Animation Pre-Production

The Requirements of working to a brief

Brief:

What is a Brief?

A brief is a short document supplied by a client with their objectives/regulations to protect their company, as well as the objectives/goals with suggestions on how to complete these tasks.

What is a commission?

A commission is when a client asks you to create a project for a media outlet/platform which you (usually) get paid for.

For example, earlier this year I worked on a film piece for BBC voices to be shown behind a live orchestra at a live performance to commemorate the centenary of WW1.

What is ‘tender’ in media?

"Tender" is a term used in the media industry when you put your survives out for hire.

How else could you respond to a brief?

You could compete in a competition which would likely have a more broad/lenient brief.

Recognizing the brief:

We have to create a 10 second short animation to enter into the E4 Ident competition. According to the brief, our ESting has to clearly include the E4 logo and a soundtrack that has been supplied by them.

Negotiating a Brief:

For this assignment we have quite a lot of freedom for what we could create for our ESting, as long as we stuck to the guidelines.

We are quite fortunate with the amount of "Leniency" that we have for this project, for many company's/clients have a specific reputation that they need to keep, and/or have a specific vision of what they want created. If this was the case, then it would be imperative that we stuck to the brief as closely as we could, and - if we had had any ideas that we were unsure of whether or not they would work - keep in contact with the client to discus ideas to get the best possible outcome for all party's involved.

Sometimes your client may not be as experienced in the industry as you/other clients you have worked for in the past, thus leading to complications in budgeting and Legal areas of your project, which would make it difficult to create the product your client wants. In this scenario, you would need to discus with the client what the problems are and why they are a problem, and what could be done to fix/get around these problems. There are also ethical problems you could encounter, such as if you were hired by a charity organisation who are working to improve living conditions in a 3rd world country, would it be ethically correct to show living conditions of these people either early in the day where children could see the footage, or  you are contracted by a vegan/animal rights group who wanted to expose living conditions and how the animals are treated and they wanted it to be shown a 19:00 when family's are eating their dinner and watching TV.

For the final ESting i had to re shoot some of the footage of the characters moving/reacting as it did not flow as well as i felt it could have, as well as changing the colour correction to give it more of a "Crime" feel and make it look more professional.

There are manyt reason that you may need to make adjustments/amendments to your product, for example, you may have been overly optimistic when outlining the budget, and be forced to rethink how you would go about making your product. As well as this, it is easy to accidently overlook or forget parts of the brief when originally working to the brief, meaning that once you hand in the product that you may have a deviated from the brief. This is why it is important to keep checking the brief throughout the production.

Opportunities:

Why might someone respond to a brief?

There are many reasons as to why someone may respond to a brief, for example; they may be looking for a way into the industry and wish to get experience working with professionals, they may be a freelancer looking for work or perhaps an already established individual in the industry looking to broadening his/her options/further develop their skills as a filmmaker.

Identify opportunities that you had for self-development / what new skills did you learn?.

By working on my own I was able to improve my time management, as well as develop my camera and editing skills as I had only edited moving images/footage up until this project. Before this project I had never attempted to make a stop-motion animation before, so I leaned the workings behind it such as for 10 seconds you need to get 120 photos as you edit it/watch it in 12 frames per second.

Do you have to multi-skill at all during the project?

Yes as I will have to do all of the camera work and editing myself.

What contributions did you make to the project brief?

To go away from the generic clay/Lego animation of most EStings and create a live action animation set in a fantasy universe and to have a warden witness a crime and carry out "justice".

Final ESting

Animation Evaluations

STEP ONE:


Create your own user feedback survey

STEP TWO:


STEP THREE:

Constraints: 

Over all my production went smoothly and I was a able to easily finish the filming and editing easily, although there were some set-backs. For example, I was unable to source any purple and white paint, which I would have use'd at the end to create the E4 logo. To over come this, I decided to use Lego to attempt to implicate that she the sword hit her, she turned into Lego. When I came up with this solution, I took inspiration from Corridor Digital where they did a video about a guy that has the power to turn everything he touches to Lego (Like the skittles advert)




I also had to find a way to get the props (Sword, cloak, cape) to college. Due to the laws of the UK, it is illegal to carry a knife (Especially a sword) in public without a good reason, such as taking it to a museum or selling it or for a theater piece.

https://www.police.uk/crime-prevention-advice/possession-of-weapons/

Because of these laws, I did not want to risk carrying a prop sword (even though it was made of foam) in public. To get around this problem, i wrapped the sword in black bags and put it into a cardboard box, as well as getting a lift into college. This minimized the time i had to carry the sword, as well as it being unidentifiable as a sword.

The cloak, although not illegal, is large and reasonably heavy, and due to it being made from a sheepskin rug it was difficult to transport. To get around this I wrapped the smaller cloak/cape inside it, then rolled it up as tight as possible, and used one of Sports Directs XL bags to carry it into college.

Time Management:

I used the first 2 lessons, as well as time at home, to create storyboards and to get the rest of the pre-production paper work done. I then split the remaining lessons evenly allowing myself plenty of time to film, and edit my production. We were then given a week to make any corrections needed to our productions, however I was lucky and the alteration that would have taken the longest time was a simple colour correction adjustment. I was able to complete all changes within 1 lesson.

Meeting The Requirements Of The Brief:

I believe that I have complied with the guidelines set by E4 because I have kept it within the 10 second time limit, clearly showed the E4 logo, I have shown no violence, only implied it and i have used one of the supplied E4 Esting sound tracks.

Obtaining feedback:

We used Survey-monkey to create 10 question surveys to collect opinions on our Estings, as well as doing a "Class Viewing" where our class mates commented their views on the Esting,

Improvements from feedback

• I will edit the colour corrections
• The guy who has his bag stolen has no reaction, so I will get a few shots
• I will try to make an E4 logo out of liquid 

Responding to the brief

Three ways my E-Sting meets the requirements of the brief:

1. I have used a 10 second audio file supplied by E4.
2. I have kept the animation to 10 seconds as stated in the brief where it says "target the right people and don't exceed the 10 second limit."
3. I have not broken any of the regulations provided on the E4 website, such as "incorporating the E4 logo".

What I needed to change to meet the requirements of the brief:
I have had a convocation with Ellie about the ending of my esting, as I will be implying that the thief's head will be decapitated, however I will not be showing this and will not show blood, instead her head will turn into Lego bricks.

What legal or health and safety issues I addressed:
There were no health and safety problems throughout my production, however I did complete the following risk assessment [find bellow].

Amount of people in my Team:

1. Daniel Walker [Me] - Cinematographer, editor, sound team
2. Luke Robins - Actor [Executioner]
3. Faye Jarvis - Actor [Thief]

Pre-production, production and post production deadline

Pre-Production deadline - 24/11/17

Production deadline - 24/11/17

Post-production - 24/11/17

Research and planning: Designing an ESting

General Infomation on E4's ESting's:

ESting's are 10 second animations sent by E4's fans that go through a competition, the winner being used as a Ident for the channel. There are 4 rounds, The first round consisting of 8 pairs of animations facing off against each other, which ever one wins is then entered into the quarter final, and this repeats until the final round where there are two left. Which ever one wins then is entered into the competition.

Guide lines:

To enter the competition, you must have access to your own YouTube and twitter account, and upload your submission onto YouTube. Once you've uploaded it you must tweet the YouTube link (URL) and include the E4 hashtag #EStings2017. The entries have to be received by 23.59 (GMT) on the 3rd of September.

Judging:

Judge info (http://estings.e4.com/criteria.html)

Idea:

Game of thrones meets star wars inspired SMA where a guy is going to get executed, the "Executioner" holds out his hand and we see a sword gradually moving across the floor starting in a house, moving to a park, then college corridor, then into the room. While this is happening, the guy getting executed will be "Force Pulled" towards the executioner, and he tries to grab things to get away, manages to slow himself down a second, but the executioner force pulls his leg and drags him on his face toward s him. Once he is there he is held just above the floor, and blood pool turns into a E4 logo.

Designing:

Characters:

Name: Warden / Executioner

Motive: Justice

Description: A man with messy hair wearing a hoodie and black jeans, a cloak covering his shoulders. He uses his powers to both pull his sword to him, and the thief towards him to be "Executed".

Name: Thief

Motive: Money / Hunger

Description: An average height young girl wearing a blue hoodie runs past him and grabs a women's purse a few feet away. She continues to run and the hoodie turns into a hooded cloak.

Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief

E4: The popular TV channel "E4" is owned by Channel 4 Television  Corporation, who inturn are owned by the IBA and/or Department for Culture. E4 has been on for 16 years, beggining in 2001.
popular shows on E4 are Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, 2 broke girls.

Their primary demographic is young females between the age of 16 and 24 living in urban areas. E4's secondary demographic would be 16 - 30 males in urban ares. Other companies owned by Channel 4 (Known as sister companies) are: Film 4, Kiss, Kerrang, Magic, 4seven. These other company's TA's are 16 - 34 working class females.

E-Sting:

A E-Sting is a competition which encourages wanna-be animators are allowed to create a 10 second ident to promote animation and the E4 channel and get recognized for their ability. All of the entry are submited by E4's audience, and are intended to promote the channels identity as an "Ident".


Content - a bunch of sloths licking the air and LP's
Audience - Younger
Genre - Comedy

Content - Dude murders a fly and its guts go everywhere
Audience - Older
Genre - Horror

Content - old women nits her husband a man-kini and he puts it on, giving his
Audience - Older
Genre - Comedy

Planning and Prep work:



Lego:
I enjoyed working with Lego as you can create simple structures easily, however it is very difficult to manipulate properly.

SMA:
I enjoyed working with inanimate objects to create this film, however it was difficult to get movement mid air.



I intend to work with inanimate objects and people to create my E-sting, because I feel it will be easier and aesthetically look better than if I was to use clay or Lego. I believe that at the moment there is a severe lack of live action E-stings, thus i feel that creating one would make it stand out more against the convention of computer generated animations.

The reason we did these different types of animation is to help us decide which format we would chose to do are own. I have chosen to use Live Action rather than Lego, Puppets or Claymation as I feel it will be easier for me to portray my idea, as well as it is easier to get people to do what you require.

Stop Motion Animation Practice Eval

Task 1:

Our first "Stop Motion Animation" project was "The Bottle Flip". The most difficult part of filming this task was the beginning when the bottle hits the railing and drops onto the cone. We struggled to find a way to get the bottle in frame mid air to make it look like it had been thrown. In the end we changed the angle so we see the initial throw, then when it hits the railing, then the cone.

The part I feel works the best is the later part of the film, where the bottle falls off of the emergency door and rolls across the ground. You can see that it is a series of still images, however the bottle itself looks as if it is moving constantly, and the slight change of light on the ground, the way the shadows fall, makes it feel as if it is moving faster that it is.

Unfortunately we did misplace the ending of the animation which had a character picking up the bottle and throwing it in the bin, however I don't feel like this took that much away from the film and it was still a fun and useful experience.

Task 2:

The second stop motion project we filmed was a task involving inanimate objects. I worked with Luke Robbins to create a short "Indent" using Lego and a green screen. I feel like what worked the best was the way we managed to get the camera movement starting below the table, then slowly panning up to reveal the pig and the car. Unfortunately, this was pretty much as far as we got as we have not yet had the time to edit the "footage"

The History and Development of Stop Motion Animation

Pioneers and Technology:

• Persistence of vision: The theory that animation works by showing the viewer/audience a sequence of images at a high enough "frame rate" or speed so that the brain interprets the sequance of still images as a moving image. An example of this is when you light a sparkler and spin it in a circle, if fast enough, you are able to see it as a ring of light. "optical illusion that occurs when visual perception of an object does not cease for some time after the rays of light proceeding from it have ceased to enter the eye."

Example:

• Thaumatrope: In 1825 the Thaumetrope was innovated by John Ayrton Paris. It was developed to exploit the "persistence of vision theory". The Taumatrope consists of a thick piece of card with a hole punched on each side. Two images are printed, one on each side, with opposite orientations. Sting is then attached to each hole, and, once spun, the images look like they are one.

Example:

• Phenakistoscope: Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons created the Phenakistoscope but originally called it the "Spindle Viewer" in 1832. A similar design, called the stroboscope, was invented later that same year by one Simon Von Stampfer. Plateau's Phenakistoscope was the first widely available moving picture animation device which portrayed an illusion of movement. This revolutionary device worked by the viewer spinning a cardboard disk, and viewing the reflection of the animation through a series of thin slits.

Example:

• Zoetrope: In 1830 the "Zoetrope" created in England by the french inventor William George Horner. It was named after the Greek words "Zoo" and "Trope" - Zoo meaning "Life" and Trope meaning "Something that moves". It works by 12 images being drawn on a thin piece of paper on the inside of the cylinder, Which,once spun, the viewer will see as a sequence of moving images if viewed at the right angle.

Example:

• Praxinoscope: In 1877, Charles Èmile Reynard created his inproved interpritation of the Zoetrope. It works similarly to the zoetrope, however rather than looking through thin slits on the side of the cylinder to view the animation, the viewer is able to see the squance by looking at the circle of mirrors in the centre of the device. Viewing the animation in this way meant that more people could watch at and one time.

Example:

• Kinetoscope: The Kinetoscope was created by Tomas Edison and Kennedy Laurie Dickson in 1889 - 1892. It worked by rapidly passing a strip of film between a lens and a light bulb while the viewer watched through a peephole. Behind the peephole there is a spinning wheel with a thin slit in it acting as a shutter. The film was viewed at 46 frames per second. This created a accurate representation on motion.

Example:

Why technology needed to develop:
The devices showed the public that viewing a visual moving image narrative was possible, however, the technology available at the time did not allow complex narratives to be shown. The better the technology became, the more complex and interesting the narratives became.

Developers:

George Pal:
Pal was an american film director, producer and animator. György Pál Marczincsak, more commonly known as George Pal, was born in Cegléd, Austria-Hungary on 1st February 1908.Pal died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1980.He is mostly recognized for his “Puppetoon” animations. Bellow is an example called "Tulips Shall Grow". Pal was a pioneer of motion animation, and his work inspired directors such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Willis O'Brien:
Born Willis Harold O'Brien on the 2nd March 1886, O'Brien began his career as a cattle rancher, later becoming a famous stop motion animator in 1915, O'Brien died in 1962 . As a teen, O'Brien worked as a cowboy, cartoonist and boxer. Throughout his animation work later in life, he referenced these jobs. It is said that on a quiet day at work, he and his coworkers would create tiny clay boxers and "stage" mini fights. This is what started is interest in stop motion animation. O'brien's early models were simply made of clay, but as time went by he would make more complicated armitures and give them a rubber "skin" allowing them to be more movable and sturdy.

 


Ray Harryhausen:
Harryhausen was born in  Los Angeles in 1920. His first claim to fame was the prehistoric films and the research of Dynamation. His his most well known for his film "Jason and the Argonauts", when they used early stop motion techniques with clay to animate characters such as Talos. Harryhausen was inspired to take a career in animation after watching "Kong" in 1933. 




Phil Tippet:
Tippet was born in 1951 in Berkeley. He was the lead animator with Job Berg on the production of "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back". They used a techniques they called  go motion to animate the AT-AT walkers and the adorable alien camel/Alpaca "TaunTauns". Tippet was inspired at an early age by Harryhausens "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" and also O'briens's "King Kong".




Otmar Gutmann:



Tim Burton / Henry Selick:
Burton was born August 25th, 1958 in burbank, Henry was born 6 years previous on November 30th 1952 in new jersey. Tim Burton is well known for many films, none more so than "The Nightmare before Christmas." Their work consists of stop motion animation using puppets. Tim Burton had a strange childhood, which is often refferenced through his work, such as "Frankenweenie" which, in an interview, he said "Mr and Mrs Frankenstein of the film are the optimistic versions of my parents, although in some ways I had a slightly more troubled relationship with my parents than that in the film. And Frankenweenie was based on my own childhood dog, Peppi. If I could have brought him back to life, I would. I did it in film instead,"


Adam Shaheen:
The founder of Cuppa Coffee Studios was born October 13th 1964. His work their involved him producing and developing original stop motion programmes. Some of his works include:
Jojo's Circus, Celebrity Deathmatch, Bruno and Tigga and Togga.


The Brothers Quay:
Stephan and Timothy were born in Philadelphia 1917. Their chosen method of Stop Motion animation was to use inanimate objects such as dolls and screws which they perpously disfigure. They also heavily rely on music, yet the film is often without dialogue.



Nick Park:
In Preston, England, 1958, Nick Park is born. Park is most well known for his work on "Wallace and Grommit", he also worked on the critically acclaimed "Chicken Run" - Which was is his highest grossing stop motion animation film he created to date.



Media Platforms and Audiences:

TV Programme:

• Pingu - 

Pingu, the lovable penguin, was aimed at the younger population/audience, and their parents with them.

• Salad Fingers

On the other hand, salad fingers is a, slightly creepy, comedy aimed at teenagers and young adults as they have a different sense of humor and a more mature art style.

Feature Film:

• Kubo:

Kubo is a full feature film which uses a mixture of stop motion and computer generated animation to tell the narrative of the film.

• Wallace and Gromit - A Matter of Loaf and Death

A Matter of Loaf and Death is another feature film, however the character models, interactive objects (houses, cars etc.) are tall made of wire frame with clay over the top. Most/all Wallace and Gromit films are aimed at a primary audience of 5-15, however there is also a large secondary audience of 16-34.

Advertisement:

• Sainsbury's - The Greatest Gift

An advert released to embody the spirit of Christmas with claymation characters and a voice over by James Cordon. This ad was primarily aimed at the working class adults, due to the main protagonist is a working class man working in a production factory.

• Xbox Ad

In 2007 Microsoft released a new advert to promote their recent release of the Xbox 360. The advert consisted of the clay turning into different iconic game symbols/icons, the the Xbox and the games them selves. They also used stop motion animation in this advert for all of the movement in the ad. The target audience for this ad would have been similar as is is today, Gamers - from first timers to "Pro", along with a secondary audience, likely to be older, who are looking to find something to buy their children/grand kids.

Music Video:

• Handlebars - Flobots

"Flobots" used a minimalist hand drawn art style for their stop motion animation music video to accompany/help tell the narrative of their lyrics. It tells the story of two friends who split off from one another and lead their lives separately, one to become a man of the people, friendly and helping everyone selflessly, and the other to become a CEO of a corporate institution that resembles the Nazi party. This eventually leads to the "friend of the people" forming a "resistance" and fighting back, ending in the "Nazi" security opening fire on unarmed civilians.

• Somebody that i used to know Gotye

In this unconventional video, stop motion is used to show the singer (representing who the song is about) blend in with the background, to connotes that whoever he is singing about changed and became the same as es everyone else/lost their individuality.

Indent:

• E4 Indent - Peel

This Ident bridges the gap between live action and stop motion, showing that both formats can be used together to make a sucessful project if planned well.

• E4 Stop motion indent

A clay mation animation to show a variation in the different style's of Estings on E4.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that stop motion animation is aiming at an older generation as they may have grown up with stop motion animation and have a sentimental love for it, however I  believe that as computer animation is the way forward and stop motion is going to become obsolete and eventually die/stop being used.


Bibliography:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaumatrope
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenakistiscope
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetrope
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxinoscope
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pal
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O%27Brien
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Tippett
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otmar_Gutmann

Otmar Gutmann Presentation

Kinetoscope Presentation