Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief/Pre-Production

E4 is a British television channel that began in 2001, and they have now therefore been running for about 12 years. They are currently owned by Channel 4, and some of their regular shown TV shows include Misfits, The Big Bang Theory, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and Glee! 
I believe that the primary audience for the majority of these shows are aimed at later teenagers to early twenties (the under 25 group), as shows such as The Big Bang Theory are centered around people this age experiencing the same things that the audience could be. I also think that it really depends on the actual program whether the target audience is mainly female or male. The audience will mainly be middle-class (B) or possibly a lower audience (C1) as again, some of their shows may be aiming at University students etc. I think that they aim at people with any sort of background and ethnicity because of the range of different shows offered. They will most likely be single or in a relationship considering this age range. I think that the psychographic audience would be mainstreamers and/or individuals. These are because they are often young and are from the pop culture. 
I personally think that the lifestyle and subcultures of the target audience would be mainly fanbases. 
The secondary audience would possibly be middle aged, male and females because of the range of genres offered in each of these programs. I think that the older generation would still enjoy the comedy and drama offered in the shows and this audience would also possibly be married and be in families where their children watch E4 more regularly. 

Other channels that are broadcast include Film4, More4, Kiss TV and Magic. The music and film shows are generally aimed at a wider audience because of the range of different varieties of content that they broadcast. 

 

As you can see, E4 have had many different 'E stings' which usually occur just before a program starts and also when it ends. I believe that these are used to basically show the logo of the channel, which helps makes the channel itself become more recognised. Including these is a little like advertising. I like these E Stings because they are interesting to look at and unique to look at in comparison to some other channels idents. 

The first ident (above) is a stop motion and I personally like this because of the bright and vivid colours and how imaginative the overall idea is just for 30 seconds of time. To label this first ident with a genre is difficult because many others are clearly comedy or action, but this is a simple idea so it's hard to categorize apart from the "stop motion/animation" aspect.  I would say that this is a serious E Sting and therefore the audience is aimed at an older generation. 

The second ident I have chosen (below) is different to the first. This is computer animation and I believe that the overall genre is comedy. Because of the comedy and the style of this ident I believe that this is aiming at a more younger audience. It also links to an audience living in Britian, because of the "cup of tea" content (the stereotype of British people drinking tea). 

The last ident I have chosen is a more "live-action" one which contrasts with the other two E stings I have chosen. This could also be classed as a comedy as it is very entertaining and the fact that the hamster gets "eaten" at the end is unique and may be aimed at younger audiences. The cuteness of the hamster also would help this E-sting become popular, possibly more for a female audience. 

So far in preparation for this brief I have made a thaumatrope, praxinoscope and zoetrope in class, and these all went well in my opinion. It helped me understand how animation first begun and how far technology and animation itself has come. 

The intention of the first one was to first understand and see how animation originated. This overall went successfully and I liked how we were able to experience understanding of traditional animation techniques. 

The one with the slots shows how animation improved after this, and it helped us understand the techniques used for presenting animation and moving images and how they first began to be presented in a better way. We were able to learn how the process in making animation works, especially because we drew a picture and changed it frame by frame. 

The one with the mirrors comes last and we could now overall see the improvements of animation and how the actions became more fluent and moving together as if just one piece. This also went successfully, and this was overall my favourite because of the difference in fluiditity and clearness in the images and finished animation.  

We also made claymation for the first time which will help us decide whether to make a claymation or a live-action ident.

This is my finished claymation video which I overall think when well, however if I was to improve or try this again, I would make the motions more fluent and perhaps try and make the characters do something more interesting to try and engage the audience better. 

Click here for character designs :D

For my own E sting I will be overall creating either a live-action or claymation piece. I think it would be unique and interesting to combine the two, in the way that possibly a person is interacting with a claymation figure. This could possibly be, for an example, an E4 logo with legs. Even if I can't link live-action and claymation together, I would like to create a stopmotion piece with a walking logo.

When creating this E sting I have to bear in mind the rules and guidelines to ensure that it will overall be suitable to be viewed and broadcast. Noted in the terms and conditions, it says "must be of broadcast quality and not contain anything that is obscene, indecent, defamatory, un-lawful or offensive... must be suitable for daytime broadcast... must be your own work." Therefore, when creating my E-sting I must follow these rules to ensure that my E-sting will be appropriate. Also, the E-sting must be exactly 10 seconds long, and it must include the E4 logo in some way. 

Soundtrack: AFRO2

Pre-Production

Storyboards (Mine, then Shauna's): 

Risk Assessment: 

Talent Release: