Evaluation:
The character used in the animation was a teenage girl, the same age range as our target audience, who is a friend of Sarah's. The visual style we were going for was a Christmas theme. In order to incorporate this theme, at the film setting Christmas lights were put up in the background. Also the snow towards the end of the animation suggests this theme. As well as this, a jingle soundtrack was added when the snowflakes fall.
The narrative of the animation includes the character performing a range of movements from dancing, a radio appearing in her hand to blowing a kiss at the camera. This occurs in front of a wall with Christmas lights hanging in the background. After the section of the girl dancing there is a whiteboard snowflake stop motion whereby at the end it reads MTV at the bottom of the whiteboard.
In the end overall I think our Ident is successful. This is because it uses stop motion animation throughout, both with human animation and whiteboard animation.
The techniques we used included the use of two soundtracks which overlapped each other to give both a Christmas theme and the use of a current popular song to engage the target audience. Recent MTV Channel Idents at the end sometimes have a beeping sound and a distorted picture that makes it seem like the video has gone wrong. We incorporated this technique in our stop motion in order to make the Ident as realistic as possible.
The narrative of the animation includes the character performing a range of movements from dancing, a radio appearing in her hand to blowing a kiss at the camera. This occurs in front of a wall with Christmas lights hanging in the background. After the section of the girl dancing there is a whiteboard snowflake stop motion whereby at the end it reads MTV at the bottom of the whiteboard.
In the end overall I think our Ident is successful. This is because it uses stop motion animation throughout, both with human animation and whiteboard animation.
The techniques we used included the use of two soundtracks which overlapped each other to give both a Christmas theme and the use of a current popular song to engage the target audience. Recent MTV Channel Idents at the end sometimes have a beeping sound and a distorted picture that makes it seem like the video has gone wrong. We incorporated this technique in our stop motion in order to make the Ident as realistic as possible.
Another technique we used was adding effects. We added music notes onto a few of the photos in the animation where the character is holding the radio to give the animation more character.
We used whiteboard animation by drawing snowflakes at the top of the whiteboard, taking a photo, and then redrawing the snowflakes down a bit to give the effect of the snowflakes falling. Once the snowflakes had fallen, the last snowflakes would land on top of each other and it would spell out MTV. The technique of making the MTV logo or name appear out or nowhere or with effects is used in existing MTV Idents, as well as other channel Idents.
I think our only strength as a group was the finished channel Ident and also the filming of stop motion was also successful. The written areas of the unit for me seemed to be my strengths.
Time management throughout the group was weak. To start off our plan for production seemed to be visible. However, it started to disappear when not all members of the group seemed to be in class together at the same time. This meant our communication was lacking which made it harder to see which tasks had been completed and which ones we still needed to complete.
In a team we worked together well in terms of coming up with an idea, and what we were going to capture in the Channel Ident.
Our organisation in terms of the pre-production stage was good because we assigned each person 2 or 3 tasks to do. I think our planning was successful in terms of the concept. However, from the feedback we found we needed to add more detail and explain our ideas better.
In comparison with existing stop motion channel idents, particularly MTV but also other channels such as E4, the name of the channel or the logo appears in the context of the story of the animation.
For example, in the hotel room channel Ident for E4 the channel logo for '4' appears when the cardboard boxes come together for form it. We have done the same in our animation in the way that the snow makes up the name of MTV.
In comparison with the MTV Hits Idents and the MTV Dance Idents the music is similar in the way that it is popular music at the time. We incorporated this current style of music in our ident just like existing ones. Although in most of the TV channel Idents I have researched, expecially the MTV ones, there is rarely the use of human stop motion and instead it tends to be the use of objects. Such as in the E4 room Idents.
In comparison with old MTV Idents, such as the dinosaur Ident. The technique of the channel logo still appears. However, the use of character models and objects were used then. Therefore, in a way our use of human animation is unique as not many other Idents use humans in stop motion.
In terms of comparing our animation to a past or present animators work, I would compare it with a present animators work such as Aardman Animations. This is because most of the past animators use surrealism as part of the animation which is completely different to the style of our animation. Although the differences include the primary use of clay animation. The modern style of the animations Aardman Animations produces could be compared as a similarity to our animation. As Christmas themes were used in aardman animations just like ours. Also Aardman Animations created 12 short stop motion films using Flipnote on Nintendo DSI. In a way this technique is similar to whiteboard animation as the drawing of each line and object is cruicial of the effect of illusion it makes to the animation.
Feedback questions
1) Do you think our Channel Ident fits the style of the MTV Channel?
2) In what ways do you think our Ident could be improved?
3) What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the animation?
4) What aspects do you like and dislike about it?
5) Do you think overall this Ident is successful? Why?
In comparison with existing stop motion channel idents, particularly MTV but also other channels such as E4, the name of the channel or the logo appears in the context of the story of the animation.
For example, in the hotel room channel Ident for E4 the channel logo for '4' appears when the cardboard boxes come together for form it. We have done the same in our animation in the way that the snow makes up the name of MTV.
In comparison with the MTV Hits Idents and the MTV Dance Idents the music is similar in the way that it is popular music at the time. We incorporated this current style of music in our ident just like existing ones. Although in most of the TV channel Idents I have researched, expecially the MTV ones, there is rarely the use of human stop motion and instead it tends to be the use of objects. Such as in the E4 room Idents.
In comparison with old MTV Idents, such as the dinosaur Ident. The technique of the channel logo still appears. However, the use of character models and objects were used then. Therefore, in a way our use of human animation is unique as not many other Idents use humans in stop motion.
In terms of comparing our animation to a past or present animators work, I would compare it with a present animators work such as Aardman Animations. This is because most of the past animators use surrealism as part of the animation which is completely different to the style of our animation. Although the differences include the primary use of clay animation. The modern style of the animations Aardman Animations produces could be compared as a similarity to our animation. As Christmas themes were used in aardman animations just like ours. Also Aardman Animations created 12 short stop motion films using Flipnote on Nintendo DSI. In a way this technique is similar to whiteboard animation as the drawing of each line and object is cruicial of the effect of illusion it makes to the animation.
Feedback questions
1) Do you think our Channel Ident fits the style of the MTV Channel?
2) In what ways do you think our Ident could be improved?
3) What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the animation?
4) What aspects do you like and dislike about it?
5) Do you think overall this Ident is successful? Why?
