Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief

E4 and the Brief

I have been doing a lot of research on E4 on all types of different topics. Things I found include that the owner of this national praised TV channel is 'Channel Four Television Corporation' which was founded in 1982, E4 however was not launched until 18th January 2001. Upon further research I found the two most viewed TV Shows on E4 are 'The Inbetweeners' and 'The Big Bang Theory' both of which have a large and strong fan base and are adored by fans, other popular and common shows you will find on E4 include 'Tattoo Fixers' 'Coach Trip' 'Celebs Go Dating' and many more. 

Currently in 2017 E4's Primary Target Audience is more towards female housewives than men and the aged of the viewers is more often than not between 16-34. Below is a shot of the Audience at a 'Live in Chelsea' showing which is a very popular reality TV show along with a profile chart showing the averages of views in terms of age and gender.

Next I will follow up on the last point my going into detail on E4's secondary target audience. On top of E4 playing TV dramas with long story lines, plot twists and a lot of drama they also tend to play and have aired some really great comedy shows that have been adored by all types of people ranging from teenagers to older people who love to laugh and with these shows E4 provided that. An some examples are the TV shows 'The Inbetweens' and 'The Big Bang Theory' have received mass amounts of love and support as well as high ratings, 'The Inbeweens even to 2 spin off movies with both being extremely successful.

Another interesting thing I found about E4 was the other channels they owned and the other target markets from those channels. There quite a few to I will analyses the main and most popular ones. Firstly, I am going to look at Channel 4 with is often called the 'Sister' to E4. It is another british public service television broadcaster and it started almost 20 years before E4 was lunched, its Primary Target Audience is a mixture of all adults, 16-34 and there is slightly more female viewers and male.



E Sting
A E sting is something that a channel will play between the adverts and the program, it works as part as a introduction back into the program and partly to let you know what channel you are watching so similar to self promotion.

I liked this ESting due to its bright attracting colors and interesting imagery as well as a clean and sharp showing of their logo, they also made a compelling beat to go along side with the animation. I believe the target market of this ESting is teens as it shows eye catching images and satisfyingly shapes. 






These EStings are very unique as once they are placed together you can see they are based on doodles shown by the paper background and simply characters, also these EStings are a lot more humorous than most. The target market for these EStings is children as that is who the charatars and humor is appealing too, furthermore it is played on the children TV channel/website.



This particular ESting is the most interesting and bezar one out of this list as it shows to the almost full extent of what Stop Motion Animation and Computer Animation can do. It shows multiply objects moving simultaneously and doing this that would normally be impossible.
The target audience for this ESting would be to teenagers and adults as its attention grabbing and once you see the E4 logo at the end its likely you wont forget it. 

Here is a list of my current experience using animation including the first ever types being thaumatrope, praxinoscope and a zoetrope.





Next I will embed my Lego animation.


When creating this piece my intentions where to experiment using Logo as well as using a dubbed voice over and syncing it the the Lego pieces month using drawings of a month showing the appropriate shapes. It was a enjoyable process as I didn't find syncing the audio to the video too difficult although I am aware it could have been done better, working with Lego was not as fun as I thought as I felt limited to what I could create and the way the characters moved.



The following videos are of my live action Stop Motion and my Inanimate object animation.   


When creating this me and a classmate were experimenting with using people and stop-motion which turned out the be a more of a different experience than using objects. It was also I very enjoyable process but turned out to be a little more different in terms of keeping the camera is the right places and walking around correctly in the animation was more challenging than expected. We also set out to make it seem as the person had super natural powers which I was pleased with how it turned out for our first attempt but I know we could have done better.






For my Inanimate object animation I was once again using objects rather than people but this time I choose to focus more on the characters, story line and moving objects with no audio. I was trying my best to make it seem as if the mouse was alive searching for food, climbing around and having a good time but this turned out harder than I thought as I struggled to make the mouse move in a realistic way and show emotions. However, I was pleased with my animation I found I had the most fun doing this piece.   


For my final E4 ESting project I will be using Paper squares to display numbers and shapes such as E4. After seeing several extremely creative videos online of people using sticky notes to create animations I was inspired to try it myself. Also I felt as if using an object was the best for me personally as I could take my time and work at my own pace and get fairly creative.

Research and Planning: Designing an ESting

Designing an ESting

1. For my proposal I am going to be doing a stop motion animation using white and purple post-it notes and a time-lapse. 

2. My plan for my ESting would be a bundle of purple and white post-it notes scurrying around then joining together and making the E4 logo. 

3. It will be in a world where post-it notes can move on their own and have personalities, they often join together to create things.

4. I believe I will face quite a few difficulties when creating my ESting, firstly we be giving the impression that all the post it notes are alive, then it will be creating the E4 logo but I believe I am able to do it and lastly I will have to depend on the weather for whether I can shoot my ESting outside or if the wind/rain is too strong I will be reformed to doing it inside.

5. My target audience for my ESting would be to the younger audience as I believe its not going to be extremely funny or exciting but will be seen as interesting and unique to a younger audience  

Below is the relevant planning paperwork for my ESting.

Budgeting: My total cost for my ESting with £0:00 due to the college providing me with the props required. 

Animation Evaluations

Step 1


1. Here is my final submission for the E4 ESting competition.


  





Step 2

1. For the evaluation and feedback proportion of my E4 ESting I will be using a written report, this is due to the many benefits of a written report and written feedback including me personal being most comfortable with writing my reports up on blogs or word documents, also for people responding to my questionnaire in a written format makes it easier for me to send it around as well as them being able to go into much deeper detail for example reasons why and how they felt about certain things. Furthermore a written reply is great for the questionnaire as it makes much it simpler and effective for creating graphs and statistical charts. 



2. Once I completed my project and was satisfied with the project it was Publicly uploaded to the Colleges YouTube channel which it was seen by people browsing the channel and I was also able to create a copy of the URL or a embedded version of the animation which I was also able to place within my blog and email to the appropriate people for feedback. Other ways I consider sharing my animation was through social media websites/apps such as Twitter or Facebook but I felt it likely was not going to each the age group I was appealing too. I also had the option to post my animation onto a short film viewing websites such as 'Vimeo', 'shortoftheweek' or 'annietfest' but felt the same issue as not appealing to the correct age group as well as most of the sites requiring a up front cost to upload your films which I felt it was unnecessary.

3. When it came to how I was going to distribute my work for feedback via questionnaire my options were limited as I needed to get the responses in a reasonable time and the questions also needed to be answered professionally. This made me shy away from spending it to random people via social media so I opted to use my personal connections and lead me to create a email chain filled with people who would appropriately answer the questions I provided. The audiences I asked was a mix of male and female with multiply of each students and teachers. Here is a list of the persons I sent it too;

The questions I asked for my feedback are as follows, 

1. Who do think the target audience is for my project?


2. What did you think was the content and narrative of my project?


3. Did you notice what style of animation my project was in? e.i stop motion, clay, puppet etc.


4. What did you think about the props I used and the production quality of my project?


5. Did you notice any animation techniques in my project that you may or may not have seen prior? e.i style, FPS, multiply objects moving together.


6. Did you feel in a sense that the objects were alive living in their own world?


7. What did you think about the scenery and the colors of my project?  


























Here is a graph of the feedback I received regarding which age groups the people responding thought the target audience was.


I obtained my feedback through e-mail. There was varying amounts of praise and constructive criticism but the general feeling I had was that people though it was enjoyable but but have seen better. To highlight some key phrases I received answers like "Fairly Creative", "Nice bright coloring", "Cool idea and looked clean/smooth with high FPS", "Smooth with no jumpy cups or clips out of place etc.", "Good idea with nice editing" and "Creative and props used well". 

Comparing my intentions of my ESting with the reactions from my feedback. Previously in the blog I posted a graph displaying the results of the the question "Who do you think is the target audience for my project?". The majority of people said teenagers and young adults, this was what I had intended for my ESting and was pleased people could see this. Another interesting thing from the feedback was from the question "What do you think was the content and narrative of my project?" My intentions of the narrative was the two different colors of paper fighting to display the number or letter they wanted, which was the white color showing a 'E' and the purple paper showing a '4' and then after the 'fight' they decide to join together and make E4 Logo. 2/12 people who answered my feedback understood this but I understand it was not super clear what was going on and I know next time how I can make a more clean and understandable narrative. Next, I will compare the reactions of the question "What did you think about the scenery and the colors of my project?" 4/12 people stated that they found the background boring which was just a tabletop so I understand, this was not my intention but I felt at the time it was appropriate because it was close, in my classroom and meant I didn't need to leave the classroom every time when I was filming, next time I will be sure to review all my options and spaces I can use to record to maximum how good the scenery can be and step outside my comfort zone. Furthermore, 7/12 people also commented on this question saying they liked the bright colors and lighting which was also nice to hear as I did intent for my project to come across in this manner. My intentions were for the colors to seem like their own characters and I thought a good way to do with was to use bright colors and edit the contrast as best as I could plus it matched with the E4 colors as well as making it pleasing to the eye.    

A lot of people (10/12) also picked up on the fact that my ESting was a Stop Motion Animation when asked "Did you notice what style of animation my project was in? e.i stop motion, clay, puppet etc." I did expect this as it shows a very basic understanding of animation techniques as it is one of the most popular ways animation is created. 

 

Another question I asked and was "6. Did you feel in a sense that the objects were alive living in their own world?". To this question I would have been pleased if around 4-5/12 would understand this as I was trying to make its seem as if the paper notes were characters and alive. There was a lot of varied answers rather than a straight yes or no which makes me feel like people half felt that way but not really. 6/12 did partly understand this but not with certainty, next time I will be sure to enhance the way the characters look and the world around them to make them feel much more life-like and as if they are if their own world. 

  

Overall I was happy with the feedback and I am fairly happy with the ESting I produced and I know next time what I can do to improve and make a better piece of animation which will help me to improve my grade and skills in animation.  

Animation Questionnaire

Questionnaire For my Final E4 ESting Project


Please watch the following clip and give your constructive feedback:





1. Who do think the target audience is for my project?








2. What did you think was the content and narrative of my project?






3. Did you notice what style of animation my project was in? e.i stop motion, clay, puppet etc.






4. What did you think about the props I used and the production quality of my project?






5. Did you notice any animation techniques in my project that you may or may not have seen prior? e.i style, FPS, multiply objects moving together.







6. Did you feel in a sense that the objects were alive living in their own world?








7. What did you think about the scenery and the colors of my project? 











Thank You for Your feedback.

Final E4 ESting

Improvements from Feedback

We received peer feedback on our first drafts of the E4 Esting competition.

I will resolve the following issues with my Esting

• Re-shoot the final scene with a clearer more polished logo.
• Use the appropriate E4 music that is provided for us.
• Look into editing the lighting and focus in post production for a more eye pleasing and professional look.
• Delete unneeded scenes to provide more time for the logo at the end while keeping under 10 seconds.

Here is a link to my first draft.

Here is a list of my Peer feedback:

E4 Esting Risk Assessment

Identified hazards	Who might be harmed & how?	What are you already doing?	What further action isnecessary? (write “none” if appropriate)
Careful with heavy Tripod and Camera	Camera man or surrounding people due to something falling on them	Being cations with the Camera	Keep away from moving objects and other people.
Tripping Hazard	Anyone  walking around by any wires on set are in danger of tripping and getting injured	Place the wires out of the way of any foot traffic when possible	I will tape the wires down to the ground and inform people who are walking by if they to unaware of surroundings e.i on mobile phone
Heavy winds or other extreme weather conditions	Cameraman and surrounding people due to camera or lights from the set falling or other surrounding items falling	Record in a place with not a lot of surroundings	Make sure to schedule filming dates along side with suitable weather.

Action Plan from “further action”	By Who	By When (Date)
Keep minimal amount of people on set	Adam	08/11/17
Ask to borrow some duct tape from the college in order to tape down wires	Adam	08/11/17
Regualy check weather updates and plan accordingly	Adam	08/11/17

Please ensure that the Assessor and Line Manager have signed this prior to any production work.

Assessment upon completion of action plan LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH (Delete as appropriate)
Assessed by:	Name: Adam Thorn		Accepted by Teacher:	Name:
	Signature: A. Thorn	Date: 07/11/17		Signature:	Date: