Change of seasons COS

Evaluation 

I think our finished film is excellent, I knew at the start of the project that it was a very ambitious task however I feel we have accomplished even with a missing group member. At the start there was 3 group members unfortunately ‘Gio” left leaving me and Adam with a lot of work to catch up on as well as filing and editing our project. I learnt a lot from ‘Gio’ leaving as he said he would do the editing adam and myself could take a step back this was completely wrong and not professional as when ‘Gio’ left myself and adam was literally throw into the deep end however I feel adam and myself came back stronger than ever to create this brilliant stop motion animation advert. When we told one of our media teachers about our idea she was excited but myself and adam knew she thought it was ambitious I feel this made us even more determined to prove we could do it. Our media teacher really inspired us when she showed us a scene from ‘Notting Hill’ it was exactly what we wanted. After we came back from filming we showed our media teacher the footage of me walking down in four 4 different sets of clothes. She explained we should keep it like ‘notting hill’ (wearing the same clothes) as it was much more surreal and mysterious. I was skeptical at first but I believe that made our ‘ad’ look so much better. 

If I was going to do the advert again I would try and make the seasons look more realistic I feel the ‘snow’ scene in our animation was second to none and probably the best opening 10 seconds out of the animation however I do not feel we kept that consistency though out the advert as winter is a typical time of the year (Christmas and snow) it was easy to add these effects in however for spring I feel myself and adam was stuck for ideas as it started to look a bit like autumn so I would give us more time to think about how to stereotype each season. However I feel myself and Adam done well with what we had changing the filter colours with editing - even though Adam was the main editor I always offered opinions and sometimes even edited myself e.g the blur into the seasons after I had drunk the drink. I would also obviously have a third member in the group to help with necessary paper work and editing filming.

I feel our groups planning was brilliant, we always stayed in contact through technology; facebook, mobiles email. I feel we succeeded though when we exchanged time tables meaning we could see when we were busy and when we were free for filming/editing. Looking back on our planning we really stayed to the storyboards every scene was planned out from the start. Myself and Adam have learnt a lot from this project and I felt extremely comfortable working with him we never argued and always listened to each others points. I feel our advert can be related back to ‘Notting hill’ however we have taken it that bit further by using stop motion.   

The type of animation we used was; pixilation we used various camera techniques in our ad, I feel our advert could easily be on tv with a few adjustments. I feel our frame rate was excellent we concentrated a lot on our fps as we both agreed it would ruin the ad. I feel we took a bit to long on the editing and I could feel our teacher felt a bit let down as we took a lot longer to edit than other groups did one reason for this was the project was so ambitious and the other reason was myself and Adam are not comfortable at all editing. However we battled through and had a good finished piece. My role in the group was mainly acting however I was director. I feel this was a mistake as I feel Adam leading camera man should have taken this responsibility as it was hard for me to see all shots what we took as it wasted time. 

When myself and Adam was editing we both agreed that we would like ‘coca-colas’ ‘holidays are coming soundtrack’ to feature in our advert as this we felt was symbolic to Christmas especially for teens as they grew up with that advert. Around Christmas time you always see tweets and status’s saying ‘Christmas is here, I have just seen the coca-cola advert’. We thought this would be such a great feature for our ad. I emailed the coca cola team explaining the project; however they were very reluctant to give us permission. This was quite a big set back as we always imagined that soundtrack to be in our ad, however like all setbacks we faced through the project we came up with something better. 

Overall I feel me Adam should be proud of the work we produced, I like to think of it as a football match where your teams player is sent off - its the biggest set back, and hard to come back and stay in the game. I feel we gelled the best in the class we never argued and rarely disagreed. After speaking with teachers I feel in a way It was good ‘Gio’ left as it gave myself and adam much more responsibility. The project was so ambitious and got that bit more ambitious when ‘Gio’ left. I haven’t just come out of this project with a good advert, I've also come out with a good friend. 

2A Research Initial Idea

2A Research Initial Idea 

After being paired into our groups we decided that we wanted an advert not an ident. We discussed all kinds of genres from sports to news to food to toys. I said some of the best adverts were drinks thinking of 'holidays are coming from coca cola'. We agreed a drink we wasn't sure if it was to be a made up brand or a real brand. We then needed to choose what animation technique we would use. After watching t-shirt wars i convinced my group this was definitely the way forward. We then decided to make our own drinks company as we would base that around our advert. 

We decided it would be cool to have an advert showing the 'change of seasons'. Resulting in calling our brand "C.O.S" - Change Of Seasons. I feel the change of seasons drinks products would be relevant all year round as product sales I would hope would stay the same unlike 'Pimms' where its only popular for a couple of months of the season. The purpose of the 'COS' advert is to make it clear the drink can be drunk on the coldest day of the year or the hottest day of the year. 

Stop Motion Video

My group started researching best animation techniques. We stumbled on real racing where people pretend they are cars and zoom around streets we thought this was a great idea and decided to look into it further. Looking back, at a first try i feel the group done really well however if i was to do it again i would improve our fps. As the video was very bumpy but there was some signs of good in there.            

COS - (change Of Seasons)

COS is short for ‘change of seasons’, COS is a drinks company. The advert will try to appeal to people to boost revenue for the company as we are advertising a product/service we will unable to put the BBC in our target channel (as they do not show any advertising adverts). Our target audience is the young market; most youths watch channels like MTV,VIVA,CHANNEL 4.

Pixilation Animation

After researching deeper into the pixilation world, I discovered a video called Pixilation Animation. I feel the adverts a great Idea but there is know where near enough frames per second; unlike t – shirt wars the video is very bumpy and doesn’t flow . This is a big risk on my group using pixilation as the human changes where as Claymation or computer animation wouldn’t. The advert is for a mobile phone company although it’s not English it seems the advert brings them closer together because of the phone looking at how old the characters are I would think the target audience is aimed at; 14-20 year olds. As the characters are within that age gap they use public transport which is also considered with that age bracket.

                                                                                                                

 

Pixilation Animation (Stop Motion)

T-Shirt War

After researching different animation videos, I stumbled across T-shirt wars I was amazed at how clever and realistic it was. Pixilation is the type of animation for T-shirt wars; after being inspired by this video I have persuaded my group that we use the pixilation technique. T-shirt wars is not just inspiring on the quality of the video they have made adverts for 2 of the biggest companies in the world; McDonalds and Coca-Cola. This advert is quite random so the target audience is quite hard to find. If I had to choose a target audience it would be the young as it’s very simple with the things they do i.e. blowing up a balloon. The team used 222 shirts and it took 2 days to film.

 

T-Shirt War

The Brothers Quay

The brothers quay are formed of Stephen and Timothy. They are identical twins born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, US. They currently live in England and have so since 1969; when they came here to study at  Royal College of Art. The identical twins are admired and renowned for their creative work; Most of the animation is made up of dolls which creates a dark feel. The brothers work usually doesn’t contain dialogue which means they rely a lot of music and sound FX. The brothers work spans from music videos to films they have worked for the BBC and MTV. The brothers famously said "Puppet films by their very nature are extremely artificial constructions, even more so depending at what level of 'enchantment' one would wish for them in relation to the subject, and, above all, the conceptual mise-en-scène applied." - This really sums up The Brothers Quay. 

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech film director he has influenced many people including; The brothers quay. Svankmajer has always been interested in art and film from an early age going to; the college of applied arts and the Prague academy of performing arts. He is most famous for mixing stop motion and surrealism together. Most of Svankmajer’s films are quite dark, strange and even disturbing. Svankmajer married a lady called Eva Svanmajervoa she was also very talented in art she painted, and wrote they often worked together unfortunately she died when he was 69. A lot of Svankmajer’s work is based around food many say that he had a terrific experience growing up. Svankmajer creates the illusion of movement by speeding up his film. Svankmajer famously said “I never call myself an animated filmmaker because I am interested not in animation techniques or creating a complete illusion, but in bringing life to everyday objects.”

Jan Švankmajer

Ray Harryhausen - Dynamation

Ray Harryhausen was an American born on June 29th 1920. Ray Harryhausen is still alive and well at the age of 92. He specialized in stop motion and model animation. Ray Harryhausen helped films big films such as “King Kong” be big films. He helped them do this by his break through of realistic miniature models. 

Ray Harryhausen -  Dynamation 

The process was simple but very effective.  He projected a live action image onto a rear screen in front of which was placed the animation table with the model.  He would then place a glass sheet in front of both.  When the live action plate had been shot Ray would establish where he wanted to make his matte line and so by looking through the camera viewfinder he would re-establish that line and with a wax pencil on the end of a stick, follow that line by drawing it on the glass.  When he was satisfied that the line was accurate he would then paint out, with black matt paint, the lower section, below the line.  He would then photograph the animation of the model reacting to the live action on the plate.  Afterwards he would then create a second pass in the camera to reinstate the lower previously matted out section so creating a combined image of the creature seemingly as part of the live action.

Willis O’Brien

Willis O’Brien was an American motion effects and stop animation pioneer. “He was responsible for some of the best known images in cinema history”.  His most known film for my generation would be the first ever King Kong. He also made some other well known films such as; the lost world and Mighty Joe Young. Willis O’Brien left home when he was just 11 years old. He was also a professional boxer winning 9/10 fights. Willis O’Brien created the illusion of movement by creating detailed miniature models; using this technique was very simple but very effective. He would create enough frames until there was enough to be played rapidly causing the persistence of movement. I feel Willis O’Brien was amazing at what he did; using such limited resources he has managed to be respected even today in the film world. 

The Lumière Brothers

The Lumière Brothers were called Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean. They were both born in France. In their early years they would work in their fathers photographic shop. The boys also made improvements to that industry; the dry plate process. When their father retired they concentrated on moving images. The Lumière brothers patented the first ever portable motion picture camera, film processing unit and projector they called it the cinematographe this had 3 inventions in just 1 machine. The Brothers famously said that the "cinema is an invention without any future" - How wrong were they! The Lumière Brothers have changed everyones lives forever especially in the 21st cenutury people are still using the Lumière Brothers ideas; mobile phones with cameras and video playback, camcorders, webcams. All of these inventions may not have been around if it wasn’t for the Lumière Brothers. The Lumière Brothers films lasted just short of a minute. The camera would stay in the same position throughout the film. The Lumière Brothers also created the first ever film poster. 

Cinematography Camera Skills Workshop

Charles Emile Reynaud Praxinoscope

The picture above is a Praxinoscope which is an updated version of the Zoetrope. Charles - Emile Reynaud was very clever he understood she didnt have the skills like Edward Muybridge; Who created trip wires to take pictures. He invented a way of displaying moving pictures it was a very practical idea. He stuck his animation pictures on the outside of the wheel he had mirror which would reflect the image to the human eye when he span the wheel it would create a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of movement/motion. Charles Emile Reynaud love of animation and film led to him showing the first ever projected animation displayed in public.  Without Reynaud we may not have had projectors or even teliv

Questionnaire For The Focus Group

  1)  What soft drink adverts have stuck in your head and why?

  2)  What is your favourite animation you’ve ever seen in a drinks advert?

  3)  Has an advert ever persuaded you to drink a product you’ve never tried before?

  4)  Do you prefer touching or funny adverts and why?

  5)  What’s the worst soft drink advert you’ve ever seen and why?

  6)  What’s the worst advert EVER that you’ve seen?

  7)  What’s the best advert EVER that you’ve seen and why?

  8)  What are your favourite colours for a soft drink brand? Why?

  9)  What makes you want to buy a soft drink? Why do you choose the drinks you choose?

  10)  Real life or animation? 

                                                       

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYhhfHYZa5s