when reading a brief you have to take into consideration the rules that the client sets out for you. if you do not adhere to these rules then you will not be meeting the expectations of the brief. Our E4 brief had several 'targets' if you like that we had to meet to make sure we fully fulfilled the briefs expectations. It is very important that the filmmaker reads the brief carefully to find out what they need to do, if you make something that doesn't keep to the brief then that is a lot of time wasted and the media product will not be accepted by the judges. Here is the list of objectives for the E4 E sting brief:
We can’t show anything explicit or violent in the daytime, but we might be able to after the watershed as long as it’s broadcastable. So – within reason – your idea can be quite naughty / irreverent / provocative and the like. Use your common sense though; anything too grim or sexually explicit won’t get shown at all.
It HAS to be EXACTLY 10 seconds long. If it’s not 10 seconds long IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED BY THE JUDGES. Sorry, but we’re strict!
You HAVE to use one of the 10-second audio beds supplied.
It HAS to have the E4 logo in it… but you probably could’ve guessed that. (Preferably, integrated into the idea rather than simply slapped on top of your piece at the end.)
When responding to the brief you must keep to these guidelines or your entry will most likely end up being disqualified and your work that you would have spent a lot of time on will not even be considered for the competition, This brief is quite lenient compared to some one can find in the industry. we were given a lot of room to negotiate the brief which i will discuss in the next paragraph.
Negotiating the brief
In our brief we had quite a lot of room to negotiate. We could choose the type of animation we wanted to use, Whether it was Claymation or live action animation- we could choose the material that we animated with. we could also choose the genre that the animation was. I'm not really sure what genre my animation would be. I think it probably would be action maybe as the character is flying through the air. we could slightly negotiate the soundtrack and choose which E4 sound we could have. Overall we had quite a lot of freedom when it came to our brief. we could come up with our very own unique idea, Which is a really liberating, however for some people it can be quite daunting as they may find comfort in being given the instructions on what they have to do.
Another constraint we faced however was the fact that our E sting had to be more or less exactly ten seconds long. this could hold different problems for people as their E sting may turn out to be too long or could turn out to be too short, it all comes down to how well the person planned their animation. I was quite proud that my E sting came up to exactly 10 seconds.
Negotiating and commission in the real world
The following story is about the BBC television programme Sherlock. The writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatis went to the BBC with the idea and pitched it, the BBC loved it and commissioned them to make six 60 minutes episode, however they wanted three 90 minute episodes. here is the full story here from wikepedia;
Opportunities in the brief
Responding to a brief is a really great way for inexperienced to get that precious experience. It is a really great way for people to get a foot in the door. things like this are a crucial tool in trying to get into the media industry. They give inexperienced people the chance to hone their skills and attributes and get some recognition. For me it was a chance to see that animation was not for me. however I did learn a few things about stop motion animation, how it works and also what it takes to do it well.
I first came up with the idea for my E sting when researching other E stings. I tried to come up with an idea that was funny and would appeal to the E4 audience. I thought that it should involve a character that thought they where really good but ended up failing in some way. I remembered the tale of Icarus what I was taught about in middle school. this story is about the son who flies to close to the sun which ends up being his demise as his wings begin to melt and he falls to his death. I thought I should have a character that wouldn't fly too close to the sun but instead do different tricks while flying through the air and eventually over does it. Let me start off by saying that I am not the biggest fan of my E sting. I did not comprehend how much detail something so small like a ten second stop motion animation clip needed. This is the reason I think it looks very amateur and for lack of a better word, lazy. I also think that my animation in general should have been smoother as I think it is very jumpy and not fluid enough to be taken seriously as an E4 E sting. I also rushed making the set as I was seriously running out for filming time for my animation. I think the main problems with my E sting where my time management and not paying enough attention to detail. I screened my animation to my peers who had a mix of positive and negative comments towards it. Positives
People thought that the animation had 'nice movement'
Some thought that where the camera is situated was a good way to show the character flying through the air.
Some thought that the very rough look complimented the effect that it was just simply a child's play set. Negatives
Some thought that my E sting lacked imagination
Some of my peers didn't think that the spiral part of the animation was done very well, they thought it was jumpy and wanted it to be smoother
Survey Results
For a broader amount of audience feedback I sent out a survey using the website survey monkey. It was very beneficial for me to send a survey out because it allows me to get the points of view of more people in my target audience and allows me to draw accurate conclusions on what people think about my E sting.
The first question I asked was simple and to establish whether my survey audience actually know what E stings are. I asked "have you ever seen an E4 E sting before". Here are the results I received.
This shows that most of my audience had in fact viewed and E sting before which didn't surprise me as most of the people I am in contact with view E4 on a regular basis. Most of the people in my email list are my age which fits the demographic for E4.
For my third question I asked whether this E sting was instantly recognizable as an E4 E sting. here is five of the responses I received:
These five answers vary from good to bad. one of the people who say yes say its only because of the E4 logo at the end which is a little disappointing to me as if it takes until the end of the video for people to realize that it is an E4 E sting then i haven't accomplished what I set out to do. I do wish that the person who said the last comment had put a reason but that's just a flaw in making an online survey like this one.
The next question I asked was 'What did you enjoy about the use of clay'. Because clay is a rather unique and and interesting way of animating. Clay is rather aesthetically pleasing and it is held in quite high esteem as everyone has heard of Wallace and Gromit. These are two of the answers I received:
Both of these responses are positive. one of the most important things about stop motion animation is making it as smooth as possible. so the top comment is very important to me as I must have succeeded in making it smooth. the second comment lets me know that people appreciated the narrative of my E sting and enjoyed said narrative.
Skipping ahead now to the question about the narrative of my E sting. specifically, my question was "what did you like/dislike about the narrtive of my E sting" although the E sting is only 10 seconds long it is still very important because this is one of the main reasons the viewer will engage in. Here are some of negative viewpoints I recieved.
As you can see, the main issue was the mise en scene took the viewer out of the narrative. I regret that I didn't spend as much time as i would have liked to. if i had more time i would have used real sand and would have made the sky a lot more detailed. Although these reasons are valid, they do not directly address the narrative so these are not overly helpful. Here are some of the positives i recieved for my Esting:
The flying of my character was one of the things that my audiences enjoyed most
Most of the viewers seemed to enjoy the fun, upbeat quality of my E sting. Making it fun and enjoyable to watch was one of my main objectives. I then asked about the technical aspects of my Esting, asking; "do you think my animation flowed well?" here are a few of the responses.
There are a few mixed responses here however I think that the flow of the animation was one of the stronger points of my E4 E sting. This is the part of the animation that gets a little bit jumpy however.
My final question was "In general what do you think could have been improved in my E sting". I tried to have more of a general question for my last to just get a general feel of peoples reactions to my E sting. here are a few of the responses;
All of these opinions are very valid and i will be sure to take them into account when I make my next stop motion animation project. Especially the comments about detail as that is something I really need to improve on as I believe the detail really lacked in my E sting.
I think I have learnt a lot of lessons for this project. possibly the biggest lesson I have learnt is that I do not like the idea of working in animation in the future. I don't think it is for me because it is too small and fiddly. I think to be good at something like claymation you need to have a bit of artistic flair to make the characters look good. I have never been overly in to animated works in film and now I know that I would not really enjoy it when i'm behind the camera in animation as well. that is the biggest lesson i have learnt. In terms of working to a brief I found it quite nice that the rules are set out for you,I didn't think of them as rules really I just thought of them as guidelines that assisted me in coming up for my E sting idea. In terms of meeting the brief I believe that I have done rather well and would be quite happy to work with briefs in the future.
E4 is a UK television channel. It was launched as a companion to channel 4 on the 18th of January 2001. E4 has many well known and very popular shows, they seem to focus more on the comedy genre as it appeals more tot their target audience. E4's target audience is teens to mid 30's adults as their programmes cater to that demographic(more on this term further on) . E4 regularly shows programmes such as the classic american sitcom Friends. The comedy spin off The Cleveland Show. The comedy show the Inbetweeners and The Ricky Gervais show, this kind of alternative, close to the bone comedy would not really appeal to the older or younger audiences. Its not all comedy though however, its has its share of dramas as well such as Misfits and skins. Demographic is a term that the media use to divide up audiences using age, gender, race and other different categories. Every media product out there specializes in different demographics. According to the chart below E4 specializes in the age range from 18 to 24. this is because of their choice of shows and also their informal approach to their audience. The sex demographic is almost half and half. also their audience are mostly childless so this also allows them to show more edgier comedy shows.
E Stings
An E sting is a short animated short clip that E4 use to advertise their TV channel. They can be any type of animation. they are usually funny and are designed to give the audience a few seconds of fun before the programme they are going to watch starts. I am going to analyse three E Stings.
The first E Sting I am analysing is this one entitled NosE4atu. It is hand drawn animation and it is referencing to the film Nosferatu. It is rather comedic as nosferatu is known as one of the first horror movies and are using this to make it funnier as it shows nosforatu, a usually scary figure being mocked and beaten by the E4 logo.
The second 'E-Sting' I watched and analyzed was the one entitled 'Breakfast Surprise'. I liked this E sting more than the previous one, I thought it was funnier because of the type of animation used. although they both are cartoons this one is more roughly animated which I think adds to the comedic affect. also at the minute zombies seem to be the fashion in film and television at the minute. so this would appeal to a larger audience than the 'Nose4atu' E sting.
The third and final 'E-sting' I watched was definitely my favourite. The E sting is called 'Crabby and the salty sea dog'. I really like this E ting mainly because of how odd it is. the characters looked warped and strange and I really love the style of the animation its all very stiff and rather lethargic. I also really like the colour scheme. the colours are quite bland and weak which I think adds to the quirkiness.
Preperation
In preparation for my E sting I looked into the different forms of animation and tested them out for myself. find below the video of my first attempt of a Thaumotrope, i say first attempt because i ended up holding it upside down! I wasn't quite sure what the concept was however after making it and viewing it i could see why I thought I had to hold it upside down!
Also for my prep work I attempted some stop motion animation work (seeing as this was the type of animation we would be using according to the brief). me and my collegue just made a simple sketch of a giant Lego spider scaring a man off of his wheelchair. This is very ameteur however i didnt think it was too bad for our first attempt.
We did another stop motion test where we were given the task of filming some sort of race/ chase sequence. in my groups video we decided to have the protagonist throw down some debree that the other character slips over on. After seeing this the protagonist gets in the box that he is carrying and 'drives' away. however once he reaches the corner he crashes and spins out of control. finishing with the quip "drink and drive, drink and die"
For my E sting project I am going to most likely use the method of claymation. In my E sting there is going to be a purple and white clay man flying through the air, doing flips and so forth. He then finishes flying and hits the floor when he hits the floor he explodes into the E4 logo. My character's background is that he is a diver who who jumps off the highest diving boards. He will be rather stocky in build as he is a a diver, he needs to be quite muscular. My character has no body accompanying him which gives sort of a lone wolf aura. My diver is not able to perform his dive however it makes the audience question whether he is a good diver or not. There is going to be funny sound effects such as the man jumps off and a large 'splat' noise as the man hits the floor. This E sting will be stop motion. My animation will be set on a sunny day outside, I will need to draw a background on a piece of cardboard. A blue sky and some clouds. The music will be quite calm and relaxed as the character will be flying gracefully through the air which would not go with fast paced music. when the man splats I will zoom the camera into the splat so the screen goes black then I will zoom back out and the original splat will have been replaced with the E4
symbol. My set for my Esting will be a hand drawn background of a bright sunny day. I thought this would go well with the upbeat feel of my Esting. in terms of logistics I am going to have to lay my background on the floor and film my character flying through the air from a bids eye view angle to make sure his flying looks fluid and real. when the character splats he will land on a small beach. this will most likely be a piece of yellow paper as this also compliments the E4 logo colour that will appear when he splats. Th targete audience for my E sting will be a younger audience as they will be attracted to the bright and vibrant colours and I think they will find it funny when the character splats onto the floor.
Animation Pre-Production Paperwork
Location Release
Location Recce
risk assessment
Production schedule
This is my original set I made for my Esting.
However it wasn't Vibrant enough for me to go
with the feel of my Esting.
These are my drawings of my character in my E sting,
he isn't meant to look realistic. I wanted him to look like a
character a child would have on their play set. I labelled the
colouration of my character. his head and feet would be white
and his chest and legs and arms would be 'E4 purple'.
This is my storyboard, I only had one page
for my storyboard as I could not document
all of the tiny little movements my character
would make.
Joseph plateau was a Belgian physicist. hHe is the person who is credited with creating the Phenakistoskope in 1832. This device was used to view moving images. It was a device that had two disks. One with many images in different positions on it and the other contained small slits. When rotated at the correct speed these would combine and create the illusion of a moving image.
William George Horner was a British mathematician, he was a schoolmaster, headmaster and school keeper proficient in classes other than mathematics. He is attributed with the invention of the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is a bit like the Phenakistaskope in that they both show images in different stages of motion. The device consists of slits cut in the sides of the cylinder/drum then images in different stages of motion on the inside. the viewer looks through the slits and sees the moving image.
Charles Emile-Reynaud was a french inventor and was responsible for the first projected cartoons and is credited with inventing the Praxinoscope. Reynauds late years where not as successful, his invention became outmoded by the Cinematograph. He became completely poor and as a result, in a fit of rage he threw his now invaluable work into a river. The Praxinoscope is the successor of the Zoetrope and replaced its slits with mirrors. the viewer would see a quicker succession of images with a much clearer, less distorted view.
Thomas Edison and the Kinetoscope
Thomas Edison is one of the most famous and important inventors of our time. he invented such devices as the phonograph the motion picture camera and the first, long lasting practical light bulb.
In 1888 Thomas Edison attended a lecture from Edweard Muybridge in which Muybridge was demonstrating the use of the Zoopraxinoscope. After this the two decided to meet up in a laboratory where thy discussed creating a combination of their two devices. The collaboration took place. However in 1889 Edison announced his plan to make a device that would do "for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear" he then a named the device the Kinetoscope: kineto(movement), scopos(to view). The Kinetoscope is a large box that the viewer looks into through the top and sees the moving image on the inside, this is from a succession of stills being shown very quickly.
The Lumiere brothers and the Cinematographe
The Lumiere brothers are one of, if not the most important pair of people in cinema history. They patented the cinematographe which they they made their first motion picture film with Sortie 'Des Usines Lumiere a Lyon'. When the Cinematographe came about it rendered Edison's Kinetoscope obselete as the Kinetoscope only allowed one single person to have the viewing experience however the cinematographe allowed many to view the motion picture.
The Thaumotrope was a popular toy in the 19th century. It works by putting two different images on a thin piece of material the spinning it quickly, this would make it look like the two pictures where actually one. We made some however the one I made I filmed upside down, because from my angle it looked like it was up the right way. It works through a theory of persistence of vision where the afterimage is meant to stay for 1/25 of a second in the retina which makes the two images look like they have merged together.
The Quay Brothers
Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers widely known as the Brothers Key.
They are very influential stop motion animators and have been praised by many critics for their work. They where influenced by a tradition of eastern European animation. They where passionate about paying close attention to the smallest details. also known for their breathtaking use of
and texture and any uncanny use of focus and camera movement. These features make their films unique and instantly recognizable. Reviews from critics range from being very favorable to being quite dismissive, usually due to confusion. For example one reviewer said "even the smallest moments can make us feel as if we've never known the film before" however another critic felt "onoccasion the images are beautiful".
Willis O'Brien was a pioneering stop motion animator.In his early life he had many jobs including a Farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper and bartender. in his spare time he would take part in sculpting and illustrating which lead him to become employed as a sports cartoonist for Francisco news. Willis O' Brien specialized in stop motion animation. this is the manipulation of film to make a object look like its moving on it own, his first film drew the attention of Thomas Edison(the kinetoscope) and he was employed by him to animate more films. other titles he worked on where, King Kong(1933) and The Lost World(1925).The last film he made was its a Mad Mad Mad Mad world(1963).
Nick Park
Nick Park was born in 1938 and is an English director, writer and stop motion artist. He is best known for Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.Nick grew up with a keen interest in drawing cartoons and made his own films at the age of 13. He studied communication and Arts at Sheffield and then went to National film and television school, where he started making his first Wallace and Gromit film, 'A Grand Day Out'. Nick Park specialized using plastecine clay in all of his films. Claymation is an object or character sculpted from clay or any other flexible material, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature and then arranged on set, being slightley moved by hand to prepare it for the next shot."plastecine was available to me when I was a teenager and started doing animation. I wanted to be more like Disney, trying to film with plastic cels but it was all too expensive. and you would make whatever you like out of a blob of plastecine". sources- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Park Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5th 1941. he is an animator,manga artist, illustrater, producer and screenwriter. He began his animation career in 1963 when he joined Toei animation. his first contribution to animation was in 'Gulliver's travels beyond the moon'. this was then followed by 'Lupin 3, The Castle of Cagliostro'. after the success of his next film 'Of the wind' in 1984 he co-founded studio Ghibli and continued to create highly praised feature films. John Lasseter who is the chief creative officer at Pixar and the director of toy story said;'Miyazaki is one of the greatest film makers of our time. At Pixar, when we have a problem and we cant seem to solve it, we often take one of Mr. Miyazaki's films and look at a film in our screening room for a shot of inspiration. And it always works! we came away amazed and inspired. toy story owes a huge debt of gratitude to the films of Mr. Miyazaki.
Pixar
When Pixar first started up they where known simply as the 'Graphics Group' as part of Lucasfilm. Later, they spun off and became their own studio thanks to funding from Steve Jobs. while starting out as a hardware company, a lot of staff had different backgrounds in different kinds of animation, including cel animation(hand drawn), stop motion and computer animation. Pixar specialize in 3D/Computer animation. Pixar's big claim to fame is of course making the first full length feature film completely in CGI, Which is of course the highly succesful 'Toy story'(1995). Pixar are now one of the heavyweights in the animation world along with Disney and Dreamworks.
Sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar Tim Burton
Tim Burton was born on august 25 1958 and is an America film director, producer, artist , writer poet and stop motion animator. He is known for his dark, quirky horrors such as Edward Scissor Hands(1990) and Sleepy Hollow(1999). Tim started his carrer at the age of 13, when he created 'The island of doctor Agor' which is an adaptation of H.G wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. He went on to create other shorts and was heavily influenced by the works of Dr. Suess and Rould Dahl. Tim is a very influential stop motion animator making films such as 'Corpse Bride'(2005) ,Frankenweenie(2012), and the short film 'Vincent'(1982). Tim attracted the attention of Walt Disney productions' animation department and they offered him an apprenticeship at the studio. he worked on 'The Fox and the Hound' and 'The Black Couldron'. As an animator, storyboard artist and Concept Artist. However Burtons style clashed with Disney's standards; He went on to make solo projects.
sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton Otmar Gutman
Otmar Gutman was born on the 24th of April 1937 and died on October 13th 1993. He was a German television producer animator and director. He is perhaps most memorably known for his long running and successful creation Pingu. Pingu is a British-Swiss stop-motion clay-mation children's show. first aired in 1986. the show first started with several short episodes. Pingu's original name would have been 'Hugo'. the several short episodes where made into a short film. Then the show made a pilot movie for Swiss TV and was later created into the official show. After Gutmann past away, the pygos group collapsed and all the assets of the company were sold to HiT entertainment. HiT relaunched Pingu for a scheduled 52 episodes however after it ran its course, it ended rather abruptly and without any announcement. Pingu ran for 14 years.
George Pal George pal was born February 1st 1908, originally graduated the Budapest Academy of arts with a degree in Architecture and advanced drawing skills, both of his parents were stage entertainers and he was raise in a very artistic enviroment. He was employed by hunnia films in Budapest where he learnt motion picture cartooning . after becoming head of the cartoon department at UFA studios, Berlin, he decided to take his work to his own studio where he explored his own way of making inanimate objects move using stop motion animation. Pal originally specialized in motion picture cartooning, but when he moved to his own studio he started to experiment with making inanimate objects move. This was an up and coming method at the time. After doing adverts for cigarettes he eventually had his own wooden puppets made that had names and starred in their own films and were eventually called the Puppetoons. He caught the attention of american film maker Dave Bader and he decided to take a trip to New York with him where one of his films was shown at a party where the president of paramount pictures, Barney Baliban, saw it. He was so impressed that he offered Pal a contract them for him ion either New York or their animation studios in Florida.
sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pal
Walt Disney and Disney
The most famous animator and animation company in the world in my opinion most likely someone of any age has seen a Disney film at some point in their life. Walt Disney started his career as an animator back in 1923 with Alice's wonderland, a film that featured a child actress interacting with animated characters. In 1928 Disney created their most well known character, Mickey Mouse. Then in 1934 they created their first feature film, Snow White. Until relatively recently recently Disney had kept with hand drawn animation. This changed however in 2005 when they released Chicken Little.
sources -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company Ray Harryhousen
Dubbed as a 'special effects titan' Ray Harryhousen was born on the 29th of June 1920 in Los Angeles to parents Fred and Martha. He had a passion for dinosaurs and anything fantasy. His parents both encouraged him to persue what he wanted to. even if the career wasn't what they would have considered usual. Some of his favourite things as a child where museums, marionette shows and local movie houses. It was whilst at grammar school that he learnt how to make model miniature set. this took him to the next phase which he began to make three dimensional figures and sets that of course led him to make his own versions of prehistoric creatures. he evolved further from there and became one of the most famous names in animation and made such films as Jason and the Argonauts(1963) and Mighty Joe Young(1949). sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen Dreamworks
Dreamworks is another one of the big heavyweights of the animation world. The company has made such feature films as Shrek and Antz. On October 12th 1994 Dreamworks SKG was formed and founded. It is a film production company which produces and develops films,television programming and also video games. its based in Glendale, California. As of august 2014 its feature films have made 12 billion dollars world wide. They have released a total of 29 feature films. Dreamworks specialize in computer animation and are in heavy competition with Disney and Pixar.
Sources-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DreamWorks
Media Platforms and Audiences
Animated Music Videos
The first music video is The White Stripes 'Fell in Love with a Girl'. It is stop motion animation. I think this video would appeal to younger audiences because its of course, made from Lego. It is also very upbeat and there is a lot of bright colors used. This makes it ideal for younger audiences as the Lego is something that they are very interested in and the bright colors would keep them fixated to the video.
The second music video I chose was the video for Clint Eastwood by The Gorillaz. The tone of the animation completely changes from the fell in love with a girl video. For one this is not stop motion which instantly takes away the upbeat feel of the former video. Also it is all quite dark and not many bright colours are used at all.
Animated films The first animated film i looked at was chicken little. straight away you can tell that the audience for this film is children aged from five to around ten. the animation in this film is very childlike as all of the shapes and body movements are exaggerated to add comedy effect. Look at Chicken Little's head for example it is big and over the top in proportion to the rest of his body which makes it funnier. then there is also the vibrant colours that keep the younger viewing audience attracted and engaged with the film.
The second animated film I looked at was Tim Burtons A Nightmare Before Christmas. the animation in this film is completely different to that of Chicken Little. the animations are warped and out of proportion like in chicken little however the shapes are completely different. the arms and legs are elongated and it gives a very gothic an creepy feel. the colors are all very dark and Burton-esque and once again give a dark and creepy feel.
Animated Television shows A tv show that is aimed at children instantly makes me think of Spongebob Squarepants. Like chicken run above the animations are all very colourful as this is a children's TV show. I know how captivating this TV show is as a child as I used to watch it all the time and could not get enough of it. the animations are very fluid and comical and all of the characters are made to look friendly and inviting for children.
The second animated TV programme I looked at was Futurama. although, like Spongebob there is lots of bright and vibrant colours they are used more on the enviroment than on the characters themselves. The characters movements are just as fluid as in Spongebob Squarepants however they are a lot more human than in Spongebob when they interact with eachother in the show, there is also more adult comedy in Futurama which makes it appeal to an older audience than Spongebob. Here is a compilation of some of the best moments from the series.
Channel Idents
Idents are a short sequence shown between programmes on television channles. They are usually quirky and are under ten seconds in length. they are used to promote the channel and keep the viewer engaged in what's happening on screen. We have been given the task of making an ident for channel four. Here is an example of what channel four has done in the past;
Adverts
Adverts commonly use animation to make them memorable and unique. It is probably more logical to make an advert with animation as the companies can use more bright and vibrant colours to catch the viewers attention. here is a current animated advert for clash of clans;
This animation is focused on children and young adults. this is quite obvious through its use of colors and the character movements are made to attract viewer's attention and keep them watching. It is a comedic advert and is made to make people laugh. all of the bodies are out of proportion and absurd which once again adds to the comedy.
Were is stop motion animation going?
I believe that stop motion animation is beginning to fade out in popularity. I still think it has a few gems such as Wallace and Gromit and also film like chicken run will be timeless children's classics. however I cant really see it going anywhere. Its popularity is just too low in the current media world which is a shame because there is something intriguing about stop motion films and programmmes but with the ever rising use of special effects and computer animation I feel like stop motion will become a thing of the past.
Reading a Brief
Another constraint we faced however was the fact that our E sting had to be more or less exactly ten seconds long. this could hold different problems for people as their E sting may turn out to be too long or could turn out to be too short, it all comes down to how well the person planned their animation. I was quite proud that my E sting came up to exactly 10 seconds.
Another constraint we faced however was the fact that our E sting had to be more or less exactly ten seconds long. this could hold different problems for people as their E sting may turn out to be too long or could turn out to be too short, it all comes down to how well the person planned their animation. I was quite proud that my E sting came up to exactly 10 seconds.
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