pre-production

understanding requirements of working to a brief

Briefs

• What is a brief/project brief? A brief is a set of instructions given to somebody in regards to a task or assignment 
• What is a commission/what does it mean to be commissioned? a commission is the order or authorization that enables somebody to produces something to be commissioned means that you have been authorized or order by somebody to do a job, essentially it means you are employed by somebody to perform a certain task or role for them. 
• What is meant by the term ‘tender’ (in regards to Media!) tender means currency or money however it can also mean however when institutions can invite bids for large projects for large projects that must be submitted by a final deadline 
• How else could you respond to a brief? (Think about the one you created an animation for…) You can respond to a brief with the incentive to win a cash prize instead of a definite  as was the incentive for this brief.

Reading a brief

• Discuss recognising the nature of and demand implicit in a brief, e.g., what was specified in the E4 ESting guidance that you had to include/meet? these are the E4 stings guidelines that i was required to meet which gave us a greater understanding of the nature of the brief as we knew what the limitations were in terms of making our e-Sting it also gave us a general idea as to the length, the grade of quality what music we were as a group allowed to use and what we could not do  :
• Your Entry must be exactly 10 seconds long. If your E Sting is under or exceeds this limit your entry will not be considered by the judging panel.
• Your Entry must include the E4 logo which can be downloaded from the entry page on E4.com. Failure to include the E4 logo will result in your Entry not being considered by the judging panel. Permission to the use the E4 logo is limited to your Entry only and you must not use the E4 logo for any other purpose and is subject to your compliance with the section entitled “Permission to Use the E4 Logo” set out below.
• If you decide to use music on your Entry, you must use one of the supplied audio beds which can be downloaded from the entry page on E4.com. Failure to use one of the supplied audio beds will result in your Entry being disqualified.
• Your Entry must be of broadcast quality and must not contain anything that is obscene, indecent, defamatory, un-lawful, offensive or that infringes the copyright, intellectual property rights, moral rights or any other right of a third party. Your Entry must also be suitable for daytime broadcast. Please ensure that you do not place yourself or others in danger while creating your Entry. Your Entry must be entirely your own work and must not contain any music other than the audio beds referred to in paragraph 9 above or any other third party material and must be fully cleared for us (and others authorised by us) to use in accordance with these E Sting Rules (including the licence you grant us as set out below). Channel 4 reserves the right to edit your Entry. You acknowledge and agree that you produce your Entry at your own cost and risk. You must also have the consent of anyone featured in your sting.
• You must not: (i) use the YouTube AudioSwap functionality to include music within your Entry; or (ii) use any other functionality or content available through YouTube to edit or amend your Entry after submission to us. Please also refrain from enabling the advertising functionality on YouTube in relation to your Entry as while this will not automatically disqualify your Entry it will mean that it will not feature on the E Stings website.
• Please also bear in mind our ViewHouse Rules(opens in a new window) when creating your Entry. Failure to do so may result in your Entry being disqualified. These House Rules contain important information on staying safe online and details of content that we deem unacceptable. Please ensure that you have read, understand and accept these prior to creating your Entry.
• In order to ensure that all Entries can be judged fairly all Entries must be in the English language

Negotiating a brief

• Discuss how much room you had to negotiate the brief.                                                             we could only negotiate very particular things for our brief, such as the style of animation, and the narrative of the film everything else was specified in the guidance provided. 
• In the media industry, what degree of discretion do/would you have in interpreting a brief
• this depends on the brief, usually you have very limited room the only real discretion you have is of a creative one, but again if the brief states that you have a creative control it usually means you can argue as to what budget you may need (for one example of control you may have over the brief) as you have have had an idea in mind which you can calculate the overall cost and try to state to the employer that you will need so much for your budget.
• What constraints (legal, ethical, regulatory) might you face when responding to a brief? What constraints did you face?  none 
• the only constraint we as a group had to face in terms of constraints was violence we could not make the short to violent as it would then violate one of the rules 
• Did you have to make any amendments to proposed final product? Why? no, i believe we had achieved what we had set out to do 
• For what reasons might there be amendments to; a budget? Your fees? Conditions outlined in the contract? there can  be amendments to a budget because you may go over budget if you think the film needs more money, to buy props for example which could  infringe on the contract which may have stated that you could only work with a certain budget and if you go do not follow the contract you are assigned to it is complete within the employer rights to not pay you as you have violated the contract you both agreed to apply to 

Opportunities

• Why might someone respond to a brief? most likely someone will respond to a brief for the simple reward of money sometimes making a profit can be the biggest incentive. you could also respond to a brief in order to add the work you completed to a cv which would improve your cv giving you the opportunity to do more work and improve your likelihood of getting work more work if someone has seen you do good work for one company another company may recognize it and then employ you based on the previous work that you did previously and so on so to build a 
• Identify opportunities that you had for self-development.
• i had to opportunity to work better in a group and to 
• What new skills did you learn?
• editing using Photoshop  in order to create a short animated film 
• Did you have to multi-skill at all during the project? no
• What contributions did you make to the project brief?                                                             i originally came up with the initial  idea for the short and wrote the screenplay for it and specified what props were required 

Research and planning- E4 and the Brief

E4 is owned by the channel four corporation and was launched on the 18th of January 2001 it regularly shows programmes ranging from dramas such as youngers (2013-present)  to comedies such as drifters (2013-present) to reality/non-scripted shows such as Rude tube (2008-present) and American acquired shows such as the sitcom The big bang theory (2008-present). The primary target audience is predominately 15-25 age group so must likely into the d/e class that are also individuals and are most likely in the subculture of fan bases.The secondary target would likely be older 15-21 age group that are most likely mainstreams in the e/d social group who enjoy popular shows such as the big bang theory or how i met your mother. Other channels owned by the channel four corporation include channel 4 which primary audience is  predominately 20-40 age group and most likely aimed at main streamers as well in the c-b2 social group . Other channels include More 4 which is for older people in the 40-80 age category who are succeeders in the b-a social group Film four,which is aimed at 18- 40 age group for reformers/individuals in the b/c1 social group, 4music which is for 13-18 mainstreamers in the e social group and 4seven which is a repeat of programmes shown on the other channels they also have an online channel called all4 which offers catch up on all shows owned by the channel four corporation.

and E-sting is a short animation that interludes between shows that is usually of a comedic or surreal nature. they are submitted by the public with a chance to win five thousand pounds


Foe example this E-sting is of a comedy genre that shows a E4 logo crashing into a field killing bystanders in the process. it aimed at individuals and young teens because of  its childish humor and comedic use of violence. I like this E-sting because of its entertaining use of surreal violence and the comedic way in which it delivers it. The animation is also very reminiscent of a stop-motion animation film 'A Town Called Panic' which used similar toy models to animate upon


Another example of an E-sting is a fantasy/comedy genre showing a needle/bee  being thrown by a bearded ginger tattooist in dungarees into a troll causing him to have a E-4 shaped rash appear on his arm. i believe the audience for this sting would be for individuals and people who are part of fan-bases and enjoy fantasy/adventure genres and films such as lord of the rings. I like this sting because of its surreal story and entertaing and engaging style of animation


the final example of a E-sting was this action genre sting of a robot transforming from a car to a transformer i imagine the audience was young 13-21 main streamers. i like because of its simplicity and also its surprising entertainment value

For our Lego video what we set out to achieve was a short simple animation of a somewhat comedic nature. overall the shoot was a success, with no real hiccups to speak of. working with Lego is blissfully simple, its ability to be slotted in a variety of positions one block from the original position means that for stop animation it is wonderfully ideal. However there are limitations such as movement of characters, is difficult when lego has no give and is a solid rigid material,meaning we couldn't bend our characters knees for example which meant that making a character look like he was walking was a challenge , but we resolved this by making our characters look like they were shuffling Rather than walking so overall was not a big issue and was resolved easily.






For my E-sting i will produce a live action video showing me doing a trick on a skateboard, i have decided to choose this because feel that skateboarding is one of my abilities and that if i could uses that in a short video i would be playing to my advantage, also i feel that a short skateboarding video would look good and even entertaining to some degree and i also feel like other people will be doing clay-mation and other forms of animation so i would like to think my animation would stand out

e-sting terms and conditions

How to Enter:

1. To enter the Competition you must have a public YouTube and Twitter account.
2. To enter the Competition you must upload your submission to YouTube and Tweet the YouTube URL including the hashtag #EStings2015
3. Retweets will not be accepted as an entry to the Competition. Entry to the Competition must be a manual Tweet sent by you.
4. Entries must be received by 23.59 UK time on 3rd September 2015. Entries received after this time will not be accepted. The entry time will be the time in which your Entry was received by us, not the time it was submitted.

Eligibility:

5. You may submit an Entry on your own or as part of a collaborative group. You (and each member of your collaborative group, if applicable) must be 16 or over and a resident within the United Kingdom to be eligible to enter the Competition.
6. Only one Entry per person or collaborative group will be accepted. If you submit any subsequent Entries the judges will only consider your first Entry.

Your Entry:

1. Your Entry must be exactly 10 seconds long. If your E Sting is under or exceeds this limit your entry will not be considered by the judging panel.
2. Your Entry must include the E4 logo which can be downloaded from the entry page on E4.com. Failure to include the E4 logo will result in your Entry not being considered by the judging panel. Permission to the use the E4 logo is limited to your Entry only and you must not use the E4 logo for any other purpose and is subject to your compliance with the section entitled “Permission to Use the E4 Logo” set out below.
3. If you decide to use music on your Entry, you must use one of the supplied audio beds which can be downloaded from the entry page on E4.com. Failure to use one of the supplied audio beds will result in your Entry being disqualified.
4. Your Entry must be of broadcast quality and must not contain anything that is obscene, indecent, defamatory, un-lawful, offensive or that infringes the copyright, intellectual property rights, moral rights or any other right of a third party. Your Entry must also be suitable for daytime broadcast. Please ensure that you do not place yourself or others in danger while creating your Entry. Your Entry must be entirely your own work and must not contain any music other than the audio beds referred to in paragraph 9 above or any other third party material and must be fully cleared for us (and others authorised by us) to use in accordance with these E Sting Rules (including the licence you grant us as set out below). Channel 4 reserves the right to edit your Entry. You acknowledge and agree that you produce your Entry at your own cost and risk. You must also have the consent of anyone featured in your sting.
5. You must not: (i) use the YouTube AudioSwap functionality to include music within your Entry; or (ii) use any other functionality or content available through YouTube to edit or amend your Entry after submission to us. Please also refrain from enabling the advertising functionality on YouTube in relation to your Entry as while this will not automatically disqualify your Entry it will mean that it will not feature on the E Stings website.
6. Please also bear in mind our ViewHouse Rules(opens in a new window) when creating your Entry. Failure to do so may result in your Entry being disqualified. These House Rules contain important information on staying safe online and details of content that we deem unacceptable. Please ensure that you have read, understand and accept these prior to creating your Entry.
7. In order to ensure that all Entries can be judged fairly all Entries must be in the English language

Questions

1. What format do you propose to use to create an ESting? (e.g., stop-frame techniques - with people/models/objects etc, claymation / Lego, time lapse photography, combined formats).           I proposed to use a stop motion form of animation                                       
2. What will happen in your proposed ESting? Write a very brief narrative summary describing the action.                                                                                                                                                in my E-sting a child walks into an arcade store and plays an old game, the game is a street fighter character fighting the E4 logo                          
3. In regards to diegesis, where will your animation be set? This relates to the setting and not your shooting locations. 
4. Are there (and do you predict there will be) any limitations or difficulties to face when you produce your ESting? Think about competence, finance, locations, resources and practicality.
5. Who is the target audience for your ESting? Think about age, gender and interests/tastes. the targeted audience is main-streamers/individuals in their late teens/ early 20s who have a found nostalgia for old video games 

Animation Evaluation

What went well?

overall most aspects went well with our short animation we finished our shoot ahead of schedule leaving us with more time to edit and to really stay on top of the assignment, our use of props and costumes within in out shoot also were good as we were fortunate to find exactly what we were looking for with the exception of having to order one sword that we couldn't get elsewhere but in the end was not a prop we used so was not even an issue or a dilemma we had to resolve. the actual task of shooting was also blissfully stress free, as the camera was in one position so the shoot was not time consuming in the sense that we constantly had to keep re-positioning the camera which saved time which made the shooting process much easier overall. location was also easy to shoot in as there were no real distraction excusing the college students playing sports on the opposite of the corridor which were no real problem as they had used the net to section there own half of the sports hall leaving us with the freedom and space to shoot what we needed to shoot, overall shooting was a hassle free task.
editing to was mostly smooth sailing, our finished product as a good was a film which in my opinion had little to no problem in terms of the flow of the piece (frames per second/speed) we also had little to no camera shake with the final finished product as ours camera was placed on a tripod so our frames were well centered which resulted in a good overall finished product. My attitude to our projects also seemed to be reflected in our comments as seen below, these are you tube comments from the animated film by fellow media students commented and what they liked and disliked the overall consensus seems to be that most people enjoyed the piece.

what didn't go well?

the main problems with our project lie mostly with our editing, in truth our intentions for our overall piece were more grand in retrospect, for example we planned on adding health bars to our piece in order  to fully recreate a video game-esque environment and we also had other video game aspects we would have like to have implemented text on the screen for player one and two and the word "fight" would have been preferable to appear on the at the begin of the film in true retro mortal combat 90s video game style. we also could have spent more time honing and improving certain aspects of the short such as a more centered final explosion, and perhaps a more impressive fireball in terms of scale and aesthetic (it could have looked more fiery/ deadly) the trajectory of the fireball to could be improved  to make it more straight and therefore more genuine

what would you have done differently?

In retrospect the main things i would do differently with this piece would be a more effective, productive use of our time as a group  i feel our management of roles within our group could have been handled better and a more effective use of time would have lead to a more well rounded piece which would have left the group more satisfied with what we accomplished in the allotted time given. again i would i would have also preferred to add what i discussed earlier such as health bars, texts on screen  enhanced, centered explosion but overall i think the project was in most part a success.

The History and Development of stop motion Animation

Part 1:
Pioneers and Technology

Zoetrope-   The zoetrope was originally invented by William George Horner in 1834-1835 and was originally called Daedlum ("wheel of the devil"). The zoetrope was based on Plateau's phenakistoscope, but was more convenient as it did not require a mirror to view the optical illusion and allowed more than one person to use it at the same time.  Horner's invention strangely became forgotten for nearly thirty years until 1867, when it became patented in England by M. Bradley, and in America by William F. Lincoln.  Lincoln renamed the Daedalum, deciding to cal it a "zoetrope," which is Greek for  "wheel of life." which at the time would have been a more politically correct term for an optical toy.How a zoetrope works in fairly simple, a Zoetrope is a drum which inside contains a sequence of hand drawn images on a line of paper, when spun the optical toy spins the line of paper around creating a sense that the images are moving or as it is otherwise known as an "optical illusion"



Thaumatrope-   The Thaumatrope which names translates as "turning Marvel" or "wonder turner" has originally been credited to the English Polymath,mathematician, astronomer, inventor,chemist and experimental photographer Sir John Frederick William Herschel. However, as for the Zoetrope, it wasn't until someone else, in this case physicist DR.John A.Paris who made the optical toy popular. Thaumatrope is, essentially a small disc of,usually paper held together on both sides by  two pieces of rope which when spun  create an optical illusion  

Praxinoscope- The Praxinoscope was invented in 1877 by Frenchman Charles Reynaud and was the first optical toy to overcome picture distortion caused by viewing moving slots which meant the image produced was more focused and crisper than original optical toys such as the Zoetrope, which it quickly replaced in popularity. The way a Praxinoscope worked  was far more complex than the Zoetrope, as it required mirrors to view the illusion rather than a viewing slot, How a Praxinoscope works is very similar  to a zoetrope in the sense that it a a drum containing inside images than when spun creates an optical illusion however with a praxinoscope each picture is reflected by an inner set of mirrors which creates a better, clearer  optical illusion than previous optical images, such as the zoetrope

Kineticscope-  The kinetoscope is a optical toy designed by Thomas Edison and William Dickson, in  the sense that Thomas Edison has the concept for the contraption whereas it was William Dickson, his employee,  who actually designed the device over the course of three years (1889-1892). the invention itself was designed to create an optical illusion of movement by showing a strip of film being conveyed over a light with a high speed shutter (a film essentially). it was observed by one person at a time through an observation hole at the top of the device and it became the foundation for what would later become cinematic projection.



Part 2: Developers

George Pal- (1908-1980) Hungarian Animator and film producer, was nominated for 7 academy awards over 7 consecutive years and received an academy honorary award in 1944. Examples of his work include:

The time machine
 
Sweet Pacific

Tulips shall grow



Willis O' Brien- (1886- 1962) An American motion picture special effects and stop motion animation pioneer,                             who won the 1950 Academy Award for best visual effects for his owrk on Mighty Joe Young                             (1949) Examples of his work include:  

Godzilla vs King Kong (1962)


The Dinosaur and The missing link, a prehistoric Tragedy (1917)


The Ghost Of Slumber Mountain (1919)


Ray Harryhausen- (1920-2013) An American visual effects creator, writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as Dynamation. Examples of his work include:

Jason And The Argonauts (1963)



Clash Of the Titans (1981)
8

The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958)
        

Phil Tippett (1951- ) Phil Tippett is an American movie director and a visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design and character animation. Examples of his work include:

Robocop (1987)


Battleship Troopers (1997)

Star Wars IV: A New Hope



Otmar Gutmann (1937-1993)

Otmar Gutmann was a German television producer animator and director who was probably best known for his work on Pingu examples of his
work include:

Pingu (1986-) 

Tim Burton (1958-)

Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, artist writer and animator who has so far been nominated for two oscars. he is known for such projects as directing and writing Edward Scissorhands (1999). Directing Batman Returns (1992) and writing and directing the corpse's Bride (2005) which earned him one of his oscar nominations, examples of his work include:

The Corpses Bride (2005)

Henry Selick (1952-)

Henry Selick is a director, actor and writer who has been nominated for one oscar. he is best known for directing writing the  animated fantasy film Coraline (2009) which earned him his oscar nod and for directing the Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Examples of his work include:

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)



Adam Shaheen (1964-)

Adam Shaheen is a British-Canadian animator, television producer and screenwriter. He is the founder and owner of Cuppa Coffee Studios where he develops and produces all original programming. Examples of his work include:

celebrity death match (2003)

A very Barry Christmas (2005)

The Quay brothers 

Steven quay and timothy quay were born in a small town just outside Philadelphia with a large  eastern European  population which sparked their interest in eastern European culture which of course can  be seen throughout there work which mostly consists of animated short films, example of their work include:

Street of Crocodiles (1986)




are we still married yet? (1993)
 

  
Nick Park

Nick Park (1958-) is an English  producer, writer and animator born in Preston, Lancashire, he is best known for his work on the animated films about a man and his dog otherwise known as Wallace and Gromit. examples of his work include:

Wallace and Gromit: the curse of the Were Rabbit (2005)
 

Chicken run (2000)


The wrong Trousers (1993)

Examples of stop motion animation in  music videos:



These are music videos aimed at individuals who would most fit into category E most likely because they are students who are still in education (university, college etc) and are most likely to only be employed part time. this puts them in the in the age category of 13-25 they are target in that audience for their quirky, unique style appealing to impressionable people who have not seen or known of music videos like this which is why is appeals to young people in terms of its unique appeal and its impact on impressionable minds. The white stripes to are a alternative band which coincides more with the individual target audience as individuals are often hard to classify which gives the impression they are outcasts of mainstream interests, so for an outcast to enjoy to a non-mainstream band seems likely

Examples of feature films to use stop motion animation 


these feature films most likely appeal to mainstreams/individual in the E category for class as they are too young to work, at the age of 5-12. the reasons these feature films appeal to young mainstreams is because of there mass appeal, slapstick humor and easy to follow narrative plot and  funny lovable, characters, making these feature films ideal for young children or familys

Examples of stop motion animation in advertisement 




These adverts are aimed at most likely suceeders or admirers people who are most likely rich and who want luxury item which naturally puts them in A/B class ,The reason these adverts appeal to that  category is that they look very professional  because people are aware of how time consuming and incredibly difficult it is to make  well flowing and interesting stop motion animation. it implies professionalism and that the product(s) are of high quality as people will make the connection between the advert and the product they are trying to sell, if the advert is professional and of high quality then it is most likely the product would be the same.

Examples of stop motion animation in TV shows 


 These TV shows are most likely aimed at Individuals and main-streamers for its funny content easy to understand plots and narrative and universal humor. its target audience would most likely be those categories because the main purpose for these films is to entertain and amuse and comedy is best received by the masses in its simplest form attracting a wider audience increase the shows popularity rendering the show a greater success this is why its target audiences are most likely young children or middle class families because the shows can be entertaining to both. without boring either group.

Examples of Ident in stop motion animation 




these Idents are aimed at Main streamers  because of their



sources: http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit11.htm
               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope
               http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit06.htm
               http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.htm
               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pal
               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O%27Brien
               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton
               http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000318/?ref_=nv_sr_2                                     http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366069/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
               http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0349642/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
               http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864138/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
               http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0783139/?ref_=nv_sr_2
               http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0703028/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm
               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNOfsJz4TjA

Lego Video

my optical toys

Zoetrope- my Zoe-trope was a sad face converting  into a happy face the project was overall successful and did work once out into the cylinder 

  praximiscope-
 This was more.difficult project as my idea was a bouncing ball, bouncing but unfortunately  i had two extra shots resulting in the complete loop being unsuccessful resulting in failure 

 thautrope-
Overall my worked the principle and function was good however due to the holes being punched to close to the end of the paper circle I could not put rope through in order to spin it but otherwise it worked 

-

Adam Shaeen

Zoetropes from James McConnell