Screenplay Research

BBC Writers Room:

A bit about writers room

We know how hard it is to be a writer and we believe in finding ways to inspire and inform you, to keep you across changes, giving you access to commissioners and production departments but most importantly to the skills and and experience of established writers.

We are not here for the short term, we understand how long it can take for a writer to find that first and second commission, but if we think you have talent then we will do everything in our power to support and develop you for the long term

BBC offer various ways to help writers by offering them step by step tips on how to write a script. In addition they also help by letting writers download previous scripts to then gain an idea of how they need to write their scripts.

Who is involved

Kate Rowland leads the team and is the BBC's Creative Director.

Paul Ashton is the Development Producer, overseeing writer development, script calls and talent searches, development schemes, partnerships and production projects. Writersroom is one team sited in two places.

In the London office there is also a New Writing Coordinator, Website Producer, Assistant to the Creative Director, and Script Assistant; and in Salford there is a Project Coordinator.

Alongside us is a team of freelance professional script readers who work on the script calls, talent searches and competitions.

 

Here you can see that in 2011, strictly come dancing was the most viewed with 11,422,000.

A year later in 2012 you can see again that it is the most viewed programme.

However what we need is dramas and as you can see in 2011 and 2012, Eastenders is still in the top 3 of the most viewed.

Alongside with this Merlin has drama elements to it and is in the top 10  for 2011 and 2012 also.

 

As well as BBC 1, Channel 4 has to put up some competition and although they don’t have as much success in the views they still have a huge amount of views.

Unfortunately on the top 10 for channel 4 there are not any well-known dramas hitting the big ratings                    

Another competing channel is ITV1, Although these are seen as the main competitors to the BBC they still hit the same if not more views on their programmes.

For example the BBC has Eastenders as their main soap and drama whereas ITV has Coronation Street and comparing these two programmes they get around the same amount of viewers however in 2012 for ITV Coronation Street overtook I’m A Celebrity.

 

As you can see here Eastenders is on at 8pm on BBC 1 however its rival Coronation street is on twice in one night compared to once and its on half an hour before Eastenders and then half an hour after Eastenders. This gives viewers who like both to watch both soaps and count as a figure for the statistics.

Silent Witness:

Choices Part 1 and 2

Within the opening scene of this programme we see one of the main characters Ainsley Modest in his car with what we assume his fiance, they are driving to Ainsley's newly opened night club. When they arrive at the night club Ainsleys fiance runs over to who we think is Ainsley's sister, Simone, Ainsley then follows behind but notices a car move in the distance, he turns away but then turns back and sees the car window rolling down, an arm then appears from out the window holding a sub-machine gun and begins to fire at Ainsley and his nightclub in the background. Once the shooting is over the police are called and review that 2 are dead and others severely wounded.

The characters involved in this opening scene were Ainsley, Simone, Ainsleys fiance, Terry the doorman, The mystery gunman and also the others outside the nightclub.

The primary audience for this particular episode and the series overall would most likely be around the ages of 35-55, the reason for this is because younger audiences may not understand what is happening to engage into the series whereas older viewers can understand and also would be more interested in this series. In addition to this I think that both genders would enjoy this series however drama is predominantly a female genre but because of the crime element added to this series males would be enticed to watch this series also.

The secondary audience for this particular episode and the series overall would most likely be around the ages of 20 to the main target audience, again because any lower may just not be interested in the series whereas 20 is a decent age to say that they may be interested in watching. Again both genders because of the crime elements and because it is a drama.

I enjoyed the thrill elements to the gun shootings but also how the assess the bodies to see exactly how they died and then using what knowledge they have gained to guess who it was and how it all happened together. I would like to forward possibly the thrill elements as I would like to do a crime drama also like this episode.

The part I disliked was how there was a really big build up to the big gun fight and then they just get caught out and arrested which ruined it for me. I would hate to have a big build up in mine and then for it to just fall. 

Sherlock:

A Scandal In Belgravia

Within the opening scene of this programme we see what previously happened in the first series with Sherlock and John Watson trapped in a swimming pool place with Moriati. This then goes to John Watson blogging about eveything thats happening and then goes into a montage of different cases that want sherlocks help but he just sends them all away.

In the opening scene the characters involved are Moriati, John Watson, Sherlock and all the other characters who are asking for sherlocks help.

The primary audience for this particular episode and the series overall would most likely be around the ages of teens to around 30. The reason for this is because it has whitty humour which would appeal to the younger audience and also would seem more interesting to a younger audience. Both genders would also be interested in this programme.

The secondary audience for this particular episode and the series overall would most likely be around the ages of 30-50. The reason for this is because although the main focus is the primary audience their may be a minority or other ages that also enjoy the humour and other aspects to this programme.

I really liked the way the statistics were on screen and how the edited the 3D plane in when sherlock was trying to figure the puzzle out. I would love to incorporate this into my planning.

I did not enjoy that there were some parts that didnt need to be there which made the episode longer but did not make any point of being there for example they did not help with the story etc.

Casualty

S27. Ep.16 - I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus

During the opening scene of this programme you see Dylan walking into work just outside the hospital when it begins to snow, he then stops outside the hospital and places his hand out and starts to feel the snow on his hand it then cuts to the hospital.

In the opening scene is just one chacracter who is Dylan.

The primary audience for this programme would be around 20 - 35 year olds, the reason for this is because there is some gore which younger audiences would not want to see and also the timing of this show is fairely late for younger audiences also. Also both genders would enjoy this programme.

The secondary audience for this programme would be over 35s, the reason for this is because although the main audience is 20-35 year olds older audience members still may be interested and enjoy this programme.

I really liked how there are more than one thing happening in the episode which really enhances how busy hospitals are and how much they have to deal with on a day to day basis.

One thing i did not like about this was there was some parts that did not seem that they were created well for example there was one part which seemed that you can easily see that they are acting and it didnt look very well.

Edge of Darkness

Compassionate Leave

In the opening scene of this episode, Ronald Craven was assigned to the union case which involved the miners voting on whether they wanted to switch to nuclear power or not and James Godbolt was having a fued with Craven because he is complaining to Godbolt about the votes they have recieved.

In the opening scene there are two main characters who are Ronald Craven and James Godbolt.

The primary audience for this programme would be around the ages of 30 - 50, the reason for this is because the protagonist tries to represent the viewers by being a parent and knowing how much they care for their child and how lost they are once its gone.

The secondary audience for this programme would be younger audience members, the reason for this would be that they still may be interested in what parents go through to look after their children and the pain they feel if were gone.

I did not like this programme because i feel that it is outdated compared to what i was use to growing up with also because it is outdated it was filmed in 4:3 whereas its 16:9, in 4:3 you cant see as much which would be better. In addition to this i think that it was too slow which meant it lost my attention.

Eastenders

18/12/2012

Within the opening scene of this episode, Alfie was with his child Tommy going through a little christmas present box pulling out plastic glow in the dark stars and telling Tommy that when they glow he will be thinking of him and the scene finishes with Alfie telling Tommy he is sorry.

In the opening scene there is Alfie Moon and Tommy Moon.

The primary audience for this programme would be 25 - 35 year olds, the reason for this is because its on at reasonable times throughout the week however soaps are usually for parents which is what the primary age range is.

The secondary audience however may not be parents but may be younger or older than the main target range, this is because there are some teenagers that watch eastenders and also some older people that also watch this programme.

I did not like this programme because i feel that it is too cheesy and you know what is going to happen, it has a linear storyline which never really goes anywhere. It is still modern because it started a long time ago but the series is still going. It is also filmed in 16:9 which is good compared to 4:3. In addition to this some of the characters are easy to read and overall are just too simple.

Understand the requirements of working to a brief

Understand the requirements of working to a brief

When receiving a brief from the media industry, it could be received in various ways. Firstly you could receive the brief by it being outlined in an employment contract from the industry you are going to be working for, such as written work for publication. This would be known as a contractual brief. An example of this would be Bring Me The Horizon asking for a specific director to create their new music video.

 

Next, you may help the client by working with them to discuss and finalise the aims and objectives of the brief to then complete the brief. This is known as a negotiated brief. An example of this would be a production company asking the BBC to create a new programme but the BBC asking the company to change a few minor things to then finalise the idea.

 

In addition to this organising a meeting with the client to outline the company’s requirements for the production would be known as a formal brief. An example of this could be a company calling a meeting with an advertising company to discuss what they would like in the advert and how the advertising company could make it happen.
 

Production companies could also call you or send you an email and discuss the requirements of what they would like; this is known as an informal brief. An example of this could be a production company calling you to discuss the requirements you need to become an editor for their company.

 

Some briefs are sent to several companies via post or email and inviting you to respond to their offer with your own ideas. This is known as a tender brief. In addition to this when entering a competition you will be provided with a brief explaining what the client wants you to deliver. An example of this would the competition E4 holds every year to create an E4 ESting. The brief for this competition shows that you need to create a video no longer than 10 seconds with a nice creative flair to it but also to use un-copyrighted material. The prize for this competition is to get your ESting featured on E4.

 

When we was given the E4 ESting brief, it stated that we needed to create an ESting video which was no longer than the 10 second limit but also the video must be posted on a blog and then send E4 the blog address. In addition to this the brief also said that we should research their brand first to understand the audience we are aiming for but also to make sure that they would prefer one really good ESting to three okay Estings as you can submit up to three each year.

 

The brief demanded the video to be finished and sent by the 9^th November otherwise the entry would not be counted because the deadline has finished. Everything on the brief which was mentioned was very important because this is the requirements E4 has given for the ESting to be submitted but also to make sure the ESting is suitable for showing on their channel.

When we received the brief we then had to negotiate it with our tutor by asking for her assistance on the ideas produced and if they would be suitable to the brief we were given from E4 and if not how we could amend these ideas to suit the brief and create a unique ESting.

 

Within the brief E4 had given us we were allowed to read the brief via the E4 website which then also shows the terms and conditions of the competition also within the brief we were not allowed to change or twist anything because this would then break the strict rules that E4 had given. In addition to this the brief E4 gave was strict because of the 10 second limit and uncopyrighted material but we were allowed to use any ideas we wanted and show our creativity.

 

When creating the ESting there would always be constraints in a production, one of these would be legal action if when creating the ESting we used copyrighted material such as a soundtrack but E4 were kind and gave the competitors some sample soundtracks available for download on their website. Another would be the regulatory companies such as Ofcom because E4 would not be able to show the ESting if does not accompany the broadcasting codes because if they show a violent ESting during the day this would then break the Ofcom broadcasting code.

 

Once the ESting was created, we uploaded it to Youtube and shared the link on other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and received responses from those websites as well as creating questionnaires to pass round to friends after watching it and also using an online survey. In addition we then received feedback from the class and used this feedback as a focus group. Once all the feedback was received we then acted on the improvements to our video by recreating the E4 logo and trying to place the E4 logo better in the video to make the final part of the video look much better.

 

As we created a stop motion animation using real people we did not use any of the budget for the Claymation models however if the college did not have the correct equipment then this would have impacted our production hugely because we would have then needed a HD camera as well as other equipment.

 

In addition we did not get extra on the timescale aspect as the deadline for the ESting was the 9^th November and if it is not submitted by then your video would not be entered. We only had around one day to get the ‘Punch’ video filmed and edited the other we was trying to amend the  space invader video.

 

As well as having these minor occurrences the conditions did change because we had our minds set on creating the space invader idea but because this idea did not work out we needed to create another idea in a very short amount of time.

 

When given this brief I thought the idea of creating a stop motion animation would be very difficult but after having practice first I then went ahead in proceeding to get this video completed and looking at its finest. When creating the film I learned that it is vital you get sleight movements then take another picture otherwise the film jumps and it looks really bad, you want the film to flow smoothly and make it look as realistic as possible. Now I have created this film I am confident about creating stop motion animation films and know that if I needed or wanted to create another video I could and possibly make it even better than before because practice makes perfect.

 

Throughout this unit I have learnt new skills such as camera placement for doing a live action stop motion animation, this is because I now know that you need to include the whole body of the person you are taking photos of and not cut parts off as it ruins the effect of making the impossible possible. Again if I decided to create another stop motion animation I could use this feature.


 

When creating this film I think I did have to multi skill a little because I needed to take the pictures for the space invader idea as well as helping sam organise where the helpers should move to and when creating the punch film I also did the same by helping take the pictures of alex and tell him where to move.

 

My contributions to this project brief were that I said we could use one of the soundtracks E4 have made available to avoid legal action by using copyrighted material. In addition to this I also suggested changing the idea for the space invader idea but then when conditions changed and this idea did not go ahead, I helped suggest ways to develop the punch idea film into a good stop motion animation film to enter into E4s ESting competition.

 

 

 

ESting Evaluation

Here you can see a few screenshots I have taken, the first one on the top left hand side is a screenshot taken from the YouTube comment section on our video, and we received mixed opinions on our video. One comment said “it was a bit confusing in places”, from this comment we could have made our video a little better by making sure the viewer’s understood what was going on in the video to then get better feedback. Another comment said “I think that it’s a great stop motion animation and was really effective considering the time you did it in”. This really helped us as we get the feeling that viewers did enjoy our video. The time part of the comment was because our first idea did not work well, because the people that signed up did not show up to the time we asked them so we could film our space invader idea.

 

The next screenshot is of my post on Facebook trying to get all my friends to watch the animation video via a YouTube link and then to fill in the questionnaire I posted after. From this I can then gain their opinions on the video from a survey which I created on survey monkey. I received one comment on the Facebook post of “good” which means there is another positive response to the animation video I produced. The next screenshot shows my two tweets I posted onto Twitter to see if my followers would watch my animation video and also again to fill in the survey monkey questionnaire. Unfortunately I did not receive any responses from Twitter but I checked my survey monkey account and I can see from the analysis page that I have received eight responses to my questionnaire on this website, but also I have created some paper base questionnaires which I have handed around to some of my friends but also my family members that did not see it on the websites I posted on such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

I received mixed responses from the paper based questionnaires some of the responses were really positive and that the viewer enjoyed the video whereas one viewer did not enjoy the video and suggested some improvements on the video. This would then benefit me as I know what I can change in the video to produce a better video and try to make the audience enjoy the video more than the first time. We then had the class be a focus group and give more feedback on what was good on technical, aesthetical and creative levels. From the feedback we received from everyone we noted down three positives about our video and what the audience enjoyed the most and we also noted down two improvement suggestions which would make the video much better overall.

One positive comment we received was the continuity throughout our video, this was a good piece of feedback because we wanted to keep the continuity consistent to ensure the video looks its best as well as trying to make the impossible possible because this is the main aim when creating a stop motion animation production. This piece of feedback was for the aesthetic level so we know that the video did look mostly good throughout, unfortunately the one part that did let down the whole video was the E4 logo at the end, it did not fit properly around the character and also the key framing could have been a lot better, but because we was running out of time to get the video completed we did rush this final part which did ruin the video. If we would have spent more time on this part of the video we could have made it look much better and also make it move smoothly. This would have then boosted the aesthetic level of our video more.

Another positive feedback response we received was the 180 degree arc around the two characters just before the big punch, the audience thought this was a good feature added to the video and it set the scene of an intense fight, this was a good part on the technical level because of the camera movement and camera placements to make this 180 arc happen. I really enjoyed this feature of the video because I think it does set the fight scene, and it also mixes different camera shots. The final part that let down our video was that the audience felt that there was not enough impact when the punch happened, which I totally agree on I think we could have made it much more unrealistic to represent how hard the character was hit, this would then have increased the impact on the audience.

Part 2 evaluation:

As you can see this blog post is the format I have chosen to evaluate my animation video and also to show how this video was working to the brief given. This blog is a written report which is the way I find easiest to evaluate my productions instead of using a presentation or a viva voce. In addition I will also be adding quotes from the feedback received to my report as well as adding pictures onto the post.

When creating this production there were constraints we had to face the same as any production one of which was legal action, the reason for this was because we could not use any copyrighted music as we would face serious legal action, the way we overcome this problem was we visited the E4 website and used one of the songs they provided on their website. This way it was usable and we could not get sued for copyright as it was on their website for fair uses. Another constraint to our production was regulatory companies such as BBFC and Ofcom.

The reason for this would be that if this was to be aired on E4 BBFC may need to review this video and give this video a rating, on the other hand Ofcom have their broadcasting codes which means that if this video was to be aired that we would need to meet the requirements for it to be aired, such as not having lots of violence in the video if this video was to be shown during the day. Finally we also had to overcome financial issues, the reason for this is that we had no budget for our production, but if the college did not have the HD cameras available and the editing software already purchased then the production would have been a lot harder to film.

During the production we needed to manage many things to make sure the production ran smoothly but also looked aesthetical. The first part that we needed to manage was our time. We was given a deadline for when the production had to be filmed and then another for when the whole video had to be finished.

For our space invaders production we managed our time very well by spending half of the time scouting locations for the production and also getting people to sign up to help out, and the other half we spent trying to get the production filmed but there was setbacks, as we could only film for one lesson a week which was hard to do. In the end we did not get enough footage to continue with the space invader idea so to still meet the deadline we created a whole new production in one double lesson.

Everyone agreed to meet the deadline and also knew how long they had to film and get the video finished. The deadline was met with our new and final production the Stop Motion Animation Punch. We did not plan to fit the whole production in at last minute, but because the space invader idea did not work out we needed to create a production in that one day.

When we did get to film the space invaders idea, I needed to focus and make sure that everyone knew what positions they would be in and also make sure that they know what they need to do, I organised all the people that turned up into the space invaders format, and also made sure the camera was set up correctly. Once everyone was in position, I then went up to the camera position and helped Alex keep the camera in place and take the photos, whilst Sam was with the helpers and leading them in which way they need to go after the picture was taken. Alex and Sam communicated on the phone whilst I was suggesting ideas to Alex to then tell Sam.

When the space invader idea didn’t work out, I was in the punch production at the beginning and then myself and Sam took the photos of Alex jumping and also in the different camera positions. Our teacher did like our first idea but because it did not work out she was fine and praised our newer idea.

We received mainly positive feedback but also with minor improvements which would make the production better. I gathered information from many resources such as paper based questionnaire, online survey and social networking sites. I have learnt how to animate stop motion videos and also through this unit I have demonstrated the skills to animate, but also how to create claymation models all this this could be helpful if I wanted to pursue a career in animation, but in my opinion I do not like animation that much.

ESting Planning

 

Planning our own ESting

Our idea for an ESting is a live action stop motion animation space invaders game. We would be having a wide open space such as the college gym and then having students move around up the top as the bricks for the game. We would then have a student at the bottom for the turret of the game moving and firing students at the bricks at the top. When a student has been hit we will make them disappear into a piece of clothing. Once all the students are gone the game will be completed. For this project we would need many students to participate as well as a wide open space to film in and also the camera and necessary equipment to ensure the camera is focused at a bird’s eye view on the game. We will also have the students make sounds when they are shot or just add a space invaders theme song to the video.

E4 is a side company to Channel 4, but has a difference as E4 is largely aimed at younger audiences compared to Channel 4. Most of the programmes which are shown on E4 are highly demanded programmes from the US. Some of these shows include "Scrubs" and "Desperate Housewives". However there are many programmes which have been seen a hit which were created not in the US, such as "The Inbetweeners" and "Misfits". E4's main target audience they aim for are for teenagers to young adults, for example around the age range of 15 - 25. E4 was created to produce programmes for the younger audience and to show something different to what Channel 4 shows. As ratings have proved to show this was a huge success as the target audience watches the most favourite shows such as “Skins”, “The Inbetweeners” and “Misfits” on a regular basis, these shows are only a few of many that are a big hit on E4 and have high ratings at a constant rate. In addition word of mouth and social networking helps out E4 because of the target audience they have, viewers post about the programmes on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter but also tell their friends about these programmes which helps boost up ratings for the programme and the channel, this then brings a wider audience in for the channel which could help other programmes become popular and or help create new programmes based on what the viewers want to see and what they enjoy seeing. One rating shows that a massive 3.7 million viewers were watching E4 when “The Inbetweeners” was on.

Our ESting is going to be created by the target audience so we can relate to what viewers would want to see on E4, also our ESting would give the viewer’s memories of a game they played in their childhood which would relate to them even more which would give the ESting a huge advantage.

The idea for our ESting would be suitable because it suits the main target audience which E4 are aiming for but also it gives the viewers a sense of their childhood back which could bring back memories and good times of possibly when they have played space invaders or watched it being played. Having the target audience teenagers and young adults is good because it could be easier to interact with as the ESting is being created by the main target audience for the target audience.

We did a location scout for our ESting and we have decided to use the college gym, it has a wide open area in which we need and with the correct equipment we can easily get the camera for the birds eye view in which we need it to be. The only down side is that the gym is used regularly and maybe in use the times we need to use it for filming. If this occurs too many times we may need to change location.

We scouted the location we wanted and found out that there is a few periods in which the gym is completely empty this was a good sign for us as we could then use the gym without any interruptions. Once we found out when the gym was free we went to find the head of department to get their permissions to use the gym in the free times and to ensure nobody else could book as well as us. We then took a few test shots of the gym trying to ensure the perfect position for the camera and jib but also the perfect angle in which the camera could face to get more of the gym in and enhance the space we have to use.

Here is one test shot we took. This shot was almost perfect as we almost got all the gym in but sadly there was a sleight part of white wall which we really dont want, in addition to this the camera is slanted, this was a big problem because we was trying to even out the tripod and jib but it just kept moving down and then going slanted. To overcome this problem we touch the jib handle just a little to keep it in place but also to make the camera straight ahead and not slanted.

Here is another test shot we took. This shot was the best shot out of all out shots we got, this is because this shot shows basically all the gym with a sleight exception of a piece of wall, other than that you can see the whole gym floor which is what we want and we could get the most use out of, also in this photo the camera is completely straight which is another good thing.

We began our filming in this location, and we did actually create most of our stop motion animation is this location which we originally wanted but unfortunately luck was not on our side as when we originally planned to film on the Wednesday that the gym was free only half of the people that did sign up to help out turned up so we had to go find some people very fast and time was not on our side as we needed more people and had to try and get most of this animation done in one lesson.

By 9:20 we had a few more people and began to film because we really couldn’t waste any more time. Everyone was in their positions and we were taking many pictures then we needed to get a jacket so use as the gun shots. We took around 60 photos overall at the end which in fact isn’t even that much as we needed around 120-30 because we were working at a 24 frames per second production. We decided we would try again the Wednesday after to get the other half of the photos we needed, we attempted to get more people in case others didn’t turn up this time.

The Wednesday came and nobody turned up to the gym so that was our production over, we needed more photos and without any people this wasn’t possible. We then had to come up with a whole new idea for our production and in the end we decided to have a small fight with a big punch at the end and then have the E4 logo behind where he was punched. We got all the photos done in one double lesson and we were so close to finish the editing in that double lesson also.

Myself and Alex came back at lunch to finish the editing and get the film done by the deadline. But again the editing software would not recognise our PNG file I created and we couldn’t understand why. We tried many different things but in the end we had to save the image as an Adobe Photoshop PSD file, and then drag this file onto the editing timeline.

We then needed to change the blending options as there was a white background on the image, once we did this we then attempted to key frame the E4 logo around Alex and to keep it in the center.

This worked well but it could have been improved a lot but if the editing software had worked in the first place then this may have been an easier job to do.



Slenderman Test Footage

Here is just a short test video of my slenderman moving, this 3 second clip consisted of 36 frames and was mainly testing to ensure that my claymation character would move nice and smooth. This test was successful as my character did move smoothly and if more frames were added then the film would have been longer and more movements could be added, but as I said this is only test footage. If my character did not move correctly in the full film then i would have to retake some frames to ensure that my character moves efficiently but also so make sure that the illusion of animation is given correctly, this would then create a better finished product. Another thing to remember if my character does not move correctly is that only small adjustments are made otherwise there will be a big skip which will then break the illusion. As you can see from the video i have minor skips, this is because i did fairly big movements but i can improve on this in the real film.

Here is the two pictures of my set design for my main animation video. I have chosen to set the scene in a dark gloomy forest, the reason i chose this is because the character i'm using is usually hidden in dark places and a forest gives the viewer a scary background to set my scary character in. I have also chosen to shade the trees because i want my main film to be in black and white because this will keep the gloomy effect but i may also had sleight colour correction to make some parts brighter. In addition i think the black and white effect would be the best to use for my film as it suits the scene but also will keep the effect i'm going for. I would use brown coloured paper to create the tree trunk and the scrunch up some green coloured paper for the top of the tree and use dark brown clay to stick the tree to the floor. I may add some more brown coloured paper for branches if the trees on their own look to bare. I also tried creating the trees so they look 3D this would then be good as I could have my character creep in between each tree getting closer to the camera. As you can see one is drawn and the other was created on Adobe Photoshop. I drew the first one just as an outline as to what i wanted and then recreated it on photoshop to make it look better but then also to add alot more detail onto the set design.

 

Character Designs

Character Designs

Name: Chubby Slenderman

Alias: Slendy

Age: Unknown

Occupation: Unemployed

Goals: Stalking people to creep them out and scare them

Movements: He mainly uses his feet to walk behind his prey but can climb trees and other objects with his tentacles to avoid detection.

History of animation

  

The Thaumatrope, which means "turning marvel" or "wonder turner", was a very popular victorian toy, the toy consisted of a piece of card with a picture on both sides attached to two pieces of string. Once the string is twirled fast the two pictures combine into one due to persistance of vision. It was mainly used for entertainment but was less interesting when modern cinema was developed. The invention of the Thaumatrope is usually credited to either John Ayrton Paris or Peter Mark Roget.

Persistance of vision was the theory that the eye would maintain images for a fraction of a second. This would then mean that images we see are a subtle blend of what we are looking at now but also what we have just seen.
Frame rate is the frequency in which an image is shown, the faster the frame rate the more smoother the image will appear. There are three main standards in which are used in TV and film these are 24p,25p and 30p. Low frames per second do not show the illusion of moving images efficiently. 

Stop-frame animation is a form on animation in which makes inanimate objects appear to move on their own. When creating this effect the animator takes one picture, moves the object then takes another, this process is repeated until enough pictures are taken to then put together and create the animation. 

You could also use plasticine to create stop-frame animation this is known by a different name called 'clay-mation'. Example of this would be Wallace and Gromit. Animation 'works in 2s', what this means is that only 12 frames show in every second of motion.

 



The Zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a fast paced sequence of still images. These images are hand drawn and or painted onto a white paper strip which is then placed within the inside of the Zoetrope. Then the viewer would look through the small slits in the zoetrope to then see the illusion of motion from the still images. 

William Horner was a British mathematician and invented the Zoetrope in 1834, this was a very popular palor toy until modern film technology. Horner originally called the device a daedalum, which means "wheel of the devil." 

This device is similar to the Phenakitoscope. The Phenakitoscope is a device which is one disk attached to a handle and on the outside of the disk are the different drawn images with equal size slits in between the images, once the disk is spun the images appear to move due to persistance of vision.

This device was invented by Joseph Plateau, a belgian physicist in 1832. Plateau was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image.
The way Plateau discovered the illusion of moving images was because of his invention the Phenakitoscope, without this he would have never found out.

The Praxinoscope was a successor to the Zoetrope, like the Zoetrope this device also used a strip of images inside the cylinder of the device. The reason the Praxinoscope improved on the Zoetrope was because it replaced its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors. This then enables the viewer to see the images in better light and more clearer than the Zoetrope.

The Praxinoscope was invented by Emile Reynaud, a french science teacher in 1877. He was also the first to show cartoon films on a public screen. The main idea for the praxinoscope was to amuse young children. Reynaud's most famous animation was the trapeze. 

Edweard Muybridge was an English photographer and was most known for his work in motion picture projection. He then immigrated to the United States and in 1874 he shot and killed Major Harry Larkyns, his wife's lover, and was acquitted in a jury trial on the grounds of justifiable homocide. 

Muybridge was hired by Leland Standford in 1872 to research if all the hooves of a horse could be off the ground at once. He proved Standford right but also created revolution for motion picture photography. Muybridge is known for his horses as he proved Standford's theory.

The Kinetoscope was known as the motion picture exhibition device, the original idea for the Kinetoscope was for the person using this device to see the motion picture through the viewer at the top of the device. Unfortunately only one person at a time could view this motion picture. The Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard of all cinematic projections. In 1894 the first exhibition was given of these devices, there was ten in one line showing the same motion picture. This device was invented by Thomas Edison in 1888. 

Thomas Edison was an American businessman as well as an inventor. Edison held 1,093 US patents to his name. In addition to inventing the Kinetoscope, Edison also was credited to other inventions to do with telecommunications such as stock ticker, recorded music and motion pictures.

The Lumiere Brothers, Auguste and Louis, were the earliest filmmakers in history. The brothers worked for their father at his photography firm, it wasn't until their father retired that the brothers began to create moving pictures. The brothers did not stop there, they invented the device called the Cinematograph, this device was a motion picture film camera as well as a film projector and developer. The cinematograph itself was patented on 13 February 1895 and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.The cinematograph was the start of the revolution of motion. pictures.

George Pal was a Hungarian-born, American animator and film producer. His most famous animation was the series called the puppetoons which he created in the 1940s. The puppets for the series were carved and in each frame the puppet would change, the process for this is called replacement animation. In addition Pal then turned to live action filmmaking and created The Great Rupert(1950).

Willis O'Brien was an Irish American special effects and stop motion animation pioneer. Willis O'Brien helped create so many well known film, for example King Kong(1933) and The Lost World(1925). O'Brien won an academy award for Best Visual Effects in 1950, this was just a small recognition of what O'Brien had done for the animation industry. He was also hired by Thomas Edison to animate some short film with prehistoric a theme.

Ray Harryhausen was an American visual effects creator but also a writer and producer. 'Dynamation' was his brand of stop-motion animation models. Harryhausen's most famous work was the film Mighty Joe Young(1949), this film won an academy award for special effects, in addition this film he created with special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.Harryhausen draws a distinction between films that combine special effects animation with live action and films that are completely animated 
such as the films of Tim Burton.

 Jan Svankmajer was a Czech filmmaker and artist. Jan is mainly known for his surreal animations, these then influenced many other people for example Terry Gilliam. Jan gained reputation for the use of the stop-motion technique but also how he made surreal yet funny images. Jan usually creating animations of inanimate objects and giving them life was a different approach to stop-motion but worked so well.

Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twins, they are more known by the name of Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers.These brothers are known to be infuencial stop motion animators. According to the brothers Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer is cited as a major influence even though they did not discover Jan's work until very late on. Jan was such an inspiration they even named one of their films after him called 'The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer'. Most of their animation films feature puppets made of doll parts and other organic and inorganic materials, often partially disassembled, in a dark, moody atmosphere.

Tim Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. Tim has created so many well known films but his main well known ones would be 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'Sleepy Hollow'. Tim has created many close friends since doing films one has been actor Johnny Depp and another was musician Danny Elfman. Burton has directed 16 films and produced 12, as of 2012.

Aardman Animations is a British animation studio which is based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is well known for Wallace and Gromit, which are stop motion animation films made from plasticine characters. In addition it entered the computer animation market with 'flushed away'. As well as Wallace and Gromit, Aardman also created the hit film 'Chicken Run' and the short TV series called 'Creature Comforts'.



In the cinema there have been many animation releases, some good, some bad. In the earlier days most of the animation releases were not shown at cinemas but just small gatherings of a projection of the film. In 2010 'Pinocchio' , a stop motion animation film was released and was a big hit even though that stop motion is not used that much anymore and computer generate images is taking over.

TV animation is mainly used for childrens cartoon programmes, which are very interesting to children of all ages and are very well prepared before being shown, some are simple but are the most attractive with characters the children enjoy watching. On the other hand there are animation programmes that are not for children such as family guy, american dad and south park, although they are not for children they still have a huge audience watching these animations but the best would be the simpsons, this programme has been going on for absolutely ages and is still going today but has improved since the programme began.

Channel Idents are used to promote the channel the ident is on, they do this by doing a short speech of the channels name or showing a short video with the name of the channel on, and either during programmes or after programmes. For example BBC One have many short videos to promote themselves.


Animated music videos are becoming increasingly popular as they are a lot cheaper to produce compared to live action music videos, in addition to this some of the most simplest animated music videos can still be very popular. Most official lyric videos are simple animations in the background and then the lyrics appear on screen. On the other hand 'Gorillaz' use animated music videos for their songs and lots of people enjoy them.

Stop motion animation in mobile phones. Stop motion animation within the phone industry can be quite useful as there are apps but one app in particulaer called 'Stop Motion Recorder', this app allows users to create a stop motion film on their mobile with little effort.

Stop motion animation in websites. Stop motion animation is occassionally used on websites to promote competitions or channel idents. This is a simplistic form of promotion but can be very effective.