Research and Planning: Pre-Production for E-Sting

Animation pre-production

Here is my story board

The Production schedule

Budgeting sheet

Location Recce

Location Release

Animation test

Before making the E-sting I made a test run on the table in my class room to see if it would work the results where a rough cut but they were successful.



Making the cassette

To design the cassette used in my E-sting I scanned the cassette into the computer and photo-shopped over the top of the original label, then I cut away the cassette and printed it off as a label to cover the existing one.

Stop Motion Prototype test 2: ESting Demo Test

The Setup

During the Preproduction of our ESting I found myself at a loss of what to do between pre-production and the actual shooting of my short so I proposed a test run, where I shoot a crude version of the effect I wish to create just to make sure the effect is going to work on camera when it comes to making the short.

Design

The design for this short is in-consiquential because it is soley for the purpose of testing the effect. I used the cassette I had already planned to use for the esting, just without the prepared sticker labels. I also just used a bare table as all I wanted was the contrast of the logo.

Finished product


Overall I thought the animation looked really good for the 20 minuetes it took playing around with the camera. Although it was very rough around the edges it perfectly suited the look I was going for and made me feel confident about my actual shoot.

Research and Planning: Responding to the Brief

List three ways in which the ESting meets the requirements of the brief?

1. The soundtrack of the short is a mixture of two of the supplied E4 Esting tracks that you required to use to score your short.
2. I have shown symbolism of the E4 brand multiple times over the course of the Esting as per brief specifications.
3. I have researched and adapted the Mise-en-scene of the Esting to better suit the target audience of the short. I used things like the cassette, film reel, and vinyl record, to better suit the demographic of trendy young people, whose psycho-graphic has a peculiar love for analog media.

Have you needed to make any alterations to you're idea to fulfill the demands of the brief?

No I didn't need to make any alterations in name of the brief.

Have you had to consider any legal or health and saftey issues whilst in production?

During filming we did have a concern of health and safety however, it was shortly remedied as it was our only way to make the video and me and the cinematographer agreed it an acceptable risk. The risk was that the height of the shot required him to be perched on top of a pile of tables and chairs, staying dead still for the entire shoot for fear of shaking the camera.

How many people are in your team and what is your role?

Although I initially assumed I would be able to make the short on my own I needed to ask my friend to operate the camera for me after I had set up the shot and whilst I was animating the cassette.

When is the Pre-production, Production, and Post-production deadlines?

The pre-production deadline was the 15th of November, I had finished and shot the short by the 22nd however production could have gone on until the 29th. I have until the 6th to finish my post production however I am almost done and could be by the 29th.

The Requirements of Working to a Brief

Briefs

What is a "Brief"?

A brief is a document which tells a client what to do in the process of carrying out a job, task, or assignment. If you have been given a brief it means that in all likelihood you have been commissioned. These documents can be written or verbal and can vary in size depending on the complexity of the assignment.

What is a commission / what does it mean to be commissioned?

A commission is essentially a job sent out by the commissioner.  To be commissioned means that you have been employed or assigned by a company to do a task. You will be given your brief so the commissioner can get the best out of your skills. In the media industry this means generally making a product. 

What is meant by the term "Tender" 

A tender is a predicted cost in the brief which gives a budget for the overall product. This may or may not include payment for the respondent. 

How else could you respond to a brief?

You can respond to briefs in a number of ways, as well as paid jobs there are things like competitions. E4 holds a yearly competition asking people to make 10 second idents ( E-Stings ) for the channel that are constricted to a specific brief.

The ABC's of death is a compilation movie.  It's pretty much a gory horror version of Paris, je t'aime (2006).  Both the recently announced sequel as well as the original had a competition where the clients must make a short horror film that specifically relates to a given letter. It can be made in any format. It's important to understand the brief as you are only allowed to make a horror short themed around the one specific letter. Although this guy didn't win the prize of a place in the movie, he was offered the chance to make a short for the sequel. Competition prizes are generally a means to give the winner a better foothold in the industry this is generally money or a greater way to promote your work like at a festival, before a feature film or on television.



Our brief is to produce a 10 second ident for the E4 ESting competition. Here is what our brief looks like. The competition asks for a 10 second short film that displays the E4 brand.

This brief is designed to match the E4 ESting competition that happens yearly to promote E4 as a channel, Here is the last competitions criteria for entrants.

Reading a brief

Understanding or "reading" the brief is very important. It is a formal way of being asked to do something and if you fail to do that, then you will find yourself out of the job. It's an understanding of what you are and are not allowed to include and do in your product

In my E-Sting project ( In which I was a respondent / entrant) had a very specific brief.

• It can't be longer than 10 seconds.
• All of the footage made needed to be original material.
• The soundtrack had to be made from audio stock from the E4 website (although it was allowed additional sound effects that didn't constitute as music).
• It needed to end on showing the E4 logo some how.
• It needed to have been made with a specific animation technique.
• It couldn't have any explicit material ( Special exception might be considered if the short could be shown after the watershed)
• A deadline for the 6th of December.

Now, other than these specific rules we are essentially allowed to do whatever we want with our product. Just look at some of our finished examples, there is a eclectic collection of shorts all conforming under the same brief. 





Negotiating a brief

Room for negotiation

Room for negotiation is dependent on the specific brief.  If you assume there is no room for negotiation then it is likely you won't make anything the commissioner doesn't want.  However if there is absolutely no alternative it is good form to attempt to communicate with the employer in advance.

Bernard Herrmann is an amazing music composer in cinema. He is best known for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock ( Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo) however, he also wrote the scores for Citizen Kane and Taxi Driver. This relationship between Harrmann and Hitchcock came to an end in the production of the film Torn Curtain 1966 . Hitchcock was under studio pressure to make a film with a Jazz - Pop influence. Herrmann went back to his roots of classic orchestral score according to his own ideas. After listening only to the prelude Hitchcock fired Herrmann and the pair never worked together again.

During the post production of my ESting my teacher and I had to negotiate whether the end of my ESting featured a superimposed E4 logo. Despite disagreeing with me we released two versions. Fortunately the version I routed for was better accepted.

Your degree of digression

Your degree of digression is important but also a personal suggestion to what you need to make. Personally I tried to keep to the most simple understandings of the brief as possible.   However, in my ESting I did bend the rules slightly, instead of using one sound bed for the video like as expected I merged two fading one over the other creating a different overall effect. This might have gotten my work rejected If I had sent it in to the competition. One of the biggest concerns of mine was sticking to the deadline of the 6th of December which was a concern because projects may become delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. An example for me was that I had two university interviews which I needed to prepare for over the course of production as well. It took a lot of work to remain organised over the course of those days.


What constraints; legal, ethical, regulatory might you need to consider?

Whilst making my EStings I used a selection of props which contained images and copyrighted names to protect myself from infringement, I properly covered or deleted them. Other than that I am safe as those constraints go.
Ofcoms broadcasting codes might cause problems if you intend to show something explicit but most EStings that win the competition are more likely to be quirky rather than unsavory.

Another big constraint is money, at our sixth form we are given a 5 pound budget.  This really never goes very far, so when I source the props I need, it is from the local charity shops.

Did you have to amend the final product?

I did need to amend my final product at the wish of my Commissioner. We shared a disagreement about how the short should end so we released two different idents for audience testing. One original, and one the commissioner preferred. The original performed better towards the demographic.

In media sometimes amending the final product is completely necessary.  The 2013 movie Gangster Squad needed to have the final product amended because the film happened to coincide with the Colorado cinema massacre.  The issue was that the film contained a scene with a gunfight in a cinema and needed to be reshot and moved to china town.  This was a huge blow for production as they had to spend money they hadn't budgeted for before. It also delayed the theatrical run of the film by nearly 6 months.



For what reasons might the be amendments to budget or your fees?

Amending budgets can often happen in the media industry due to unseen complications.  Causing shooting to be postponed or other issues that increase the budget. This is why it's important to take through steps to plan your production to avoid these pitfalls. In the making of Hobo with a shotgun the Director ( Jason Esiner) and two of the crews producers sacrificed their fee for the movie in order to stay on budget rather than risking the movie. This is an example of crew pay being reimbursed back into a budget.


More Blood, More Heart: The Making of Hobo WIth a Shotgun from jasoneisener on Vimeo.

Opportunities ?

Why might someone respond to the brief?

The main reason people respond to a brief however is the incentive of payment. Somebody might respond to the brief because they make a career out of working freelance or they want to get suitable experience in the industry. Going back to Hobo with a shotgun Jason Eisener got the chance to make this movie after winning the grind-house trailer competition.

Opportunities that you had for self development

I learnt better organisation techniques and a better understanding of how working to a brief works ( in this unit and blog post). My self development was actually quite important in this, as this was only my second self made project. I was taught the value of preparation and organisation through attempting to appease both my brief as well as the wishes of my teachers. There was one long debate between myself and my teacher where I was convinced the effect of the tape should be shown through the video, and eventually I won through the argument in our evaluative stage. This was a great expansion of self confidence in my working ability.


New skills did you learn?

The most important skills I learnt over this were working to a brief, and to be able to create my own stop motion animation. The process is extremely time consuming but there is a feeling of self gratification that it gives when it was completed. I learnt how to make all the earliest forms of animation going as far back as things like praxinoscopes and thuamatropes. I was shown how to animate objects to a greater level of sophistication.  I also got to have more experience working successfully to a brief.

Did you have to multi-skill during the project?

I had to multi-skill during the project, I had to function as researcher, planner, animator, director and editor. I needed to hire a camera operator however to help co-ordination on set.  However this meant it helped me work as a better team player.


What contributions did you need to make to the project brief?

I needed to contribute my own funding.  Although my film production class provides a 5 pound budget it can only be reimbursed if the student has a receipt.  The shop I bought the audio cassette from was a charity shop that didn't provide them. I needed to contribute a significant amount of my spare time undertaking a test run at college.  Then shooting the short over a day at college, it took much longer due to the complexity and higher frame rate (more photos taken) than expected.

I feel I brought something unique to this project in the fact that I animated everyday objects in an abstract way, unlike the rest of my class using characters and people.   I looked to use personality-less scraps to create an artistic symbol for my ESting.  I also made an animation much smoother than any other in the class, with a high attention to mise-en-scene and lighting. The mise-en-scene was also highly controlled adding more detail than was expected of my project.

References
http://danwtab.blogspot.co.uk/
http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/
http://www.bernardherrmann.org/legacy/site/articles/misc/torncurtain/hitch_herrmann_1.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Herrmann#Collaboration_with_Alfred_Hitchcock
http://vimeo.com/81734767
http://vimeo.com/29899714
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzrcFNTsRkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq4o2chacS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA19pVeNWZY
http://cf.badassdigest.com/_uploads/images/19290/the-abcs-of-death_510__span.jpg

Animation Evaluation Parts 2 and 3

Part 2

Exhibition methods

I showed this to people to gain responses through a variety of means. For a start I distributed the idents across YouTube and social networking sites. I also burnt my shorts to a DVD to exhibit on the family television and for a selection of university interviews.


Other means I could have chosen are; Theater projection and television broadcast, I could have asked for the shorts to be shown on the colleges television screens, all of these would have been great means to circulate the ident. I do feel however that the Esting isn't made for the big screen which is why I wouldn't want my shorts to be shown in theaters, The ESting strikes me as something that's meant for television. The wall monitors at college would be pretty good as well but those would be better suited to showing information about the school, unless they were reconfigured to show television.

I would have liked to talk through my short in more detail when it came to screening it in class as they would have functioned as a focus group of the estings key demo and pychographics. They did make quite a few insightful comments and one member of the group enjoyed the aesthetic level of my short mostly due to them noticing the 16 / 9 aspect ratio which was different to how all the other EStings where shown.

Obtained feedback from the questionnaire

To obtain feedback about the quality of my short I designed a questionnaire that can be applied to the following subject areas that mattered. Genre and Audience ( I made sure it fitted the demographic although I don't feel it has a genre). Content and narrative ( Again there isn't really a narrative just to a means to an end of delivering the e4 logo). Aesthetic and Creative quality were very important. Technique and and technical qualities again was important to me. In my opinion style was fed back to me in the audience and aesthetic qualities questions.
 When I distributed questionnaire I let it loose on social networking sites. The first thing I noticed was that all the people who responded were the right age for E4's primary demographic.

The majority of these people watch E4 regularly, this means that people reading this and watching my short will understand what an E-Sting is and the level of quality expected from the E-Sting.

Which version is better?
Me and my media teacher had a disagreement about how the video should end and if it should end with a superimposed E4 logo. To establish whether or not we were going to use it I exported two versions one with and one without.

Here are the statistics voted by people viewing the videos and the comments. It definitely shows that version 1 is superior.

A huge majority of people also commented on how the short looked better without the superimposition logo and recognized the logo made from tape.






Is it creative? 

I think it is and generally my feedback was similar.

The bottom quote calling this idea "Very Unique" Creativity and Uniqueness go hand in hand.

When it came to technical quality and frame rate I asked if it would be a high enough quality for television. The comment saying this looked really smooth and professional is just one example of how people thought the movement on screen looked. During production I used twice the frame rate everyone else did in animating their shorts.

However one technical issue was picked up upon, people noticed that half way through I moved the tape with my fingers  to accommodate it back into the cassette. This could only be corrected if I went back and re shot the entire I-dent as it would be nearly impossible to recreate the position the cassette tape was sat in.                                                                                          



When people asked if I could make the Vinyl more visible I took that as a sign of the demographic ( My friends at college) latching on to the concept and actually wanting more. That leads me to believe that they find the images aesthetically appealing.

Oh yes and here's another example of somebody who didn't like version two.

Part 3

Did you have any Constraints?

One of my only constraints was that of needing somebody to operate the camera for me during production. This assistant however did a wonderful job of shooting the short for me while I stayed out of shot to the left of the screen to animate the short. Another constraint was that I couldn't show any sort of branding in the short, this led to me cutting brand logos out of shot and covering a vinyl recod with a 8 mm Cine Reel.

I was given constraints by E4 those were the rules of my brief.  I have looked over Ofcoms broadcasting codes and I can't find any reasons why I wouldn't be allowed to show this short.  The budget of the short was quite a constraint, however I did manage. The cassette I used in the video probably took the most work as I needed to find a charity shop to find a cassette that I could tear apart. The rest of the set dressing was provided by me.



How did I manage my time?

My time management was both organised and precise.The pre-production deadline was the 15th of November, I had finished and shot the short by the 22nd however production could have gone on until the 29th. I have until the 6th to finish my post production however I am almost done and could be by the 29th. This was a great, achievable time frame.  I was able to finish both production and post production a week before everybody else and still deliver a professional level E-sting. Pre-production ran from the 14th until the 22nd of November this I worked to on time with everyone else in my class. On the 25th we began production, I had finished production by the 29th although we had until the 6th. I had finished editing by the 6th however I still had until the 13th of December before I needed to finish.  This worked out for the best in the end as I was required to take absence from college to go for university interviews two Wednesdays on the trot. These interviews did put a great deal of stress on me but the success and organisation of the animation shoot provided me with a foothold of confidence I desperately needed over those tense weeks.

Did you meet the requirements?

I feel I met all of the requirements, I made a short that on the whole the demographic for E4 enjoyed whilst at the same time making something to a high quality and got to give it my individual quirk.
Here is the brief again so we can look at what I succeeded in.

It can't be longer than 10 seconds,

All of the footage made needed to be original material

 The soundtrack had to be made from audio stock from the E4 website (although it was allowed additional sound effects that didn't constitute as music)

It needed to end on showing the E4 logo some how.

It needed to have been made with a specific animation technique.

It couldn't have an explicit material ( Special exception might be considered if the short could be shown after the watershed).

Due to encoding and you tube times the short ends slightly over 10 seconds however this is only due to youtubes catch showing it as 11 seconds, this does break the brief but in the editing software you would be forgiven for making the same mistake.

I met the requirements of using only E4 provided soundtracks however I merged more than one to make the final product. Strictly this is breaking the rules but my interpretation at the time was that it only required one, and you were free to source multiple parts of the other tracks.

It mentions it would rather have a E4 logo incorporated into the short rather than slapped on the end. This was an element of discussion between me and a teacher but we eventually agreed that there was enough E4 branding in shot to keep to the brief.

It is in no way explicit ( unless black vinyls your thing ). All the footage is original, It contained 4 different items of E4 iconography including a purple background. The iconography of the Cassette, Vinyl Record, Cine Reel, and young persons pocket goods fit the deno and pychographics of what E4 is aimed at.

During the planning for this I looked into the brand of E4 and what appears to be the channels pychographics. 

What do you feel you have learnt?

I have gained better patience and a deeper enjoyment of working in animation. I found the practice of animation therapeutic something I could get lost in for minutes at a time the tediousness of working on it is fantastic. I've also gained a better understanding of pre production with a higher level of paperwork. However something I do need to improve is the synergy between my production work and my coursework, The thrill of the opportunity to make something often makes me misplace the attention to get on with my written work where most of my grade actually sits.

Are you thinking of working in the media industry?

Yes, The last two years have been saturated in fantastic experience. I have tried to work in as many roles and volunteer jobs in the industry as possible and every time I finish a project I have even less time before I become hungry for more work. My organisation is quite a problem but I intend to fix that with experience and practice. Whilst doing my pre-production paper work I left allot of the work to the last lesson before the deadline although there's nothing technically wrong with that in the industry it's poor practice to put all of you eggs in the basket of working on the last day to get something done in case a job comes up you really wanna do. In hindsight feel that my organisation isn't up to scratch, I'm to quick to rush a job and get it sort of done. 

Would I consider taking animation further?

A career in the media industry is what I truly desire. Although I really enjoy animation I don't mind having a broader range of interest and work than just animation. I can't really go any further than stating the fact that researching the animation filmmakers has now become a habit rather than a task. I'm even considering entering the Empire D.I.S.S (Done in 60 seconds) competition in the next few years with a Harry-Hausen tribute remake of Re-animator ( Re-Dynamator).

Refferences
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

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.

Researching and Planning: Designing an E-Sting

Questions

What format do you propose to use to create the ESting? ( e.g., Stop-Frame techniques - with people / models / objects etc, claymation, time lapse photography, combined formats).

Answer - My Esting will contain a combineation of stop frame animation and a use of models. More specifically the model will be a cassette tape I unwind over a table.

What will happen in your proposed E-Sting? ( A brief narrative summary )

Answer - My proposed E-sting is of and Cassette which spews out all of its tape into the E4 logo, This will be filmed backwards so that

In regards to diegesis, where will your animation be set? (This relates to the setting and not shooting location)

Answer - The location is only as specific as a desk, I liked the idea of putting some cool mise-en-scene stuff on their as I liked the thought of it being an unconventional trendy place but other than that, It could be a bedroom, or it could be an office, Who knows?

What are the limitations (both predicted and potential) do you expect to face during the production of your ESting? ( Competence, Finance, Locations, Resources and Practicality )

Answer - My potential limitations are our measely budgets on five pounds ( None of which I can reclaim because the shop I purchase my production supplies from a charity shop which doesn't produce reciepts)

Who is the target audience for your ESting

Answer - People who watch E4 , People who appreciate stop frame animation , people aged 15 - 30

Tasks


Soundtrack

I have taken the soundtrack from

Pre-Production

Story board

Risk assessment

Production schedule

Prop list

Here is a short demo I made showing what the effect should look like roughly

Animation Evaluation Part 1

The Videos

The First version ends on the tape made E4 logo this shows the artistic intent of the ident.



The Second video has an alternate ending where the E4 logo shows up to re-a-firm the brand and make sure the target audience knows what channel they are watching.




The Feedback

Genre and Audience

My feedback comes from people aged between 14 and 20 which is E4's specific target market. 87.50% of the people questioned said that they watched E4 regularly.

Content and Narrative

My film functions as a stop motion experiment rather than a short story.

Style

The short is experimental.

Characters, quality of production and development

I initially made a short demo expressing the technique which was popular. When it came to the actual production me and a teacher had a difference of opinion and two different versions were cut with alternate endings and music.

Technical quality, Frame rate, Movement

People stated that the animation was really smooth. This was because I took twice the recormended photos and made my shot work on 24 photos a second. Its a common stable of stop motion to shoot at 12 frames a second however, I felt like I wanted to stand apart from the crowd. Just kidding, I took way too many photos but couldn't cut it down without spoiling the effect. 

Aesthetic Qualities ( Mise-en-scene Ect )
People seemed to really like the look of my short; feedback was a really strong one for the alternative analog set dressing.

Creative Qualities ( Imagination and Flair )

I think the creative style is a little abstract and obscure. People in my questionnnaire seemed really impressed

Stop Motion Prototype test 1: Claymation

The Setup

Our task for this unit is to make a short stop motion film. We have been given two options work in claymation or pixalation. This is a short test we had to make to decide what method we wanted to use.

Character specifics
Name: Arborgast Jones
Occupation: Lawyer
Species: Shark
Age: 34
Biography: The things that matter most to Arborgast are suits, barenaked dolphins and the law (In that order).

Design

I wanted a simple design that would both look interesting and still have multiple points of motion once it came down to animating.

Finished product



Overall I thought the animation went really well for half an hour fooling with a camera.
The eye movements are what I feel brought out most of the chracter shown. I haven't decided yet wether or not claymation will be the basis of my short but I'm looking forward to making my next clip in pixalation.

History of Animation: Volume 1

Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision was a theory in the early 19th century that an image would be held in the retina for a 25th of a second before being over written by the next one. Image movement can actually be perceived down to about 10fps, which nullifies the theory but It is still a good thing to have knowledge of to help understand the technology of the time.

Edward Muybridge tested this theory on a racetrack where he took multiple pictures of horses to prove his theory that for a split second a horse wasn't actually on the ground.




Thaumatrope - Peter Mark Roget or John Ayrton Paris

The Thaumatrope was one of the first devices to highlight the persistence of vision as a potentially viable theory (later disproved) it works by showing two images in such rapid succession that they appear to become one. 

It is unclear who invented the Thaumatrope, however it is normally credited to Peter Roget or John Paris.


 
Phenakistoscope - Joseph Plateau

The Phenakistoscope was a device which showed a wheel of images, as well as numerous slits in the circle when you spin the circle the image appears to move.

He designed it 1839 and made it in 1841. Looking at the disk through a mirror you can see the pictures appear to move.  It didn't catch on in the Untied states and England until the 1860's as it had been re branded as the "Zoetrope". 

Zoetrope - William Horner

William Horner born 1786 invented the modern device known as the Zoetrope (At the time called a Daedaleum) in 1834.

The Zoetrope combined multiple moving images like the Phenakistoscope, however there where so many pictures combined that you would be able to see a moving image instead of just a static one.  The moving cylinders of the inner surface and cut slits mean that the image will not blur between pictures.  In the photo to the right you can see what a traditional zoetrope looks like.




In the video you are shown an evolution of a Zoetrope that works on the same mechanism. Here is a 3D Zoetrope used to show the animation in practice.






Praxinoscope - Emile Reynaud

The Praxinoscope is the successor to the Zoetrope it was inventing in 1877, it replaced the narrow slits on the Zoetrope with a inner circle of mirrors that made the picture brighter and smoother to watch.

Later editions of this could be projected  (The two devices at the bottom of the page could both project an unchanging back ground as well as moving characters).

As well as this allowed the advanced mechanism to allow 15 minute films to be played which compromised of around 500 pictures.

His technique was the first use of film spools and sprocket holes.  These things that are still used in analogue projection today.

Kinetoscope - Thomas Edison

The some of the most important devices in this selection are the kinograph and the kinetoscope. These machines were pioneered by American inventor Thomas Edison and W.K Dickinson. These were the first two devices in filmmaking, the kinograph and the kinetoscope revealed in 1891.  The kinetoscope was a one person peephole viewer all contained in a wooden cabinet. Here you can see one of the kinograph pictures shot, a 30 second short called Monkeyshines. There is dispute as to whether this film was made in 1890 or 1889, either way this was what was used to test the kinetoscope.




These machines were a huge success, being exported over to europe in less than five years ( the world was a lot bigger then).  They were situated in kinetocope parlors were many of the machines were lined up as to show a selection of the works together. The films ran on 16 frames a second which is the slowest speed film can be shown before it appears to flicker rather than move.These machines eventually faded out of production in favor of projectors, popularly pioneered by the...

The Lumiere Brothers

The Lumiere Brothers were there first people to make projection a viable option for filmmaking. With a background in photography, Louis and Auguste Lumiere began patenting the rights to certain methods in cinema in 1882.  They bought the film perforations used by Emile Reynaud and the rights to an early motionpicture camera invented by Leon Bouly.  By 1895 they had invented and patented their own invented motion picture camera.

The Cinematograph was a camera, development tool and projector all rolled into one. They used this to commercially shoot dozens of films and toured the world. They are considered some of the earliest filmmakers in the history of cinema.

Here is there first film - workers leaving the factory.

Louis Le Prince - The Father of Cinematography

Born 28th of august 1841; Louis Le Prince was the first, but often forgotten winner of the race to create filmaking.  In 1886 he patented the designs for his first motion picture camera the LPCC Type-16: A 16 fps Cinecamera.  This was 3 years before the first creation of Thomas Edison's Monkeyshines. Here you can see a scene from one of his remaining films. This is dated to 1888 and is recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records as the oldest film ever made. 



Le Princes life ended in mystery.  On a train to Paris in 1890 he disappeared, along with all of his possessions. Although there are theories about what had happened to him (one being a patent assassination by Thomas Edison ) he was declared dead 7 years later.

Reference List 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Le_Prince#Late_recognition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR2r__ZgO5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83rDCbxi8NU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-jtp5YXhuAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz3xpLvF3Js
scopplestone117934stopmotionanimation.blogspot.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOLE2OzoIYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFgxJnvF2Jg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR2r__ZgO5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4
historyofanimation1.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope

History of Animation: Volume 2

George Melies 

George Melies born 1861 was a pionneer in filmmaking. The reason he is added to this list as with people like the Lumiere's, Mitchel and Kenyon is that he accidentally discovered stop motion animation due to a camera fault that made him appear to magically jump from place to place on screen. You can see this trick in practice in Voyage to the Moon the film embedded below. Sadly after the first world war he lost most of his resources due to the army confiscating them.  He then later in a fit of rage burnt most of his master prints destroying the majority of his work. Despite this tragedy, around 200 of the 500 films he made have been recovered. His primary audience now are people with an appreciation for early cinema as there is nobody left who would have seen it at its time of release.



You can see in this short that Melies as well as pioneering stop trick animation. He also experimented in multiple film exposures.




George Pal

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1908 George Pal made models with interchangeable parts in a form of stop motion animation he called Pal-Doll . He fled Germany before the Nazis came to power and set up his animated series "Puppetoons" in America which won him an honorary Oscar in 1943. The replacement clean parts kept a fluid reliable look, however lacked a feel of human error. He went on to work on a series of live action movies including the adaptations of HG Wells  "The War of the Worlds" and "The Time Machine".

His Puppetoon series contained the works of both Willis O'brien and Ray Harryhausen. In this short  "Tulips Shall Grow" you can see heavy symbolism and out right denotation at the Second World War.  His technique was a puppet stop motion using individual part replacement the provide a fluid reliable look.



Willis O'Brien

Born march 1886 Willis O'Brien left home age 11 to begin working on cattle ranches. He spent his spare time sculpting and illustrating with some natural talent. Thomas Edison was impressed by his his first film "A Prehistoric Tragedy" and he was commissioned to make a series of prehistoric short films. This led him to be employed on the adaptation of Arthur Cohen Doyle book "The Lost World".   He was the first to incorporated life action footage and stop motion animation in unison. His greatest achievement was the RKO classic "King Kong". This film is regarded as a large part of the inspiration for Ray Harryhausen the Titan (No reference intended) of stop motion in live action films. O'Briens life was one of tragedy, he was pushed into a marriage he didn't want, to a wife who would eventually turn a pistol on his two sons and herself. He would never make a film as successful as "King Kong" again going to B science fiction movies were he couldn't afford his high quality techniques. In the 1960's he approached Tomoyuki Tanaka about making a sequel to "King Kong" which would involve the ape fighting a 50ft Frankenstein monster. His idea was taken, however he was soon bumped off the project which would become "King Kong vs. Godzilla". His primary audience are, people who are fans of RKO's King Kong but that age range can alter dramatically as it's a timeless film. His technique was early stop motion with puppets.

Here we have extracts of both "A Prehistoric tragedy" and "King Kong".






Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen was inspired by the work of Willis O'Brien, both The Lost World and King Kong (of which he saw at the Chinese Theatre). Inspired by King Kong he began to make puppets of the monsters in the movie. He started taking anatomy classes at Los Angeles City College. In 1940 he joined George Pal at Puppettoons and was one of the first animators to work for him.  After working one 13 shorts he left for bigger and better things. His first feature film in 1952 was called "Beast from 20,000 fathoms" and is considered some of the earliest inspiration for Godzilla. In this film he invented the Dynamtaion technique which he is still famous for today. He worked on dozens of famous films over his career. These covered all kinds of genre from monster movie, In the Trailer to "Beast from 20,00 fathoms" to the special effects in "Jason and the Argonauts".  His primary audience are older film fans or people who have nostalgia for classic cinema. The Dynamation technique is a method of stop motion animation that uses multiple camera exposures, animating a subject with frame first than rewinding the film then playing over the fore ground. This requires specialized single frame cameras an projectors and a painted foreground.

Phil Tippet
Phil Tippet is a visual effects expert who pioneered the "Go Motion" technique. He was hired by Lucasfilm for the miniature chess scene in "Star Wars". For the next film he headed the animation department for the battle of Hoth.  While he was there he developed a technique called go motion which involved electronically moving puppets which moved in time with the camera shots to provide a more precise smoother motion. The object is in the process is moving whilst the photo is being taken which removes what is called the staccato effect. After this he went on to work on Jurassic Park where he was set to work as a stop motion animator. However, when Steven Spielberg saw the CGI ILM  he was working on, he opted to make the computer generated dinosaurs. When hearing this Tippets response was "I've become extinct" a line actually used in the movie. He is now working on a stop motion series of his own called "Mad God" which he achieved Kickstarter funding for in 2012. His works primary audience is older fans of his cult work, generally in their 30's however there is a secondary audience of young people who have been introduced to his work through Star Wars. Tippets Go motion technique was regular stop motion but to take photos of the puppets whilst its joints were moving , this gave a more realistic look to the movement.





The Brothers Quay

The Brothers Quay ( Stephen and Timothy ) born 1947, are a pair of identical twins who specialize in dream like surrealist stop motion films. They went to the Royal College of Art London.Their films are often seriously dark and moody using a mix of organic and inorganic parts to their puppets.  The have also been know to use pixiliation techniques on actors but I will get into that later.

Their work has always seemed quite avant garde and arthouse, due to the sometimes disturbing images and surreal content their films can often be regarded as obscure. Here are a pair of the two's films to show you what I'm on about. Their primary Claudine is 20 something year olds with interests of an artistic nature.





Nick Park and Aardman

Nick Park was born December 1958.  He went to the National Film and Television School where he began to work on"Wallace and Gromit in a Grand Day Out".  He also worked on the Peter Gabriel music video "Sledge Hammer" with the Brothers Quay.  Nick himself animated the scene involving dancing headless chickens (An element that reoccurs in Chicken Run). This video had the Pixilation technique which is where an actor has photos of them taken to be played back as stop motion rather than them moving live. This can put terrible strain on the actors as they need to hold poses for several minutes at a time. His technique is traditional claymation.



As well as working on Sledge Hammer, Nick park founded the popular ITV televisions series Creature Comforts. This pioneered the Aardman look that you would see in later Wallace and Gromit stories along with Chicken run and Pirates! Band of Misfits. The primary audience of these shows is children however there is secondary appeal to adults.




Adam Shaheen (Cuppa Coffee)
Adam Shaheen went the University of the Arts London. He is the founder and president of Cuppa Coffee studios one of Canada;s most popular Animation companies. He is most known for his satirical celebrity shows like Celebrity Deathmatch and Starveillance. The Primary audience of these shows are young people with a keen interest in pop culture. Again his work is claymation.





Otmar Gutmann ( The guy who did Pingu )

Otmar Gutmann born April 1937 is probably only known for his childrens television show Pingu which is considered a great multicultural show for it's lack of any kind of conventional conversation. The Primary audience of Pingu is children, but a notable secondary audience is parents watching it with their children. His work was simple claymation.



Tim Burton and Henry Selick

Tim Burton and Henry Selick are a pair of pioneers in making feature legnth stopmotion films. Below is Tim Burton's first animated short Vincent as a tribute to one of his favourite actors Vincent Price .  Henry Selick is one of Tim Burton's greatest creative partners (Him and Danny Elfman) directing "The Nightmare Before Christmas". They both went on to make more feature length stop motion films like Coraline and Corpse Bride.The primary audience of Burton and Selicks work is aimed at young teenagers, with a secondary audience of broader film lovers. Burton and Selick have been known to work with both stop motion and claymation techniques.





References

http://i2.cdnds.net/13/19/300x450/movies-one-million-years-bc-one-million-years-bc.jpg
http://www.goldenageofscifi.info/images/pics/willis_o_brien_large.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/George_Melies.jpg
https://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2008/images/vert_pal.jpg
http://monsterlegacy.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rancortippetttouchup.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlFtAC1GCKc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgFUzqrbKSc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9HxCkBYum8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwUlh-YZlc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cNOIuijfLs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98fOYDBwFg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5n5Oext5U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OjV-F0Jywc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3n67BQvh0
http://www.rayharryhausen.com/images/Dynamation_drawing.gif