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.