My Film Review (Click to view Large)

Music

Since I'm not having any speaking in my film I had to choose some music that would go well with the film. I decided on picking a song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera". It took some time to figure out what song I would want and whether I would want the words in it. So I decided that I would either have "Music of the night" or "Think of me". This is because they are both beautiful pieces of music and they would both work well with my film.

I think I am more likely to use "Think of me" however because it sounds more dramatic and is more likely to match every part of my film. I also don't think I will use the words so I will use an instrumental version.

Example Film Review

I got this film review from http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/tangled

I thought that because I am making a film for families, it would make sense to create a film review that is made for families. To find this film review I typed into google "Film reviews for families" and this is the first one that came up.

I think that this style of film review would be easier to re-create because it can say on it who it is age approprate for in the same way that this one has on the left, I can also give it a rating with the same starts that it uses. I think the benefit of having a film review like this would be that because the picture of the film is the poster it wouldn't give away too much about the actual film.

I also think I would be able to re-create the Rated things also shown to the left and I will be able to make my own comments about it. I however won't put the "More" at the side of the comments, I will just write short comments.

I also like that this film review puts a section in for the parents so that they know who it will be suited to and if there are any bits that will need explaining. I think this is a really clever way of getting them to watch the film because they think that it will be suitable for both boys and girls.
It also tells the parents what to expect (scary things) so that they will know that if their children are suseptable to being scared they don't have to take them to see it.

I also like that the review gives topics that the family can talk about after the film. This is a really clever way of developing ther communication skills and developing their skills of film analysis.


I also like how it gives a brief synopsis of the film (like most film reviews) and also an unbiased review of whether the film is any good or not.

It also gives details of where the film was made, the run time so it can tell the parents how long they can expect their children to be entertained for, when it was released and the ratings so that the parents get every piece of information they can about the film before actually going to see it.

Editing the film

I have just realised that I have brought in the wrong memory card so I have all the opening things but not the actual body of the film, now I realise that I am going to be really pushed for time as I can't go home and get the other memory card as I live 40 minutes away from the college. I am going to have to come in on friday and on monday at lunch to do the editing.

Shooting the film

I also did some of the inside filming last thursday and this monday. This was very hard to do as it was so time consuming and although the things I shot, I think, look good. I don't think it will take up much of the 5 minute time limit. I also planned to do some outside filming last weekend but because the snow had frozen on the grass I couldn't because it wouldnt look right. If I do choose to do the outside scenes still I am going to be really rushed to do it this weekend because the snow may not have melted and therefore I will not be able to film it. I will do another brainstorm so that I can come up with different ideas of how to get around it.

I am planning to edit most of the film today as I brought in the memory card for the film, however I left the openning titles memory card at home because my mum had to use it for work and the memory card didn't have enough space to do it all.

I also plan to go to the library on Friday lunchtime so that I can finish the film and perhaps stay in on Monday lunchtime aswell so that I can complete it aswell.

Filming The Opening

Last night I went to my mums work and tried to brainstorm ideas on how I could start my film. I came up with the idea of having a blackboard and then writing "Directed By" etc. in chalk and but having it look like it is shining so it would give the illusion that a fairy was writing it.
I then came up with the idea of having glitter on a page and then it being blown away and then it reveal "Directed By" etc. and then it is reversed to have the glitter put back on and then it writes "Produced By" etc. and so on. (looks like fairy dust)
I then came up with the idea of having a paper full of glitter and then it being written on top of it revealing a black outline of the "Directed By" etc.

I tried to do the 2nd option but I don't think it looks right, I'll upload it onto here so I can have a proper look but I think that I am going to use the 3rd option instead.

Filming Plan

Monday 29th November 2010
I plan to do some of my inside filming tonight, I will do this on the dining room table having the set resting ontop. This is because if it is on the floor the tripod won't work properly and it will make everything look like someone is looking down on the set.
I will probably film the witches house scene because that is the set that I feel that I have done the best and it will be the easiest to actually do.

Actual final poster

I realised after finishing the previous film poster that my film wasn't having any talking in it because I think that it would be hard to make the characters mouths move in time with someone talking, I also chose not to have talking in it because I am not a good script writer and I was worried that the speech would ruin the film. So for the final movie poster (shown above) I decided to take out the stars name but then keep the previous film poster to show that if I had decided to have talking in the film, those were the stars that I would have chosen. I like this final poster because it looks good and doesn't give too much about the film away. I think the final font works really well because the first font that I chose was called Holiday font and it looked too swirly girly and the person viewing the poster may not be able to read the title therefore defeating the object of a poster, to inform people that a film is coming and that they should go see it (if they can't see the title, they won't go see the film)

Finished Poster

Certificate Ratings

I realised that I would have to have a certificate rating on the film if it was to seem real at all. I had to decide on what rating to have for my film considering I was aiming it at families.
Most family films are made by Walt Disney Pictures and all of their films are certified "U", However there are some family films made by other companies that are PG for example Dreamworks' Shrek is a PG because of its mild language and crude humor. However because in my film there will be no bad language at all or crude humor I think I could certify it as U.
I wouldnt have to certify it as 18, 12, 12A or 15 because there will be no violence or bad language.

The Filming

Unfortunately the day that I was going to do the outside filming it snowed making it impossible to film outside as I need grass for the scene and without it, it would be useless. I then thought I could do some filming for the inside scenes but then I found that my mum had taken the camera and the memory stick into work and wouldn't be able to get it back before Monday. So I am going to have to cram most of my filming into this Thursday and Weekend otherwise it wont get done. If it is still snowy on Thursday I will start making a set that looks like grass so I can film it then, it will take time but I think I will be able to do it.

Making my poster

I thought that because my film uses plasticine people, my poster should be made out of plasticine too. This is so that people would be able to guess that this is what the film will be made from and so that they aren't thrown off guard when they see the film.
To make the poster I made different colour greens out of plasticine by having a base colour of green and adding yellow to one, white to another and leaving one normal.
I then had to roll out a thin circle of purple to make the faries face and then roll out 8 sausage shapes to make the hands, i then placed the circle on a black bit of paper and started to make the leaves that would surround the face. I did this by rolling the green plasticine into a circle and then squishing it between my fingers and then making a point using my fingers aswell. I then took a knife and made the veins on the leaves.
I then made a circle of white to make the eye, blue for the iris and black for the pupil. I then made some long thin lines to make the eyelashes and placed them all ontop of eachother.

To make my poster look like a real poster I had to go into Adobe Photoshop and add the titles, certificate rating, when the movie is due to be out, the porduction company, the tag line and some of the stars that are in the film. To do this I just put the picture onto adobe and then just added text. Choosing a font and colour of the font was hard because some of the titles that I liked didn't look right on the actual finished product as you could barely make out what the title was. I then had to make the certificate rating and to do this I just went onto google and added it onto the poster. I then had to get some of the logo's for the production companies etc which I also got from google.
I then noticed some lines on the face from where my fingers had smoothed down the plasticine, so I thought I could smudge it to make it look smoother but it took forever to recognise what I did and even then it looked really bad because the brush was too big so it smudged everything.

Title fonts for my poster

I have found some nice fonts on Da-Font (dafont.com) and I want to use one of them but I need to see first which one looks best, to do this I the title on the poster in different fonts and see which one stands out more to people. I'm going to have the font in a bright purple because I think that it will contrast between the green leaves. To see which one stands out more I will ask 11 people which one they think looks better and see which comes out with the best score.

Stars that should be put on the poster:
To figure out what stars to have on my poster I had to decide what ones are mostly in animated films.
Renee Zellweger for example has been in animation films such as Shark Tale, Monsters vs. Aliens and Bee Movie. I think that this is because she has a sweet voice and is suitable for children's films and when the parents are watching the films with their children they will recognise the voice. For a male example Robin Williams has been in alot of animation films and also alot of childrens films, these are including the classics Aladdin and Fern Gully. Some other examples would also be Happy Feet and Robots.

Production Companies that do animated films:
Universal Studios, Pixar, Dreamworks Animation, Warner Bros Animation, Walt Disney Pictures.

Planning the opening

For my opening of the film I want to have it so that it looks like someone is telling a story. So I would like to have a book openning with "Once upon a time..." written on it.

To make the book I will buy a paper mache book that you can buy from Hobby Craft and then use newspaper and kitchen roll to make the decorations around the book. I will also paint the book in different colours to make it seem more 'magical'. I will then fill it with white paper and have the characters names written on each page and then in the openning the page will turn and reveal a new name. Then at the end of all the names I will have the words "Once upon a time..." written on the page and then it will turn over and there will be a picture of the sky, the book creases will then fade and reveal that, that is the openning shot of the actual film. On the front of the book will be the title of the film "Purple Magic"

An example of a film that opens with a story book opening is Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty . The two screen shot examples are from Sleeping Beauty. I didn't want to put in the youtube clip because it was called Sleeping Beauty Part 1 which means it could be deleted and it is a pirate.

Creating the sets

The first set that I made was the inside of the "witches house" this was done by getting a cardboard boz and then putting it into a room shape by cutting off one of the edges and then sticking it to the bottom to make the floor. I then put a mix of PVA glue and water over it and stuck kitchen roll on it so that it would be easier to paint. When this dried I painted the floor a dark brown so that it would look like mud (because the witch lives in a toadstool mushroom) and then the walls a light yelow colour to look like the walls of a mushroom. I then made a witches caludron and also a chimney.

I then had to make the outside of the mushroom so that the characters can be seen going into it. This was made by rolling up a piece of cardboard into a large tube and then cellotaping it together. I then cut out round a plate to make the top of the mushroom and then stuck a load of rolled up balls of newspaper on the top and added one layer on the top of it so that it would look rounded. I then pp a mix of PVA glue and water over it and then stuck kitchen roll on top to make it easier to paint. To paint the toadstool I needed to get an image of what one looks like. So I went onto google and typed in toadstool and found the image shown to the right. So I then painted the top of the mushroom red with white spots and the base a light yellow colour.

Because most of the film is based outside I will be using the outside to do most of the filming but then make props (such as the mushroom) to make it seem more interesting and 'fairytale' like.
I think that I will also make a small castle to put into the distance and paint it in colours that castles wouldn't normally be (for example purple and pink)
I will also make a cave for some things to live in (the character won't actually see what is inside the fairy will tell her but then as they are walking away some fire will shoot out of the cave.)
I will then need to make the fire that comes out of the cave, I could do this by using real fire and using a deodourant can and a lighter (but this is very dangerous so I don't think I want to do this.) or I can use paper and cut it into a fire shape and then slowly push it out of the cave and take a photo frame at a time and then when it is sped up it will look more like fire and it is safer.

Inspiration for my poster

I recently saw a poster for a new animation film "Tangled" which is based on the story "Rapunzel" (the poster is shown on the left.)

I like how the poster doesn't reveal much about the actual film. It just shows that someone has a lot of hair and is Rapunzel.

I think for my poster I will have something like this and just show the eyes of one of my characters.

Because my film's target audience is families I think that the poster should be colourful and have the ability to capture people's attention.

To do this I will use contrasting colours so that it will stand out more.

I also think that I will need to have an appropriate font that would go well with the film. I will get this off "DaFont.com" or I will make it myself using plasticine.

I think that I should also make the poster out of plasticine and take a photo of it. This is because it will give a hint to the audience that it is made with plasticine.

Target Audience

A target audience is a proportion of the population that has a specific taste for a product. In this case (of an animation film) I think that the target audience will be families because most animation films are certificated as "U".

Many of the top rated family films are animated for example the top 10 are: (according to http://www.top10films.co.uk/archives/2641)
1. E.T
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Mary Poppins (Part animated)
4. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
5. Toy Story (Animated)
6. Shrek (Animated)
7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
8. Back to the Future
9. The Jungle Book (Animated)
10. The Sound of Music

From this I have found that my film will have to be rated "U". This is because in order for all the family to be able to watch it, it has to be young child friendly. For example, no swearing and no violence.

Making of My Plasticine Model Step By Step

1. I Made a wire frame out of Silver Plated Scientific Wire by taking 1m of wire are then twisting it first to make a neck with a loop on the end, then twisting it to one side to make an arm, then twisting it around again to make the arm stronger, then I made the other arm in the same way so the wire is below the neck again.
2. I then twisted the wire down to make the body, and then twisted it back up making another loop as done for the head.
3. Then I twisted a long piece of wire to make the legs so it is in half, then twisted again to make it strong.4. I then pulled the legs through the hole left at the bottom of the body to complete the wire frame



5. I got orange, pink and white coloured plasticine and mixed all together to make the skin coloured plasticine
6. I then rolled the skin coloured plasticine into a ball





7. I then moulded the ball into a face shape by making it into an oval, pinching a nose and poking a pen through the face for eye sockets.
8. I then attatched the head to the wire frame (the neck part) to make it stay up.







9. I then rolled out the remaining skin coloured plasticine into a sausage shape and then flattened to make the skin for the arms.
10. I then wrapped this around the wire frame (the arms part) so that they would look more "real"
11. I then rolled out two balls of skin coloured plasticine to make the hands, used a knife and cut in the fingers.12. The I moulded them using my fingers to make them rounder.
13. I then attatched them to the arms and smothed it down so it is harder to see that they were made separately



14. I then made the body using green plasticine. This was done by rolling it into a thick sausage shape, cutting off the ends to make the ends flat and then attatching cutting it in half and then placing it on the body part of the frame and using my fingers to smooth it down so that the line cant be seen.
15. I then made the trousers by doing the exact same thing but with blue plasticine and making two of them (one fore each leg)16. I then had to make the trousers higher up, I did this by making another sausage and flattening it (same way as I did the arms) and then wrapping it round the body and smoothing it down again with my fingers.
17. I then made the shoes by getting some of the skin coloured plasticine and adding some brown to it and then moulding it into two shoe shapes and just attatching them to the bottom of the legs. (I scored the tops and bottoms so it is easier to stick) and then added a white rim around it to make the fur ontop of the uggs.




18. I then rolled out two white balls for the eyes and put them into the sockets.
19. Then I made two smaller balls of green to make the iris and put that ontop of the white bits.
20. I then rolled two small sausages and attatched them to the face to make the eyebrows (I was going to do eyelashes but they kept getting squashed)21. I then marked out a line on the top of the head to make a place for the hair to look like it would start growing.
22. I then rolled out loads of sausage shaped brown plasticine for the hair and attatched it to the head.
23. I then rolled out a small line of red to make the mouth and attatched it to the face.

Finished Model!

Click image to view larger version

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Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Ware Rabbit BBC Film Review Analysis

I have noticed that the BBC don't usually use colloquial language. Meaning that they assume that the people reading their reviews wouldn't know what they would be talking about if they did.
I have also noticed that this review seems to introduce the films plot to give a general idea about what is going to happen in the film. This is probably to make sure that people can see if they like the plot before going to the cinema or buying the DVD to watch it.
I have also noticed that in the BBC's film reviews they seem to put in brackets who is playing the part of characters or just say it out right. This is probably to name drop so that people will see it and if they are (for example) a Helena Bonham-Carter enthusiast they will probably want to go see Wallace and Gromit because she is one of the main roles in it.
I think the way that the BBC have compared the film to the TV series saying that "nothing has changed" is really good because it shows that they have knowledge of the subject and it will show the fans of the TV show that they can watch the movie without getting upset that it has changed everything.
I think the way that they have commented on the fact that the characters are still hand-made is really good because it shows that they want to make a point of it to make it a selling point.
I have also noticed that in all of the BBC's film reviews they put one phrase to outline the whole film in capital letters in a paragraph on its own (in this one it is "SHEER GOOD HUMOR"
I have also noticed that they use alot of descriptive words and some alliteration for example "groansome puns" and "surprisingly saucy double entendres"
I have also noticed that in the last paragraph they tend to talk alittle bit about the director/creator to give alittle bit of his history to try and make the reader seem more interested in the actual film making.

Analysis of Print Products from Animated Films

Flushed Away

I think that the background image of a sewer is a really clever way of showing that they are going to get flushed down the toilet.

I also think that the way that the two main characters are framed within the poster in the middle with the archway of one of the sewer things.

I like the way that there are three frogs jumping towards the people viewing the poster and also the two main characters.

It is easy to see in this poster where the film will be set (or where it is meant to look like it will be set) because of the bus in the background resembles a London bus and also the female main character is wearing jeans made from a UK Flag.

I think that the title is really clever because it looks like it is a frame with water inside it.

I also like the way that up at the top of the poster it says "from the creators from Shrek and Madagascar" and Shrek and Madagascar are in their film logo title.

When the viewer notices the ruby that is falling out of the female characters hand they get the feeling that it is going to be a main part in the film (which it ends up being)

I also like the way that the makers of this poster didn't go down the obvious route and put a toilet on the poster. I think this would have made it really boring and not really say much about what may happen in the film.

However if they did use just a toilet it would have left more to the imagination of the viewers.

Analysis of Print Products from Animated Films

Chicken Run

I think that this poster is really effective because it shows all of the main characters that will be seen in the film.

I also like the use of contrasting colours on the "There's nothing more determined than poultry with a plan" I think that red on blue is a really effective way of grabbing peoples attention.

I also like the way that the characters are running away from something that appears to be in the shot but further off.

I think the way that the makers have used the chicken coops in a way that looks like a compound used in World War 2 is really clever showing that the chickens are really trapped as the Jewish people were back in those times.

I also think that the contrasting colours of red on white is really clever.

I think the way that the two human characters in the picture look really evil is clever because it already establishes that they are the bad guys in the film and that the chickens are the victims in the film.

I think the way that the main female chicken is smiling coyly in the shot shows that she is the one who wants to get out the most.

Analysis of Print Products from Animated Films

Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Ware Rabbit Poster

I really like this poster from Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Ware Rabbit.

I like it because it uses colours that stand out. I also like the way that they used the same font at the top where it says "chicken run" as it is on the chicken run film title.

I think the way that Gromit is reaching out towards the viewer (but actually to the figure casting the shadow) is really creative because it looks like he is trying to draw the viewer into the film.

I also like how Wallace and Gromit seem to keep their character's face as if they were in the film at that precise time (that the poster is actually a film still)

Wallace's face looking as though he actually hasn't got a clue as to what is going on, also how Gromit's face looks as though he is the one doing all of the work - just as he normally does in the short films.

I think that the way that the shadow of the "Ware Rabbit" is going across the title making it look bolder is really clever. It also makes the poster look more frightening because the viewer can't see what the creature looks like (however it does show that it is a Ware Rabbit because of the title.)

I like the use of colours on this poster, they are all bold colours and quite contrasting, white on the black shadow and also yellow on the black shadow and the red on the blue sky.

Aardman's History

Aardman has a deserved reputation as a world leader in model animation. The studio has had seven Oscar nomination, and has won four. In 1972 Peter Lord and David Sproxton registered the name Aardman Animations. In 1976 they created "Morph" (shown Left) for the children's programme'Take Hart'. Peter and David met Nick Park at the National Film and Television School when he was working on his student film “A Grand Day Out”. He joined Aardman full time in 1985.

In 1986, Peter Gabriel suggested that theycollaborate with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create a new rock video“Sledgehammer”. In 1989 the studio was again commissioned by Channel Four Television to createa series of five 5-minute films, “Lip Synch”. This ground-breaking series further explored the world of animation based on true characters and real voices and included Nick Park's “Creature Comforts” (Shown Right), which went on to win the 1990 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

In 1993 Aardman passed another milestone with the completion of Nick Park's Oscar winning “The Wrong Trousers”, Aardman's first 30 minut

e film. In 1995 Aardman produced Nick Park's third Oscar winning film “A Close Shave”. An immediate success, it confirmed the studio's reputation as well as establishing Wallace and Gromit as household names.

A television series was commissioned and shown on BBC2 in 2001. “Angry Kid” (Shown Left), directed by Darren Walsh, was Aardman's first series released exclusively on the internet, via Atomfilms.com. BBC Three commissioned a second series which played a major part in the channel's launch.

“Chicken Run” was Aardman's first full-length theatrical feature film to be funded by DreamWorks. Directed by both Peter Lord and Nick Park it was released in June 2000 in the US and UK to excellent reviews and outstanding box office receipts. “Chicken Run” (shown Below) grossed over $220M at the worldwide box office.

To mass critical acclaim and outstanding box office results, Wallace and Gromit's first feature film “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” was released by DreamWorks in October 2005. The film topped the box office charts in both the US and UK and garnered many prestigious international awards including the

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and a BAFTA for Best British Film.

“Flushed Away”, the studio's first CG film was released worldwide by DreamWorks in November 2006, it was nominated for a BAFTA in 2007. Aardman's television series, “Shaun the Sheep” debuted on BBC1 and CBBC in March 2007.

A History of Clay Animation

Clay Animation isn't a new technique at all, technically, clay animation began a short time after the invention of a clay-like substance called plasticine. Plasticine was invented in 1897, and one of the first actual films to use clay was in 1902 using clay for lightning sculpting. This was one of the first steps into clay animation, but it took six more years to actually make a film that used clay animated sculptures. This happened in 1908 when "A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Nightmare".

However for almost 70 years Clay animation didn't really start becoming popular, however in the late 80's it began to turn into a large-scale phenomenon. Gumby was one of the first superstars to be made out of clay. Even now, people still can't seem to get enough of him. He is a true legend that just keeps reincarnating. He really makes up a large part of clay animation's history. Now that there is so much technology available, clay animation has really been made much simpler to do and accomplish than it was in it's beginnings.

Technical Analysis -- "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Ware Rabbit" - CLIP

I couldn't find the beginning of the film to analyse so I found a clip on Youtube and will analyse that. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released in over 3,000 theatres worldwide on October 14, 2005 and remained number one at the box office worldwide for three weeks in a row. It earned Nick Park a fourth Oscar and "Best Animated Feature" at the Academy Awards.

Section 1 -- 00:03 -> 01:00

Starts with a close up shot of Wallace's face in the middle of the shot with a shocked and scared expression on his face.

Zooms out to show all the characters looking and sounding very angry.

Shot is very cramped having lots of characters in the shot.

Cuts to an establishing shot of where the characters are, seen on the front of a table is the sign "Veg Growers Committee" and there is a cross at the back and they are all sitting in pews meaning that they could be in a church.

Cuts to a shot of three characters looking like they are the heads of the committee because they are sitting at the table.

Cuts to a shot of a woman poking Wallace with a garden shovel to show that she is angry.

Pans across to a shot of an old man acting just as angry.

Two shot of Wallace and Gromit and Wallace with the trap in his hands squashed showing that it didn't do the job it was supposed to do.

Over the shoulder shots to show that one of the men at the table is talking.

Cuts to a close up of the old man talking and then cuts again to an old woman talking.

Over the shoulder shot from the policeman to show that everyone in the church is panicking.

Then back to the shot of the three characters seen to be as the heads of the committee.

Tracking shot following the policeman.

Goes back and forth from the policeman to the crowd showing that he is talking to them.

Section 2 -- 01:01 -> 02:10

Over the shoulder shot to briefly disguise who is talking.

Shot of Wallace and Gromit and other characters turning round to see who is talking.

Shot of the vicar in a wheelchair wheeling his way closer to the policeman to explain what actually happened in more detail.

Shot of the vicar getting up out of his chair to show that he doesn't need the wheelchair really.

Panning up movement to keep the vicars head in the shot.

Shot doesn't change but turns into a close up of the Vicars head to show his expression.

Organ music to show dramaticness.

Shot to show that the music wasn't non diagetic as it first seemed, it was actually diagetic. (old woman playing the organ).

Zooming in towards the vicar explaining more of the story.

Fast cutting between shots of the vicar grabbing different people to make it more dramatic still.

Fast zooming out to show the shape of a huge rabbit that has obviously gone through a stain glass window.

Two shot of Wallace and Gromit to show the panic on their faces

One shot of a man and everyone around him is blurred, this is to make the audience focus on him.

High angle shot to show the woman shaking the policeman to show her panic.

Loud gun noise heard, diagetic because they all react to it.

Section 3 -- 02:11 -> 03:48

Cutting to a shot of a man in a hunting suit holding a gun (obviously the gun that was fired) next to a dog (a different version of Wallace and Gromit - bad version).

Cut to a close up of the man's face.

Comic shot of a statue falling down near the dog (what the man shot down) to lighten the mood.

Zooming out to show that the man has everyone's attention.

Shot of the stain glass window to show what he is talking about.

Cuts to a shot of Lady Tottington in the pulpit with a light shining on her and the arrangement of the lectern and light above it makes her look like an angel. Adding more humour

Then cuts to a shot of the man moving in front of something that makes him look like he has red devil horns.

Camera follows Lady Tottington walking towards the man.

Cuts to a shot of Wallace and Gromit looking happy.

Over the shoulder shot to show that they are having a conversation.

Shots of people turning round to show that people are listening to what they are going to say.

Then a shot of Gromits shocked face that everyone thinks that it is a good idea.

Two shot of the people who are the heads of the committee to show that they agree with it too.

Two shot of Lady Tottington showing that she is happy with the decision and the man to show that he is shocked like Gromit that everyone thinks that it is a good idea.

Shot of the man being mean saying "not the ones I'm looking at" (vegetables) and then cuts to a shot of Wallace and Gromit showing that he is talking about them.

Technical Analysis -- "Loutette" by Sarah

I decided to do a Technical Analysis of this film because it uses plasticine to make the film and I thought that it would give me a better idea of how to film my own film.

Background music -- Loutette by Jools Holland

Section 1 -- 00:00 -> 01:05

All in black and white.

Starts off with a high angle shot showing a girl playing a piano (made of plasticine).

Zooming out motion and establishing shot to show where the girl is playing (in her bedroom).

Another high angle shot to show her playing the piano in time with the background music.

Lighting is shown as just through a window.

Pan movement to show the size of the room.

Shot of pictures (posters) on the wall of people playing piano as the music picks up.

Shot of the wardrobe to show the "night creatures" coming out.

Close up shot of her hands playing the piano in time to the music.

Another shot of the "night creatures" coming out but this time from under the bed.

Fading in and out of the shots.

More "night creatures" coming out from behind the piano - angled shot to show a better picture.

Going in and out of different shots going in between shots of the piano and other creatures coming out of different bits of furniture.

Shot of the "night creatures" being constructed into a drum set and symbols.

Another shot fading into being shown as brass instruments

Shot of the drum set and brass instruments being finished.

Section 2 -- 01:06 -> 02:48

All in colour.

High angle establishing shot to show all the instruments playing together

Lighting using spot lights on the different types of musical instrument playing together (Drums, Brass and Piano)

Close-up shot of the brass instruments, then another close up of the largest brass instrument playing in time to the music.

Panning shot to the girl playing the piano.

Then to the drums playing then to some symbols.

Another high up shot to show the instruments playing and the lighting is moving in time to the music.

A Close up shot of her hands playing the piano again.

Then a close up of the brass instruments.

Then a close up of the drum set.

Going back and forth to previous shots already shown.

panning backwards and forwards to show all of the instruments playing still in time with the music.

Section 3 -- 02:47 -> 3:34

Back into black and white.

Shot of all the instruments together in a group surrounding the piano and the girl looking at them all whilst still playing.

Close up shot of her hands playing the piano again (a replay of previous shots -- to save time)

Shot of a toy R2D2 moving in time to the music.

Zooming out shot of the door showing that someone could walk through at any time.

Shot showing that the "night creatures" are shaking with fear (probably because they can hear someone coming to the door.

Shots of all of them going back into the hiding places.

Fast zooming in and out shot in black and white and then into colour to show that someone has seen one of the "night creatures"

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

This is the first animated film by J. Stuart Blackton "Humerous Phases of Funny Faces". He drew his image on a blackboard, photographed it, then erased it or atleast took out the 'moving' part, then drew the next phase. It was made in 1906. The film moves at 20 frames per second.

The flickering seen in this film was common to the earliest animations and resulted from the camera operator's failure to achieve consistent exposure in manual one–frame cranking.

To the left is J. Stuart Blackton. He performed his films in front of people to raise money for charity.

A History of Animation

The first animated film was created by Charles-Émile Retnaud. He invented the Praxinoscope (an animation system using loops of 12 pictures), he exibited animations at Musee Grevin in Paris. These animations consisted loops of about 500 frames using a Theatre Optique system (which is similar to a modern day film projector)The first animated work on standard picture film was "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" by J. Stuart Blackton, it featured a cartoonist drawing on a chalkboard, and the faces coming to life.

(Above is a Praxinoscope)

The first animated feature length film was "El Apostol" which was made by Quirino Cristaiani in 1917. However, the earliest surviving animated feature is the

silhouette-animated "Adventures of Prince Achmed" directed by Lotte Reiniger and Berthold Bartosch in 1926. Many people think that Walt Disney's "SnowWhite and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) is the first animated feature when actually eight were made before it. However Snow White was the first to become successful and well-known withing the English-speaking world and it was the first to use cel animation. Walt Disney also was the creator of the first animation to use full, three colour Technicolor method ("Flowers and Trees") (shown to the right) which won an Academy Award.

Stop motion is used for many animation productions using physical objects rather than actual images of people. An object will be photographed, moved slightly and then photographed again. when the pictures are then played back in normal speed the object will appear to move by itself. The first example of this would be the 1899 short film by Albert E. Smith and J

. Stuart Blackton called "The Humpty Dumpty Circus" ... another person who made animated short films was Wladyslaw Starewicz who animated and ""The Beautiful Lukanida", "The Battle of the Stag Beetles" and "The Ant and the Grasshopper"
This process is used for loads of productions, for example the most common types of puppets are

clay puppets which are famously used in "Wallace and Gromit" and also figures made of various rubbets, cloths and plastic sesins, such as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach" (to the left). Stop motion was also commonly used for special eggects work in many live-action films such as the 1933 version of "King Kong" and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad".
CGI animation (Computer-Generated Imagery) revolutionized animation. The first film that was completely made in CGI was "Toy Story" produced by Pixar. This process of

animation is still very slow and similar in the sanse to traditional animation, and still adheres to many of the same principles. The main difference of CGI Animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling, almost like a virtual stop-motion, through a form of animation that combines both worlds which can be considered to be computer aided animation.
Most CGI films are based on animal characters, monsters, machines or cartoon-like humans. Animation studio's have now started to try and create more realistic looking humans to put into films. Films that have attempted this are "Final Fantasy" the series,

"The Polar Express", "Beowulf" and "Resident Evil: Degeneration" However this method of animation is rarely used. This is because the more realisitic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the nuances and details of a living person. The creation of hair and clothing that moves convincingly with the animated human character is another area of difficulty. Examples of this are "The Incredibles" and "Up" which contain humans as protagonists, whereas films such as "Avatar" (shown right) combine animation with liv

e action to create humanoid creatures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation

Making the model 2

Making the Model 2
I then tried to make the head hollow so that it would become lighter. But when the same thing happened again, I realized that it was because of the hair that the head was so heavy. I then Googled how to make a plasticine model and it came up with:
“Make the head, body, arms, legs / wings separately - then join them together using short pieces of pipe cleaner (to make it easier to move bits)” (http://www.bedfordcreativearts.org.uk/moreinfo/HandyHints-models.pdf )
However I didn’t have any pipe cleaner so I thought wire would work just as well. I then found on the same website that I could make my model blink which I thought would make the character seem more realistic it said:
“Eyes wide open: Roll two pieces of white plasticine into balls and drop them into the eye sockets. Poke these with modelling tool / pencil and drop two smaller balls of coloured plasticine into the holes for irises. For pupils, you can make two holes in irises (the shadow makes it look darker) or drop two even smaller balls of black plasticine into the holes. Eyes half open: make one extra eye as above and one same sized ball of eyelid colour… cut them in half and join each skin half to eye half. Eyes shut: easy… just make two balls of skin colour!”
I did this and then found that if I then put two bits of wire into the eye sockets first, I could remove the eyes easier so I can make her blink easier. I also then thought if I coated the eyes with clear nail varnish, I would be able to remove them even easier because they wouldn’t stick to the sockets.
Making the hands was the hardest part as they all looked like mittens or looked huge for the body. My teacher then showed me a past film that someone made (but they did a music video) and said that if I messaged her through YouTube I would probably get an answer. So I messaged her asking how she made the hands on her video and she replied:
“start by making the palm the size you want (so u don’t go too big!), roll out the fingers to the size you want (like little sausages) and blend each finger onto the palm one at a time, preferably using a flat, smooth and fine edged tool (palette knife, flat head screwdriver etc), as your own fingers can end up accidentally sticking the fingers to each other! It’s tricky, and the fingers will stick to each other a lot, or fall off if not attached well, so be prepared to give them a lot of tlc during filming!
don’t know what your models hands are going to be doing, but if its lifting or carrying something in its hands, you should definitely attach wire through the arms into the palm (making a teardrop shape at end of wire for the palm)”

I then did this and it worked perfectly. I then thought of making a wire frame for the whole body, this was difficult to do, I first tried to put it all together in one but then I decided that putting the wiring together piece by piece would be better for movement, i did this by using the same technique as listed above (making a teardrop shape at the end of the wire) but then linking them together for things such as elbows.
I then put the plasticine around the wiring and stuck the head on top. [Picture of finished model to follow]

Making the model 1

Making the Model 1
I first had to mix white, orange and pink together to make the skin colour. I then had to put all the pieces together to make the torso, legs, head and arms. I then had to put on top of that a colour of a top that I had so that during filming when the character gets turned into the plasticine person, they still have the same clothes on. I decided that I would make the character wear green and blue jeans. This is because it would be the easiest thing to make the person wear because I wouldn’t have to put much detail into the actual clothes themselves, making it easier to move. I then had to add the hair, I did this by rolling out brown bits of plasticine into a long sausage, I then put a line down the middle of the head so that I had a parting in which to put the hair. I then attached the hair to the head just by placing it on top and slightly pressing down to make it stick.
Testing Model 1
I found that when trying to move the model the head made the top of it too heavy so when left to stand by itself so that I could take a photo, it would gradually fall down making it look like (when the pictures were played back) that the model was slowly doing the limbo.

Choice of Brief Updated

I decided that after the two people in my group left to do something different, that I would have to too. I was going to continue on with the idea of a Music Video, but then I realized that it would be very hard to have to match the video to the genre of video that the specific band/singer did. So I decided that I would make a short film instead.
Seeing as though I am new to the college I don’t have that many friends, therefore I will have to try and make an animated film so that I can actually make something. I decided to do this through plasticine. This is because this will be one of the easiest forms of animation that I could do, purely because I can’t draw. However I understand that this will be very time consuming because I will have to do it by moving the plasticine pieces millimeters at a time and take millions of photos. I have been told by my teacher to use stop motion to make it slightly easier.

The brief is:

"A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animation or a combination of both, together with:

- A poster for the film

-A film magazine review page featuring the film"

Choice of Brief

Anyone on this site

I have chosen to do a music video, this is because I think it would be more interesting to do as I have already done a video for my AS media so I think I would enjoy it more and have more commitment to it. I also thought that it would be a lot more fun to do. The genre of music that the group have decided to do is indie because we found that it is popular, this will mean that we will have more of a selection of songs to choose from rather than having just a few.

We eventually chose to do the song Dreaming of you - The Coral because it seemed to be in mutual agreement as to that it was a good song and we could think of a load of different ideas for the video.

Whilst coming up with The Coral we also considered, Artic Monkeys, Jamie T, Kasabian, Ellie Goulding and the Libertines.