Tuesday 6 October 2015

Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief.

Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief
1)
E4 is owned by the company Channel 4 and Channel 4 is a publicly owned corporation, the board is appointed by OFCOM whom is in agreement with the Secretary of State for culture, media and sport. The launch of E4 was on the 18th of January in 2001, the channel is home to programmes like Hollyoaks, Made in Chelsea, Gogglebox and Alan Carr: Chatty Man. Looking at the programmes that E4 produce, we can come to an understanding that the primary target audience would be 16-24 year olds, due to the content that is in their shows. For example in Made in Chelsea what they wear and the dialect used is usually heard to be from that age range, and the programme itself is following the lives of ordinary people which has just been exaggerated to be seen as something that it is not, and for some reason we find that that age range has more time on their hands and more interest in trends and whats new, so it can be argued 16-24 year olds watch these programmes looking for guidance and acceptance. The Secondary target audience I believe would be 30 - 50 year olds, due to programmes like This is England '86 which those in that category would have been at an age to understand what society is like, so they can connect to the programme and relate back to the teenagers. Additionally in the show Gogglebox they use a range of ages in the programme from 16 all the way to 50, this is where you can extract to see that the secondary audience is shown in a few of their programmes, but not as many as the primary audience. Furthermore the interaction with social media reinforces the idea of the primary audience aimed at ages 16-24 as they are in the category that is most influenced by social media and smart phones, moreover they also advertise competitions to win tickets to festivals and to see popular chart artists live which would enforce the direction that E4 aims at their primary target audience.
Here is an example of a competition held
by 4music which has the same primary
audience as E4. In this competition
it is aimed at the 16-24 year olds because
of the use of networking, however
predominantly aimed at females due
to the pink lettering and the website is a
female clothing website, additionally
the trip to Paris stereotypical that a female
would enjoy this. 


 After looking at Channel 4's other channels like 4music which also has the primary target audience as top priority, advertising social media links and assuming the target audience has a product that can download the latest music. Additionally the Film 4 occasionally has the odd few films that are aimed at the primary target audience, which are usually screened on a weekend where someone of the 16-24 age group would be most likely to watch a film. Where as during the week the secondary audience of 30-50 would possibly be watching the films it has a more mature content.
Here is an example of the time table for Film 4.




2)

An E-sting is a channel ident made specifically for E4. Best described as an animation, or motion picture that appears in the breaks either before or after a progamme begins/ends. The initial purpose of an E-sting is to promote the corporation, the brand and to give the channel coverage. However another purpose is to make the audience known of what channel they are watching, so that if they are enjoying a good programme, it reminds them what channel is screening this for you. It's also a way for the channel to promote their website or any other sites they have that the audience can interact with, it is the reminder of brand.

Below are some examples of E-stings.


Here is an example of an E-sting made for the channel E4, this E-sting's target audience could possibly be aimed at a similar audience E4 16-24 year olds. At the begging the remote is pressed and makes the sound of a horn that can be linked to a similar sound a clowns nose makes, and even though the circus is aimed at a large audience, the primary audience would be children and they are closest to their childhood. Althought the individual who presses the button at the start could be seen to be of an older age maybe 30+, additionally it is seen as the E4 logo on top of a house and then eventually taking over the area, which could suggest that once one person has clicked to watch E4 more and more people want to watch it because it is a successful channel. The reference to birds could suggest that E4 is like a bird, fast and avalible everywhere in the sense that you can access it wherever you are, on your smart phone, tablet or laptop. I like this E-sting because it allows the auidence to read through the lines and make what they want out of it, it also represents the E4 logo multiple times which will fufil it's purpose to keep it recognisable and in the audiences mind.





Another example of an E-sting, this one in particular could possibly have the audience of a male genre, due to the image of the person being portrayed to have broad shoulders and a suit on. However it could be an audience that hits the 16-24 and 30+ category as it is not genre descriptive, it's simple although gives a good message which I believe the audience would understand. The message from this E-sting could suggest that everyone wants a piece of E4, everyone wants to watch it and is willing to share it with eachother, also to show that it can be move around and be accessed from alternative places other than just on a TV. I like this E-sting because it sends a hidden message and effectivily has coverage of the logo for E4 and by making it repetitive it can effectivily stay in the audiences mind.






In this E-sting it begins rather dull with the rain which leads up to the logo of E4 lighting up and creating better weather. This could suggest that E4 is a channel that will cheer you up and make your day better, showing the channel in a positive light. I believe the audience for this covers the 16-24 category due to the cut out paper people at the bottom of the screen look like they would fit into that category. However it could also appeal to the 30+ as well as the 16-24 year olds because everyone can relate to the feeling rain makes us feel, sad and dull, and suggets E4 is here to make your day better and change your mood. I believe this is a successful E-sting because the E4 logo is shown throughout which keeps it in the audience minds and is recognisable, it is also shown in a positive light which will help those remember. Aditionally the paper people cut outs move closer together as the E4 light shines, this suggest this channel is good at bringing people together to watch good programmes, again another positive point that will help the auidnece remember.




3)


http://alanaenbtec14.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/early-optical-toys.html

The link above shows the post where I prepared myself for the brief by creating my own optical toys, I created a Thaumatrope, Praxinoscope  and Zoetrope, this helped me understand the Persistence of Vision theory and exactly how animation has developed into what it is today. While creating it I came across difficulties with the drawings I created, they were not always the clearest and easiest to see, this helped me understand how simple animation used to have to be in order for it to be effective and entertaining for the audience.




http://alanaenbtec14.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/lego-animation-video.html

I created a animated video using Lego as the key material, we set out to create a short animation showing a story using Lego to create effective movement. I originally made an cat out of Lego, however because Lego is more of a material that you build instead of mold it was difficult to show movement. Therefore I came up with the idea of a progression story of the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, to do this I had to make a model of a caterpillar as you can see below I used smaller blocks so that the movement would be seen to be more fluent. However at the beginning the movements were smaller and therefore more effective, as the short video goes on the movements are more jumpy and that is because the Lego movements were too separate from each other, next time I would take more time on the movements so that the animation was more realistic. Moving onto the part where I attempted to make a cocoon for the caterpillar to enter, and eventually the ending where it has transformed into a Lego butterfly. I believe that the movements were difficult to make fluent because of the Lego material being unable to mold and shape how you want it, to make the Lego more fluent you would have to take more frames and shots of the animation.
The beginning.


The middle.

The end.








I created a Live Action Stop Motion Animation that lasted 15 seconds long, to do this we had to take a total of 347 single still images and edit them through premier pro to make the images come to life and form an animation. The intention of the task was to get used to using different materials for animation in preparation for our e-sting to see what materials we work with better with. For this we had to portray a race so we decided to produce a story where there is a race against time, this included Reece in our group as the character who was trying to get to class on time. I feel that this type of material was successful and could be good for an advert as it is an amusing type of animation to watch and therefore could engage an audience to take notice of a channel ident.

4)

For my E-sting I will produce a Claymation, after researching and watching various animations of using this material I can see how effective it can be on making movements realistic and bringing a characters personality to life, I will be able to shape it to suit exactly what I want to character to look like. In comparison to watching and have experience in making Lego animation which I feel is difficult to create realistic and fluent movements. Watching documentaries on how they created films like Wallace and Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Corpse Bride (2005)  and Coraline (2009) Understanding how much work goes into the productions that are feature films, and even the shorter films, and to the extent on how long they take. With my E-sting it will be no longer than 10 seconds, however watching how effective Claymation has been in animation, encourages me to use that with the creation of my E-sting. Furthermore how you can portray the character and create facial expressions and give them their own identity, for examples below we can see how creative you can be with claymation and create an interesting animation that portrays a story successfully.

Character Emily from the Corpse Bride (2005)

Characters Wallace and Gromit.





Sources: 



1 comment:

  1. You have in a pair but with no teacher input, planned a response to a brief to near-professional standards. You have conceptualized creative and imaginative ideas whilst working to professional expectations.

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