Production Dairy
On the 15th of October we began planning our 60 second stop motion aniamtion advert by producing a production folder. We planned out who was going to do what by using a roles and responsibilities list created by Jack. Jack looked at each of our strengths and gave each of us a number of different responsibilities to complete throughout the planning process. Jacks responsibilities were to complete the set designs, the roles and responsibilities list, produce a minute sheet for a group discussion and the production schedule. Abi's responsibilities were to complete a powerpoint about the 12 principles of animation, produce a minute sheet, the sound track plan, the powerpoint and complete a dope sheet which we all found confusing. My responsibilities were to complete a mood board, produce a written treatment, the character drawings, the storyboard, the production schedule and a minute sheet. Some of the roles and responsibilities changed throughout the process for example we put everyone down to do the powerpoint and the written treatment however Abi ended up doing the powerpoint and I ended up doing the written treatement. This is because some things took longer than expected. I think our planning process was good because each of knew what we were doing and we had good communication skills. We also got given roles, Abi was chosen to be the Animator, Jack was the Cameraman and I was the producer. We all acted as directors because we planned on adding more ideas to the storyboard as the filming went along.
On the 22nd of October we pitched our idea to Racheal, with the powerpoint Abi had produced and each individual piece of work we created. It was quite nerve racking because we hadn't rehearsed however the pitch went really well and we all managed to present our parts well. This taught me that you have to be very organised before hand. Apart from that I think our planning stage went well because we knew what we were doing after the half term. We split all the stages of planning equally so we would each have a fair amount to say during the pitch. Also we allocated each responsibility based on our strengths and weaknesses so we would have the most experienced person for each element.
On the 15th of October we began planning our 60 second stop motion aniamtion advert by producing a production folder. We planned out who was going to do what by using a roles and responsibilities list created by Jack. Jack looked at each of our strengths and gave each of us a number of different responsibilities to complete throughout the planning process. Jacks responsibilities were to complete the set designs, the roles and responsibilities list, produce a minute sheet for a group discussion and the production schedule. Abi's responsibilities were to complete a powerpoint about the 12 principles of animation, produce a minute sheet, the sound track plan, the powerpoint and complete a dope sheet which we all found confusing. My responsibilities were to complete a mood board, produce a written treatment, the character drawings, the storyboard, the production schedule and a minute sheet. Some of the roles and responsibilities changed throughout the process for example we put everyone down to do the powerpoint and the written treatment however Abi ended up doing the powerpoint and I ended up doing the written treatement. This is because some things took longer than expected. I think our planning process was good because each of knew what we were doing and we had good communication skills. We also got given roles, Abi was chosen to be the Animator, Jack was the Cameraman and I was the producer. We all acted as directors because we planned on adding more ideas to the storyboard as the filming went along.
On the 22nd of October we pitched our idea to Racheal, with the powerpoint Abi had produced and each individual piece of work we created. It was quite nerve racking because we hadn't rehearsed however the pitch went really well and we all managed to present our parts well. This taught me that you have to be very organised before hand. Apart from that I think our planning stage went well because we knew what we were doing after the half term. We split all the stages of planning equally so we would each have a fair amount to say during the pitch. Also we allocated each responsibility based on our strengths and weaknesses so we would have the most experienced person for each element.
On Monday the 5th of November we planned to begin filming, we initially wanted to film in the Mac Lab however I felt we could use better scenery to show someone eating the Smarites. This is because it would be more appropriate for our target audience if it was filmed outside of a classroom and also it could look more visually interesting. We decided to carry out a test shoot instead to see what camera shots would look best in our animation. In the end we found out what shots worked well and I thought the perfect location for our film would be Thanes Ditton. We wanted the actor to come out of a shop with the packet of Smarties in his hand and therefore we filmed on Hampton Court Way and around Weston Green Road where there is some good scenery and a strip of shops. We spent the first lesson completing all our planning documents and preparing to film our stop motion animation. In the second lesson we set up our tripod, camera and put the table in the appropriate position for the actor to sit. After this had been completed we began filming our stop motion animation. Abi controlled the camera, we decided that Jack would be our actor because he would always be available during our media lessons and if something went wrong we could always film it again. I directed Abi and Jack by telling them what needs to be in the shot and what my ideas were on the storyboard. After watching the footage back we found that the background was a bit dull and it needed to be more interesting than a computer room. It was useful to film because we found what camera angles and shots worked best in the opening sequence. Also we gained the inital experience of shooting a stop motion aniamtion and our role during the shoot.
On Tuesday the 6th of November we decided to have a test shoot for the actual Smartie animation. We needed to find out what the lighting would look like in order to get smooth lighting across the whole film. We had a lot of technical issues during this test shoot because each time a picture was taken the lighting would change on every shot. In order to stop this from happening we needed to cover up any other light that was coming through so we covered up all the windows. This still didn’t work so we decide that we were going to use the bigger and more intensified lighting in order to keep the lighting the same throughout the film and to make it look smoother. We decided to do this in the next lesson of media because we were running out of time and we wouldn’t have put the big lights up in time. Instead we planned exactly were we were going to position the table for the animation and where we were going to put the lights. I think the problem with the other lights was that they were too weak and they didn’t have enough power to keep the white background lit up. On this day I sent an email to my group explaining my new idea to film at a better location around Thames Ditton where we could add more footage in order to create a story. I learnt a lot from this day because it taught me that you have to keep the lighting controlled throughout the filming process and that we had to complete the Smartie animation on the same day in order to keep the same position and so there are no jolts included in the film.
On Thursday the 8th of November we organized to meet up 5 minutes before the lesson and get the equipment in order to have an early start. As soon as we got all the necessary equipment we went into Thames Ditton where we filmed our first scene using pixilation. We wanted to have a small story in our animation to make it more interesting for the audience, therefore I saw that there were corner shops nearby college that we could film Jack (our actor) going into and coming out off with a packet of Smarites in his hand. We had a few problems on the day such as when Jack asked to film the shop Martins and the shopkeeper said we couldn't due to company policy. We then had to film outside a different shop which was easily resolved. During the shoot I helped direct Jack along with Abi as we completed this stage of the filming, prior to the day, I brought the Smarites so we would have enough of the different colours to animate with. We felt we needed a range of shots to make our advert as interesting as possible therfore we had a shot of Jack going into the shop, coming out, walking to the bench and him actually eating the smarties. The shots used were an extreme long shot, long shot, mid shot, close up and an over the shoulder shot. This gives the audience a clear narrative and makes it more visually interesting because of the range of shots used. On this shoot I helped direct Jack and told the team what my ideas were for the shoot. Abi was the person who actually took the pictures for advert and positioned the camera in the correct places. After we had completed this we went back to college were we planned to actually animate with the Smarites. After the short break me and Jack went to the mac lab and prepared our set whilst Abi began editing the first part of the animation we had just filmed. This time we used bigger studio lights in order to make the lighting constant throughout the whole animation. I covered up all the windows in the room with black paper in order to block out any light that remained in the room so there were no lighting changes in our film. I went to get an A3 piece of white paper to animate the smarties on and jack set up the camera in the correct position to get a completly white background with no shadows or marks. I checked that the white paper was correctly positioned after Jack for a second opinion just in case I spotted something he didin't. I learnt that all the different elements had to be controlled in order to keep the same lighting. After this the smarties had to be seperated into different colours, so I had to sort all the smartie packets into the same colours. We were all then ready to begin animating, so Abi came in to move the Smarties about to make our stop motion animation. We each had our seperate roles which worked well to our strengths, Jack was controlling the camera, Abi was animating and I directed the animation. Throughout the shoot I talked the group through my story board and we added in appropriate ideas that each of us had that were added into the animation as we went along. Before the lesson I found out that we were all free during the following lesson and could stay on to animate for longer in order to finish the animation. We all decided that we were going to carry on for another hour. One of the main problems we had during this production stage was the heat coming from both the big studio lights. This caused problems because Abi (our animator) was getting extremely hot and the coating of the Smarties began melting onto the page however Abi handled it very well. We knew that we needed to be quick and get the smarties off the paper in order to stop marks transferring onto the page. When we finished the scene, there were a few stains made on the paper from the Smarties that were barely noticable however we felt the animation would look better if we changed the piece of paper. I accidentally moved the camera on our shoot when I was directing however Jack managed to position it in the right place and it looked fine on the camera. This taught me that you have to be extremly careful when around the equipment in order to get a smooth aniamtion. I think overall the shoot went well and we managed to get a lot done in the time we had becasue we worked fast and well in a group.
During the week Abi began editing on the 9th of November because we decided she would be our main editor as she has had the most experience editing. We also worked on our blogs in the week to keep up to date with our production diaries and anything else we needed to change. During the editing time me and Jack finished our production folder, adding in the pieces of work such as the change in location and the decision to make Jack the actor for our animation whilst Abi edited. Throughout the editing process me and Jack would watch the rough edits and highlight the parts that we thought looked or sounded really good and the parts we thought could be improved upon. For example the actual Smarties animation had a tint on yellow over the top and Jack felt it would look better without the effect on. After the effect had been taken off we all agreed that it looked much better and the Smarties would just need to be brighter. Abi worked very well during the editing process and was happy to hear any critisisms made which is why we worked effectively in the group. The editing process took around 3-4 hours to add the completed sound track and all the images. I helped edit a small part of the animation by adding in the pictures from the Smartie animation because I felt I needed more experience working on Final Cut Express. I think we worked very efficiently and effectively in our group because as soon as we had another section for the animation it would be edited straight away and this helped us to stay within the production schedule and we managed to finish earlier than planned.
On Friday the 9th of November we had finished all but one of the scenes in our stop motion animation. We needed to take the pictures for the part of the story when Jack wakes up and he realises that he has been lying there for a long time dreaming about the Smarties. In order to shoot this scene Jack would have to wear the same clothes as he did on the first scene because it is supposed to happen over the course of a day. We decided that we would use whatever footage we had and edit it in before shooting the last scene. We wanted the last scene to be darker because it shows the audience that time has passed, in order to do this we needed to film it when we had a lesson later in the day which was either.
We filmed this on Friday the 16th of November. On the day we spent one hour we took the pictures for when Jack wakes up from dreaming about the Smarties and him walking away with the Smarties in hand. Jack was our actor, Abi took the pictures and I also took the pictures for different scenes. We all helped to direct the scene and added in all of the ideas each of us had. We decided to shoot the scene later on in the day so the lighting was darker in order to show that Jack had fallen asleep dreaming about the Smarties and had lost track of time. There were additional ideas on the day and Jack thought it would be good to have the Smarties pop up in groups on the bench as a final shot. Jack took charge of the camera whilst me and Abi animated the Smarties on the bench, this way we would have the Smarties being shown in the last shot in order for it to stay in the audiences mind. This is also common in adverts to have a shot of the product as the last shot because it is more memorable. During the shoot I learnt that it's very easy to change your idea because everyone had ideas that they want to contribute and they can improve the overall story and look of the animation. I think the only problem we had on the shot was that Jack was wearing the wrong coloured jeans however when we edited it into the animation and asked anyone if they noticed a difference they said it went unoticed. It taught me that you have to be extremely prepared before hand in order to get a proffesional looking film. Also we could have taken the light into consideration and waited for it to become a bit darker because it showed that time had passed and he had been dreaming about them. In the end this didn't matter because we could edit in final cut pro and lower the exposure making the scene darker.
During the week Abi began editing on the 9th of November because we decided she would be our main editor as she has had the most experience editing. We also worked on our blogs in the week to keep up to date with our production diaries and anything else we needed to change. During the editing time me and Jack finished our production folder, adding in the pieces of work such as the change in location and the decision to make Jack the actor for our animation whilst Abi edited. Throughout the editing process me and Jack would watch the rough edits and highlight the parts that we thought looked or sounded really good and the parts we thought could be improved upon. For example the actual Smarties animation had a tint on yellow over the top and Jack felt it would look better without the effect on. After the effect had been taken off we all agreed that it looked much better and the Smarties would just need to be brighter. Abi worked very well during the editing process and was happy to hear any critisisms made which is why we worked effectively in the group. The editing process took around 3-4 hours to add the completed sound track and all the images. I helped edit a small part of the animation by adding in the pictures from the Smartie animation because I felt I needed more experience working on Final Cut Express. I think we worked very efficiently and effectively in our group because as soon as we had another section for the animation it would be edited straight away and this helped us to stay within the production schedule and we managed to finish earlier than planned.
On Friday the 9th of November we had finished all but one of the scenes in our stop motion animation. We needed to take the pictures for the part of the story when Jack wakes up and he realises that he has been lying there for a long time dreaming about the Smarties. In order to shoot this scene Jack would have to wear the same clothes as he did on the first scene because it is supposed to happen over the course of a day. We decided that we would use whatever footage we had and edit it in before shooting the last scene. We wanted the last scene to be darker because it shows the audience that time has passed, in order to do this we needed to film it when we had a lesson later in the day which was either.
We filmed this on Friday the 16th of November. On the day we spent one hour we took the pictures for when Jack wakes up from dreaming about the Smarties and him walking away with the Smarties in hand. Jack was our actor, Abi took the pictures and I also took the pictures for different scenes. We all helped to direct the scene and added in all of the ideas each of us had. We decided to shoot the scene later on in the day so the lighting was darker in order to show that Jack had fallen asleep dreaming about the Smarties and had lost track of time. There were additional ideas on the day and Jack thought it would be good to have the Smarties pop up in groups on the bench as a final shot. Jack took charge of the camera whilst me and Abi animated the Smarties on the bench, this way we would have the Smarties being shown in the last shot in order for it to stay in the audiences mind. This is also common in adverts to have a shot of the product as the last shot because it is more memorable. During the shoot I learnt that it's very easy to change your idea because everyone had ideas that they want to contribute and they can improve the overall story and look of the animation. I think the only problem we had on the shot was that Jack was wearing the wrong coloured jeans however when we edited it into the animation and asked anyone if they noticed a difference they said it went unoticed. It taught me that you have to be extremely prepared before hand in order to get a proffesional looking film. Also we could have taken the light into consideration and waited for it to become a bit darker because it showed that time had passed and he had been dreaming about them. In the end this didn't matter because we could edit in final cut pro and lower the exposure making the scene darker.
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