E Stings

Channel 4 Estings

E4 is a channel in companion to Channel 4. The “E” stands for Entertainment and the channel is aimed at the 15–35 age group. It mainly runs US comedy and drama shows but also has its own original British shows such as the very successful inbetweeners and misfits. E4, like every other channel, has its own idents between shows and advertisements. These idents are used so the audience can identify what channel they are watching and so they can relate the small animation clips with the channel. These idents are normally funny or entertaining as they are aimed at the people who watch E4 which is ages 15-35.

The E4 Esting Competition is open to anyone in Britain. You can submit a 10 second clip to be used as an ident on the channel 4. All footage and music must be original and your own work and can only enter one E sting. The videos are put up on the e4 website and people can vote for the one they like the best the one with the most votes will be the winner and will have their Esting featured on e4 and win a cash prize.

Examples

The ident starts of by showing a normal plain hotel room which has two single beds in the centre and suitcases at the foot of them on the floor. it then shows the curtains closing and a purple drape falls down over the curtains following this the chest of drawers below opens and purple material start flowing out giving the effect of a water fall. the pile paper on top of the chest of draws then transforms in to small origami birds that start to fly across the room. it then show a teddy bear lay on the bed who begins to stand up and eat a chocolate bar that was on the pillow. the back of the bed then opens up and tentacles come out a grab the bear and pull him in to the opening. boxes that are on the bed open up revealing robotic creatures. the bed next to this the is show as the duvet falls off and the mattress goes in to and opening that appears at the back of the bed. The fridge opens and flows some more purple material again giving the effect of water with little E4 symbols floating about. also the there are two shark fins circling a pig on a platter. we then see one of the origami birds flying about the room and the robotic creatures that in the boxes on the bed are firing lasers at it. the suitcases on the floor then opening revealing a card board box that opens up in the the E4 symbol. fairy lights are suddenly stung out across the room. it then shows a wide shot of the whole room and ducks have appeared in the right corner. This ident is a professional ident and is shown on E4 often it was not made in the Estings Competition.

Here a some examples of the Estings that were made for the competion:

This is a e4 esting made using stop motion animation. It is made using different objects to give the effect of a science experiment taking its course. This particular ident was made for the Estings competition and was successful as it has been shown on the E4 channel as and ident occasionally. The lighting within the ident is tinted to purple with a white set background this relates to the colours of the logo for E4 this enables the audience to acknowledge what channel they are watching from the ident although they audience don't actually get told until the end of the ident that it is advertising E4 as the E4 logo shows up at the end but due to the colour scheme they will have an idea. The whole of the ident is made completely by using the stop motion process which means it is a continuous series of images put together to form an animation.

This is another ident that was made for the estings competition. it is made fully with CGI (computer generated images). it starts off by showing a mountain with a stormy, cloudy sky and lightning striking however everything is a shade of purple which relates to the channel e4 letting the audience know what channel they are watching however the logo does appear within seconds of the start of the ident so the audience can ackonwledge sooner the channel they have on. The ident then changes from a stromy dark atmospheres to a bright heavenly vibe but still continues the white and purple colour scheme for the audiences recognition.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a full feature film created by stop-motion animation. this film is aimed at all ages and also any Tim Burton fans as he directed the film and is a very popular director as he has his own style. The purpose of the nightmare before Christmas is to entertain. 
This film was created by making a set from props and clay and using clay figures as the characters. the same process is used to make a film in stop motion as the other stop motion videos I have looked at. The clay figures will be moved in to positions it needs to be then  pictures will be taken of every little movement with a stationary camera. when the pictures are put together animation is created. 24pictures usually is equivalent to 1second in film. 
The strengths in my opinion are the fact that its a full film made from stop motion animation and the animation is smooth and fluent and looks like a CGI film.

Deadline

This stop motion animation was created as a college work assignment. The other purpose of this video would be entertainment for people who are watching it on-line. The video was created by using a plain back drop, a white wall, and adding the props such as the computer and desk. then the animation is created by using only post-it nots of all different colours. The post its were stuck to the wall and pictures were taken in between moving the post its in the the positions they need to be in and then when all the pictures are put together it transforms in to a stop motion animation video. to complete the 2minute video it took 3months of planning, 4days of shooting and over 6000 post-it notes.
the strengths of this video, i would say, is the creativeness and using only post is notes to make the video.

I don't think there are any weaknesses about the video as the animation is smooth and is well made. 

Her Morning Elegance

Her Morning Elgeance is a Music Video. it is aimed at people who like the artists and the song, it is used to promote the song and artist to increase sales. The narrative of the video is to go with the lyrics of the song.

The set was made using a matress on the floor with a whit sheet over it. the camera was above directly over the matress while the pictures were taken. other things that were used where pillows, different coloured sheets and the actor and actress. The aniation was created by the taking of pictures as the props and actors were sligtly moved everytime and when put together it makes an animated video. The stengths about this video is that its different and creative as in not many music videos use stop motion animation and it gives a good effect and goes with the song really well. The different effect in the video such as when shes jumping and landing on the pillows and the effect of the wind with the movement on her hair and also when she's in water and the motion of her is more floaty and light.  I don't think there are any weaknesses within the video as its unique and there is not anything to compare it to.

Nokia N8 Gulp

This stop motion animation is a promotional video. It was made to advertise the Camera on the nokia n8 phone as the whole of the animation was made from taking pictures on the phones camera. i think this video is aimed at people that are interested in a mobile phone with a good camera or someone who is interested in nokia phones, therefore from watching this video it could persuade people to buy the nokia n8 mobile phone. The stop motion animation was made using the Nokia N8 phone which was attached to a crane so that the camera was looking down over the sand on the beach. Various props where used such as real boat which was cut down the middle and lay on the sand. most of the animation was done using the sand around the boat with was moulded ans shaped in to fish and waves however some of the waves where actually real water from the sea. also a real person was used in the animation as the sailor who is on the boat.
The strengths about this video is that it does what it s supposed to as it shows of the nokia n8 camera, which is what it is advertising, in a good, different way. it is also entertaining for the veiwer and it was known as the world's largest stop-motion animation.
i don't think there are any weaknesses with this video.

Magic Roundabout

The magic roundabout is a children's programme created in the 1970's. it was created purposely for children's entertainment how ever it was enjoyed by adults due to it's dry humour. each episode was around 5minutes long and was fully stop motion animation with around 25 frames per second they didn't really have a story line as each episode differed and showed various adventures of the characters.
The set for the magic roundabout was made out of wood was painted to look like a garden or a park. the characters within the programme were toys/figures and the animation was made by taking pictures, around 25 pictures per second. they would take a picture in one postion and then move the characters and props that needed moving and the take another picture and so on untill they had the full story, then when put together the images that were taken will go together as an animation.
The strengths of the magic roundabout i think were how successful of the programme was as if has been remade in the modern day as children's TV show and even as a film. it was loved by children and by adults and did its job to entertain with the bright colours and the different wacky charachters.
the weeknesses i would say, is that the animation was jerky and not as smooth as it would be now as it was made when stop motion was in the process of developing. also the episodes weren't very long, around 5minutes, and there weren't many epsiodes made due to the time it took to make each episode.

Zoetrope

A Zoetrope is a device that when in motion it creates an optical illusion that still images are moving to create animation. the first ever zoeptrope was created as early as 180 AD in China. it became popular in England when the modern zoetrope was invented in the 1834. The zoetrope is a cylinder usually made out of cardboard with various still pictures drawn on to the cardboard. then and outer cylinders will be put on top of this and will be taller than the inner circle with small rectangular slits at the top. When the zoetrope is spun, looking through the slits in the cardboard will give the illusion of animation as the images are moving so fast that it will look like the images are moving. The paxinscope was similar to the zoetrope however it was images drawn on a flat circle and when spun it give the illusion of animation. the zoetrope and the paxinscope were combined to improveon the simple zoetrope this this became popular in the late 19th century.
Here is and example:

The reason a zoetrope was made was for entertainment purposes. At the times it was made i think that everyone would of enjoyed it, it wasn't aimed at anyone inparticular, as it was a very creative, revolutionary device.

The good things and stengths about a zoetrope is at the time it was made it was a great invention. It is hand made so if you are making it yourself you can make it how you want it and you can design the animation that you want to see. There aren't really any weaknesses about the zoetrope device as it was good in its time and they arent as popular in the modern day. the only negative would be that the animation that you can create is only short and is usually just 2-3 images.