The production of what you might ask, who knows! the booklet was not obliged to tell me, so with that in mind humble readers welcome to my outlying a random production process.
Lets do this! *puts on sunglasses*
Ok production of an amateur ANIMATION!
Creation/Design - First of all someone needs to have an idea, whether its a picture scrawn on the back of a card or a story made over 10 years in some sweaty dudes basement, this is usually the job of the creator (duh) he is the visionary who will kick start any production but especially that of an animation. Usually if the creator is a good artist he can make his own pictures of what he wants things to look like to use for either style reference or for that of scenery and the like.
Writing/Storyboarding - Depending on the aforementioned creators artistic and linguistic abilites the idea will head into pre-production phase where you can either have someone come in to write it, this person being the scriptwriter who will either work with the creator to come up with dialogue, pick apart plot holes and help to create an all round more solidified idea over a number of drafts.
The Scriptwriter who in turn will begin sending pages to the storyboard artist (please keep in mind that these roles can be filled by just one talented person) who then takes it upon himself to, using the drafted script come up with panels and characters in various poses and locations dictated by the script to give an idea of what the animation will look like when completed.
Funding/Presenting - With design work finished you can move on to (if the situation calls for it, some animations are funded by the creators/those involved) to present it your peers to give everyone an idea of where you want to go with the production and discuss the logistics of creating the animation or pitch to a company that deals with financing films and animations, and try to secure the budget needed to finance your animation properly.
Animation/ Production (the hard part) - Now bringing in your team of Animators which can begin work on bringing the scenes to life, colourists to fill in your designs and get the frames into production, this part is long and arduous and will go through many different last minute changes to story elements/designs. Animators can consist of artists, acutal animators, colourists. Then you need to think of sound design, so possibly a foley team, voice actors. Using your budget or funding to supply the equipment needed to create your animation.
Post Production - Now is the time to master all your sound, fix any resolution problems with your with individual frames, tighten up the editing, lose a few shots (if time constraints call for it). Test screenings can be had to see the reaction to your animation, if its not liked by the audience before final release it gives you the chance to go out and make the relevant changes before release.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Unit 2 Media Awareness and Products
Unit 2 Media Awareness and Products
The aim of this unit is to encourage learners to think about the construction of media products. Learners will develop their understanding of how the media industries think about their audiences, how these industries create products for specific audiences and how they themselves, as members of an audience, understand media products.
Learning outcomes
Assessment criteria
1 Know how a media industry identifies audiences for its products
1.1 outline ways in which a media industry identifies audiences for its products
Every product is made with someone with mind, this while a wild and grand statement is (arguably) true, without someone to aim towards while making your product, said product is useless. So in the media industry where profit and consumption is key to the success of the industry and your chances of staying in that industry (as nobody likes an "Uwe Boll") Identifying your audience is essential.
There are several ways media companies can go about getting feedback and opinions on their latest product but for the ease of use, we shall identify how the Film industry would identify its audience.
Surveys - A simple survey is always a good start at identifying what the public would need and what they want, say you are working for a mobile phone firm and are trying to find out who would want (the audience) your new 4 screen mobile phone (you just wait, its gonna happen!)
you'd go out take say 100 names (or stage it online giving you access to hundreds of potential survey...ors?), add their ages, response and perhaps if your survey is detailed enough the occupation / relationship status of people who responded positively to your survey. This would give you your first indication of who your target audience is for your product and will allow you to fine-tune your product to their recommendations.
Test Screenings - Whether you have a Pilot or a 5 minute minute animatic to hand you can give a presentation / test screening to audiences of critics and the general public. Afterwards you can hold Q&A sessions, Surveys even Interviews to ascertain the response of those who have enjoyed your proposed idea for a new show or game show.
General Research - Slightly longer to do, but always rewarding is the trawl through the Internet, books and archives of past products and papers identifying the areas in which audience consumption can be maximised. Looking at the market and finding the gaps and seeing how their competitors
Following Trends - While you could argue more and more that this could be included in research i feel the recent surge in social networking gives it its own entry. of course I'm talking about the mega-media sites that Twitter and Blogger have now become with "trends" (subjects that reoccur in tweets, blogs can be linked to a title that will trend the more people post that title in their comments etc) Now the Media industry seems to use the social rantings of people either on twitter as the opinion of the entire world and uses them to constantly sound as if they are in the know with the audiences wants and needs.
http://www.spinproject.org/downloads/TargetAudience.pdf <--- Some good reading on Target Audience that have inspired this and the rest of the unit.
2 Understand how media products are constructed for specific audiences
2.1 outline ways in which a media product is constructed for a specific audience
Seeing who wants your new Idea is great, but often you can look over your shoulder and see someone who has established an empire off of a franchise or an idea and think to yourself. "I could make that, if not that something damned near it and then it shall be me sitting upon the throne of money!". Perhaps that is a bit dramatic but in the media industry and business beyond that situation happens a lot more than you think.
You only have to cast your mind back to the recent Tablet boom to see "ways in which a media product is constructed for a specific audience" no one could have contemplated that the I-pads idea of simple web browsing and light entertainment would boom so massively. Soon you had a plethora pretenders to the tablet throne to capitalise on the scramble for ease of use. Soon you had the Android Tablet, the Samsung GalaxyTab, The Dell Streak 7 and thousands more coming out of the woodwork to give us apps and touch screens to whittle away the hours.
http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-brief/48287-there-are-products-that-hope-to-beat-the-ipad
These movies were aimed at the fans of already arguably cheesy slasher/horror films, those who enjoyed the works of Leslie Neilson and the "American pie" audience.
So quickly we had the box office filled with the blatant copies Meet the Spartans, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and plenty, plenty more were released to latch onto the fans and public that enjoyed the first iterations of these types of movies, they were targeting the fans of the first franchise, pulling out low budget films like the ones I've just listed and still creating a profit off of the reputation of the originals.
3 Understand how audiences can respond to media products.
3.1 outline ways in which a media product might be understood by an audience.
Often in the industry excellent media products fly by undetected while those that are undeserving of their acclaim. This is usually how products are viewed or understood by the consumer. There are many ways of making a customer come round to your way of thinking you only have to cast your mind back to the Apple advertising campaign of "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" which while a blatant attack on their bitter rival windows, they created the understanding that having a Mac product was the key product to own to the student/arty "cool" individual who has no time for boring spreadsheets and wants to spend their time making video of themselves and uploading to Facebook.
Here the advertising campaign is giving the understanding to the audience that if they want to have the image of "cool" and not be boring as the PC user in the advert they need to buy the Apple product. This advertising campaign was very widely received and definitely helped in the sales by creating the stereotype that the mac was the cooler home based product while the PC was strictly a business tool, something that their biggest rival Windows were quite rightly peeved by. Thus the "I'm a PC' advertising campaign which showed users and famous faces of the windows system rebuffing how they can do all the things they need to and how the system has helped them achieve their goals over in all kinds of fields of work, and play. giving the understanding that perhaps the Apple adverts were a bit one-sided and that owners are proud of their innovative system.
Often in the industry excellent media products fly by undetected while those that are undeserving of their acclaim. This is usually how products are viewed or understood by the consumer. There are many ways of making a customer come round to your way of thinking you only have to cast your mind back to the Apple advertising campaign of "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" which while a blatant attack on their bitter rival windows, they created the understanding that having a Mac product was the key product to own to the student/arty "cool" individual who has no time for boring spreadsheets and wants to spend their time making video of themselves and uploading to Facebook.
There was some people who thought that the campaign itself was in bad taste and slightly mean spirited in making the PC vs MAC a full blown marketing war, perfectly (in my opinion) illustrated by this quote from Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker commenting on the English versions of the Mac Vs PC adverts that starred Peep Show actors David Mitchell and Robert Webb: "(In Peepshow) Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur... So when you see the ads, you think, 'PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers".
Here the advertising campaign is giving the understanding to the audience that if they want to have the image of "cool" and not be boring as the PC user in the advert they need to buy the Apple product. This advertising campaign was very widely received and definitely helped in the sales by creating the stereotype that the mac was the cooler home based product while the PC was strictly a business tool, something that their biggest rival Windows were quite rightly peeved by. Thus the "I'm a PC' advertising campaign which showed users and famous faces of the windows system rebuffing how they can do all the things they need to and how the system has helped them achieve their goals over in all kinds of fields of work, and play. giving the understanding that perhaps the Apple adverts were a bit one-sided and that owners are proud of their innovative system.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Unit 4.3.3 Opportunities for Training
Training is an important part of professional development, to ensure you are at the top of your industry and learning all the new technology and practices that come into your workplace almost every month.
There are many ways to train yourself and I shall let you in on a couple of ways of training yourself professionally I have encountered and others that I have not (but would like to).
ONLINE TUTORIALS: With the rise of websites such as Vimeo and YouTube, has given rise to the helpful knowledge of professionals and creative talents kind enough to share their knowhow through the web! Need to learn how to edit on Final Cut Pro? type it in on a site such as YouTube and watch the millions of tutorials that come up in your results.
Online Tutorials don't just have to be videos you can have written ones, like a guide on www.Ehow.com to teach yourself quickly if its just general information you need.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5028824_flip-videos-imovie.html
TRAINING COURSES: Back when I worked in construction I was to become part of the health and safety crew on site, for me to be qualified I had to be part of a health and safety and fire marshall course.
This was a course of six, one hour sessions which then at the end qualify you for whatever certificate you need (in this case Fire marshall and health and safety with harness). These are usually presentations run by a certified professional he will give examples show you movies and generally give advice and teach you on the subject.
The types of courses you can go on vary. For e.g. in the media industry courses on health and safety and fire are prevalent for on site safety on set.
NIGHT COURSES: There are night courses, which usually take place after typical work in the afternoons. Allowing people to work during the day and learn new skills in the evening. These are handy for people who have left school and cannot financially afford to go back into full time education or suffer the salary drop of doing an apprenticeship. These are often taken by people who wish to train for a change of career while still working and paying the rent! Very handy indeed.
EDUCATIONAL COURSES: This is what I am doing now, well an apprenticeship but I still go to college on fridays, education through a college or university is one of the best ways to develop your skills and gain the certificates and industry recognised degrees that will help kickstart your career. These take several months, or in cases of universities, years. These are the usual route for any potential student trying to make their skill set relevant for their future career, or at least give them the start for then taking the other courses or ways of furthering your skills!
There are many ways to train yourself and I shall let you in on a couple of ways of training yourself professionally I have encountered and others that I have not (but would like to).
ONLINE TUTORIALS: With the rise of websites such as Vimeo and YouTube, has given rise to the helpful knowledge of professionals and creative talents kind enough to share their knowhow through the web! Need to learn how to edit on Final Cut Pro? type it in on a site such as YouTube and watch the millions of tutorials that come up in your results.
Online Tutorials don't just have to be videos you can have written ones, like a guide on www.Ehow.com to teach yourself quickly if its just general information you need.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5028824_flip-videos-imovie.html
TRAINING COURSES: Back when I worked in construction I was to become part of the health and safety crew on site, for me to be qualified I had to be part of a health and safety and fire marshall course.
This was a course of six, one hour sessions which then at the end qualify you for whatever certificate you need (in this case Fire marshall and health and safety with harness). These are usually presentations run by a certified professional he will give examples show you movies and generally give advice and teach you on the subject.
The types of courses you can go on vary. For e.g. in the media industry courses on health and safety and fire are prevalent for on site safety on set.
NIGHT COURSES: There are night courses, which usually take place after typical work in the afternoons. Allowing people to work during the day and learn new skills in the evening. These are handy for people who have left school and cannot financially afford to go back into full time education or suffer the salary drop of doing an apprenticeship. These are often taken by people who wish to train for a change of career while still working and paying the rent! Very handy indeed.
EDUCATIONAL COURSES: This is what I am doing now, well an apprenticeship but I still go to college on fridays, education through a college or university is one of the best ways to develop your skills and gain the certificates and industry recognised degrees that will help kickstart your career. These take several months, or in cases of universities, years. These are the usual route for any potential student trying to make their skill set relevant for their future career, or at least give them the start for then taking the other courses or ways of furthering your skills!
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