Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief

INTRODUCTION

Started on the 18th of january 2001, E4 (stands for Entertainment 4) is an entertainment channel owned by Channel 4. Some os their biggest imports are The Big Bang Theory, Freinds, and How I met your Mother. As well as there imported shows they have been the provider of many cult classic shows like the Inbertweeners and the I.T Crowd. Other channels owned by the Channel 4 Corperation are Channel 4 : Opened in 1982 it was funded by the government to expand the potential of television. now adays it broadcasts (depending on the time of day) shows for all audiences from childrens programming in the morning to new shows and hard hitting documentary in the evenings). The same goes for Film 4 only playing movies all day long the channel has something for everybody depepnding on what time of day you are watching. More 4 and 4 Music are quite different they only tend to appeal to very specific demographics. More 4 is gerally aimed at older people 30 + they show things like grand designs (nuff said). 4 Music cater specifically to fans of pop music ( and not much else).
Channel 4. There primary audeince is young people between the ages of 15 - 25 however they also cater to older people as well (secondary audience).  The sort of television they show is often american imported sitcoms like the

THE ESTING
The Esting is a channel ident for E4 It's used to remind people that they are watching E4 and to reinforce a positive perception of the channel for its outlandish creativity. Fpr the last few years these Idents have been subject to a competition. The best once that display the pyshcographic of E4 are actually used as the channels Identsfor the year. Thhe year after they are replaced by the next years competition winners. This fits in with the creative youth element of the E4's pychograghics.

Esample one



This Curl up and get down Ident is a prime example of the esting. It's quirky humerous and has soe level of imagineation. This one is particually on of my favouirtes because of its nostalic retro look that reminds me of 80's cartoons like the Real Ghostbusters among other things. The fact this short is a cartoon but also as a few stuble adult themes (The man sprays his hair to "curl up" then "gets down" with those women) means that it appeals to many different audiences. This both appeals to retro culture fans and people who enjoys cartoons.



Example  two


The mouse house is a different soty entirely. I actually find all the taxiderment animals still moving around rather creepy. Although this is certainly creative it struggles to gain a younger audience in my opinion because of the dead animals walking around in it. That said it is an interesting use of stop motion as with enough practice I think somebody could make a taxidermed animal almost look alive on screen.

Example three

Example three is the most weird and at the same time youth specific of the videos. Its a surealist tragedy about a loveable character with a mug of tea for a head. Sadly whenever he tries to bite his biscuit all of his tea spews out his mouth. This one of the three is most suitable for children as there is no sexuality or taxidermed mice. It's primary audience however are tea and coffee drinkers as everybody can relate to dunking a buiscuit for so long that it looses its form and falls off itself. All in all Its creative if be it really sad for the character but to it its comic timing makes a memorable Ident.



RESEARCHING TECHNIQUES

For this unit we have had to prepare by studying the history of animation and the first techniques used.

Thaumatrope
One of my weaker experiments the thaumatrope worked OK, however my poor artistic skills meant the drawings looked shabby and unprofessional.


Zoetrope
The Heart rate monitor style pulse on my zoetrope experiment is the best of the first three tests I did. The movement is fluid and image actually looks convincing.


Praxinoscope 
The weakest of my practices. Sadly as previously mentioned my drawing ability is not up to much and the proportions of the camera shift from image to image.


Stop motion claymation
I'm really proud of my stop motion short "Law Shark" I came up with a simple satirical character who could be animated to look great. The fact he doesn't have legs was a design ideal from the get go so I didn't need to worry about the model falling over whilst I was filming.


Pixilation
Pixilation is stop motion animation but with people being used as armatures I feel that my short went rather well but the beginning had a pretty shaky start by the end of shooting however we had solved our teething problems and really liked the finished product. Pixilation can allow you to do things you wouldn't normally be able to do in everyday life it's why it is probably my favorite medium of stop motion alongside dynamation. Our pixilation video was sadly deleted before we had the chance to include it on our blog post.