Final Films

Set photos

After filming

I have now finished filming. It took just over a week to make both of the films. I have edited the visual and am in the process of editing the audio. Both films are just under a minute, which is the length I intended the films to be as they are adverts. The storyboards and the animatics were really useful when filming so I did not waste much time filming scenes that I would not use. The first film did not need any time cut as it was 55 seconds long. The second film when first roughly put together was 65 seconds long so needed editing down about 10 seconds so it was the same length as the first film and a suitable length for an advert.

I am quite happy with they way the films look. I think the cars could have looked better if i had made a 3d model of it. However I liked the idea that the 3D hedgehog was in a 2D world so everything was new to him which is why he doesn’t know the road safety rules. Having a 3D car would not fit in with the rest of the 2D set. I am really pleased with the lighting and they way it is almost constant throughout the films and hardly flickers. This was something that I could not achieve in my previous animations as they were filmed at home. Working in the studio has allowed me to work in a much larger space and use professional equipment. I really enjoyed filming and editing in the AV studio. It had a friendly and relaxed environment and it was good to be working next to other people doing similar projects.

The sound has been quite difficult. I have found it hard to decide on the sounds to use in order to make the action sound realistic. The volume levels have been difficult to get right because they sound different when played using speakers and different kinds of headphones. I decided to use the headphones that are going to be used in the exhibition as this is how it will be mostly viewed.

Storyboards/Animatics

I decided to re draw the storyboard and change the animatics. I did not think that the colours of the original storyboard were that of the way i wanted the film to look so I decided to do them in without colour to not give false impression of the colours. I also did not want to complicate the storyboard and confuse myself. I thought that having the storyboard as simple black and white would make it clear and easy to understand whilst filming. I changed the first animatic that i did because I thought that the story was far too complicated for an advert that was under a minute long. I decided to split the first animatic into two advert style films.

Story 1:

Story 2:

Filming

I’ve been very busy filming in the past two weeks.  It is taking a lot longer than I thought (it always does).  Setting up took about three days because getting the lighting right was the most important thing for the films.  The lighting is a bit brighter than the photos below because the dark areas appeared very grainy.  I also wanted a constant light so that the films do not flicker.  In order to do this I had to use bright spotlights especially designed for professional films, not just a desklamp.  The set is quite basic but i needed to figure out ways to hold the object in order to make them grow or move without collapsing. For example, the trees needed to be held steady at each position as they raised from the floor by a non visible stand. After experimenting with a few different objects i came up with a foamboard stand which is only blue tacked to the surface, not glued, so it was easy to move across the set floor.  The fence and the brick walls were quite hard to control when there was not a stand directly at each end and would occasionally fall over so i would have to start the scene again.

 

There has also been a problem with connecting the HD cameras up to istop motion.  I tried two different cameras on the HD setting with two different computers with istop but it just would not work.  It is a shame because the quality of film is so much higher with HD but i have used the highest resolution settings that are possible for DV.  Occasionally there are some shots where the hedgehog looks really pixelated.  It is possible that I did not use the same settings as the rest of the film when it is clearer so I have decided to go back and reshoot those scenes.

set/lighting test #2

I got some wood varnish for the fence to make it darker and less reflective and i have made a few more props to see how the larger objects and their shadows look in the foreground.  I wanted to try with the camera from different angles. I just need to try to keep the light in the same place and not let the camera get in the way.  It sounds like a really obvious thing to say but the shadows are more dramatic because it is lit from a very low level which can be blocked by the camera at some angles. I will just have to avoid these.   Also I may need a lighter colour for the floor as it might not show clearly the pattern on the floor when it grows.  It can’t be that much lighter thought because I like the dark feel of the scene and the lighter the paper, the more the light will reflect and brighten the rest of the scene.

set/lighting test.

The two stories are pretty clear to me now so I thought I would concentrate on the set and the way its all going to look. The films are set at night and the lighting is really important, especially as the set grows around the hedgehog and creates shadows. The set itself is quite basic but will take some time to make as I have to figure out some nets and ways to hold things in place.

I set up the set for part of one of the films to play around with the lighting. I have used one spotlight which is about a metre away from the set. I think it works quite well as it still looks like it is set up at night but the shadows are still quite dramatic, which is what i wanted.  The fence is far too bright though, I am going to make it darker for when I shot the real film.

Storyboard/animatic

This week i have been storyboarding my idea for a road safety advert and experimenting with putting it into an animatic.  The story features the hedgehog character that I previously made.

The point of the story is to communicate ideas about road safety.  I initially chose three road safety messages that I wanted to convey; cross in a safe place, be careful when near the road and stop, look and listen.  When putting my storyboard into the animatic I realised that trying to fit all these three messages into a one minute advert was too much and that it looked really rushed.  I wanted to show a real contrast with the pace of the film at the beginning and when the hedgehog is on the road and I do not think that I have achieved this by looking at the animatic because there is too much to show.

Here is the first animatic.  I did not completely finish it; there is no text to communicate the road safety message at the end as I realised that I was going to slightly change the story.

After some consideration I decided to split the story into two shorter adverts of about 45 seconds each.  The initial story shows the hedgehog jumping into the road without looking which shows the dangers of not being careful when near a road.  It also shows the hedgehog finding a safe place to cross – a pedestrian crossing.  I thought that doing these two messages as separate animations would be clearer in communicating the message and the story itself would not be rushed.  Looking back on my research, this is what the existing road safety adverts do; concentrate on one message per advert eg. the boy who did not stop, look and listen, the girl who did not dress bright in the dark. Since the audience is children and the issue is very serious and important the message needs to be really clear and simple. The easiest way to do this is to approach each road safety issue individually and not to overcrowd the advert and confuse the viewers.

Zoologic

An animation about a zoo by Nicole Mitchell.  I like the animation because it tells the story very well without using speech or a voice over.  Only sound effects and visuals are used to communicate how each character is feeling and how the story develops.   The sound is minimal which is how I plan the sound to be in the animations that I am planning. I really enjoyed watching the film – and not just because it was about animals, because I think it was illustrated and animated really well.  The film won a Gold Medal at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 2008 Student Academy Awards.

Road Safety

As I was thinking about the theme of children’s road safety ads for my next project I thought I would look into the background of the existing ads and find out what the aim is, to whom and where the information should be shown.

I found this page on the Department for Transport website about the campaign aims. I also found this page of statistics for casualties on the road.

In 2007 there were on average 37 children under 16 that were killed or seriously injured every week on roads in Great Britain which adds up to almost 2000 that year. Road accidents is the single biggest killer of 12 – 16 year olds. Many road accidents happen during the school run, particularly during the winter when it begins to get dark, or during the school holidays when a child is close to home. In all of the campaigns for children or teenagers the basic messages to be communicated are always the same:

• Cross the street in the safest place.
• Use the Green Cross Code (stop, look, listen).
• Be careful on the roads you know.
• Make sure you can be easily seen – wear bright or fluorescent clothing.
• Choose routes that are well lit.

The DFT split up their advertising campaigns for different viewers. There is children, teenagers, parents, and all the different types of transport. The ads are all directed for a particular age or audience. With very young children the ad should communicate a simple message and focus on what you should do but show the consequences of not doing this within reason as it may unnecessarily frighten young children. An example of this would be Tufty or the Hedgehogs. The older the children get the more detail can be given into road accidents and the consequences as they should already know the stop, look, listen basics (although this should still be shown in the ad). The most recent road safety campaign aimed at slightly older children is the Tales of the Road campaign, created by Leo Burnett, which is based on the old cautionary tales and costing 1.5million pounds.  It features:

 

 

“The Boy Who Didn’t Find A Safe Place To Cross.“

 

 

 

“The Girl Who Didn’t Dress Bright In the Dark.“

 

 

 

“The Boy Who Didn’t Stop, Look and Listen.” 

 

 

 

They all tell stories of children who have been hurt because they did not follow the green cross code.  The films are of the children looking back on the day of the accident and a voice over narrating the story in rhyme.  I like them because they are quite dark and sinister and have got the Tim Burton style about them.  There is also a website where users can interact and play games using these characters.  The games all involve the road safety rules.  In one game you have to light up all the children before they reach the road, another you have to find safe places to cross to get to the other side of the map.

These adverts have been shown on children’s digital and terrestrial television channels since November 2008. Every couple of months a new film is introduced. “The Boy Who Did Not Find A Safe Place” is the most recent of these three films and was first aired on 3rd April 2009. The adverts will be shown in the cinema before films which are expected to be popular with children. These are the movies and the dates where the film will be shown.

Monsters vs. Aliens – 03 April – 14 May (6 weeks)
Race to Witch Mountain – 10 April – 21 May (6 weeks)
The Hannah Montana Movie – 01 May – 04 June (5 weeks)
Coraline – 08 May – 04 June (4 weeks)
Jonas Brothers 3D – 29 May – 04 June (1 week)

The Hedgehog campaign (click here to see the ads) that I mentioned a few posts previously (click here) also had a viewing schedule similar to this in 2007. The films it was shown in were:

Arthur and the Invisibles (from 2 February)
Charlotte’s Web (from 9 February)
Bridge to Terabithia (from 23 March)
Meet the Robinsons (from 30 March)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (from 30 March)

In the half term weeks it was shown in the daytime much more on these channels:
Channel Five, GMTV, GMTV2, CITV, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Toonami, Nickelodeon, Jetix and Pop!

Similarly to the Tales of the Road website there was a Hedgehogs website in which children were encouraged to play games that communicated the road safety messages. It is now no longer available as it has been replaced with the Tales of the Road site. Links to the hedgehog site were shown by:
AOL, Jetix, CITV/Popcorn, Nick, ClubDetention, Swap It Shop and Disney.

The hedgehog ads were highly successful as the number of deaths or serious injuries in children under 16 from road accidents in 2007 was reduced by 55% and hopefully the Tales of the Road will reduce this percentage even more.

Making a successful road safety campaign is not just about making a good advertisement – its about where it is shown. There is no point at all showing the advertisements late at night or in an 18 rated film at the cinema. It has to be shown in media that children are familiar with are see every day.