What is Cel animation 


Cel animation is a form of animation which is used in production or cartoon and is where each frame of the scene is actually drawn by hand. To make a full length movie it would be very time consuming  and would take somewhere around a million or more drawings to complete. Up until the 1990s disney were using this form to create some of their movies.




Tom & Jerry 

Tom and jerry is a prime example of Cel animation because every single frame had to be painted and this was done by a transparent cel laid over  background and then photographed. Tom and Jerry was an american cartoon that was created  by Wiliam Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1940 and is still a largely active figure on TV right now it was directed by the two creators. The show had an 18 year stint with the years of it being active from 1940 to 1958 however with the now seemingly older form of animation that isn't used much today still gets more views than most modern day animation shows







Lion King

The lion king was an american cartoon movie classic that was produced in 1994 and was produced by Walt disney. This movie uses Cel animation also  meaning that every single frame had to be painted meaning that this would have taken around about 1 million frames. the producer was Don Hahn

Time lapse animation example

This is an example of time lapse animation it shows a series of images over time which shows the progression of the image giving it the effect that the actually still image is moving. This example shows the kiwi's progression over time and makes it look as if the image is moving. to do a time lapse animation you would need to take the series of photos in an according order so for example with the kiwi maybe a couple of images a day to show the progression over time from day to day. for a time lapse animation it is integral tat the camera remains in the same position for the entirety of the process so that it gives an accurate representation of the progress made.

Understanding structure and funding in the TV industry

Ownership

Public service

A public service type of ownership in the TV industry would be BBC. The BBC is the people's channel due to the fact that us the general public actually pay for the channel to be kept on air every year. Through making the general public pay a TV licence  fee every year this helps  the BBC continue on. Unlike every other channel on our TV guide the BBC is the only one that doesn't have TV advertisements  during their shows to fund them. With the BBC relying on the public for their funding through TV licence they will also sell some of their shows old episodes  to other neighbouring  TV channels to raise funds. For example over the years Dave has taken on many of the BBC shows old episodes and broadcast them on their channel with Top Gear and Mock the week being just a couple that come to mind. Selling old episodes of their own shows to other channels will help raise funds for the BBC to fund shows. The BBC  have a very large radio presence  which is also publicly funded the BBC have around 7 separate radio channels with all of these channels relying on the public to keep them on air with competitions a regular thing meaning that listeners would have to pay to enter raising funds for the BBC. The BBC is run by a board of governors  and is currently a royal charter which is of High importance  because it outlines that the BBC are independent  from the government.

Commercial ownership

Within the TV industry there are many commercially owned channels for example ITV are a channel that are privately owned corporate  media.  Being commercially  owned means that they rely on advertisements and public voting on their shows  to be able to make their profit to then reinvest  into the channel.

Funding

Subscriptions

Funding in the media industry is of High importance and subscriptions are a very good way of a broadcasting company making money to then fund other ventures within the business. A prime example of subscriptions would be the company Sky with their sports channels there is a monthly subscription fee to be able to view this package. So on a monthly basis you would have to pay a bill to be able to keep access to these channels. Usually when a subscription  is made they will sign you onto a 12 month contract  stating a monthly subscription  fee would have to be payed to keep these channels this is how a commercially funded channel would go about making their money.

Advertising

Advertising is of the utmost importance  to commercially  owned companies due to the fact that they need these to help raise funds. A prime example of a company  that uses advertising efficiently  would be ITV because when you're watching your tv programme there will always be a ad break to split up your shows to give 3 to 4 minutes of commercials. These commercials fund the channel with big companies such as argos paying them to show their adverts during the breaks on certain shows. Just a 30 second advertisement in between a prime time TV programmes ad break could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds so this is why ITV would air these ads from other big companies for a massive financial gain which helps fund the company along with other factors.

Pay per view

A company that is hugely reliant on pay per view deals to fund them would be Sky with them having many pay per views on a monthly basis covering all different kinds of sports and also movies. Within the sports sector they have annual massive boxing bouts that would be pay per view on the sky box office. With a usual charge of 15.99 for the rights to this event this would be hugely financially rewarding for sky with millions and millions of people paying this pay  per view fee giving them a healthy profit. Another segment of pay per view would be the movie sector with the sky box  office charging a pay per view charge to watch only recently released films that have just came out of the cinema. Many people who couldn't make the cinema screenings would purchase this movie from their sky box once available and would have to pay a pay per view for this. These types of charges help the company fund raise and ultimately survive.

TV license fee

This type of funding is used by BBC basically  for every homeowner for each tv in the house that can broadcast shows it is expected  that a fee of 145 pound a year is paid annually. This money that you pay each year is for the solitary reason of funding the BBC  with them being a public funded organisation they rely on these payments. Without paying the TV licence  fees it is technically illegal to actually watch TV and if found out could lead to legal issues.

Assignment

Step one

Depending on the type of production that you are planning the steps that you have to take are different for example in a film there would be many pieces needed to plan before your work could be deemed suitable for viewing. First things first with the preproduction of a short film there would need to be the writing of a script to draw out exactly what was going to happen in the film and allow to progress to next steps. A perfect site to start the scriptwriting on would be adobe story with it being a very simple and effective place to start writing the script. After a solid script has been wrote then there would need to be storyboards produced for every scene so for future reference the actors will be aware of their lines and what they need to do during the scenes like actions and where to be placed when the scene commences. As seen in this screenshot below this is how a storyboard is set out showing in great detail the positioning of the actors and the location which is highly important to include so that the actors have a good idea of the setting of the scene.

Step two

Time management is absolutely essential when on set and many measures must be taken before the filming is actually done to ensure that everything runs smoothly. The effects of a bad time management set could be financially crippling to a movie. In many cases filming equipment would be rented out and with it being at a very high cost per day to rent poor time management could severely hinder the set in completing all the work expected before the rental expired. The whole operation of a film has to be intensely planned from the director and actor having to be there on time all the way down to the runner who is volunteering and usually paid nothing. If any of the people are late it could really effect the production of the film this is why many time.

Step three

When making a film there are a whole host of resources needed in order to make sure that the screening goes ahead smoothly. For example one of the first resources that would have to be thought about would be actors and locations. The correct actors would have to be sourced for the role to ensure that they are the right people for the role and can really engage into the character. There are many sites on the Internet that contain actors portfolios of previous work etc etc that could be very useful to a team looking to produce a film with not to big a budget. Sites like www.starnow.co.uk are a casting site that allow directors to post ads asking for actors to send portfolios this would be incredibly  helpful in narrowing down the search for the perfect actor for your film. Location is absolutely  integral because if the film is set on a certain location then there would  have to be research put in to ensure that the film would have the rights to film in this area. When filming in a location a document such as A risk assessment would have to be carried out to ensure the safety of the cast. Other things of High importance would be arranging camera and sounding equipment to be either purchases or rented for a certain time period. A member of the cast would have to break down how many hours they would need the cast and the equipment on set so it'd be possible to understand the pricing. Many sites such as www.hirecamera.com will offer prices on renting their equipment for a certain amount of days so if it's a small film production  they won't have to buy the equipment outright which would eat into their budget when it'd be easier to  hire from rental companies. Finally another resource that would be integral to work out the need for would be props it would be be possible for an inventory to be developed to show exactly what props were needed for the film and the quantity that would be needed.

Step Four

Budget is of the utmost importance within the film industry because even the slightest of errors in planning can cause massive losses .A cast member turning up late could hinder the rental of the camera and sound equipment with them only being rented for a certain amount of days any setback could hold the team back and mean another day of rental would have to be payed to complete the work required. A document that could be very beneficial to the team when working out the budgeting would be to go on Microsoft Excel and create a spreadsheet calculating all the cost of the entire production so it gives a figure of how much the film will cost so the team are aware of time constraints etc. Things that would need to be included in the budget would be the rental of all the equipment cost of all cast member and even the food and drink gave to the cast on set. Every single small payment would have to be added into a spreadsheet so that the director was aware of the cost of the production down to the penny.

Step five

Good communication is of High integrity  when working in the film industry and it's very important to make sure that every cast member is aware of their role whilst on set. For example the actors would need very in depth information of positioning and how to deliver the line a perfect document for this would be a storyboard. The use of storyboard is massively important in the film industry because it really cuts the scene down and provides a large amount of in depth information on this precise scene. The positioning is really important because it will provide the best shot so with the storyboard the actor would be able to arrange themselves into the position easier because it's made very simple. As for the member of the team that are part of the production side that carry out their work out off camera it  would be very helpful to give each member their own task sheet identifying at the start of each day what they expect them to complete by the end of the shoot each day. With poor communication  it'd be very difficult to make a film that would be really successful without great communication so it really is paramount that every team member from the runner to the actor is briefed thoroughly.

Step six

Within the legal sector there are endless amounts of laws that need to be abided by when making a piece of work in the film industry. Firstly when filming on a location that is private property it would be vital that the director firstly cleared it with the owner that it was acceptable to film on the premises otherwise It could be a felony. So before stepping on set it'd be important to get the permissions  wrote down in black and white to ensure that the team couldn't encounter legal troubles. Once on scene if filming with child actors it'd be important that all members of the entire production were thoroughly  CRB checked to ensure the safety of those on the set and to avoid lawsuits if it turned out somebody with a previous record was working with children on set . Copyright is something that you have to be very careful around because if a certain company owns the rights to something and you go ahead and use it anyway then  this could  result in a breach

This is an animation that we made it is very simple to make we firstly made an animated figure that would be suitable for our video then we opened up stop animation and connected our hue hd webcam to it and then got our animated figure into starting position and began to take images ever so slightly moving the figure in every frame so that it would look as if the figure was moving when in fact it was a lot of still images that tricks the brain



Nick Park
he was original creator of the very popular animated TV series wallace and gromit

Early animations influential figures

George Mellies was a French illusionist and one of the most well known film directors with him being one of the most successful  of his time. During his years he was very technical and made many fantastic films in the early days of cinema such as A trip to the moon and the vanishing lady. Many of his films were destroyed  by the French army due to the plastic tape which held his movies on was seized by  the army and melted down for help with the war effort meaning many of his movies we never to make it to public viewing.

Windsor McCay was an American cartoonist  and animator famous for his work during the 19th and 20th century. One  of many factors in his rise to fame began with the discovery of the mutoscope which was a device that relied on the persistence  of vision giving off the effect that there was people moving in the films whereas in fact it was actually a series of still images flicking on a wheel .

Lotte Reiniger was a German film director who was active between the years of 1918 to 1979. Lotte had made over 40 films across her career all using her own invention of crafting out snippets of card and wire and animated them by hand. When the name Lotte reiniger is spoken she Is mostly remembered for her whirlwind fantasy film known as the adventures of Prince Achmed which was produced in 1926.

Reasons producers should research

Reasons Producers should research

Reasons Producers should research

This blog post is to highlight the reasons to research as a producer in the film industry.

Target Market (Market Research/Audience Research)

The reason producers should research 'Target Markets' is simply because they need to be aware of the fan base of this certain genre of film, this is put simply to find which age group the film would sell to the best; better target market=better box office sales.

Historical and Factual information and data

(Audience Research/Production Research)

Producers must know exactly what they are basing their own film on. For example, if a producer wanted to create a film set in World War 2, the setting must accurately reflect the era they had chosen, for example they could not send the soldiers into battle with modern day technology and weaponry. 

Demand (Audience Research/Production Research)

For a film to create a high rating in the box office, it must sell a large amount of tickets. in order to achieve this they must find the demand for that genre of film, in today market, there has been an influx of super hero films, these films are the most effective because of there simple and arguably bland story line but they sell very high in cinemas because of the high demand from a younger target market who have the largest demand for that genre of film.

Budget and Costs(Production Research)

a Producer and a director must know that they have limited funding. they cannot spend more than there budget given, so sometimes you have to improvise as a producer. To keep on track of your budget you must know how much props, crew members and also settings and flights cost, if you make less than you spend in a film, this film is deemed a failure.