The brief I choose was detailed as shown, The Animation in it’s was created by me and someone who has since left the course. The poster and review page was created by me only;
A short film in it’s entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action of animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
A poster for the film
A radio trailer for the film
A film magazine review page featuring the film.
In terms of the construction of the three following I felt more confident making a double page spread and a film poster as I have studied the main ground forms and conventions for the construction of these mediums. As my course work last year consisted of creating a double page spread and a front cover for a music magazine, i felt that what i had gained from the researching and creating these would help me in the creation of the poster and review. The Poster would consist of the same elements as an advertising film poster seen on billboards; the review would contain the same forms as a review in a film magazine. It would either act as a promotion of write off of the product, containing pictures and analytical content on the product. The decision on which brief to choose was probably one of the easiest, I knew from the start that I wanted the challenge of creating an animation, learning the process and developing my skills to be able to capably create a stop motion animation. The idea of creating a short film was something I was already drawn to before seeing the brief, stop motion animation had always been in my plan for things to learn and do. As a photography students as well, understanding visuals and the importance of a single frame seemed to be to be a good skill to transfer and apply to stop motion. I began to draft ideas and think of different way I could combine my skills to create the best short film. One of the first ideas I came up with was portraits of different people all experiencing different emotions and changing facial expression, I would then turn this into a stop motion to show the contrast in people and emotion. After reflecting on the idea and getting further into planning I realized that a story would be very hard to develop from this idea. Having researched a lot into Pixar and their works for a case study, I remembered that they key to animation is making inmate objects seems alive, with emotions and thought processes. The idea of making a dinner table come to life and everything on the table experience the romance for them selves, not the couple about to eat the meal came to my mind and everything started to fit. I begin to set out characters and story boards, a process which I normally find hard to do. I never seem to be able to fill storyboards with enough detail to look constructive. This time I felt like I had enough ideas and really managed to create come constructive and effective storyboards. After I had the idea sorted and drafted I realised I needed to gain more knowledge on the look and feel of stop motion, I spent some time observing animations to see how they flowed and they way the camera captured the story. Looking at the different examples I realised there was a simplicity in the camera movement whilst shooting, most of the movement seemed to happen on cuts this was obviously to keep the camera smoother and easier in the flow. I discovered that stop motion animation can work in two different ways; you can have animation that works in ‘2’s’. This is basically the term that describes animation that works in 12 frames a second and ‘1’s’, which is animation that works in 24 frames a second. 2’s is the animation style that is used by amateurs, 1’s is the style that film such as ‘A Night Mare before Christmas’ would use. With this in mind I looked to shoot our film in 2’s, it requires less time and is a little easier. It might not flow as much as shooting in 1’s but I felt as thought I should take precautions and play it safe, it was a decision that was influenced by further research into tutorials and etc… I realised from the research that it’s a challenge to shoot in 1’s. One of the major decisions I had to make in the construction of the animation was what we should actually film, after starting and getting a good start we realised that it was a lengthy and hard process and we had to think about cutting some shots. This decision was hard, but I looked through my storyboards and stuck to the main shots with the others left for add in. This decision worked out perfectly as i soon lost time to shoot. The one main thing I have learnt from this process is that planning is key, even more important than live action. Getting storyboards and you’re shots right is vital as it takes a lot longer to recapture a certain shot. For my film poster, my research took me to different examples of Holly Wood blockbuster films. Although my short film is intended for a different audience I realised from my research that advertising for the audience I wished to attract was non existent. I used these examples as a building block to develop and use the conventions they set out. Choosing a front for a poster is the key detail in my opinion, the primary image will always attract attention but a font needs to be readable and carry a good representation of the film. My font decision was lead by it’s likeness to Pixar and Disney styles, I knew this would carry a good reputation and relate to well understood and loved institutions. The review page leads me into some very difficult situations, I knew that last year I was unhappy with the layout or my double page spread, for my music magazine. So this year I focused on adding more detail and creating more structure to the page. I looked in heavy detail scanning a magazine called ‘FILMSTAR’, I was looking mainly at the pages structure and how the layout covered the page. The main thing I gained from this is that last time I didn’t keep any control to the text; it looked as though it was floating free. This time I developed and followed closer to the conventions, keeping text bordered and contained.
The media package as a whole, I feel serves as capable and successful advertising for my media product. The main focus for my work was to keep to conventions and make everything looks as professional as it possibly could. The reason I did this was to open my eyes to the actual media and get a strong and creative feel for how it is actually made. Challenging the conventions is a process I felt was always needed, like last year with my work I focused solely on creating something different and new and ended up missing the point of my brief. Yes I had created what was asked but I hadn’t gained any useful knowledge on that particular medium and how to work in those way, only how to work against them. I realised this year that focusing more on the medium and working to its standards and expertise will teach me what I need to know, to feel confident enough to go out and create the same product but for an institution will money benefits. I thought practically to the way I wished to approach my work, working with the forms and conventions to gain a better feel for the film industry and the conventions of its advertising. Taking an analytical stance on my film I can happily say I am truly pleased with the outcome, overall I feel it serves well in all aspects of the critical key concepts when analysing a media text. The genre was based on the feel of a 1930’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers sequence, the essence of these characters and the romantic elegant feel is in my opinion captured very well in my short film. A decision I had to make was if black and white would suit the film style, as the look we aimed for was from a 1930’s concept, when at this time everything was in black and white. The decision was made to shoot in a lower saturation colour with intent to see if black and white had any profound effect in the post-production. As the production came to an end and all that was left were some finishing touches, I made a decision to stick with the film as it was, in the low saturated colour. I felt that some of the romantic connotations with the pink and red and the depth created by the colour would have been lost, it seemed as though the film lost the atmosphere it had with colour. With stop motion animation I realised that it was going to be very hard to excel in terms of story telling, I knew that the film would be about visuals and character emotion and impression. I made a clear cut decision form the very begging that a key element to success would be that I stick to Todorov’s narrative theory, a theory shared by most stories a reflected consistently in fairy tales and fables. The construction of the story reflects this theory;
Equilibrium: Happy couple dancing.
Disruption: Male gets caught up in dance with other character. Female gets upset.
Solution/ Realisation: Male Realises and goes to see her.
Return to equilibrium: Male and Female dance off happy.
The narrative theory has given me structure and a simple story line easy to create and capture in stop motion animation. This allowing for me to concentrate on the elements that will create the emotional impression and audience response such as visuals and sound that will create the true story to the film. Analysing the animation I have realised that the key decision that needed to get right was the music. The song chosen, L.O.V.E- Nat King Cole is what truly creates the emotional response and brings together all the elements to get the audience response of joy and happiness I aimed to create. The decision process took me too many different artist such as Frank Sinatra and more, but Nat King Cole definitely had the sense of passion and also ‘Dance’ that I was looking for.
The movie poster in it’s self is something I am very pleased with, the outcome was what I wished to achieve. As I mentioned, this time I wished to follow the forms and conventions to gain a better understanding in how to make realistic products so what I learn and create will give me a good stepping stone if I ever have to create a real film poster. This medium particularly, was the area I wanted to pay most attention to as the forms tend to be legal requirement. The poster contains all the elements of a high blockbuster poster and gives of the impression and effect the poster should have, noticing the image as primary and title as secondary. I have learnt a lot form this construction and will be able to apply all of it to my future works. I have developed a considerable understanding for the forms and conventions and taken careful consideration to minute details, apposed to challenging the conventions. This approach is more practical and has taught me a lot more, still allowing my self to be creative with the visuals and text size and shape.
Taking the same approach and careful consideration to the magazine review page, I really wanted to gain a better understanding for layout and structure. I went out and actually bought a film magazine to carefully look at all the forms and the structure of the pages. As I already knew from last year the review page will tend to be 70% images, so this is where I would usually start. What I learnt from last year is that my page had no structure or control; it all looked messy and unorganised. So I developed my knowledge further and took a different approach, I began to layout all the sections of the page with simple designs of 3 lines in parallel with equal spacing. This allowed me to keep a constructed area for text and images, I have learnt a lot more this time round about how a magazine is planned and laid out. One thing I really developed this time was my skills in the pre-production, planning and sizing up the page. The text colours and image work well, I am very confident in my skills with the visual side of things, such as images and colour choice. It tends to be my skills with layout and planning where I lack, but this year I feel I have definitely developed this downfall.
To compare my film to an existing media product is a hard comparison, the line of media and target audience I focused on aren’t exactly money making or profitable films. My research took me to short films made by the generation of online social groups that exist due to the revolution in the internet and web 2.0. The idea and concept for my film was that it would be of a similar nature to a youtube viral. This is why I found it difficult to express the film in a film poster, as my particular film wouldn’t be a wide release, it was a decision that I considered and decided that I should just approach the poster as though it was a block buster. Creating a accurate and appealing poster to complete the media package.. The research I carried out at the beginning lead me to many different examples of stop motion animation, I took this research further; looking into the institutions that publish and create these works. In terms of the film it’s self I focused on an institution called ‘Tandem Films’. This web site and company structure gave me a great insight and developed my understanding of how animation can be used, things like advertisements and short web viral for certain sites. When filming I made the decision to proceed as though I was filming for this company. Animation has always been a big passion of mine; I have studies Disney Pixar (Mainly the Pixar side of things) in a lot of detail. One thing I have learnt from my studies is the reputation is even more important than representation. I used this knowledge and applied it to my film poster, the film poster was probably where I paid most attention to audience and institution, seen as the posters job is to attract and convince audiences to see the film. I took into careful consideration ways to influence audience and gain their attention; reputation was something that struck as an idea that would build a good appearance for the poster. I spent time researching Pixar posters with an aim in mind that the reputation of Pixar and their know ability to make please films would influence and persuade audiences. The decision was left mostly with the font, I focused on different styles and different conventions that would help gain this representation and I saw that font was a key element. The font choice was based solely on the thought that the reputation of Pixar and Disney would be a great selling point for the film. One main conventions and form that almost every film carries maybe one that I Disobeyed, most films in the modern age tend to carry a money orientated purpose, this then creates mode of address and attractions placed deliberately in a film to ‘attract’ audiences. Well known actors and actresses, ‘representation’ to attract the audience. This was one, very key convention that I decided to avoid and keep away from, I left my film as a story and what it is. I didn’t consider audiences as I was making it, I didn’t think about what they want to see and how I could interest them. I made a short animation, a story that was in it’s self hopefully the attraction to audiences. This process and way of thinking taught me that making what you wish, the way you want to, adds a sense of realism and added creativity to your work. It may seem a contradiction to what I stated about institutions, but the aim with the institution was to still create a story they loved for what it was, with no purpose other than being entertaining and to show a story. Obviously I couldn’t take the same approach to the film poster, as its main purpose is to attract audience and sell a film. The way my audience would receive the film was something I wasn’t completely focused on, I knew that there would be no representation of social groups or of people at all. So I wasn’t really considering any emotion effect, or social issues the film might raise, I was fairly confident that it didn’t have any at all. The overall reception in my opinion is hard to describe, a common reaction tends to be the ‘Aaawww’ response, I’m not sure the exact word for this reaction but it seems to be the most common. An overall happy and impressed feeling seems to be put across. A decision that I discussed earlier, about the atmosphere of the film being likened to a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers dance sequence was something I also had to consider when thinking about representation. I knew from my research the audience age range would be around 17-24, it wasn’t as though I was aiming my film to them. As I’ve mentioned the youtube community is a mass community with different interests and hobbies, a social site that contains many different groups. My aim was to make a film that could be viewed by any age and any gender and gage a pleasant and good reaction from them. After some post research feed back I feel as though I have succeeded in this task, as a video intended for youtube I knew from the start that word of mouth was going to be the main advertising the film would be subject to. Youtube is a site that operates its success on the social community’s ability to create interest through word of mouth. The feed back I have received comes from all ages and all genders, saying how it appealed to them and they enjoyed the simple story and the general nature of the film. A success that was fuelled from research into a certain auteur, ‘John Lasseter’ a man who claimed the success to animation comes from the life you give it.
“Character animation isn’t the fact that an object looks like a character or has a face and hands. Character animation is when an object moves like it’s alive, when it moves like its thinking and all of its movements are generated by its own thought process…. It’s thinking that gives the illusion of live.”
Posted by Elliott 
Elliott Steel 