In my group I am working with Daniel Gregory, Jack Moon and Jordan Knight to create a Media Department Ident.
Client: PHA Media Department Productions
Target Audience: Teenagers (Primary) Parents, Teachers, Governors (Secondary)
USP: Student made media
We all have assigned roles and these are as follows:
Dan - Ident Research
Jack - Audience Research
Jordan - Narrative Development
Gary - Narrative Construction
My resposibility in this project is constructing the narrative concept. This involves constructing, developing and building upon storylines, sets, backgrounds, scenarios and Audio/soundtrack. You can see my work on this here.
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Narrative construction/concept
11:05
Storylines
An idea that the group came up with was to use the conventional character Morph for our ident production. This is a character that was created Aardman Animations for the BBC. The group plans to take this legendary plasticine creation and give it a modern twist. We will make many different 'Morph's' and they will be acting as crew in a 'Morph media production' and swe will use penguins as actors for the 'Morph media production'.
Our storyline consists of characters filming others using a camera and a boom microphone and they are filming penguins fighting. The ideology behind the use of Morph and Penguins are because these are both iconic figures in claymation. Penguins in plasticine are famous from the production 'Pingu' and ofcourse Morph for his appearences on the BBC and the flexibility the creation has. We felt if we can take two legendary, iconic figures from claymation and incorporate these for our client, PHA Media Department Productions then we would have a really iconic ident. We felt that our target audiences, teenagers, secondary adults/parents of students of Park Hall Academy would be pleased with the ident because these are figures that everyone can relate to as it would have been a part of the teenagers childhood and the adults earlier stages of parenthood or even their childhood.
Backgrounds
For our background we plan to have some bright blue paper standing upwards to play as the sky but we will add clouds to this as well as other items to be used on the set. For this we will need around six pieces of light blue A4 paper which we have access to as well as plain white paper for the clouds. We may use some green A4 paper to act as the grass.
Set
For our set we plan to mainly use plasticine products such as plasticine trees, benches, flowers etc. At this stage we are planning to use plasticine for these items but we are not limited to this media.
Scenario
Our scenario is creating an image of PHA Media Department through the use of the media plasticine and stop motion animation. We feel if we can create a warm, heartfelt production with a twist, that twist is we are using plasticine. At the end of the production we plan to have someones shoe squash the whole set, the reason behind this is so that we can get a solid background to the end of the scene so that we can have space for the text about the PHA Media Department. We are not limited to the shoe idea, we have other plans such as a meteorite or a rocket falling on the production.
Audio/Soundtrack
The group plan to use some light, upbeat music for the audio in our production. At this moment we have not yet decided on the track, we plan to do this in storyboarding of the production when we have a much clearer idea of what will happen in the production so we can have the audio set around the motion rather than the motion set around the audio.
An idea that the group came up with was to use the conventional character Morph for our ident production. This is a character that was created Aardman Animations for the BBC. The group plans to take this legendary plasticine creation and give it a modern twist. We will make many different 'Morph's' and they will be acting as crew in a 'Morph media production' and swe will use penguins as actors for the 'Morph media production'.
Our storyline consists of characters filming others using a camera and a boom microphone and they are filming penguins fighting. The ideology behind the use of Morph and Penguins are because these are both iconic figures in claymation. Penguins in plasticine are famous from the production 'Pingu' and ofcourse Morph for his appearences on the BBC and the flexibility the creation has. We felt if we can take two legendary, iconic figures from claymation and incorporate these for our client, PHA Media Department Productions then we would have a really iconic ident. We felt that our target audiences, teenagers, secondary adults/parents of students of Park Hall Academy would be pleased with the ident because these are figures that everyone can relate to as it would have been a part of the teenagers childhood and the adults earlier stages of parenthood or even their childhood.
Backgrounds
For our background we plan to have some bright blue paper standing upwards to play as the sky but we will add clouds to this as well as other items to be used on the set. For this we will need around six pieces of light blue A4 paper which we have access to as well as plain white paper for the clouds. We may use some green A4 paper to act as the grass.
Set
For our set we plan to mainly use plasticine products such as plasticine trees, benches, flowers etc. At this stage we are planning to use plasticine for these items but we are not limited to this media.
Scenario
Our scenario is creating an image of PHA Media Department through the use of the media plasticine and stop motion animation. We feel if we can create a warm, heartfelt production with a twist, that twist is we are using plasticine. At the end of the production we plan to have someones shoe squash the whole set, the reason behind this is so that we can get a solid background to the end of the scene so that we can have space for the text about the PHA Media Department. We are not limited to the shoe idea, we have other plans such as a meteorite or a rocket falling on the production.
Audio/Soundtrack
The group plan to use some light, upbeat music for the audio in our production. At this moment we have not yet decided on the track, we plan to do this in storyboarding of the production when we have a much clearer idea of what will happen in the production so we can have the audio set around the motion rather than the motion set around the audio.
Developers of Animation
11:04
Willis O'Brien
Willis O'Brien was born on March 2 1886 and passed away on Novermber 8 1962. He was an irish american and he pioneered motion picture special effects. Willis started his career as a cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News. He was also a professional marble sculptor; Willis had a gret array of skills in art and construction. In 1933 his first wife had shot and killed their two sons and later turned the gun on herself, she survived but later died from cancer and tuberculosis.
O'Brien was hired by th Edison Company to produce several short films with them, all of which had a prehistoric theme. Willis' first Hollywood venture was "The Lost World" which was released in 1925. Willis had many ventures using stop motion including King Kong (1933), Son of Kong (1933), The last days of Pompeii (1935) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). O'Brien is an accredited Technical Creator and has won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen was born in LA, California on June 29 1920 and is an american film producer. He is also a special effects creator and has created a brand of stop motion model animation which ois often called Dynamation. He also worked on Mighty Joe Young with Willis O'Brien. Befoe the popularity of using computers in camera stop motion and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) movies used many different approaches, one of these was the use of stop motion. This technique was first used in The Lost World and more famously, King Kong. Willis O'Brien's work influenced Ray in this field of animation. Harryhausen can draw a distinction between films that combine special effects animation with live action and films that are entirely animated such as the films of Tim Burton, Nick Park, Henry Selick, Ivo Caprino and many others.
Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer was born on September 4 1934 and he is a Czech surrealist artist and filmmaker. His work uses various media and he is best known for his work involving the medias surreal animations and features. His work has inspired artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and many others. Some of his major trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, which in turn create very strange effects in eating scenes. He uses fast stop motion when people walk or interact. He often uses clay in his animations and food is his favourite medium. He continues to make animations in Prague.
The Quay Brothers
The Quay brothers are identical twins and were both born on June 17, 1947. They're influential stop motion animators and both won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play "The Chairs" in 1998. The twins reside and work in England after moving here in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art. Most of their work features puppets made of doll parts and other materials. The pairs best known work is "Street of Crocodiles" which was based upon a short novel by Bruno Schulz.
Tim Burton
Tim Burton, born August 25, 1958 is an American film director. He is famous for many dark & quirky themed movies including Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and many other blockbuster movies also. Burton has directed 14 films in 2010 alone. When Burton was young he made many stop motion films in his garden. After Burton graduated from Burbank High School he attended the California Institute of the Arts and studied Character Animation. After he graduated from CalArts he was hired at Walt Disney Productions' animation studio where he worked on many productions such as The fox and the Hound and The Black Couldron.
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations, also known as Aardman Studios or simply Aardman is an academy award winning british animation studio, based in Bristol. The studio is famous for creating many stop motion films using clay including Wallace and Gromit & Chicken Run. They have also entered the computer animation industry from 2006 with Flushed Away.
Willis O'Brien was born on March 2 1886 and passed away on Novermber 8 1962. He was an irish american and he pioneered motion picture special effects. Willis started his career as a cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News. He was also a professional marble sculptor; Willis had a gret array of skills in art and construction. In 1933 his first wife had shot and killed their two sons and later turned the gun on herself, she survived but later died from cancer and tuberculosis.
O'Brien was hired by th Edison Company to produce several short films with them, all of which had a prehistoric theme. Willis' first Hollywood venture was "The Lost World" which was released in 1925. Willis had many ventures using stop motion including King Kong (1933), Son of Kong (1933), The last days of Pompeii (1935) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). O'Brien is an accredited Technical Creator and has won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen was born in LA, California on June 29 1920 and is an american film producer. He is also a special effects creator and has created a brand of stop motion model animation which ois often called Dynamation. He also worked on Mighty Joe Young with Willis O'Brien. Befoe the popularity of using computers in camera stop motion and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) movies used many different approaches, one of these was the use of stop motion. This technique was first used in The Lost World and more famously, King Kong. Willis O'Brien's work influenced Ray in this field of animation. Harryhausen can draw a distinction between films that combine special effects animation with live action and films that are entirely animated such as the films of Tim Burton, Nick Park, Henry Selick, Ivo Caprino and many others.
Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer was born on September 4 1934 and he is a Czech surrealist artist and filmmaker. His work uses various media and he is best known for his work involving the medias surreal animations and features. His work has inspired artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and many others. Some of his major trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, which in turn create very strange effects in eating scenes. He uses fast stop motion when people walk or interact. He often uses clay in his animations and food is his favourite medium. He continues to make animations in Prague.
The Quay Brothers
The Quay brothers are identical twins and were both born on June 17, 1947. They're influential stop motion animators and both won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play "The Chairs" in 1998. The twins reside and work in England after moving here in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art. Most of their work features puppets made of doll parts and other materials. The pairs best known work is "Street of Crocodiles" which was based upon a short novel by Bruno Schulz.
Tim Burton
Tim Burton, born August 25, 1958 is an American film director. He is famous for many dark & quirky themed movies including Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and many other blockbuster movies also. Burton has directed 14 films in 2010 alone. When Burton was young he made many stop motion films in his garden. After Burton graduated from Burbank High School he attended the California Institute of the Arts and studied Character Animation. After he graduated from CalArts he was hired at Walt Disney Productions' animation studio where he worked on many productions such as The fox and the Hound and The Black Couldron.
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations, also known as Aardman Studios or simply Aardman is an academy award winning british animation studio, based in Bristol. The studio is famous for creating many stop motion films using clay including Wallace and Gromit & Chicken Run. They have also entered the computer animation industry from 2006 with Flushed Away.
Genres of Animation
10:51
TV animation
There are various forms to Television animation and this includes station idents, cartoon programmes and comedy programmes. An example of a station ident would be the Cbeebies idents, they largely consist of blob like creatures and were most likely drawn in a preliminary sketch and later animated on a computer through computer software such as Adobe After Effects.
A big fan of animated channel idents is the BBC whom use these in various ways across their entire television network. As you can see on the left the BBC 3 ident seems to take many characteristics from the Cbeebies ident. They use a lot of bright, glossy eye catching colours in their idents, this is most likely due to the fact that they were created by the same department or even people at the BBC or by one of their contractors.
In Cinema we see animated films on the schedules all the time, we also see a lot of blockbuster animation films such as Flushed Away, Chicken Run and Toy Story. Animated films can take a long time and they are done in many different ways; the first two films I just mentioned, Flushed Away and Chicken Run were produced by British animation studios, Aardman. Aardman animate using plasticine and real life sets and would take an extremely long time to complete a production depending on how much staff a production has. Toy Story could be done in a much faster framework but Disney Pixar concentrate more on preliminary sketches and animating these on a computer as well as development of a story so the production time can really vary depending on how much a producer wants to put in to a single production; another thing with Disney Pixar is they add many special effects to their productions as well as creating these in 'Disney 3D' and IMAX formats, as well as the standard 2D format.
Advertisers often use various ways to capture an audience and attract viewers to their advertisements to make them more successful. An example of this is 'Compare the Meerkat' which is a viral advertisement for 'Compare the Market (.com)' The advertising campaign is produced by the VCPP Agency. Compare the Market (and ..Market) is owned by the BGL group and compare the meerkat has been ranked the fourth most visited insurance website in the UK. The advertisement more than doubled sales through Compare the Market year on year. This has extended past a television advertisement and 'Aleksandr Orlov' has now got a book, an iPhone application, text and mobile ringtones. The style of this animation is realism as the meerkat looks real as does its surroundings but they are all in fact computer animated.
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Computer Games
Most video games are animated, but there are many different ways that computer games are animated. An example would be Super Mario galaxy which focuses strongly on gameplay, bright attractive colours and the use of preliminary sketches. We can see how characters and items such as the stars could be animated through a sketch or drawing pad connected to a computer and later being animated through a computer as everything has detail but not as in depth as other games such as Call of Duty.Many of the special effects may have also been drawn at first and later animated or they could have been generated through use of computer software. Games such as Call of Duty may have had ideas sketched out on paper etc or drawn on to a graphics tablet but most, if not all of this will have been re-rendered on computer software as the games are very realistic and put a lot of focus in detail.
Mobile Phones
Mobile phones are not really the first thing that comes to mind when people discuss animation but they can be very effective tools when used in the right situations. This advertisement campaign was used to advertise a ringtone for mobile phones for a company called Jamster. There were many complaints about how a penis and scrotum are visible in the advertisement but the ringtone itself was quite catchy and was very popular with children, teenagers and young adults, in that order. The ringtone was premium and required users to pay to use Jamsters service on a weekly basis, users would have to read the small print to know they were infact signing up to a non limited contract which took £4/week from their mobile account. The ringtone was very popular amongst children and this caused controversy as it seemed as though it was aimed at children and with more and more children getting mobile phones they wanted this ringtone without realising the repercussions of this. Another one of Jamsters ventures was called 'Crazy Chick' which involved a dancing chick being charged the same way as the 'Crazy Frog' was although this acted as a screensaver/wallpaper. The frog and the chick were both computer generated but have a motion to them allowing them to move in varous ways, for example, in the advertising campaign 'crazy frog' looked as though he was driving a motorbike although you could not see this.
Websites
Blobz - The Motion Picture
18:05
Here's the video I made for the week project. I created seven simple 'blobs' and a giant 'blob' and these 'blobs' were the characters of my animation. I created the title using Adobe Photoshop CS5 and pieced everything together using Pinnacle Studio 12. For some reason Pinnacle doesn't feel like importing the title image, so here it is below.
Overall I am pleased with the motion picture. If I could do this again then I would like to get the title in the front of the video but most importantly I would like to try and gain a correct speed which would involve taking a lot more pictures (frames) and also making the motion longer as this motion seems to be very short. I was able to take all of the pictures in around 20 minutes and this consisted of around 120 pictures. If I could get to around 400 shots then this would take me and the group for our ident around 90 minutes. What I was pleased with in this production was the experimentation of camera angles. I wanted to try and get the camera to have a bit of motion as this engages a viewer more than a single shot, if a viewer can relate to an animation. Another issue in this production was that the plasticine colour seemed to stay on my hand in the creation process so many of the colours may overlap such as the white plasticine around the eyes had a bit of black and green plasticine mixed i with it, as for the next production I will be working in a group we could perhaps all take on seperate roles in the creation process to prevent this from occuring again or washing our hands after different types of plasticine, however, the latter may be time consuming.
Overall I am pleased with the motion picture. If I could do this again then I would like to get the title in the front of the video but most importantly I would like to try and gain a correct speed which would involve taking a lot more pictures (frames) and also making the motion longer as this motion seems to be very short. I was able to take all of the pictures in around 20 minutes and this consisted of around 120 pictures. If I could get to around 400 shots then this would take me and the group for our ident around 90 minutes. What I was pleased with in this production was the experimentation of camera angles. I wanted to try and get the camera to have a bit of motion as this engages a viewer more than a single shot, if a viewer can relate to an animation. Another issue in this production was that the plasticine colour seemed to stay on my hand in the creation process so many of the colours may overlap such as the white plasticine around the eyes had a bit of black and green plasticine mixed i with it, as for the next production I will be working in a group we could perhaps all take on seperate roles in the creation process to prevent this from occuring again or washing our hands after different types of plasticine, however, the latter may be time consuming.
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