Research Report

Research Report by mgm4000330

Production Schedule

Production Plan by mgm4000330

Location Recce

Location Recce by mgm4000330

Release Form

Release Form by mgm4000330

Copyright Statement

Statement of Copyright

Copyright law is a legal concept that is used to protect original work and grant the creator of it exclusive right to its use and distribution usually for a specific length of time, and receive compensation for their work. Generally the “right to copy” determines who may: be credited for the work, decide who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work and who may financially benefit from it. It is a form of intellectual property like the patent, the trademark etc. applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information.

In my project I have already considered and thought about copyright laws and that is why when it came to choosing a music track for my advert I chose one that was un-copyrighted off the site mobygratis.com. I have discovered a potential issue within my project is that I shall clearly be showing of the brand ‘Vans’ thought my advert and this a copyrighted brand as are their products.

However in this case this will not infringe with copyright law as my project is for coursework therefore it is used for educational purposes only.

Budget

Budget by mgm4000330

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment by mgm4000330

BCAP Code Statement

Pinterest Folder

Pinterest Folder

Foley sounds animation

For this task we were shown an existing animation called 'Paper' we were then given the task to create our own Foley sounds to go along to this short film, in groups.

We started by watching the film individually and made a list of everything in it that we thought we needed to and should make a sound for. We then made a final list with input form everyone in the group.

Then we had to start recording these sounds. We were able to make the most of these sounds from within the class room, which meant it was not as difficult as we thought, although we did have to get everyone quiet while we recorded our sounds on the Tascam. Which proved harder than we anticipated!

We soon realised that just recording short sound effects would mean that we would have big gaps of complete silence, which is un realistic to life and also sounds weird. So we had to record about 2 minuets of people being silent in the room and just the sounds of the room, this didn't work to well however as there were people coming and going and you could also here people talking in the corridor opposite.

Then we had to edit these sounds and put them against the video footage in final cut. This took some time as the short film is quite long, because of this we decided to have it end earlier than in the original, but I think this was a good decision as it made ours different to the original. However we could of cut down on editing time if we had used better recording techniques. As for example when recording things such as the scream, the footsteps, the sighs etc. we could have made the sound effects along to the film meaning that they were all in time with the movements of the character. Also we could have recorded the Foley sounds in the order that they happened in the animation, this would have cut down on the time it took to find the sounds that went with the corresponding action. Alternatively we could have also said allowed what sound we were recording this would have also cut down on the time it took to find them.

However overall I am pleased with how our version of 'Paper' turned out, especially considering it was our first time experimenting and creating Foley sounds.

Mouse Lip Syncing Animation

We were given the task to create a character, we choose a mouse, and a phrase to record and put along to the images of the mouse. We choose to use and existing recording of 'Morgan Freeman'.

To show the mouth moving in what was suppose to be real moth movements we had pictures of different mouth formations that are made when different sounds are spoken. To do this we had work out all the phonetic sounds that made up our phrase 'I am Morethan Freeman, thank you for listening.'

After we discovered which mouth formations we needed we had to cut these out and label them (to remember which letter they represented) and then put them over the drawing of the mouse and take pictures of  each of the mouths on the mouse. Then we were able to upload them to the computer and put them in to final cut where we could edit the image along to the recording. This didn't work terribly well as we didn't think about how each sound and moth movement are made for different lengths of time. Where as we just put all the images for the same duration this is why it does not sync up 100% correctly.

However this was our first try and I think if we did this again we could get a better final video.

Treatment

Treatment

Vans shoes help people come together.

The advert opens with a shot of cut up pieces of vans shoes lying on a plain coloured floor. The track ‘Rotator’ from mobygratis.com plays throughout. Using stop motion animation the pieces move along the floor gradually joining together until they form a complete pair of vans.

Next we see a mans feet going into each shoe, once the shoes are on his feet he begins to walk with the camera still focusing only on the shoes. As the shoes walk along we see him step onto a skateboard and then camera follows him as he skates along, still focusing on the shoes. Suddenly the skateboard is stopped by another shoe belonging to a young women. The camera then zooms out to show a long shot of the girl and boy facing each other and smiling. The screen fades to black and the vans logo appears along with the words VANS. COME TOGHETHER.

Vans are young, cool and fun. They’re associated with skateboarding and indie music. I will try and use all these aspects in my advert by choosing an indie track and showing people skateboarding.

The concept of my advert is that just as the pieces of shoe come together, the people wearing the shoes come together. I think this advert will work as the concept will appeal to young people – it’s an aspirational advert. I think the music will fit well as its upbeat and joyful, which should make the advert fun. I will be using stop motion so will incorporate small object animation as well as pixilation techniques.

The audience will mainly see the shoes and the journey they go through, the style will be very much the camera following the shoes and how they bring people together. The characters will look like very ‘trendy’ ‘well styled’ young people and the settings will be urban. There will be skateboarding sound effects and for music the song ‘rotator’ from mobygratis.com.

The target audience for this advert will be young people, primarily teenagers but including people in there 20s and 30s. I think the idea of you being able to meet people and come together will appeal to my target audience. Also the idea of when you wear vans you have fun and can skate around etc will be appealing to young people.

Soundtrack Plan

Production: Vans Advert

Soundtrack Plan

Sound	Description	Use	Production
SFX/Voices/Music	What it should sound like	Explain where and when you will use it in your animation	Explain specifically where or how you will source the sound
Pieces of shoe scattering.	Should sound like small objects moving on a hard surface.	I will use this sound in my first scene when the shoe comes together.	I will create the sound by recording my fingers tapping on a table.
Shoes walking along the pavement.	It should sound like shoes hitting the pavement.	I will use this in shot 2 when the actor is wearing the shoes down the street.	I will create the sound by recording someone walking on the spot.
Skateboarding.	It should sound like someone skateboarding on a road.	I will use this in shot 3 when the actor first begins to skateboard.	I will record the sound of a skateboard being ridden down the street.
Skateboarding into distance.	It should sound like someone skating on a road and getting further away.	I will use this for shot 3 when the actor skates further away from camera.	I will record some skating away from me and I will not move.
Skateboard stopping.	It should sound as if a skateboard has had to stop suddenly	I will use this in shot 4 when the girl stops the skateboard with her shoe.	I will record someone stopping skateboard with a shoe.
Song: Rotator	Rocky, happy, fun	Throughout entire advert fading in out and different points	I will download it at: www.mobygratis.com

Storyboard

Storyboard

Research Plan Presentation

Vans Research Plan from maxmattacks

Animators: Burton, Aardman and Brothers Quay

Tim Burton

Tim Burton was born in 1958 on the 25 August in California. In his early life Burton used to make short animation films using 'crude stop motion animation techniques', and made his first recognisable film when he was 13 years old. 

Burton studied at Burbank High School however didn't do to well at school so then later moved on to California Institute of the Arts to study character animation.  After Burbank he attended and later graduated from CalArts in Santa Clarita, California in 1979. During this time he made a short film 'The Stalk of the Celery' this film attracted to the attention of Walt Disney's production company who hired him as an animator. 

In 1984 Burton released one of his first live action film shorts Frankenweenie, it was filmed in black and white and resulted in Burton being fired from Disney. Disney said the reason for Burton being fired was that he was "spending the company's resources on doing a film that would be too dark and scary for children to see."

With this event Tim Burton took the opportunity to peruse his dream to make a feature film, so he approached Griffin Dunne to direct the black comedy 'After Hours'. After this success Burton moved on to other projects such as 'Bettle Juice' and 'Batman' (1989)

During the 1990's Burton had succes with many films as a director and sometimes as a co-writer these films were 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Mars Attacks!' and 'Sleepy Hollow' and more. More recently Burton has directed such films as 'Planet of the Apes' and 'Sweeney Todd'.


Aardman 

Aardman is a British animation company that is famous for their stop motion animations; these are usually Claymation’s there most well known ones include Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and many more.

Aardman was founded Peter Lord and David Sproxton and are still there the main heads of the company. Before 1997 Aardman one they’re first Oscar for the short film Creature Comforts.

The first full-length feature film that Aardman created was Chicken Run, for which they joined up with DreamWorks, however this wasn’t released till June 23^rd 2000 although being in post production since 1997.

Aardman signed a deal with Dream Works to make 4 films in an estimated 12 years. The films they made in these twelve years were Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit, The Tortoise and the Hare and there first computer animated film Flushed away. 

The Brothers Quay

The Brothers Quay were twin brothers, Stephen and Timothy, who were born in 1947. The brothers are recognised for being two of the most influential stop-motion animators of all time. They both attended the Philadelphia College of Art where they studied illustration this lead them to further their education and experience at the Royal College of Art, in London, England.


At the Royal College of Art is where the brothers made their first short films, which unfortunately were damaged beyond repair meaning that no copy still exists. However there work at the college was not all in vain as it was here they met Keith Griffiths, a fellow student at the college. The Brothers and Griffiths went on the work together and create Koninck Studios, which is based in Southwark, London to this day.

The brothers' are influenced by a tradition of Eastern European animation, They have a unique and creepy animation style that is instantly recognizable. The Brothers and best known for their film "Street of Crocodiles": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgqmXK1pf7Y

The brothers have also directed some TV commercials for companies such as: MTV, Nikon, Slurpee. In 2012 the Brothers were honored with a career retrospective gallery exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Stephen Quay describes him and his brothers work as "dark fairy tales with elements of grotesquery and the pathological." While his brother Timothy Quay adds "We set them in a twilight world, midway between sleep and wakefulness." This dark, surreal style of animation is a rarity in the world of animation and has therefore influenced the likes of Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. Gilliam recently selected the brothers film "Street of Crocodiles" as one of the ten best animated films of all time.