This is my Esting.
My Esting for E4 consists of an animated clown getting shot out of a cannon in a circus environment.
What I most enjoyed in the making of my Esting was actually creating my character, this is because when I first started the topic I thought animation would be one of my weaker points, but once I finished the design of my clown I was very happy with the turnout, which you can see on the other posts on my blog. I also enjoyed using stop-frame animation, I was helped greatly by research I did on frame rates, which then applied to my animation made the Esting seem fluid and really brought my character to life.
What I disliked during the creation of my Esting was editing the brightness and contrast of certain shots. Throughout my animation the lighting changed depending on the brightness of the room. This made my Esting seem inconsistent so it was something I had to address. This process was complicated and time consuming, so I therefore didn't enjoy that part of my animation.
To improve my Esting I felt I could of got better material to make the big top in my set look my realistic, I also felt I could have improved it by making the smaller clown more comparable to the main clown in my animation.
When showing audiences my work, I could have put it on a variety of sites. These can range from a vast a selection, such as social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Using these sites would have been beneficial as a numerous amount of people, both friends and relatives would have seen the animation. Therefore possibly increasing the amount a responses to our Estings. I also could have put it on my blog, or another popular site YouTube. Putting it on YouTube would have been good as basically anyone who uses it could watch it, and they are also given the opportunity to comment what they thought underneath the Esting video. I could also have sent it out through emails. 
After I completed my Esting, I then took time to start gathering feedback from other people on my animation. I did this by putting it on YouTube, my blog, and also sending questionnaires around via email, and by hand. Myself and my class then formed a focus group to assist us in gaining feedback about what was good and what could be improved in our Estings.
The criteria I should get feedback on is the genre of the animation. From the questionnaires I sent out around 80% of the participants asked said they thought the Esting was a comedy, with a couple of others saying genres such as entertainment and advertising. The content in the animation is another. I gathered feedback from this through our class focus group. Many said that the colour involved complimented the circus. They also said that the tent and character made the content nicer to watch. However, they did tell me that i could improve by making the continuity better, and by incorporating the E4 logo onto the cannon or the big top. The style of the animation should also be covered. In the comments underneath my Esting almost everyone said they thought they animation was fluid, and this was achieved through stop motion animation. The technical, creative and aesthetic qualities involved should also get feedback. From the class focus group i was told that technically it was strong because it was smooth. creatively it was good because I included a good use of camera shots and aesthetically i got told it was nice because of the colour in the animation and the fabric used when building the tent. The character in my Esting also got feedback, i was told through my questionnaires that it was well made along with set and that they complimented each other. Someone also said that the character movement was particularly good. Finally the narrative also got commented on. In my questionnaire once again someone stated that they like the initial idea, being a clown shot from a cannon in a circus environment. The narrative was helped by the content of all the colours and set objects that I used.
I could have collected audience responses about my Esting by having discussions, sending out questionnaires, doing reviews, being in focus groups and gathering feedback from online exhibition. The way I collected my feedback about my animation was by sending out questionnaires, having a focus group with the other students in my class, and by acquiring comments made by people on my video through YouTube. In the film industry, a person would think of ideas for a production before discussing it with directors to see if it could be made.
There are various ways in which you can report findings. You can orally present them to an audience, file a written report, make an action plan or have a review. I reported my findings by putting them into this written report.
Overall, in my opinion, I felt my animation turned out to be massively better than I had predicted. The character design and the fluency of my Esting were notably the strongest points. The shot variation included also got a lot of praise, which I'm pleased about.
The format I have chosen to evaluate working to a brief is through a written report in this blog post. I was given a brief from E4 saying to produce an Esting which was 10 seconds long. After this our class chose to make it using stop motion animation. To prepare how we were going to set out our own Estings we watched loads that had already been approved to be on E4. I used my audience research in the form of questionnaires to see whether my Esting was suitable for E4 and its brief, and i found out they thought i should of incorporated the E4 logo onto the cannon or tent because it would of improved my animation.
Legal constraints did come into effect when producing my Esting. I had to plan to use different music before I even started shooting my animation because if I used a well known track it would have breached copyright laws. The way I acquired my soundtrack for my Esting was by going on E4 website where they provided a selection of music we could use. The soundtrack I used can be found in my Estings video.
Regulatory constraints also restricted what material I could use in my Esting. The BBFC and Ofcom are examples of regulatory bodies which prevented us from including footage of violence, nudity and anything else which may cause offence. These bodies follow the broadcasting code, so we had to double check everything we included so it didn't break the rules in place.
Whilst preparing to make my Esting I also had trouble with financial constraints. Considering we done our Estings at college we had a very low budget to work from so we didn't have much equipment at our disposal. We had to use plasticine distributed by the college, and because everyone in our class had to use it we had limited amounts to create our characters and props. We also borrowed equipment such as camera's and tripods from college to shoot our Estings, and had to do it in A4 sized cardboard boxes as our sets. This restricts us massively compared to professional animators like the people who produce Wallace and Gromit as they have huge set areas and resources to use.
Over the course of making my Esting I had to be organised, which meant managing my time cleverly. I managed make my character, props and set all within the interim deadlines, which was hugely beneficial as it gave me more time to go back and re-shoot if I had mis-placed a couple of shots. I worked on my own which helped develop my independent skills, how ever I was also keeping my tutor up to date with how far I'd got in my editing process so that she could perhaps lend some advice if I needed it. The editing stage took quite a long time towards the end, at the start it was simple, just importing my images an arranging them into the right order. However, towards the end I had to correct inconsistency in my Estings lighting, which was easily the most time consuming part. Although my teacher did say she found my Esting "very smooth". Thankfully I did manage to finish my animation by the deadline set.
The feedback I received on my Esting was largely positive, they said it was fluid, colourful and pleasant to watch. However, some responses did say areas in which I could improve, which I will take on board and place into my animation in the re-shooting stage. I gathered my responses through questionnaires, YouTube comments, and blog posts. All these coming from friends, relatives and the other students in my media class. It has contributed to my experience and may help to contribute to a career in media. I have learnt how to work independently, and how to use stop frame animation to make a moving image. I've learnt the importance of frame rates and how they affect the fluidity of an animation. I feel I have shown the necessary skills to get a job in media as I've shown I can make smooth and fluid animations and understand the importance of frame rates, as well as showing character and set design skills, whilst including a variety shots in my Esting. I wouldn't mind working in animation but it isn't my first choice to pursue at present.
