Understand the requirements of working to a brief

In the media industry there are many times when people have to work towards a brief; a brief is a guideline direction commonly given to employees by the employer that details the nature of the work and what is and isn’t appropriate to make. A contractual brief is a brief that is handed to the employees for them to agree on and all the necessary legal details and other important information is presented; then the employee must sign the contract to say that they have agreed legally to all the terms.

The terms of a brief are not always set in stone and can sometimes be negotiated. This occurs when the employer and the employee have slightly different artistic ideas and the employee must persuade the employer to allow some liberties to be taken with the brief. The purpose of a formal brief is to give all the necessary information out to make the goals of the employer easy to read and understand; whereas an informal brief would be carried out in a group with several people present, these briefs tend to feature a less precise summation of the objectives. A commission is when a specific employee is asked to work for an employer by request and a contract is written. A tender brief is sent to different companies and intended to draw ideas out of prospective employees; they then propose their ideas and the one the employers like the best gets the job.

A competition brief is open to anyone and allows people to submit their ideas in hope of a prize in the form of exposure. This include briefs like the one given by E4 for their E-Stings competition; these briefs are quite open to the interpretation of the public but must pass certain guideline standards set by regulatory bodies.

The brief we were given didn’t bind us into any particular themes and gave us a lot of freedom to express our own original ideas; but there were certain restrictions such as a 10 second time limit that we had to be conscious of. The brief also gave some basic tips and this was obviously to encourage those at an amateur level; advising to put all your effort into one decent animation rather than 3 half-decent ones. Another restriction to be aware of that is implied in the brief is that you have to abide by the regulations imposed upon E4; obviously they couldn’t show anything that they would get in trouble for.

Consulting with my tutor was helpful for my animation as it allowed me to make appropriate changes to my work and develop it in the right direction. This was also helpful when my tutor encouraged me to re-shoot or film some additional material that helped to fine-tune my creation and make it more appealing visually. The tone of the brief did not feel strict; I felt that there were certain changes and loop-holes that could be reasonably negotiated as long as it could be reasonably justified. This shows that the competition is intended as a light-hearted affair. Due to the overall positive nature of my feedback I felt no need to amend my work after completing it as I decided I was ultimately happy with it.

Throughout this unit I have learnt a lot of valuable information about animation and the history of animation; this taught me lots of things I didn’t previously know and it introduced me to a lot of animation techniques I wasn’t previously aware of. As well as that I have learned a lot about clay-mation; including the incredible amount of hard work and effort that animators put into their work, this unit has made me appreciate animation in a way I didn’t before. I have learnt how frustrating it is to make an animation and how much planning has to go into it beforehand as well as how long it would take to make one as part of a solo project. I did learn some independent creative skill that allowed me to see the animation through to the end of the unit.

Evaluation

Evaluation

There are many ways of getting feedback on your work; some of the ways can be communicated online such as when my uploaded to YouTube that allowed other people to see my E-Sting and leave a comment so they can have their say. Another way you can collect feedback is by sharing links to Facebook to gather information that way; or sending out questionnaires via Email can be another very effective to quickly gather feedback from people.

My character’s appearance is similar to that of a sewer dwelling mutant; this image is reinforced by a matching sewer style set that gives my E-Sting a strange almost creepy feel. As my character is not a human he is not bound to the physical realities of human behaviour, this made it easy to be creative with what I could do with the character. His head rotates 360°and his forked tongue protrudes from his mouth; as well as his feet fully detach from his body and walk on their own.

When gathering the feedback from your work it is important to know what to improve on; if you receive feedback suggesting your animation is jumpy then you have to work on the technical and aesthetic qualities of your animation. If they find your storyline hard to follow then you need to improve the narrative qualities of your work.

Collecting responses for your work is absolutely vital if you want the feedback required to improve your work; thankfully there are quite a few different ways you can receive feedback from your audience. One way is through conducting a focus group; which is a method I used with my work, a focus group is where you gather feedback from a room of peers which can be very helpful to your work. Another method is as simple as submitting your work to a video website; I uploaded my video to YouTube and soon enough I had a wide selection of feedback from the various YouTube users.

Additionally there are also several different ways I can report my findings; I could make a written report or an oral presentation, writing a blog is also a way of reporting your findings. I am presenting my evaluation in the form of a blog.

There were several constraints on my work during the production stage; financial issues were a big obstacle as materials for my animation were limited, I often had to waste time making a colour that I needed for my piece. That said, regulatory issues such as those imposed by Ofcom were not a big constraint as I had not made anything that could be considered offensive. I was also aware of copyright issues that could be a constraint on my work but I avoided trouble by using some copyright-free material available on the college network.

Managing time was very important for this unit but I do feel that I managed to complete my animation in time for the deadline set; so my time management was good. I also felt that my animation was very suitable for the target demographic it was intended for; and my work has been praised for its surreal qualities.

My feedback was generally very positive; I was happy to see other people enjoying my animation and its unique appeal. My experience of animating has been interesting; I have always enjoyed animation but having worked on this unit I now know that I would not enjoy a career in stop-motion animation. I would still like to try some work on animation but not in the particular style we undertook for this unit

UNFINISHED

Estings Idea

I think my Estings idea would be suitable for the audience of E4; the character is surreal and unique which is a trait that viewers of E4 adore. I also think that as my idea is not overly complex it is an efficient and simplistic way to get the viewer's attention and act as a sturdy bridging point between broadcasts. I think my character is visually interesting; and this is important for any Esting as it will help to engage with the audience.

E4 Research

E4 is a television channel available in the uk, it mainly targets an audience of young adults and it features many shows intended for mature (18+) people post watershed. As a branch of Channel 4, E4 often broadcast shows that are popular and fresh, in keeping with their "cool" image.

 E4 also broadcasts a lot of American-made shows; from comedies to dramas to fantasies, E4 is one of the few Freeview channels that provides such a variety of US television; such as 90210, Beaver Falls, The Cleveland Show and many more.

E4 Estings Synopsis

My Estings idea would be set in a sewer with my clay character, it would take advantage of his creepy-crawly design as it would feature lots of movement. The character will down toward the E4 logo which will fall off like a grate allowing the character to crawl through. I will implement the use of sound effects to give my charcter an even more grimy feel.

Location / Set Plans

Froggy Style

The History and Development of Stop Motion Animation

Stop frame animation is a type of animation that involves photographing individual frames of an object to make said object appear to move when the frames are played sequentially. Animating with clay in this way is becoming popular and is known as clay-mation.

 Frame rates are the unit of measurement referring to the time it take to show a particular number of frames. Having a higher frame rate enhances the image and makes motion smoother; having a lower frame rate makes motion more jumpy.

In 1832 Joseph Plateau invented the Phenakitoscope, the first contraption to show the illusion of motionThe phenakitoscope uses a spinning disc attached to a handle. Positioned around the center of the disc were a series of drawings showing phases of the animation, and cut through it were a series of equally spaced radial slits.

In 1834 William George Horner produced the Zoetrope, It was a cylindrical spinning device with several frames of animation printed along the interior circumference. There are vertical slits around the sides through which an observer can view the moving images on the opposite side when the cylinder spins. As it spins the material between the viewing slits moves in the opposite direction of the images on the other side and in doing so serves as a rudimentary shutter. The zoetrope had several advantages over the Phenakitoscope. It didn’t require the use of a mirror to view the illusion, and because of its cylindrical shape it could be viewed by several people at once.

The Praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The Praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the zoetrope offered.

Eadweard Muybridge was an influential man in the field of motion and motion-picture projection.Muybridge produce over 100,000 images of animal and human motion, and made very important observations that revolutionised motion-picture at that time.

In 1891 Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope, the Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video, by creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter.

The Lumiere brothers were two men who made a big impact on the face of early cinema and are credited to have made the first film; a film which featured workers leaving a factory.

George pal was an American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe. As an animator, he made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, which led to him being awarded an honorary Oscar in 1944 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons". Pal then switched to live action film making with The Great Rupert (1950).

Willis O’Brien was an Irish American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer perhaps best known for his work King Kong (1933)

Ray Harryhausen is an American visual effects creator, writer and producer known for his work on films such as Jason and the Argonauts. (1963)

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker who is known for his work on surreal animations. Svankmajer's trademarks include exaggerated sounds, creating an odd effect in some scenes. He used “fast-motion” sequences when people walk or interact. His films often involve inanimate objects being animated by stop-motion. Many of his films also include clay-mation.

The Quay brothers are two influential stop motion animators, their works mostly involved using puppets set to a dark backdrop. Their works were mainly visual and rarely relied on dialogue but were instead lifted by a musical score.

Tim Burton is an American film director renowned for his quirky, often surreal works. Films he has been involved with include Beetlejuice (1988) and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). In films like Sleepy Hollow (1999) Burton used an effective blend of animation to achieve the scenes he wanted. He also recently used animation in Frankenweenie (2012) , as well as many other films that brought him success.

Aardman Animations is the animation studio behind Wallace and Gromit; they have made a lot of influential work in the field of clay-mation and produced many lovable clay characters. In recent years as new technology has been utilised Aardman even made a fully computer animatied movie called Flushed Away (2006)

There have been a great deal of animated films worldwide and animation is certainly a popular genre. Although animation comes in many forms it has always been an effective medium for communicating ideas through film and making the impossible, possible. Popular animated films include Toy Story (1995) and Fantasia 2000 (1999), animated films also tend to provide a good form of entertainment for children as the larger-than-life characters keep them amused.

Animated Television shows are also generally a genre grounded into the category of children’s entertainment, and there are many animated T.V shows intended for children however there are some shows that take on more mature themes, an example of this would be South Park (1997-Present) or Family Guy (1999-Present)

Channel Idents also often feature animation as it grabs the attention of the viewer and keeps them interested in what they’re watching; also live-action may seem long winded or hard to digest, therefore animation is the best way to approach an ident. E4 often features animated Idents and they even hold competitions to animate new ones.

Animated advertising is popular for both film and television especially for products aimed at children; but there are also plenty of adverts in general that feature animation, displaying details of their products. Also public information films often used animation to warn children of fire safety etc.

Animation in music videos is also quite popular; it was made fashionable by artist like Michael Jackson and Dire Straits who revolutionised animation in their videos. This use of animation continues to be popular to this day with many artists using animation in their videos; in fact it’s hard to imagine a time before music videos.

Animation is often used on websites for all sorts of reasons; some websites allow users to submit their own animations and work on their own ideas and this is just one way animation touches websites. Another way animation is used on the web is in advertising, most if not all adverts displayed on the internet will be an animation of some sort and the average person will see hundreds of these a day.

Name: Evil-Toad-Gimp-Man-Frog
Preferred Name: Bill
Occupation: Evil-Toad-Gimp-Man-Frog is unemployed based on the fact that he's an Evil-Toad-Gimp-Man-Frog, he lives on the dole and his girlfriend doesn't love him anymore.
Hobbies: Excessive drinking and subjecting himself to nuclear testing in order to pay for his ever growing bar tab.
Likes: Bathing in vinegar, this gives him his pickled skin quality.
Dislikes: Jedward
Special Power: No one will go near him

Thaumatropes

Persistence of vision is the theory that the eye registers an after-image of any moving object for approximately 0.04 seconds; this would mean that everything we see is a mix of what we are seeing and what we have just seen. This optical illusion was used to good effect with the invention of the Thaumatrope; this was a toy that had an image on the front and an image on the back that, when spinning gives the illusion of one more complex image.