Estings

My idea for an esting would be suitable for an estings on E4 because it might share the interests of the target audience. Through my research i was able to discover that the target audience for E4 viewers is in between the ages of 15-35. My claymation is a clown, which might appeal to the youngsters who watch the channel, this is because they might have a geniune interest in clowns. Also the older generation who may see it might tell their children about it, therefore making them more inclined to watch the channel. Which would ultimately result in E4 getting more viewers.

E4.

E4 is a television channel which has been launched as a compatriot to channel 4 and was formed on 18th January 2001. It mainly consists of american tv programmes, such as the popular television series 'Friends'. It also broadcasts other american programmes like smallville, glee and ugly betty. It has recently began playing popular british shows such as The Inbetweeners which is responsible for E4's most successful broadcast to date which was on 11 October 2010 when an episode of the show pulled in over 3.7 million viewers. The "E" stands for entertainment, and the channel is mainly aimed at the lucrative 15–35 age group. The three most popular shows being aired on the channel are The Inbetweeners, Glee and Friends.

E4 has also been widely known for its promotional campaigns and the very popular 'Estings' before programmes, which are also well known to be on channel 4 as well.

On 16 December 2004, Channel 4 announced that the subscription channel would return to digital terrestrial television. From its launch until the closure of ITV Digital it was available as a bonus subscription channel. It became part of the Top Up TV subscription scheme until 27 May 2005, when the channel became available on Freeview, with the potential to increase advertising revenue by attracting a larger audience.

Planning an Esting

My esting idea is to use my clown claymation in a circus environment. During the short clip it will show my claymation model walking over and getting into a stereotypical circus cannon. This will then lift into the appropriate position before the clown will be shot out of the cannon and fly across the big top. As this happens, the iconic E4 symbol will appear as he flies out of view. I also hope to get a jazzy upbeat soundtrack to compliment the theme of my Esting, and get the sound effect of an explosion for one my clown is fired out of the cannon.

Location and Soundtrack

The location of my set is going to be in a big top circus. I chose this location because my claymation model is a clown. It will be made up of material, to give the impression he is actually in a circus. I intend to make the exterior of my big top out of different materials, using cardboard to make it stand upright, and have the impression of a big top. The material I will use over the big top, will also make it look authentic. I will also use a soundtrack to go with my circus Esting, and I will get my soundtrack from the Estings website as there are no copyright issues, stating we cannot use them.

I had 'Rock the Clown' squeaking his nose, i did this because he is a clown and this is a traditional pose. The most difficult part was building him as it took a long period of time, and i could improve the quality of the video by keeping the camera stationary.

Character Analysis

Name: Rock the Clown.

Age: 27

Description: Loves his job and being the best entertainer possible.

 

Rock the clown moves with a bob, shrug, and strut because his job invoves him to make people laugh and enjoy themselves. He loves to run, jump, and hop around to give his audience a good show, and he thrives off people having a good time. He chose to be a clown because as he was growing up he was always dubbed 'the class clown', and was always the comedian in his education days. So he thought it was necessary that he made the jump into the entertainment business.

Techniques, Developments and Developers

Stop Frame Animation- This is a form of animation which makes objects move seemingly on their own. They achieve this by taking a picture of the object they want, then moving it slightly after each shot. This is a process which is repeated over and over. When clay is used for this, it is called a 'claymation'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion.

Frame Rates- These are the speed in which a image or 'frame' is shown. The faster the frames are shown the smoother the object or person in shot will move. Three main standards are used in television and film, these are 24p, 25p and 30p. When frames are shown slowly it does not promote the illusion of motion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate

Joseph Plateau- He is a Belgian physicist, and invented the design the phenakitoscope in 1832. It is made up of paper with images on so that when it is spun it once again looks as if the images or moving. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Plateau

William Horner- He was born in 1786 and died in 1837, he was a British mathematician and school headmaster and has been credited for the design of the zoetrope, which was made in 1834. A zoetrope creates its form of illusion by putting images onto a strip of paper, placing it in a circular steel drum, and spinning it a rapid speed to make the images seem as though they are moving. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_George_Horner

Emile Reynaud- The inventor or the praxinoscope which was initially invented in 1876, and was a device used to amuse children, this is because it was the first design to show cartoons. The way it works is similar to a zoetrope except it uses vertical mirrors to reflect the moving images onto a public screen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Reynaud

Edward Muybridge- He was a famous British photographer renound for his work in phototgraphic studies and motion picture projections. He is the reason that motion pictures are what they are today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadward_Muybridge

Thomas Edison- He was an American businessman and inventor, and has been awarded for the designs of many famous inventions. As of this he has been shown as the fourth most prolific inventor of all time. In terms of animation, he was the inventor of the kinetoscope which was made in 1888. It works by looking through a peephole at the top of the device. It was not a movie projector but would turn out to be the basic approach for all standard movie projectors used in cinema. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_edison

Lumiere Brothers- They were the inventors of the device the cinematograph, this was a device which is a combination of a camera and a projector. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumi%C3%A8re_brothers

George Pal- He was born in 1908 and died in 1980. His first forms of animation were the puppetoons (made in 1940), the way he would make the wooden objects look as though the were moving was to make several different wooden carvings and putting them together so they look as they are moving. Animation played a big part in his live movies, especially in the 'time machine' in 1959. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pal

Willis O'Brien- He was born in 1886 and died in 1962. He was an Irish American special effects and stop motion pioneer. He wasnt hugely successful when he was alive but did win an oscar in the 1950's for his work in special effects. He is most remembered for making the films the lost world (1925) and king kong (1933). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_O%27Brien

Ray Harryhausen- He was born in 1920, he was an american visual effects creator, and made his design for stop motion animation known as dynamation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen

Jan Svankmajer- He was a Czech film-maker born in 1934. He has been awarded a crystal globe in 2009 for his work in surreal animation, this includes films such as the film Jabberwocky in 1971. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer

Contemporary Work

The Quay Brothers- Stephen and Timothy Quay are brothers and identical twins. They are most commonly known as 'The Quay Brothers'. They were born June 17th 1947 and lived in Norristown, Pennyslvania in the United States. They are best known for their work in stop motion animation. The brothers moved and worked in England in 1969, where they studied at the Royal College of Arts in London. They later moved to the Netherlands in the 1970's before moving back to England and forming a partnership with Keith Griffiths, who was to be the producer of all their films. They formed Koninck studios in 1980. They made several successful films including 'The Chairs' which they won the prestigious Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Design in 1998. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quay_Brothers

Tim Burton- He was born in 1958, he's well known for his gothic themed animation films such as Edward Scissorhands and most recently Alice In Wonderland. After graduating from CalArts in 1979, disney offered him an apprenticeship. However, this didn't work out for long as he longed to work on his own solo pieces and went on to make his first and most famous film The Nightmare before Christmas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton

Aardman Animations- It was created by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1972. They are famous for their work in 'claymation' and created the popular Wallace and Gromit. Their first design was 'Morph' in 1977 but they went on to make more recognisable films such as Flushed Away.

Genres and Forms

Animated Films- There are many types of animated films, ranging from claymation to puppets, examples are Wallice and Gromit Curse of the Were-rabbit, and Coraline.

TV Animation- There are many successful tv animated programmes, especially in childrens cartoons. Some examples are Digimon, Pokemon, and Dragonball Z.

Channel Idents- These are small clips before the start of any programme on a specific tv station, channels most renound for this are Channel 4 and E4.

TV & Cinema Advertising- Stop Motion animation is used in many adverts for television and film, and example of an advert which uses stop motion is the Sony Bravia 'Giant Bunnies' advert.

Animated music videos- Stop Motion animation can also be used in music videos. A classic animated video is 'Take on me' by A-Ha. As the song came out awhile back the song became extremely popular because of the animated music video.

SMA for website use- Stop motion is used in E4's website 'Estings'. This includes a series of small clips added to their competitions.

 

History of Animation

The thaumatrope was a popular form of animation in the victorian times, it simply consists of two pieces of paper or card with two different pictures either side, so that when it is spun using a piece of string like shown in the video above, along with the theory of 'Persistence of Vision' it makes the images combine. This is because 'Persistence of Vision' states that our eyes capture and retain images for 0.04 seconds. An example of a thaumatrope is the flowers in a vase, or the most popular, a bird in a cage.