Monday 19 November 2012

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.