Animation Evaluation
I have decided to review my animation in a written report style as opposed to a presentation, because I feel that using a written piece allows me to go into a lot more detail than I would be able to in a oral presentation for example. The animation I created can be found on my personal media blog and the college YouTube channel, I could have made the E sting more widely available by sharing it on personal social media sites and uploading it to other video streaming sites such as Vimeo.
Audience Feedback
I created a survey on 'Survey Monkey' in order to gather feedback for my animation. I mainly asked my peers as well as a few teachers. In general the feedback for my work was positive, the people who saw the final product in class and out of it gave it mostly positive feedback. Below are the results from my survey.Survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KZ3522Q
Personal Feedback
What went well?
Because of the location we filmed in we were able to get the
shoot done in a very short amount of time, the original shoot only took two
hours, however we had to re-shoot some areas of the E sting but that only
took a lesson. Although luckily the location we filmed at allowed for consistent lighting so the re-shoot and original footage did not look too different. We used a 50 mm prime lens
for the E sting the shallow focus of this lens added a unique aesthetic to the
E sting, because of the shallow focus we were able to subtly direct the
audience’s attention to whichever part of the frame we chose. Because of the nature of stop motion animation the editing process was a lot easier than that of a short film. For example, the process was simply finding the right pictures and putting them in the right order along the timeline, then adding a adjustment layer over the top for colour correction, lighting, contrast etc. Because the E sting is on YouTube people in the class were encouraged to leave constructive comments on each video the screenshots below show the comments on my E sting.
In the feedback a lot of people mentioned that there were a few shots out of focus this however is not true they are not out of focus per-se, since the lens we used has a very shallow depth of field the focal point was only at the very foreground for example in the screenshot below you can see the shallow focus at play
One of the more frequent positive feedback we got was on the lighting the screen cap below shows a point in which the lighting was impressive.
What didn't go well?
During the editing process our teacher pointed out that the E4 logo at the end of the E sting was not a close enough representation to the actual E4 logo as originally the ending of the E sting had multiple small E4 logos. We re-shot the parts of the E sting with the E4 logo with a bigger more accurate logo which was thicker and had an outline much like the actual E4 logo. Although this new logo looked a lot better it meant that more time had to be spent editing and because the actor we used was unavailable for re-shoots the new E4 logo scenes had to be edited into the existing scenes which made the end product choppy. Another noticeable mistake was in the lighting, the lighting in the sink shots was a lot darker than the shots with the actor and the mirror.
What would you have done differently?
I would have spent far more time shooting than we did, I feel like I could have spent more time ensuring that the end product looked as professional as possible by improving the lighting in each scene and possibly using a different lens. While the 50mm lens looked good a lot of feedback I was given stated that some of the shots were out of focus, they were not out of focus per se we just used a very shallow focus which meant that only the foreground was in focus, we could have used a wider lens and deep focus to counteract this issue. Also I would have preferred to have used a different location, the sink we used was way too small to fit a decent sized E4 logo, a bigger sink would have meant that we would have had more freedom with the building up of the E4 logo.
Constraints
The E sting we created had a fair few limitations on what we could and could not do. For example the E4 website clearly states the rules for the E sting competition, which can be seen below.
Time management
We had two weeks for planning, three weeks for shooting, and two weeks for editing. We kept within the guidelines for all of the stages of production in most cases we managed our time efficiently enough that we finished a few lessons earlier. In most lessons I set myself a personal goal to complete by the end of the lesson, more so during the editing stages. For example, I would try to sync up the soundtrack to the video and colour correct the video in a lesson.
Meeting the brief
During the planning stages of the E sting we ensured to follow the brief as closely as possible, the rules of the E sting (above) show what guidelines we had to stick to. We ensured that everything we planned to shoot was within the rules of the E sting competition. The E sting we created did not have a budget we were allowed to buy any items or props we needed in order to make the E sting, we did not need any additional materials or props outside of what the college provided us. Before we began creating the E sting we carefully considered the brief and if the E sting we planned to create was acceptable for the brief we received. Investigating the target audience was important since our E sting was in reference to a particularly gory scene from the movie Poltergeist and we wanted to make sure that the E sting didn't appear too disgusting, the use of play-doh made it a lot more bearable, additionally we decided on purple instead of flesh colour to emphasize that it was not real. Financially the E sting did not cost anything to make since all the materials, equipment and software we needed was provided by the college, any legal issues if there were some would arise from the similarities between the E sting and Poltergeist however since it is done in parody and is non-profit it is unlikely to cause any legal issues. I believe that the E-sting is acceptable to be shown after the watershed while it is not disturbing it could still cause some issues with some audiences and therefore would be better off being shown later.
What have I learned
Creating the E sting was very useful in further developing my skills. The E sting was stop motion animation which was something I hadn't truly tried yet, the E sting helped to gain a further understanding of what goes into making a stop motion animation and how different the editing and shooting processes are to live action. I would hope to further develop these skills working in the media industry, with my current skills and the new things I have learned making this E sting I believe that I would be able to efficiently work within the media industry where working to a brief is extremely common. Now that I have had experience working to a brief I could see myself enjoying doing similar projects. Briefs can be better than working entirely solo because if your strengths lie more in editing and filming rather than writing and planning a brief cuts out the initial ideas stage since the individual or company that commissions you already has an idea of what they want to be made. However I feel that I wouldn't take animation any further as a career choice since I much prefer live action, because I have had more experience with it.
Constraints
The E sting we created had a fair few limitations on what we could and could not do. For example the E4 website clearly states the rules for the E sting competition, which can be seen below.
Time management
We had two weeks for planning, three weeks for shooting, and two weeks for editing. We kept within the guidelines for all of the stages of production in most cases we managed our time efficiently enough that we finished a few lessons earlier. In most lessons I set myself a personal goal to complete by the end of the lesson, more so during the editing stages. For example, I would try to sync up the soundtrack to the video and colour correct the video in a lesson.
Meeting the brief
During the planning stages of the E sting we ensured to follow the brief as closely as possible, the rules of the E sting (above) show what guidelines we had to stick to. We ensured that everything we planned to shoot was within the rules of the E sting competition. The E sting we created did not have a budget we were allowed to buy any items or props we needed in order to make the E sting, we did not need any additional materials or props outside of what the college provided us. Before we began creating the E sting we carefully considered the brief and if the E sting we planned to create was acceptable for the brief we received. Investigating the target audience was important since our E sting was in reference to a particularly gory scene from the movie Poltergeist and we wanted to make sure that the E sting didn't appear too disgusting, the use of play-doh made it a lot more bearable, additionally we decided on purple instead of flesh colour to emphasize that it was not real. Financially the E sting did not cost anything to make since all the materials, equipment and software we needed was provided by the college, any legal issues if there were some would arise from the similarities between the E sting and Poltergeist however since it is done in parody and is non-profit it is unlikely to cause any legal issues. I believe that the E-sting is acceptable to be shown after the watershed while it is not disturbing it could still cause some issues with some audiences and therefore would be better off being shown later.
What have I learned
Creating the E sting was very useful in further developing my skills. The E sting was stop motion animation which was something I hadn't truly tried yet, the E sting helped to gain a further understanding of what goes into making a stop motion animation and how different the editing and shooting processes are to live action. I would hope to further develop these skills working in the media industry, with my current skills and the new things I have learned making this E sting I believe that I would be able to efficiently work within the media industry where working to a brief is extremely common. Now that I have had experience working to a brief I could see myself enjoying doing similar projects. Briefs can be better than working entirely solo because if your strengths lie more in editing and filming rather than writing and planning a brief cuts out the initial ideas stage since the individual or company that commissions you already has an idea of what they want to be made. However I feel that I wouldn't take animation any further as a career choice since I much prefer live action, because I have had more experience with it.
You have explained your own work on completion of a brief whilst referencing some specific examples from your experiences. You have used terminology correctly (where it has been used). You have analysed your responses in detail and also shared a personal reflection.
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