E Sting Evaluation

The project brief was to create an e4 ident (basically a channel advert ) and by working out the demographics of e4 create an advert to fit the genre,  age and something suitable to air. The advert had to be created using some form of animation.  We ended up creating a mortal combat stop motion style e4 advert, we used Photoshop to create the e4 logos and the beams at the end. This was layered over the original set of photos of the fight.

You can view the ‘brilliant’ finished product here at -

We asked people what could be improved about our ad. The two main points for improvement are the flow of the animation and the exploration of stop motion could go further. The flow could be improved if more shots were taken and closer together between movements, This would help the style and the flow as with more shots would create a smoother run when sped up. I understand we could of also played with techniques to make the fight more technical. We could of used slides and flips quite effectively and due to constraints and time this wasn’t thought of so the action presented may seem a little basic.

 

What came across as the most outstanding feature of our work according to other media students was the Photoshopped effects for the e4 logo at the end, something which I thought was quite funny and cool ! also they said that the fluidity and style felt like an old ‘beat em up’ game with the juddered movements and the retro graphics.   

 

For our e sting there are lots of outlets for the work to be shown off. In particularly the internet allows you to reach a vast very mixed audience spanning all corners of the globe. Websites such as YouTube and Vimeo give a platform to all works to be shown to people with common interests. Being a short video even apps such as vine or Instagram allow you to post your work.

 

There are constraints in any non major production unless of course you make something simple and minimalistic. The problems we faced when creating our e sting where the financial difficulties, e.g having to borrow costumes and film in not an ideal location. The legal work was just working to the e4 guidelines using the provided music and the e4 trademark logo.

We could of managed the timing of our project a lot better. Obviously working in a group you rely on people and sometimes they cant come in and sometimes I wasn’t available so organisation could of helped. We also could of worked out a better schedule for filming as I was busy making the e4 graphics and also appeared in the animation. We had a period also at the start of the project where it was hard for us to think up an idea, so the planning and discussion over what our e sting was took longer than it needed.

As I briefly touched on in the legal requirements for the e sting it had to be no long then 10 seconds, it had to contain the e4 logo and use the given music. We even conformed to the requirements when adding sound effect, not letting it overpower the theme music. We also created it in the style they asked as an animation style e sting with no recordings or long takes.

We received feedback from a number of people yet I managed to lose some of the responses.. the ones saved were the most important, outlining the positives and negatives of the work. Everyone thought that the retro game style of the animated e sting was really good even if the graphics and flow of the piece could have been done a lot better. The flow of the fight could have been done better as with the location but with the graphics as a whole I think it fits the style of and e sting.

 

 

 

 

My Finished Music Video

Finished e4 Ident

Research & Planning

E4 launched in January 2001 as a pay-tv channel, the British channel E4 was made to accompany the free view owner channel, channel 4. E4, in 2005, joined 4 in becoming a Freeview channel in order to increase its advertising revenue and attract more viewers.  The most popular series aired on e4 was the Inbetweeners which at a peak pulled 3.7 million viewers, other shows on E4 include the Big Bang Theory, Friends and … Glee. The primary demographic is clearly teens to the middle aged this is due to the high content of comedies and the nature of the jokes intended, as in Jay from the inbetweeners bullshit stories. A large majority of the actor from the programmes on e4 are in the demographic age range, and e4 even made a T4 block where from certain times programmes specifically for teens are broadcast. Other channels owned by the channel 4 conglomerate are 4seven, more4, film4, 4+1, 4music and also the radio stations KISSfm and Kerrang!

An E sting is basically an ident for e4 to show the audience what channel they are watching, it give the channel some identity to make it stand out from the crowd, the ident could also coincide with the target audience and relates to the types of shows on the channel.     

http://estings.e4.com/entry/e4-dentist-esting

The dentist e-sting shows a boy pulling out his e4 tooth, the stop motion animation works well with the channel. It is random comedy which fits the channels persona. The audience for this ad would be people around my age due to the comedic content and how it was portrayed, personally I think its one of the best I’ve seen, due to the content, style (stop motion) and simplicity.

http://estings.e4.com/entry/sweet-shop

Sweet shop is another cool e-sting I found. This is a hand drawn animation put together on Photoshop. I like the comedy involved in this as its very random, I think all random e-sting are aimed at the teen target audience as this style is most appealing in the comedy. It fits the channel well due to the random reverse rolls of the lady licking a e4 lolly then in the end the e4 character licks her as a lollypop, this role reversal works well as it captures attention and makes you remember the channel.

http://estings.e4.com/entry/live

Live is and e-sting of a 7 second clip of piglets suckling their mother pig. This again is very random. What I like about this e-sting is that it is just funny in itself, there was no fancy programmes or editing involved it was literally just a video from his phone. There are a lot of viral videos of animals on the internet, so obviously they attract attention due to the comedic style of just the animal. I think in teens we find these animals videos funny as well, they’re animals and this one would certainly make you remember the channel, “OMG, HAVE YOU SEEN THE E4 PIGLETS” – That’s what people would say.

 

To prepare for creating an easting we tried a variety of animation techniques from 1800’s to practices still used today. We made Thaumatropes, Praxinoscopes and Zoetropes, which are all repetitive sequences of images like a GIF. This also gave us practice if would want to make a hand drawn e-sting and stitch it together in Photoshop. In addition to this we tried Claymation and stop motion (live action). This now prepares us by using photos and frames to create a moving picture, this opens up a lot of possibilities for our e-sting.

 

 

Single Camera Prodcuction / Pre-Production

LOCATION RECCE

Location Recce - Single Camera Production

The Purpose of Music Videos

Music Videos appeared as a visual aid to music in 1950's France where a visual duke-box was made giving a little something to accompany  the song itself. Following this British band The Beatles created the musical film 'A Hard Days Night' containing both elements of their own music and a film with a narrative to co-inside with the songs, much like a visual CD. The Beatles went on to create three more musical documentary style films with 'Help!', 'Let it be' and 'Magical Mystery tour' which was first broadcast on the boxing day of 1967. The Beatles also in 1967 created two colour films to accompany songs 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane creating popularity with the visual audio. A year later The rolling stones had a performance of themselves as the video for popular song 'Sympathy For The Devil' which was made into a short colour film in 1970 with help from director Jean-Luc Godard boosting the music videos popularity further as it was brought into the popular culture of the time.

Next came the promotion of the music artists through collaboration with film makers in an attempt to boost the popularity of the song and or artist. The first and most famous example of this is when 'The White Stripes' front man Jack White  approached director Michael Gondry (whom went on to produce music videos for people such as Radiohead and Daft Punk and direct films Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and more recently Be Kind Rewind and Green Hornet) creating one of the most iconic music videos, all made from Lego. The iconic video boosted popularity for not only the White Stripes' music as everyone was interested in the music video but in the directing and ideas that Gondry had, leading the band on to become successful and Gondry go on to produce works as the ones i listed above. Also this one video resulted in Gondry working with The White Stripes for the majority of the career creating memorable visuals for the songs such as The Denial Twist and The Hardest Button To Button.


Artists are marketed differently depending on the image they want to portray, so the director needs to create a visual aid that says something about the band, something that gives them a persona. Mainstream Artists that are signed to big labels often have videos that gives them a clean cut image and has a high budget and luxurious locations such as Beyonce's Drunk In Love video. More indie bands try to show of their talent using the instruments and having the band member in the video much like the style of when music videos first came about with live performances, a good example of this is classic band The Verve with their song Lucky Man which features a long take of Richard Ashcroft singing and playing the guitar. Often there are groups who make their own videos such as The Prodigy. They produced their own music videos for the 1992 5* star rated album Experience. The videos contained 90's style dancing and random cut aways as its not so much about the video but the Prodigy themselves, whom all stared in the videos. The random and fast paced videos never really meant anything but to dance! as thats what they wanted people to do and often contain cut aways of them performing live, a good example of this is their video for out of space which sampled the Max Romeo - Chase the devil accapella. An example of an arty artist, trying to convey meaning or overt messages in their videos would be old school drum and bass producer Goldie with his video for Inner City Life which came out in 1995. This is a year before he broke up with Bjork a another arty pop star whos influence may of rubbed off.

In dance music and independent artist and in some cases even bigger artists on bigger dance labels won’t even produce a video for their track and will rely on the sound to promote then rather than the visuals. A good example of a homemade video to coincide with a track would be Alex Metrik – Rave Weapon , which shows some home-made digital  cut paper style graphics. Unless you are a big dance artist then it is unlikely you would have a video to accompany your song, as due to its niche market it’s not worth making a video and distracting from the melody. Many of these independent artists videos will find themselves on the label owners website and or YouTube, you probably wouldn’t find them on music TV due to the lack of popularity, unless obviously it was on MTV dance and then again it would still have to be fairly popular!
 

 

Within dance music there are quite a lot of outlets to show your work off on, from YouTube channels dedicated to finding and showing off the latest releases for all areas such as drum & bass channel UKF and or House/Garage Channel’s Eton Messy and or Subsoul to more electro/big room house on Spinnin’ Records. There are apps available such as Spotify where users and even artists share their favourite music. Now dubbed ‘The YouTube of Music’ Sound Cloud is a vital platform connecting artists and listeners using hashtags to find the latest release in different genres! Jamal Edwards SBTV is a good example of independent artists taking off, from when they started filming unknown rappers to know being worth millions of pounds,  With SBTV being supported by Richard Branson. It shows there are lots of different ways producers can connect with the listeners and there is ample opportunity to get yourself recognised. Duo My Nu Leng done just that, a pair of Drum&Bass DJs who decided to start producing music and uploading it online and one day one their tracks ‘Master plan’ was signed to BlackButterRecords which introduces them to a larger number of people which would be fame in the dance side of things !

Art in music videos is becoming increasingly popular with people developing different styles the makes music video production an art form in itself. From the My Nu Leng song Master plan with its trippy lyric video to S.E.F – Dance the night away with its split screen and visual effects. This is shown even when going back to Alex Metrik – Rave Weapon with the cut paper style graphic music video. Each video is different and captures you in a different way through its style.

Its hard for more underground artists of niche genres to get their songs played on the radio to the popularity of the track. There are thousands of songs made and recorded every day however Major artists fit with the general taste of the majority of the audience so therefore will get the play on the radio. Radio stations want to attract as many listeners as possible and to do this they play songs to appeal to a wider audience, so it’s a less appealing option to play more underground music.

The best way to get yourself known as a new artist is to show off your music to the right places. In dance music, using sound cloud and contacting YouTube channel owners can get you popular, as there are channels specifically for unknown artists in niche genres which wouldn’t appeal to the mainstream necessarily. Famous duo Gorgon City were discovered in this way as their music gained popularity to appeal to the mainstream audience.

There are many outlets for music videos through the TV with Channels such as MTV (and its sub channels i.e DANCE) Viva, 4 Music. Via the web music videos are shown off through endless amounts of  YouTube channels and on music websites such as Mix Mag and music label websites such as hospital records and all of these can be shared by anyone on any social networking sites even by artists !

 

Synergy is where a company takes a text from another company and uses it to promote their product. A more recent example of this in the music industry would be when Australian electronic instrumental producer Flume (Harley Streten)’s remix of Disclosure / You & Me was used to promote a advert by Rob Anto for Lacoste Aftershave (Musique Pub Lacoste 2014 - Life is beautiful). Lacoste have taken the power of the remix and the fame of the song and let’s not forget how good the song is, to promote their aftershave. This works as everybody who didn’t know the song and sees it on the advert will associate the song with the advert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tracks (Finished Short)

My Artist Research

The song I have chosen to create a music video for is the Preditah remix of Disclosures 'Stimulation'. Being a dance song there is no meaning behind the music and there isnt even a official video I can analyse both for the original and remix. However we can talk about the song itself, the track itself is about 128 bpm which fits its UKG genre. UKG came about when Dj's such as EZ would speed up dub versions of songs to be played to the UK's Jungle audience back in the early/mid 90's. Preditah, in this remix, has a modern take on the 2 step garage with the sub bass and rolling snares. The track samples a cutting bass-line and samples parts of the original disclosure lyrics and holds the chorus later on in the middle of the track. The duration of the song is a little over 4 and a half minutes allowing time to build up and drop, however for my music video i'm going to cut the third drop off, as two will be plenty of time already.

          

When it comes to Preditah he is primarily a grime instrumental producer and a Dj so he doesnt have any of his own music videos. However, Preditah has produced instrumentals for many grime artists including London's BBK (Boy Better Know) . EDM is a genre where a majority of the time the songs wont have a music video and in-fact some choose to never make music videos as it diverges the listener from the music. Typically when a dance musician creates a video for a song, it will be cut away's of live performances from the artist and or the crowd / people dancing. Its not there to accompany the music but more to say 'come on you, get up and dance, this is what its about !'

The UK and any Garage music genre in general isn't a commercial genre, however more popular artists these days take influence and elements from garage and incorporate it in their own work. 2001 was the year which saw garage music slowly influence other genres such as grime or dub-step and disband into sub genres of it like funky and future garage. That year produced some of the most memorable garage tunes though like, The Streets ' Has it come to this?' or Pied Piper 'Do you really like it?'. This doesn't mean garage music has gone away at all, and currently garage pioneer Dj EZ has a Thursday slot on Kiss FM where he mixes the House, Bass-line and UKG genres from all decades showing that it is still a popular genre if you know where to look.

Music Video Types

As Live Footage
As live performances are videos footage taken from a live performance and incorporated into the music video of the song made by an artist. The prodigy adopt the use of live performances in their videos however add it as part of a montage with other random cut-aways. In the video for the 1993 tune 'Wind It Up' it features random clips of things whilst traveling with addition of random cut aways made by the prodigy member, it also contains the cut-aways of them performing live with shots of Liam Howlett playing the keyboard and crowd shots of lazers and the dance itself.

Narrative and Interpretive
These music videos offer some sort of interpretation to the lyrics but this is seen a=in a number of ways either, follow the lyrics exsactly with visual accoumpanying them, extending the lyrics where the visual may hieghten or expand on the lyrics or title and finally it could contradict the lyrics where the visual will be the opposite to the lyrics being conveyed. A good example of extending the meaning would be the 2002 Layo & Bushwacka song titled 'Love Story', the video shows a group of sperms fight to get to the egg which would extend on the love story title, bringing meaning right back to the start of life.

Surrealist/Absurdist
these tend to be music videos which are unconventional and bare little or no relation to the song itself. A good example of this would be the Gorillaz song 'Dirty Harry' with it being set in the middle of a desert with the animated band and kids singing along! The video bares no relation to the lyrics and the only thing remotely the same is the lip-syncing, this video even features a lizard wearing a fez at 2.06 !

Impressionist
these videos try capture the emotion of the lyrics rather than their literal meaning. This usually makes them quite arty like the impressionist movement, with flowing colours and soft light recording the world as it feels not as it seems.The best example of this would be the 1991 video from SL2 (Slipmatt and Lime) 'DJ's Take Control' which shows people dancing on screen as silhouettes or close ups mixed and blended with dance lighting of all colours, its one of my favorite songs of all time as well which is good! but the visuals just make you want to be there dancing, the experimental style of video shows how the impressionism is of how people dance to their music.

Intertexuality
Intertextuality means that the music video for a song references to other subjects. The music video may take clips or remake clips from other media texts known as synergy. A parody would be a mick-take of a particular thing a re make but just basically poking fun at it. Also the music video could pay respect to another persons work, as a thank you for influencing them this is called homage. A good example of a music video taking clips and inspiration from another media would be Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb which takes footage from the film 'The Wall' by Alan Parker which also references to their album 'The Wall'.

Animation
Animation is as it says, an artist using animation as part or as a whole on their music video (this includes all types from stop motion to actual animation). A good example of this would be one of the Daft Punk alien cartoons, which is a music video to few of their songs and is a short about animated aliens!

Lip Syncing
Lip syncing is where there is a music video with a subject and the lyrics of the song are in time syncing with the lips. There are many many songs which use this technique so i'm going to choose the garage classic from Wookie called 'Battle' Featuring Lain Grey. Lain's vocal sync with the music video comes in at about 40 seconds.

Cutting to a beat
cutting to a beat is as it sounds as the beat kicks the visual on screen accompanying would cut or fade. I found this harder to find as i couldent think of alot of music personally that i listen two that have music videos let alone cut to a beat. A song which i like which does show this is Alex Metric 'Rave Weapon' which shows a animated production line of bullets being made synced to the beat of thew track.

Post Production effects
Post production effects are effects added in ontop of the visual to enhance it or change something about it giving it a certain look. As an obvious example Blonde's 'It's You' music video where throughout the whole video a mirror effect has been used on the clips so they are shown flipped over half of the screen.

Split Screen
spli screen music video basically take segments of the screen and in each segment are versions of one clip of various clips in each one part of the divided screen. The drum and bass song from Fred V & Grafix 'Major Happy' features the split screen effect.

Stop Motion Animation (Part 3)

Stop Motion Animation is used over lots of different platforms and occurs in many different ways from; claymation, live action, pose-able character stop motion. In this post im going to show you some evidence of how vastly it is used.

TV
My favorite example of stop motion animation in TV would be foul languaged Angry Kid which features on youtube in a series of around 25 shorts.


Films
My favourite example of stop motion being used to coincide with live action in a film would be Jason and the Argonauts, this is really impressive and inovative concidering it was made in 1963, especially the scene where he fights the stop motion skeletons so.. enjoy this clip of Jason and the Skeleton fights.


Adverts
Stop motion animation is still very much so used media text because of the different nature of the product. Its used in adverts and is really atention grabbing, unlike the plain jane normal adverts this one captures your eye as its something out of the ordinary!


Music Videos
Stop motion is even still used in music videos like Steriograms - Walkie Talkie man. this video was a huge hit when it came out for the use of the choppy stop motion coinciding with the live action. The video automatically boosted the songs popularity and if you take a second to scroll down to the youtube comments its full of people complimenting the video still showing us that it is a style people enjoy!


Channel Idents
There have been a few channel idents that incorporate the stop motion style. The channel most regularly using stop motion medias would be E4 with its E-sting idents. The E-stings are made by people at home and are used as idents by the channel. People sometimes choose to use this stop motion as a style of E-sting, this is probably due to the attention grabbing quality's that a stop motion text carries as its not a style that is usually used.


Who is Stop Motion aimed at?
I don't believe that stop motion animation has a specific audience demographic as that would depend on the production, however i do believe the majority of productions are aimed at the middle aged and backwards. For example Wallace and Gromit i think would be aimed at children but doesn't discourage adults from enjoying it as well. Other shows such as South Park have a more targeted audience with its outlandish humor so would be aimed at a more adult audience from late teens to young adults. I think it would be perceived as that stop motion is aimed at children from the cartoon like characteristics it holds, which would comply with some older children's shows such as Postman Pat or The Wombles or even Bob The builder but i think it is a style that any age can enjoy.

The future of Stop Motion animation
like any form of art i don't believe it would die out as its a different style and people always like different! its something that is embedded in what we do as with anything people like to use traditional methods as a photographer, just because there is a brand new camera out wont necessarily use it they may opt to revert to using a film camera because of the effect or style of the photo which i believe would be the same for stop motion animation. People enjoy the raw skills it takes to produce something like stop motion and with all the effects and tricks that come with it which may not be capable of doing whilst using another media text. A notable film released in 2009 was the stop motion re make of The Fantastic Mr. Fox which shows that its still a text which is still used up to this present day.

MUG screenplay

Mug Screenplay draft 2

MUG screenplay draft 1

MUG Screenplay

MUG Screenplay and treatment

evaluation for production

We chose to make Bens script as that is the one everyone thought would be the best to make at the time of deciding. However we had to change the filming location from yarmouth train station to the bus station as we was not able to get permitting for us to film there.

shooting manually with a dslr is something where other factors have to be taken into account. To create a nice balance we had to make sure the ISO, aperture and shutter speed all worked in harmony so a shot wasn't over or under exposed. This is shower in the toilet scene of our production where the aperture and shutter where at the lowest it could be to film and so due to the dark lighting we had to put the iso up which in turn gave us a grainier image on playback. shooting manually gave us the freedom to be more creative in the way things where framed and the lighting used. My favorite technique used was creating a shallow depth of field by pulling the aperture to its lowest which enable me to choose what was / wasnt in focus.

As this was a single production unit we had to do certain things to makes sure got all the coverage we needed so firstly a master shot was taken of the whole scene once over from a wide angle and this would be the short to edit to. Secondly we covered any angles which needed covering after such as close ups when characters speak or a tracking shots for moving characters in the scene. Each scene was shot multiple times in different angle to ensure that everything was covered and if there was a dodgy shot there was always one to replace it.

We started of by setting scenes to direct and film off our own backs , however due to certain limitations we ended collectively shooting shots and scenes together, so everyone's input was added. Certain shots used where chosen by people thinking that it would be a good idea, but not one member of the group directed a scene exactly to how they envisioned it.

I dont think we actually added one piece of mise-en-scene to effect what was in a shot as everything was filmed on location so we where able to have the scene set up realistically anyway. The use of camera was used really well i think with the framing and shots set up really well. This was due to the cinematography with the depth of field and angles used, we incorporated a number of tracking shots using a steady cam which i think worked really well and went with the flow of the production. I think it was edited well, editing from the master shots and we had a good choice of other shots to cut to, so all in all the editing was fine and nothing had to be re-shot. Admittedly the sound track was appalling and the use of sound tracks in the production didnt work at all, it was jumpy and didnt link, cutting from one soundtrack to another brought me out of digesis and didnt even work with the clips but in a group i suppose you have to make compromises...

To sum it all up what i believed worked well was the shots and angles used in our production, we never had a shortage of shots to mix in with our master shots. The acting i though looked quite professional with good reaction shots and speech which worked well with our shot. Right, what didnt go well.. To start off the fact that we had to re-shoot the first few scenes as a lovers tiff ended in a actor not wanting to be in production any more which in turn put us behind and i feel that the rest of the project was rushed and hastily stuck together. The jumpy locations kept bringing me out of digesis, cutting from one location to another which made the actual finished product look a shambles. The soundtrack didnt work at all and was definitely not right with parts being slung in randomly and didn't even work in harmony (two different songs) which was really weird.. i thought that due to the high iso that the toilet scene where they find out its diamonds was to grainy and looked poor quality. My titles got deleted without me even knowing so that was abit of a myth, as i thought as a group this would be something discussed. The ending was totally rushed with dodgy shots and scenes added in due to the lack of time which was just awful !! All in all the production was messy and not of a standard i want to put my name to, to be fair, there was a fantastic opening with some really good time lapses and sync with music and then it just goes downhill, its even hard to understand what is going on half the time! The location was a problem aswell, not being able to get permition to film at yarmouth train station (something that should of been sorted before choosing a script) a unfortunate group member had to ferry the group about 40 miles there and 40 miles back to the next nearest train station in reedham, not only was this costly for him but time consuming for the amount of times back and fourth in travel.

If i learnt anything from this project it would be things need to be planned and organised ALOT better than they were in this current production. I think the ideas of each group member varied and through this effected how the film looked, which wasnt for the better unfortunately. If this was something i was to do again it would have to be with like minded individuals with a vision similar to what i have, influencing me and encouraging me to try new things, as in a whole everything wasnt created from a vision it was created under perception on what would look professional which in turn done the complete opposite. My own personal ideas, i believe, clashed with the group as i wanted to explore more cinematographic shots and angles which I believe would work and what i thought would look good in my creative eyes. Working in a group isnt as easy as it sounds as ideas cant be fully expressed especially under the filming of someone elses screenplay.

Research Dossier

research dossier

Two shorts with great screenplays:


Vicky and Sam from Nuno Rocha on Vimeo.

I really enjoyed the writing on this short because of the way it explores writing a screenplay in a screenplay. It takes you through the key points and how they may of came up with the idea for a screenplay by producing what they done as one. This is what draws me to this short, the inception style, of how the concequences of the writers brainstorming effect and coincide with the characters actions. This makes for an engaging story line watching the cause and effect of the writers in action and also the love interest of what the actual screenplay would of been about. I think its a clever idea and works really well, it incoorperates comedy with the seriousness of the actual story up until the very end. Its like there are infact two narratives which run along side eachother and then in the end cross paths to tie each story up and for that reason i really like it.

The second screenplay i enjoyed because of the way it engages you without the use of dialogue. It presents a boring mundane society and one mans escape from that. I like this short also due to the shot types used such as when the man is waiting for the bus at around 3 minutes, The style of everything in this piece is really nice, from the colour pallett used to emphasise the mundane lifestyle, The sound effects used cutting the silence and again showing the plain lifestyle the protagonist leads. As a whole it was engaging for me, it intregued me, for what is he going to do to to break this cycle, The way everything in the short was portayed to be so very basic and depressing. Finally i think i sympathised with the main character, despite his lack of words, him as a whole tells me so much, his actions his movements, at no point throughout the whole thing did my attention diverge from the wonder of this lifestyle, the acting played a big part in making this piece work so well.

Audience Research
My story portrays a innocent guy working his daily routine of getting up and going to work, however one day, on his break, he is sitting on a bench when he comes across a flash drive. Naturally my main character is curious so after work he takes it home to plug into his computer only to discover the contents of the flashdrive are infact of high level importants and has alerted two people obviously the good guy and the bad guys! at this point the guys friends are round and he is explaining what has happened and there is knock at the door (who do you think?) yes you guessed it the only people it could be, the bad guys! so after a short period of chasing my main character & friends, it winds up at an abandonded warehouse, what is he going to do? surely hes trapped!!! no, of course not the good guy has came to save the day and would you believe it just in the nick of time!

I researched some similar screenplays to mine and found a good comparison with channel 4's 'Top Boy' which follows the same gritty urban theme as what my short does. I believe that my short will also follow the same demographic as 'Top Boy' with the target audience aiming to be from late teens to young adults as these are the sort of people who could relate to the characters and their circumstances, especially with the use of slang in dialogue as what i would use. The phychographics would tend to be similar aswell, with the urban lifestyle and what would be deemed good music to the chosen demographic. I asked a set of media students on their opinion and they thought that my story could be relatable in the sense of bringing ordinary people like them out in to something extraordinary. A majority of people i asked thought that by using these urban, ordinary teenagers and putting them in a situation out of the ordinary, it would be a good as it has the potential to happen to them, like a fantasy. I tried to make my characters as relateable as possible using slang and the occasional swear word as this allows my target audience to sympathise and relate and therefore engage them into the storyline. In relation to my screenplay i asked a group of people in my target audience if the theme would be something that would interest them. The response was as i expected as a majority say that it would be a genre (crime, action) that they rate highly. One responsee said 'I would be interested in watching a short like this as it has a fast pace story line and with the action it would keep me watching' which was good news for me as he was a perfect fit for my primary target audience and even fitted some of the demographic and phychographics i tried to portray in my characters.

The theme of my short would follow technology in the flashdrive mixed with action, it would be like the film clockstoppers where an important piece of technology (time stopping watch) needs to be kept from getting into the wrong hands. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25808189) . To sum up ive used a current topic as my theme of the technology and then combined it with real people in their real lives which i believe would make a really good story.

Ive set my short in a more realistic setting of Gorleston with the terraced housing and more urban environment as people would relate to this a lot more and its not as over the top as clock stoppers. The character is in fact based on a close friend of mine whom of which actually lives in gorleston in the area where it would be set. I think by doing this and using a real person to base psycho and demographics on it is as realistic as it can get. For my idea ive taken the most realistic situation as possible, a local area and real people and their own values, and concocted it with a extraordinary situation to draw the audience as much into the digesis as possible. Technology as something which is developing all the time in this age and by using it my story again i think it could even be perceived as real and if i was to say it was based on a true story i dont think anyone would batter and eyelid. Tech is something you cannot avoid in this day and age and is more and more embedded in our daily lives with the introduction of smart phones and appliances and i think my story will make people realize that it is infact dangerous. Even recently (20th of January) a south Korean bank accidentally leak personal information of 20 million customers, and this is something which interests me with the danger of technology (

I would say that the screenplay in hand is a clockstoppers (with the use of technology and keeping it from the wrong hands) concocted with the channel 4 Tv series Top Boy (with the urban gritty setting and realistic characters and dialogue). With these to media texts i can relate to my short, The genre and narrative follows that of clockstoppers with tha action and sciencey techno-logic narrative agent to drive the plot forward. The character and location would be loosly based on Top Boy by using real people and their own values to the environment that they are in. The location is a real setting not made up by hollywood with special lighting a proper local area used everyday as in top boy and by drawing real local people again like TopBoy, it makes for a better storyline not like some fancy actor pretending to be something they are not.

Commissioning Prezi

Stop Motion Animation (Part 2)

George Pal
George pal the patienter of Pal-Doll stop motion animation was born in 1908. Pal-Doll was stop motion animation using figures with interchangeable parts to give them movement. After fleeing Germany from the Nazi's and moving to america, Pal created an animated series called 'Puppetoons' which won him an Oscar in 1943. George Pal later went on to work on an adaptation of Hg Welles The War Of The Worlds. 
Willis O'Brien
Willis O'Brien used a combination of stop motion and actual film footage to create films. He is described on Wikipedia as an 'American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer' . The greatest achievement in his career is the Classic King Kong which was made by blacking out half of a film and projecting the stop motion King Kong over the top to create a full composition. This was the first stop motion and live action collaboration making it very innovative.
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 theater). 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 puppet toons 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 the physical inspiration for Godzilla. In this film he invented the dynamite technique which he is still famous for today.
Phil Tippet
Visual effects expert Phil Tippet was the pioneer of the "Go Motion" technique. Phil was hired by lucasfilm (George Lucus) 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 of moving whilst the photo is being taken which removes what is called the staccato effect.
The Brothers Quay
The Brothers Quay are Identical twins who produced dream like surrealist stop motion films. They went to the Royal College of Art London where the love for surrealism was found. 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 pixilation techniques on actors but I will get into that later. 

Single Camera and Multi Camera

The essay im now presenting is about the single camera techniques and how they differ from multi camera. I will be talking about how footage is shot, how the lighting is used in single camera production, the pros and cons of both single and multi camera, in post production how the editing is changed in relation to the amount camera used.

Single Camera productions such as ITV's Benidorm or The Mighty Boosh are used for different reasons instead of using multi camera. During single camera production the camera moves around a set to create a more realistic finish as if it was a POV from someone who was there. The camera, scene and cast have to reset numerous times to capture the scene from differed perspectives. By having one camera it gives directors more control as each shot is set up individually consequently allowing you to shoot anywhere. Multi Camera is how you can imagine multiple cameras set around a set to capture the action in one take. This is a preferred style by most as it is less time consuming and captures the actors reaction better as it wouldn't be re-shot (like single camera) so the expression wouldn't change. Examples of the Multi Camera Production would be Eastenders, X factor. By having multiple cameras also allows the director to focus on important parts of the scene such as interviewees responses, or when people cock up in Britain's got talent.

Single Camera is realistically easier to light as again each shot can be lit individually. This Conveys more of the directors style into the production. By lighting each scene individually it gives it a more realistic intricate feel. For multi camera, the light must be sufficient for each camera so sometimes this can produce an flat, unprofessional feel and also making it look fake, showing that it has been filmed in a studio. Single Camera production shows each shot individually lit, with a key light angled towards the subject and a reflector as a filler which would be opposite the light.

Single Camera productions are filmed with an amount of overlay meaning the the film starts a little earlier than the scene needs to be in order to avoid any jumpy starts and ends. Sometimes scenes are shot with two cameras if they contain alot of dialogue. As with all productions any ambient sounds can be cut and chopped in post production with most people removing the ambient sound and cutting in a fake version of the same sound. Multi camera production is naturally easier to mic the characters as a lot of multi cameras allow mics in the scene to be visible such as match of the day where the mics are clipped onto their shirts. Usually the footage shot in single camera is layered up with one single take of the audio. It could be used with visual shots such as cutaways or and over the shoulder shots so you dont need to see the source of dialogue all the time.

single camera production is a case of filming the scenes specific to the location or when the actors needed are similar. This takes far more time to film due to the continuous movement of the camera and setting up. multi camera productions waste alot of footage, as all shots cant be used when in production. Multi cameras such as x factor or Britain's got talent both use a multi camera, so cameras can be switched with the aid of a visual mixer, like live editing, making it seem effortless and pre-edited on TV. Single camera productions cant do this due to the use of only one camera so editing must take place after filming. Alot of footage, mainly in multi camera, is shot and wasted when making a production and sometimes it can be a hassle to find a particular shot especially if the film is 90 minutes long. Single camera productions film the same scene many times over so the footage gathered has to be recorded, in the sense of where it is so none is lost. Shot logs are used for this reason, it basically is a list of shots that have been taken accompanied by a description of how well or bad it turned out. This is a good way to eliminate having to look through hours of bad footage and helps you keep track of what needs to be spliced together.

Single camera productions usually lends itself to the comedy genre, getting up close and personal with the characters in them. Examples of single camera comedies would be; My Name Is Earl, Spaced, The Office and Peep Show just to name a few. This allows the director to position the camera where he wants to emphasis certain points and use shots to convey jokes or comical scenes. Single camera can bring the audience into the scene really draw them in which would work in getting laughs in comedy. Miranda a comedy currently on BBC 1 uses the single camera technique really well and efficient in order to get laughs. Usually Miranda will break the 4th wall, when the protagonist makes a joke, and she cracks a joke to the audience by looking at the camera.

Multi Camera techniques are different from single camera in a variety of ways, with sound being the main one. In a single camera production the sound is edited to a master shot which would be a take of the scene, usually from a long shot. This shots sound would be the one used so that the other angles shot can be edited to fit with this audio. In multi camera production as everything is shot at once clips can easily be merged together and therefore no master shot is needed. Another difference would be the lighting as in single camera each shot can be lit to suit the scene but however multi camera is at a disadvantage as the scene has to be lit so that every camera is not over or under exposed, which sometimes gives an un-natural feel to the production. The best thing about multi camera is the way you can use the camera to capture all the action in one take from lots of different angles without the resetting up of things to capture it again. You can also use multi camera to create different types of shots not possible with a single camera, an example would be the bullet time shot ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDdxMBq2GW8 ) like out of the matrix. Unlike single camera another advantage would be that footage wouldent necessarily have to be edited then produced, it can be mixed live at a mixing desk to choose what camera is shown on TV, something used all the time in Britains got talent.

What Remains

The First difference between the script and the actual what remains episode, is the introduction of the character/episode. The Slug Line states that it starts with and exterior shot of the street, and the action is to show Melissa Young walking down it. however we start in the interior of her block of flats showing her walking through the door. I think they have decided not to use this opener as there is no need for it. it doesnt serve a purpose in pushing the storyline forward, we can get introduced and have the same inferences about her without the use of the scene. The action states -

'Thirty year old MELISSA YOUNG trudges slowly down the pavement, a plastic supermarket bag hanging off each arm. She’s a good four stone over-weight, the majority of it spilling over her belt.' yet we dont need this scene to show this as we can see as she walks through the door.

 

 

The next difference worth discussion would be the fact that her door doesnt swing shut behind her. I think that this addition hasnt been used as it is already tense enough with every other occurence and by having the door 'swing shut' would be a silly thing to add in as it would be to horror movie clichae. I personally think it would ruin the credability of the scene and just make it stoop a few levels by having a silly door shutting action like something out of a 60's horror.

 

 

The final Difference to be noted and probably the most important would be the the final cut of the flashback. Melissa pops her just through the loft hatch and instead of turning on the light and venturing in the loft, it cuts to a inferior shot looking up at the landing. an off screen dialogue can be heard from Melissa saying 'Hello..?' then the lights switch off. I think by switching the shots and instead of having her venture into the loft it creates more tension towards what is up there. cutting to black making it more scary and mysterious for the viewer. The shot looking up puts the audience in a position of been powerless to the force which is upstairs in Melissa's attick, which i think works alot better than having her scurry around the loft, where the inevitable is going to happen. By not seeing her venture further, it leaves the audience in discusion and mystery, like a cliff hanger to what is going to happen, yet if the loft shot would of been used then potentially you wouldent of had the intregue that the replacement shots do.

 

 

 

 



Stop Motion Animation (Part 1)

The Persistance of vision is the idea that an image can be retained in the retina for a 25th of a second, this is why we dont see black spaces between the frames in a movie. These devices below prove this theory as they take still images and turn them into moving.

Thaumatrope  - Johm Ayrton

A Thaumatrope is a device with an image on both sides ad when spun in quick succession the images merge to become one. The first image would be the one half of a full picture and the second half well.. the other half of the picture. The eye maintains the picture of view for a fraction of a second so when the device is spun it merges both pictures into one.

Phenakistoscope – Joseph Plateau

The Phenakistiscope is a disc shaped wheel with images running around the outside, these images are divided up by a series of slits. The disc is spun and if you look through the slits from the underneath of the disc into a mirror it reflects a moving image.

Zoetrope – William Horner

The Zoetrope is a wheel shaped like a pie dish with slits along the edge. Round the edge also is a string of images, usually a looped action and when spun, you look through the slits as again as the eye retains an image, it shows the looped photos like short video much similar to GIF files.

Praxinoscope -

The Praxinoscope is the IOS7 to the IOS6 of the Zoetrope, made in 1877, it replaced the slits of the Zoetrope with a circle of mirrors on the inside reflecting at a down angle towards the image on the disc below (like a Phenakistoscope). The image on the Praxinoscope made for a smoother and brighter picture. Progressive editions could allow for up to 15 minutes of film to be played consisting of 500 picture.

Kinetoscope - Tomas Edison

This is the most advanced device of all ive written about, its consists of a film which is run at 16 frames per second and view by only one person at a time through a peep style hole. The actual contraption is a box like object with a hole for viewing. As the pictures pass the whole it creates a moving picture.

Job roles in film and television

Is TV news a 'window on the world'?

 

The first inference too TV news being a ‘window on the world’ is the TV news starting sequence and the presenters. The main points of the starting sequence are, the use of iconography and connotations to show the news as a window on the world. The iconography used is the use of the globe which is used to infer that the news covers the whole globe, a window of the globe..? Next is the use of opaque overlays, whether if this is shapes or even a overlay of objects transitioning into other things (maybe or maybe not graphic match) connoting a ‘window on the world’ as if you was looking through one out on the world. This is why the opaque properties are used, as to mirror the effects of an opaque window! TV news sets are often shot with people casually working in the background of the newsroom, this is used to infer the honesty and realist values behind the stories and how the news doesn’t hide anything, hence why the studio is openly laid out. Tv news presenters are even used to connote certain values. Firstly the big desk and suit which implies importance of the news stories and makes it seem more legitimate. But.. before all this when a news show starts the reporter is  sitting at the desk which represents urgency of the news and how its presents from BBC the first source.

The legal and regulatory framework for TV news has been set up to create impartiality within news programmes and make more of the window on the world theme. It is in place to set guidelines for when producing news – for the BBC its called the BBC charter and for every other news show – Ofcom is the regulatory body.  By having these in place it infers honesty to the audience and makes the stories more believable if regulations are in place, however in the next paragraph I will show you how it is not so ‘impartial’.

News selection processes are the ingredient which ruins the pudding metaphorically speaking... it is the problem which means that TV news can never be impartial. Firstly news has to be selected by someone, so how can you decide which news stories carry more importance than others? OK now you have decide what news stories are the most important right..? wrong! There most important according to the person that selected them!! If you worked for the BBC news where over 40% of there news workforce were Oxford or Cambridge educated white British middle class, then that’s probably who selects the news you watch. So these guys have selected ‘what’s important’ but they may not carry the same values as a man recently moved to Britain from Niger and who would like to see how the famine which he has just been in has affected the rest of country but instead this other guy from the BBC decides that the 2% increase in fishing rod tax has gone up is a more important story, now you tell me what’s impartial. This does not agree with the opening question is TV news a window on the world? As how can the news show everything important from around the world when half of things that occur go into the dustbin of history because some middle class oxford educated guy has decided that they’re not important enough!   

When something happens or experienced then this is called reality, like its nice weather outside but the reality is I’m stuck inside doing this essay. If a news reporter decides this is news the re-create the reality using all editing techniques, this is called realism. So realism is not the same as reality is it? Unless actuality footage is being used in story then it’s going to consist of a other shots used to try explain the event. A news story consists of report structure which is used to try engage the viewer.  In fact news stories closely resemble the features of a movie which clearly aren’t real, so , how is it done?  The first is the narrativisation of the text using the shots to connote something to the audience; this is done through a series of movie style techniques. Firstly Cut-always, I.E. Johns just lost his house because of the recession, how can we make the viewer feel sorry for him? We’ll insert a shot of his little baby, although this has nothing to do with story it is used to make the audience sympathise with John! Also used in news stories is continuity editing, this is used so the viewer has a flow to the story again, like in the movies. John walks up to his house and as he looks through the window there’s a CUT to show his face peering through it. Basically what I’m trying to show here is that news reports are like films in the way they are constructing the text  to try indulge the viewer into the report  and by doing this its isn’t depicting reality, its creating an piece of realism but no matter what these are still different things.

Unless News Channels just have live cameras all over the place broadcasting 24/7 and hoping that something will happen, then there will never be an un bias pure slice of reality. News stories can never be too careful when trying to depict reality and cater for everyone in just a few stories, if a war broke out and the UK was divided with half for and half against the war then how would the news report on this? Where would you send the field reporters? And even getting interviewees and experts in, they must have a viewpoint? If the reporter said OUR troops half of the UK would not be happy and if the reporter says BRITISH troops then the other half wouldn’t be happy as the report is in Britain and it should be our troops. Its so controversial they way in which the news depicts reality and I don’t think everybody will be happy fully unless they are making the news their selves, which leads me nicely onto my next point..

With the introduction of technology news will never be subjective ever again as news can be created by the masses giving a broader spectrum of events. Only last week through the power of twitter a social networking site Beyonce’s sister, Solange,  organised a rally for Trayvon Martin the murdered teen who’s killer has been found not guilty. Only yesterday I found out that one of the stars of hit US show Glee, Cory Moneith, had died from a suspected drugs overdose, not through a news report, not on a news website, not on the radio but through people on Twitter. This goes to show what a powerful tool people are getting turned into through the use of technology, everyone and any given time has the ability to produce news, from on a smalls scale I.E. what they are doing, to giving live updates/photos/videos on events that may interest the world which can be broadcast from the palm of your hand to millions instantly. However with this I think I could cause some other problems especially with celebrities simply ‘using the power of one’. This is a bit like Hitler, sounds extreme but here me out, If a Celebrity gives their views on a particular event then fans of that person may follow their views and before you know it lots of people are preaching just because a figure has broadcast something which may influence them, this all sounds farfetched but if everyone is different just through one person creating news it could influence others beliefs, ill insert a picture to show you what I mean, but think of it more media like.

Throughout my opinionative essay I think I’ve shown that TV news is clearly not a window on the world and in fact it’s a TV screen on the world with the channels controlled by the media. TV doesn’t give you a slice of reality its more like a teaspoonful.