Wednesday 26 November 2014

aardman










Aardman Studios: Wallace and Gromit.

For each character they have their own animator and for each animator they have their own assistant animator which allows the head animator to help the assistant create their own character so once the assistant know what they're doing the animator will leave them too it and then once the characters have been created the animator will put them into set and start to film.


For the sets they (the creaters) of Wallace and Gromit put groups together to create the sets so that each set can be created in time for the next scene to be filmed. For each Character they use a small frame so that it's easier to do they stop-motion so that they can move the characters slightly every time they take a shot to film. This saves time as it means that all the Assistant animators don't have to always have to create new charters that have slightly moved for each and every single shot that has to be taken for the film. Using the frame will allow the animators to only swap the heads over as they can always touch the character as it may smudge the clay or their finger prints will show up.



Aardman used different cameras for different scenes as some cameras may work better than others in different lights, or another camera may work better when something is moving constantly in one movement for example: the car scenes when Gromit drives Wallace's car chasing after the Ware-Rabbit.


















ADVERTS FROM AARDMAN STUDIOS:




Cadbury Creme Egg:


 This advert was created in 2013 for the new Creme Egg advert.

This is a Stop-Motion Animation becuase you won't see a creme egg move standing up on its own. as you can see and if you were to look at this advert on youtube or on the TV you'' be able to see how much time and effort has been put into this animation.
 The Target audience for Cadburys Creme Egg would be between the ages of 16-24 years of age.

In order to create this Stop-Motion Animation; the animators would need:

  • Tri-pod
  • Camera
  • A lot of Creme Eggs.
  • Remote Control Car with a spatular and cake mixers attached to the car.
  •  String
  • Remote Control Helicopter.
  • A Set to film on


When you look at the images I've used as examples show whats happening throughout the stop-motion animation. You can see the Creme Eggs, Remote control helicopter and car.















Advert for Brazil World Cup:


 This advert was created especially for the world cup.                       This is a stop-motion animation as you can see because the characters are made of clay which ables the animators to make the characters flexible enough for them to move the characters to take all the shots they need to create the animation.


The equipment that would be needed:

  • different colours of clay in order to create the characters for the animation.
  • paper to create the plane and the map of thew world in the background.
  • Also a car, football
  • laptop.


As you can see in these images it gives you an idea of what goes on in the music video. The target audience for this advert is for those who love to watch football.













National accident Help Line "Underdog":

This advert is a Stop-Motion Animation which is based around accidents. The target audience for this advert is for those who have had an accident and don't feel they've been treated right by their insurance company.

The equipment that will be needed:



  • Tri-pod
  • Camera
  • Clay
  • Red Ribbon
As you can see in the images on the side it shows a description of what the Stop-motion animation is like, it also shows the email and phone number that should be called incase of an accident.


animation timeline



Thursday 20 November 2014

genres of documentray

Participatory Documentary: When film makers get involved in the film and change the dynamics of the film. This is because they know different ways to heat up the documentary.
One of the examples that we used for the presentation was films by Michael Moore, a lot of his films he likes to contribute as he tests the people involved.


Poetic Documentary: Poetic documentaries often move away from the objective of the film as it is more of an artistic film. The majority of the film is visual imagery you will find that music is used more than speech to add to the artistic feel of the film. As the film is poetic you will find it will all link together to show the story as that is what a poem is all about.


Expository Documentary: This is a documentary that you will find you will have mainly a film with a narrator over the top who will directly speak to the viewers in a defined voice that draws the viewers into the film. There is a strong use of rhetorical questions that also draws the viewers into the film. David Attenborough is a prime example of a distinctive voice who can draw people into his programs because of the tone of his voice, he sometimes makes an appearance into the film but not very often.


Observatory Documentary: The film maker will tend to follow people around with a hand held camera to observe a persons lifestyle, you don't have interviews involved in the program/film because its about a persons life and there daily tasks and how they manage things. The film maker will tend to use basic shots such as, Pan shots and Extended shots to get a sense of it being a natural part of there lives. A prime example for this would be Teen Mom as you get to see how there lives have changed since 16 and Pregnant.


Performative Documentary: This is mainly re-enacted scenes as you might not be able to go back to what happened and the person might be permanently damaged from what has happened so they would have to re-enact it so that the audience could get the sense of the situation and how the people who were involved narrate the situation. This would also dramatise the film so it would draw people in to the film. Touching the void is a prime example of a performative documentary as they had to re-enact to get the effect of the programme.


Reflexive Documentary: In this type of documentary you will find that the director will cast himself in the film, it shows a first hand narrative to the story because they have experienced it and they know what they want the film to be like as they have been there and want to show people what happened. An example for reflexive documentary can be All this Mayhem it is a skating film which shows how the documentary was made with the director being involved and narrating how the film was made throughout it.

act of killing case study

The Background When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands. Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organization that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers, and they are happy to boast about everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of genocide.

What is the main genre of this documentary (describe and explain)
With this documentary I found that the majority of the film was observational as there was minimal communication between the film maker and the audience. Joshua Oppenheimer would use long takes of the scenes to show how some of the events affect the people participating in the film from what has happened in the past.

Are their any sub-genres (critically evaluate other sub-genres and describe why it fits into these categories)?
Another genre used in this film was performative, they re-enacted events that had happened in the past and how the things they had done happened. It made Anwar Congo (the main person in the film who was an ex-gangster) by re-enacting the scenes of what he had actually done understand slowly over the 8years of filming the effect it caused to people. Performative documentary is quite personal to the people who are involved in telling the story.
Reflexive is also a sub-genre for this documentary, it was a representation of their community and how they feel that their community should be treated.

What relationship did Joshua Oppenheimer have with his subjects? 
Joshua had learnt the native language of the country he was going to which helped him to be able to communicate on a social level with his subjects, but by Josh learning the language i recon that the people who he was working with would have respected him for that and one of the things that would have helped him trust him a bit more than others. Joshua also spent over 8years getting parts for his documentary so it would have meant that he would have spent quite a bit of time with the people so friendships would have formed over that time.

How did it help/hinder the documentary? 
When filming this documentary Joshua went to the country wanting to find out the facts on what actually happened but because Indonesia is such a close nit community it would be hard for them to let out the information that Josh and his team needed. Joshua realised that he wasn't going to get what he wanted out of the people by going and asking questions so Joshua had to re-think the way he was going to find out information and because the people in that community always liked the idea of being a movie star, by offering them the opportunity to re-enact what happened in the past for Joshua to be able to get the information that he needed. After Joshua doing this it helped him to form a relationship with his subjects after that.

What was the relationship between the documentary and reality?
At the beginning of the documentary Anwar Congo wouldn't show any remorse to what he had done in the past and when talking about it he would talk about it as if what he had done wasn't wrong at all.  Towards the end of the film you see that because Anwar was starting to show that it by him re-enacting the film it was really starting to effect him and he finally started to let his guard down about how what he did to people did actually effected him.

How did the documentary represent its ideas?
In a general documentary you find that there is normally a variety of visual and audio components, in this film there isn't any narration its just the people in the form telling there story, there was hardly any interviews involved in the film as it was about the people making there film and how they were going to do it. Because there wasn't any footage of what they used to do they had to re-enact it so it was quite dramatised as a whole. Instead of using music in the film they used silence as it made you think more about the realisation on what they were thinking.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

questions in documentary

Questions for Charlie

1.     What is your view on the sport?
2.     Where did the sport originate?
3.     What are the similarities between different sports, such as skateboarding?
4.     Would you ever consider taking the sport up yourself?
5.     What’s the history of the skate park?
6.     Why do you enjoy the environment of the skate park?
7.     What does it mean to you?
8.     How did you start skateboarding
9.     What’s the financial situation on the sport
10. What’s the reason you do it and why do you enjoy it

 Questions for harry 


1. What are your currents sponsor situation?
2. What strives you to continue the sport?
3. Why do you enjoy it?
4. What does the skate park mean to you, and why do you go there?
5. How many injuries have you had?
6. How much money do you put into the sport?
7. When do you see yourself stopping the sport, and why?
8. How did you start the sport, and what motivated you?
9. What’s the history of the sport and how did it begin?

10. how has it become so big?

props and mise en scene



mise en scene: 

decor - this is based on the setting and how the events in the locations are significant. i am filming it at the skatepark so it is in keeping with the style of the documentary.

lighting - the lighting will be difficult to control as the whole documentary is not outside, so it is all depending on the weather on the day, so we will most likely wait for a sunny day to film it.

costumes - we will not be using costumes in our video, we will just be wearing everyday clothes as this is what is most comfortable when riding, and no costume is needed.

locations - the locations that are used in  my documentary are very important and a massive part of the miss - en - scene, i will be having many different locations in my documentary such as my house for the interviews and all the different skateparks i will be filming at.


Sunday 9 November 2014

stop animation formats

Claymation (wallace and Gromit)Claymation was trademarked in 1978 by Will Vinton. Claymation is a type of stop motion animation, a time consuming process in which the subject is moved, then shot, the process is then repeated one frame at a time. Claymation was based for children as it is something that would attract them to watch it as it was something 3D moving. Wallace and Gromit was a very popular movie for children.




Paper cut outs (South Park)
cutout animation is pretty much what it sounds like: cut out shapes on a flat surface, and manually moved and repositioned to simulate animation. Cutouts can be coloured paper, white paper with drawings on it, even photographs, and can be completely flat or sometimes be 3D objects.
The target audience for cutout animation is also children/teens and south park is a prime example of cut out animation.

Sand (Twinings Advert)
Sand Animation is a term which has two meanings. It is the name given to a style of live performance art and to an animation type. A sand animation performer will often use the aid of an overhead projector or lightbox.



Lego (Death Star Canteen)
Lego animation is a type of animation where you can shoot on stop motion moving the object gradually to get it to move like you want it to so you can get a smooth moving film at the end but takes a lot of time.









People and Objects (Kindle Adverts)
With this type of stop motion it is an over head camera taking various shots of someone lying on the ground moving slowly by each shot. the target audience for this type of animation format would be someone over 20 who is interested in a different type of advert and of it being mature with adult products.




Animation is a popular type of media as it is very creative and often uses a lot of colour, this really appeals to audiences because sometimes programs lack in colour. It attracts children more than adults as they are more of a cartoon feel to them.

Sunday 28 September 2014

The Act Of Killing


The genre portrayed in 'The Act Of Killing' is a hard one to estimate, as in my opinion it has more than one. I think that the main genre of this documentary is observational however it also contains a lot of performative elements. The reason i think it is observational is that there was not much sound or music included in this documentary. The film maker may have used this as a tool to make it more mature and serious as the subject that the documentary is on is quite a serious one, however as it was more about gaining information about how they killed the communists which is why it was more performative as there was re-enactment and interviews with the people who actually committed the killings.      

During the process of filming 'The Act Of Killing' the director: 'Joshua Oppenheimer' must have had an interesting relationship with the subjects as he was interviewing them on a subject that is brutal and for his subjects to share that information with him must have meant they had some kind of relationship if they were willing to share the information on how and why they killed all those communists and go into detail and even show methods and places where they committed the killings says that they trusted him and in scenes of the documentary you could tell that they had a close relationship as they are laughing and joking and they are comfortable with him there filming them, and it almost seems like they are not even bothered about the fact about how they killed all these people as they are joking a lot of the time and laughing and saying how they would do drugs and drink alcohol after they committed it and dance it off. This had an imapct on the documentary as it made it more honest and truthful as the subjects were giving truthful answers on how and why they killed the communists and they made it seem like it meant nothing, like it was an everdaything which made the documentary more interesting in the sense of it makes you wonder how rthey can kill al those people and still live the lifes they do which was shown in the dcoumentary, and how they show the re-enactments and joke about it is a strange way to talk about it.

The relationship between the documentary and reality is an interesting concept to think about





Friday 26 September 2014

evaluation of stop motion animation formats



1. Whiteboard -
                         A whiteboard animation is quite simple, draw lots of different movements on a whiteboard, after being shot on istop motion it will look like the person is moving in the animation, this is an easy way of animation but just takes a lot of time. For example in our version we have done it so Harry draws the stickman then he fly's off in to the sky, this took us about ten minutes to film and draw.

WWW:
-this animation was quite easy to accomplish, in the sense of it was easy to create
-the outcome of the animation was successful
-it looked like the stickman was actually alive

EBI:
-in one of the shots there is a finger in the shot, would be better if that wasnt there
-if the drawings were a bit more professionally drawn
-the the drawgs were done more colsely so the shots came out smoother



2. People and Objects -
                                      People and objects is also a very easy animation, it en voles the use of people or parts of a person, like hands or legs. On istop motion you basically take a photo on each different movement that happens, for example we have used fingers, kicking a piece of paper that is meant to be a football, I would say out of all of the animations we have done this was the simplest is filming and setting up, and overall took us 5 - 10 minutes.

WWW:
-in this animation it successfully looks like that the paper is being kicked by the fingers
-the animation had smooth transitions inbvetween each shot

EBI:
-there is a someones hand in one of the shots, which was shot by accident
-if maybe the background of the clip was more proffesional
-if there was better matirials used for the ball



3. Claymation -
                          Out of all of the animations this is the one were you can be the most creative because you can do what ever you want with clay. It is also one of the easy methods of animation if you do it simply, is you do it more complex it can be very hard and a lot of effort. It is basically made by making what ever out of the clay then moving or changing the clay a tiny bit.

WWW:
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Wednesday 24 September 2014



THE EXPOSITORY MODE (voice of god) 

Expository documentaries are documentraies that expose a person or a topic, it is a classic form of documentory, one of the four main types.
Expository documentaries are well known for having a commentator, talking over the pictures and videos explaing the documentary as it goes on, for example 'Planet earth' a documentary presented by David Attenborough ijncludes this particular version of documentary in it.


THE POETIC MODE – subjective, artistic expression

the poetic mode stresses the lyrical and emotional aspect of the historical world it sacrifices filmic conventions for example, continuty editing and a situated time and space, to explore associations between images, objects and patterns.


THE OBSERVATIONAL MODE – window on the world 

the observational mode attempts to observe aspects of the historical world as they happen, usually they have no voice over commentary they also don't have sound or music, there is also no interviews and social actors act as if there are no film makers there.


THE PARTICIPATORY MODE

the participatory mode documentary is the complete opposite the the observational, as the cast of the documentary are very much involved in the documentary, it also involves participation of the filmmaker as well as the social actors 






THE REFLEXIVE MODE – awareness of the process



THE PERFORMATIVE MODE – filmmaker as participant 

Wednesday 17 September 2014

conventions on news programmes

the codes and conventions of a news show

codes are systems of signs, these create meaning. codes are most commonly divided in to two catogories, technical and symbolic. the technical codes are all the ways the equipment can be used to tell the story in a media text, for example the paticular font and the size of the font in a news paper.
symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. for example the size of the the text in a newspaper, to show its importance.

things you'll expect to see in a news show

-studio news readers
-actuality footage
-eye witnessess
-links to the studio
-mode of address to the veiwers
-interveiws
-report structure

a brief overveiw of a new readers job description


to present in depth research to a broad brief. to write material for promgramme scripts, bulletins and links maintaining professional journalistic standards. to interveiw and then report the situation in live situations. to prepare and present bulletins. to present live and pre recorded radio news and current affairs. to organise and develop programme ideas and finally to provide briefings for reporters.

overview of a newreporters job

news reporters also known as journalists gather information and keep the public up to date with current affairs and important events they gain informatin from sources such as, personal interviews, news briefings and question and answer periods in which they meet governer officials, they then relay it as news. Newspapers, magazines, television and radion depend on reporters to keep up to date with current events.

brief defenitions

links to the studio - this is where a reporter will invite another member to the show and the shot quickly moves to another location, mostlu abroad.

modes of address - the mode of address is the way in which the reporter will present the information to the viewers.

reports structure - an example of a report structure:
cover sheet: title/course title/module number and title/name of team members

title page:full title of project

contents page: should be comprehensive

intro: page long, the purpose behind the report

main report: include the ways in which you got the information, results and conclusion

reference: how and who you got your referances

actuality footage: this is the live footage used in the news

documentary formats

expository: this mode of documentary is more easy to watch, becuase it follows much less strict conventions

observational: this type of documentary is only shot through a singular camera, its aim is to enhance the the reality through its shots.






Thursday 11 September 2014

ideas mind map *5

idea 1
my first idea would be on the charity 'make a wish foundation', when doing this idea my animation would have a child at his or hers window making a wish before bed, when she is making a wish on her knees a shooting star flies past in the sky, the shooting star will have the 'make a wish foundation' logo following the shooting star.

idea 2
my second idea would be on the charity 'cancer research', my idea would be to have the logo pop up on and then the 'R' is then crossed off and replaced with the letter 'L' once this is done the word will then say cancel the idea is that it implies to cancel cancer and then a happy face will then come up below it.

idea 3
my third idea would be on the charity 'children in need' my idea would be to have a young child in a dark corner crying and then 'Pudsy' the bear (children in need bear) would go to the boy or girl and they would hug the bear and it would light up, and the darkness would go away, saying that the charity brigs light and happiness to young children.

idea 4
my fourth idea would be on on the charity 'child-line' my animation on this charity  would have a young child in a corner crying as his parents argue and then the phone rings and each ring it spreads more light until the boy's parents stop arguing the it is no longer dark, as the phone from the logo which is child-line has made his life better.

idea 5
mi fifth and final idea would be on the charity 'Alzheimer’s Society' if was to do an animation on this charity i would first have a slogan come up saying 'Alzheimer's the charity you'll never forget' and then an elephant would blow water on the logo as elephants have a reputation to never forget.


My final choice 
as i have to pick one for my idea to do as an animation for charity, i would most likely do the make a wish animation, as i believe what they do as a charity is really heart warming and amazing, how they give sick children a chance to live there dream, and how they give them hope where they think there is none, as i said i would most likely do a child wishing upon a star which turns out to be the make a wish foundation logo.


Tuesday 24 June 2014

Archive task


Archive Task

Archive Task -

Mine and Harry's music video is unlike no other, so I'm happy to say that is pretty original, no for this task there isn't really much we can look up as there are no other music videos like this.
So instead I looked up 'edits' of scootering which is probably as close as I am going to get in terms of finding a video that is close to our own.
As me and Harry both do scootering it was pretty easy to make our music video ideas and pretty easy to find inspiration for what we wanted to do.

Example 1:
                   - The Brendon Smith Video -
                                                                  This is my first example and it is one of the edits that inspired me, the video ends up being 12 minuets in length. The song's choices are Lights by Ellie Goulding and Power by Kanye West, so the songs are pretty chilled out compared to the song that we are using in our video.













Example 2:
                  - Jake Clark AOS V3 Deck Promo -
                                                                            For my second example I have chosen a video that is a little different, a deck promo which is basically the rider promoting his product (the deck) and showing off what he can do with it.
The song is a lot like the song we used (dub-step) the song is 'Nina Simone - Feeling Good (Bassnectar Remix), this inspired me as the song choice is similar.













Example 3:
                  - Matty Ceravolo - Day in the Life -
                                                                           For my final example I have used this video because it is a video about what happens over the course of a day in this one guys life (: gets up, has breakfast, goes out, rides, etc), I have chosen this because this is sort of the same concept as our video as it tells the sort of a day with our main character (Harry), although there are similarities there is no song used in this day in the life that is the main difference.




6. charity research



The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization founded in the United States that arranges experiences to children with life-threatening medical conditions. if i was to choose this to do the animation on my idea would be to have a child at her or his window on there knees making a wish, and then a shooting star comes past and then make a wish logo following it.

source - http://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/




Cancer research is basic research into cancer in order to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatments and cure. If i were to do an animation on this i would have the cancer research logo and then a pen would cross out the letter 'R' and then it would be replaced with the letter 'L' making it cancel as if to say cancel cancer.

source - http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/




BBC Children in Need is the BBC's UK charity. Since 1980 it has raised over £600 million to change the lives of disabled children and young people in the UK. If i were to do a animation on this charity i would do it so there is a child in a dark corner crying and then 'Pudsy' the bear (children in need bear) would go to the boy or girl and they would hug the bear and it would light up, and the darkness would go away. 

source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/childreninneed




ChildLine is a free 24 hour counselling service for children and young people up to their 19th birthday in the UK provided by the NSPCC. If i were to do my animation on this charity i would have a young child in a corner crying as his parents argue and then the phone rings and each ring it spreads more light until the boy's parents stop arguing the it is no longer dark, as the phone from the logo which is child-line has made his life better.


source - http://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Alzheimer’s Society is a  United Kingdom care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers. If i was to do an animation on this charity i would first have a slogan come up saying 'Alzheimer's the charity you'll never forget' and then an elephant would blow water on the logo as elephants have a reputation to never forget.

source - http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/



my final choice - as i have to pick one for my idea to do as an animation for charity, i would most likely do the make a wish animation, as i believe what they do as a charity is really heart warming and amazing, how they give sick children a chance to live there dream, and how they give them hope where they think there is none, as i said i would most likely do a child wishing upon a star which turns out to be the make a wish foundation logo.