Animation evaluation

Step 1

Audience feedback:

Step 2:

I've chosen to analyse my project by writing it as a written report because I feel I'll be able to analyse it better written down.

I distributed my animation via YouTube. Youtube is a great way to broadcast projects to a whole range of people as unlike T.V you can watch it anytime without waiting to have it be repeated. Also the audience I aimed it at are around 18-25 which is the typical YouTube viewer. A good way to distribute the Esting to a bigger audience would be to enter it into a competition. The E4 Esting competition for example as if it wins it could be on television. But even if it does not get on television if it's a runner up it could be broadcast on the E4 Esting website. Either of these are good at broadining a secondary audience who maybe don't use YouTube.

I obtained feedback by using survey monkey. By using email and social media sites like Facebook I sent a survey to different people. Social media is a good way to spread your project to more people. And survey monkey was good as I could find out if I met the requirements of the brief in which I was set.

Step 3:

What went well?

The location we used which was a disabled toilet which was easy to shoot in as the lighting never changed and it only took myself and Connor two hours including a half hour of reshoots. Aesthetically I love how the image quality came out with the deep focus and Sarine white lighting of the bathroom. By using the canon 50mm prime lens we were able to have better control over our focus. Changing the focus made the Esting seem more cinematic and dynamic. 

A soft focus close up over the shoulder mirror shot.

The constraints I experienced weren't so much financial as all the equipment and props myself and Connor needed were on the college premises. The biggest constraint perhaps was the small area in which we had to film. It was good because no one interrupted us, but it was far to small. We weren't able to do a shot in front of Chris's face as all three of us and a camera were crammed into a single room. We broke no copyright as I followed the E4 guidelines strictly.

Three people in the same room made it hard to film at times. 

We got the advert finished ahead of schedule despite the one day of re-shoots. We were given two weeks to film and myself and Connor finished the animation in three days. No one came to our location so there was no interruptions. The camera set up was simple just with tripod set ups which were easy to set up.  


Myself and Connor met all the requirements which were set by E4. As there was no spoken dialogue in the Esting there was no strong language. The violence was more or less silly then graphic so if shown on television it could be shown before watershed as red blood is replaced with a purple matter. Also it randomly spawns on his face so younger people wouldn't interpret it as blood.

 

Purple goo may not be interpreted as blood. 

I obtained feedback by emailing out questionnaires to friends and peers. I used survey monkey for the responses. Feedback was mainly positive. A majority of the people who answered the survey watched E4, mainly the under 18's watched E4 whilst the 30-44 year old watched channels like BBC 4 and film four. Showing that E4 is more for a younger audience. There were also comments on Youtube explaining the pros and cons of the Esting.


From this project I have learnt that animation requires a lot of time and attention to get made. Even though I got it done before the deadline, but it took a while to get the shots done. Especially when clay wouldn't stick to Chris's face or trying to keep the camera and Chris still could be a pain to get done. I feel with the restraint of a 10 second video I couldn't go too extreme with any ideas as it could go over the 10 second limit. Also I couldn't use violence or language because it would go against watershed rules. If the brief was more lenient I would have made it completely animated, the 10 second run time made me want to use live action mixed with clay instead.

I do feel that I would be good at working in the media industry. I'm not normally comfortable when it comes to making animation, however this project shows that if I am given something to do I will do it to the best of my ability even animation. I feel this project has improved how I adjust myself to a brief being that the Esting had to be ten seconds long. It took a while to shoot compared to how it would have been done if it wasn't stop motion. And when it came to editing it was a challenge to get rid of some of the shots that myself and Connor liked. We had to delete some because it went over the run time. But getting it done before time made me realise that I could follow briefs.
I would probably not make an animation again. As much as I love and respect animation I prefer live action. Ironically I find live action easier to control then animation. I don't have the patience for animating. I prefer to shoot live action as moving images don't require as much intricate detail. I would love to write for animation especially adult animations similar to that of Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland. If I had to work in animation it would be writing.

Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland.

If I had a career in animation it would be writing animation not animating it.