Morph

The film shorts series 'Morph' was a huge inspration for our sequence. It is animated to a brilliantly high quality with loveable characters and simple, funny story lines. Morph was created by Aardman. A production company that focuses mainly on stop frame animation and has been responsible for many fantastic childrens films and expertly realised plasticine animations such as Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep. As our style of film is similar to films produced by Aardman, it would be a perfect company to help us make and release our film. They also have fab studios and facilities within their comapny building in bristol, specially designed and built for them.
   This clip was shot at about 30 frames a second, alot more then our 10 fps. This allowed the animation to flow smoothly and alot of detail to be put into the movement of the characters e.g. natural looking walking, the response the rest of the body has to a small movement, making the models talk. The draw back, this is very time consuming. Unfortunatly, we didnt have the time to have the frame rate so high for our little piece of footage, no the required animating skills, but it's something we can aspire towards.

Aardman Animations

As our opening is a plasticine animation using istopmotion, we thought that Aardman animations would be an brilliant company to produce our film. They have over thirty years experience directing and making plasticine animations and have a devoted team of model makers, animations and directors who create fantastic short films, TV programs and even feature films.

Aardman have a cracking website that we did some history research on. Below is what we found;

from: www.aardman.com 

Aardman has a deserveded reputation as a world leader in model animation. Their award-winning work leads the field producing a unique brand of independent film alongside work for broadcast and advertising spots.The studio has had seven Oscar® nominations, and has won four.

Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at school. In 1972 they registered the name Aardman Animations. After graduating, they moved to Bristol in 1976 where they created Morph for the children's programme 'Take Hart'.

From the start Peter and David were interested in developing an adult audience for model animation.Conversation Pieces commissioned by Channel Four Television in 1982 enabled the pair to develop its innovative technique of animating puppet characters to real-life conversations. With films like Early Bird (set in a local radio station) Aardman demonstrated that real people could be characterised with insight, humour and sensitivity.

Peter and David met Nick Park at the National Film and Television School when he was working on his student film A Grand Day Out. He joined Aardman full time in 1985.

In 1986, Peter Gabriel suggested that they collaborate with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create a new rock video.Sledgehammer went on to collect many awards that year. That original combination of rhythm, energy, style and visual flair was also harnessed to provide the visual accompaniment to the late Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me and Robert Parker's Barefootin'.

In 1989 the studio was again commissioned by Channel Four Television to create a series of five 5-minute films, Lip Synch. This ground-breaking series further explored the world of animation based on true characters and real voices and included Peter Lord's War Story and Going Equipped, Barry Purves'Next, Richard Goleszowski's Ident and Nick Park's Creature Comforts, which went on to win the 1990 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

In 1993 Aardman passed another milestone with the completion of Nick Park's Oscar winningThe Wrong Trousers, Aardman's first 30 minute film. Acclaimed world-wide and winner of over thirty awards, The Wrong Trousers has become one of the most successful animated films ever made.

In 1995 Aardman produced Nick Park's third Oscar winning film A Close Shave. An immediate success, it confirmed the studio's reputation as well as establishing Wallace and Gromit as household names. In 1996 the studio produced Peter Lord's Oscar nominated 11' short film, Wat's Pig (for Channel Four) as well as a children's series based on Morph, The Morph Files.

In 1998, Aardman won a BAFTA for Stage Fright, an 11minute short film commissioned by Channel Four Television. Steve Box, Nick Park's key animator on both The Wrong Trousers andA Close Shave, directed Stage Fright.

The studio's first animated television series for youth and adults, Rex The Runt, created and directed by long time Aardman associate Richard Goleszowski, was first shown on BBC2 in 1998 and garnered many top international awards. A second series was commissioned and shown on BBC2 in 2001. Angry Kid, directed by Darren Walsh, was Aardman's first series released exclusively on the internet, via Atomfilms.com. BBC Three commissioned a second series which played a major part in the channel's launch.

Chicken Run was Aardman's first full-length theatrical feature film to be funded by DreamWorks. Directed by both Peter Lord and Nick Park it was released in June 2000 in the US and UK to excellent reviews and outstanding box office receipts. Chicken Run grossed over $220M at the worldwide box office.

In autumn 2002 Aardman released Cracking Contraptions, a series of 10 x 1 minute Wallace and Gromit films. The films debuted on the Internet and were viewed by hundreds of thousands of people world-wide. All 10 films were then shown on BBC1 over the 2002 autumn and Christmas schedule. The films were also released online in the US via AtomFilms who went on to offer a subscription package for all ten.

To mass critical acclaim and outstanding box office results, Wallace and Gromit's first feature film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released by DreamWorks in October 2005. The film topped the box office charts in both the US and UK and garnered many prestigious international awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and a BAFTA for Best British Film.

As the success of Curse of the Were-Rabbit reverberated around the world a fire swept through a storage warehouse containing models, props and many other treasures created by the animators and designers at Aardman.

Flushed Away, the studio's first CG film was released worldwide by DreamWorks in November 2006, it was nominated for a BAFTA in 2007.

Aardman's television series, Shaun the Sheep debuted on BBC1 and CBBC in March 2007. Inspired by Nick Park's 1995 Academy Award winning short film A Close Shave, the series has been sold worldwide. Also in 2007 Aardman produced a US version ofCreature Comforts.

Two feature films are currently in production via Aardman's deal with SONY Pictures. Arthur Christmas - an action-adventure comedy set on Christmas eve is scheduled for release in 2011 and Pirates! - In An Adventure With Scientists - a delicious confection of piracy on the high seas, will be released in 2012. A number of other feature films are in development.

Wallace and Gromit's latest adventure A Matter of Loaf and Death was broadcast on BBC One on Christmas day 2008 and enthralled a record audience of 16.15M. It went on to win the BAFTA for Best Animated Short Film. Every Wallace and Gromit adventure has now won a BAFTA.

Wallace and Gromit currently feature in a major exhibition at theScience Museum in London. Timmy Time, Aardman's first pre-school tv production debuted on CBeebies in April 2009 and a second series of Shaun the Sheep is due to broadcast later this year.

As the studio's reputation has grown both in the UK and overseas, so has the demand for its commercials work.

Agencies appreciate the contribution that Aardman's directors and animators can make to an original idea and a client list including Chevron, Serta, Hershey's, Tennants, Central Office for Information, McVities, Kelloggs and Leonard Cheshire Disability. Aardman produce approximately 75 commercials each year, using a wide variety of animation styles. As well as working in stop frame, productions in CGI, Flash and mixed media are thriving.

From Peter and David's tabletop beginnings, Aardman has grown into a major, world class studio. Their work continues to be innovative, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm, reflecting the talent, energy and personal commitment of all the people who comprise the Aardman team.

Evaluation Screen Shots

Final Cut Children's Film Opening Sequence Project

 

What have we learnt since our preliminary task?

• We learnt how to fade tracks on garageband.
• How to use istopmotion and to take lots of pictures with a camera to make it into a film
• How to add titles and text to a shot and place them in the frame.
• How to use the voiceover feature on Final Cut
• How to add a music track from Garage Band to Final Cut.
• How to compose a half decent music track, to fit in with the genre and childishness of our opening sequence, using loops on Garage Band, and SFX CD's
• How to import pictures into Final Cut 
• How to create freeze frames in Final Cut 

Opening Sequence Comparison

The film that I have chosen is similar to our opening sequence is 'The Land Before Time'

I feel that this opening sequence is very similar in many ways to our opening film sequence. For example; We both use animation for our children's film opening sequence; We both use dinosaurs as our main characters; We both decided to film the majority of footage on a green and tropical island  and also include a variation of setting (dark, grey and spooky atmosphere when suited); We both have a bad guy in our opening sequence and our main characters get into a spot of trouble; We both introduce characters by showing the type of things they get up to; We both have a very happy atmosphere for most of the sequence and all the main characters are great friends; We have similar soundtracks (happy, relatively fast paced and lively); We both use sound effects of tropical birds etc; We both use a lot of similar camera shots. Most commonly the zoom shot and both use continuity editing; We also both use the title of the film in our opening sequence.

However, despite all the similarities there are some differences. Firstly and most obviously, although we both use animation, we didn't use CGI (computer generated images) unfortunately with out limited budget we had to use plasticine models; We include a lot of dialogue in our opening sequence, whereas 'The Land Before Time' uses none; There is a lot of movement and running around in their opening sequence and a lot more advanced editing is used in their opening sequence. We use text to introduce the characters names and use more production details and credits.

Opening sequence Feedback

Q1.
there are a variety of shots at the start of the sequence with long, medium and close up shots. Towards the end there where not many different shot types however this doesn't effect the overall sequence. Any camera movement during the opening is very fluid and steady and the transition between shots are very fluid.

Q2a.
sound at the beginning is really good but it suddenly turns quiet. the voices are really effective but it's patchy in some parts. very good use of background sound to set the scene.

b.
sets the scene, title and introduces the characters, however you could introduce the story more but everything else is good.
high five :)

Q3.
the animation is very well done and fluent when the dinosaurs are talking very fast opening need to explain the dare, smooth animation used, aimed at more male 8-10 year olds. good use of colours and gave each character a personality using props. eg. bow.

Q4.
editing is very good used istopmotion really well, lighting is good, however in each separate shot the brightness varies then at the end it come to an abrupt stop with no hint as of when it is finished and doesn't look complete. style - continutity, pace of cuts consistent. no other transitions used. many could of benefited from them. ps, intro makes us happy :)

Q5.
relates to the same animation in programs such as morph, land before time and wallace and gromit. aardman animations could distribute this as it is a fabulous animation.

NICE :D

FINAL CHILDREN'S FILM OPENING!

This is our final video for our Children's film project, it's fantabulosa! We played about with it on final cut and it took us ages to get the speech right, we are really proud of ourselves :)

Character Analysis - Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is not a typical children's film main character. His face is scarred, clothes leathery and black, his eyes are distant and he has a quiet personality, but to add to that, he doesn't have human hands. The fact that his hands are made out of scissors is blatently stated through his name "Scissorhands", but you get a feeling from the very first appearance of Edward in the film that he is going to teach us a serious moral lesson, which would be unknowingly learnt by the children who watch this film. 

Although, I can remember at the age of about ten, cowering away from this strange "man", so what makes his character so memorable? One thing that makes him so memorable is the fact that he doesn't speak very often, and when he does speak, he says very little and speaks simply, whereas all around him are people who spend most of their life gossiping and talking. This makes his character stand out from the crowd and after Edward gets banished, out of fear of death, that the children viewing this learn that gossiping can cause people harm, which effectively teaches them that bullying is unacceptable and nasty because of the way Edward is treated because he is different.

Even though his hands are very creepy and make them strange, they also make him unique and different from all the other characters. His hands give him a gift as well: He is able to style and cut hedges, groom dogs and cut hair creatively. This makes him well loved and accepted by the people around him and also teaches the viewers that having skills and gifts are not a bad thing. 

Edward Scissorhands is very memorable because he is not an average character, and complimented by the beautiful story, and accompanying orchestra, this is a beautifully memorable film.