DVD Menu

For my DVD Menu I decided that I would use this design of Sunflowers, this was because it matched the fresh looking design that I have used for this website, which is dedicated to Animality only. On my working DVD Menu, I have included my Introduction as a separate video, Episodes 1,2 and 3 and my Trailer, Credits as a separate video and my Artist Statement. I was a little bit confused as to what was needed to be handed in on this particular disc, so I thought that I would put all of my relevant videos onto my DVD and I felt that it couldn’t have made it anymore suited to the design and I kept it true to my work. Overall I am very happy with the way my menu looks and works, I decided to use the music track that I used on my trailer, as I felt that it resembled my body of work well.

Animality Trailer

I would like to thank http://www.audionautix.com for the use of their Free Production Music. A very handy website indeed, you can use the music on there for anything, I love using this website for my work.

A review from Emily Bird on my trailer: the music that you chose completely fits with your episodes. I like it. It’s a light hearted trailer, which makes you think your going to watch something funny or at least something that will make you smile. I think that it is difficult to create a trailer for the project that you are creating, but you did a really good job.

Episode 1 Review

I have asked a few of my family members to have a look at my first Episode that I have created and finalised, however I have not posted it online yet as I have set my release date for Monday 14th May. I have mostly received positive feedback, and with the negatives they have sat down and helped me work through them to get the better version of my finalised episode, so that when I release it online, it is the version that makes most people laugh.

It took me a long time to really get into what I was working on, I was eager to get it filmed, but then I had work commitments, so had to push back my download and editing time. This impacted on my a lot as I have now had to put a rush on my episodes to create them to the exact thing that I want. I have had to work longer hours in the day to get to the same point where I would have been, if I had have taken time off work to concentrate solely on my project.

Whilst watching Episode 1 back myself, I realised that it did actually turn out better than I had thought, as I had helped out with the script writing with James Dann, I didn’t think that it would be funny, I felt that the script was going to be my weak point. I had the worry in the back of my mind that I would be able to create something that looked aesthetically nice but didn’t have the substance and the humour to back it up. I am happy with the outcome of my first episode, the look and feel of this episode, gave me the motivation to continue to work on my other episodes. I have now decided though that I want to only do 3 episodes, because whilst I was working on my second episode, I realised that there wasn’t a lot of difference in the look of the episodes. I realised that I hadn’t got enough variety of footage to continue to make more. There is only a certain amount of footage you can use before it all becomes samey and loses the interest of the viewer, which I certainly didn’t want to do.

Craig Kilby

When I watched the video the first time, I thought that it was alright, it wasn’t amazing, there were certainly things for Dawn to improve. The first thing that I definately noticed was that, it was lacking personality, I thought this because the first time I watched it, she had only received one persons voice over, and having the same person throughout the whole thing was obvious to me, as they all started to sound the same. So I told her that she needed to get as many versions of the voice overs as possible, because I know that she had some difficulty finding voice overs to start with, and with it being close to the deadline, it was even more pressure for her. However I have watched it again recently, after she was able to gain 3 more male voices to work on her project, she definately in my opinion gave it a more dynamic feel and made it more interesting to watch. Overall, once those changes were made I felt that it was a much more solid piece, I especially liked her introduction, I thought that was very clever, it gave the show and the animals personality before the episode even kicked off.

Lynne Ashfield

I really liked Dawn’s episode, when I had watched it, I wasn’t having a good day at work, so when I came home and watched this it put a smile on my face and cheered me up. I enjoyed watching it, there were some parts in the video that were more funny than others and I think that is because it is more relatable that way. Not everyday has something funny happening all the time, and for this to be slightly humorous and then really humorous in parts I felt it was more relaxing to watch.

Nigel Ashfield

After I had watched Dawn’s video, I felt like there needed to be something more, I had suggested to her to get a soundtrack under each of the different animals, so that it would relate to it more and make it less quiet. However she explained to me that in order for her to do that, she would need to require permission for every piece used, which can take a long time to receive and sometimes require payment. So if she were to do this again with more time to spare, I would definately recommend this to her for something to add a little bit more ‘oomph’ into the piece. I also suggested to her, to relate the animals together so that they are interacting with one another, she took this on board, and in her episode 2, she has related back to some of her previous characters, and she has made conversation between two different shots of animals. I feel that adding this to her videos makes them more personable, gives it a much friendlier feel and gives it that little bit more of something that was missing.

Overview

Based on the feedback that I received, I felt that I had made a success for my first attempt at doing comedy, this is because I was able to reach out to all age groups. This is what I wanted, but didn’t expect, I had only thought that my episodes would be relatable to ages 16 – late 20’s, however it was actually from 20 – 50 year olds that enjoyed my episode. It is also very useful to get that feedback on my work, I always need another persons eyes to look at it and point out what needs improving, because if I am working on a project for a long time, I am biased and don’t see the things that might be obvious to someone who hasn’t seen it before. Their opinions on my first episode, have helped me to develop my ideas and script into my next 2 episodes.

Editing

Since I have filmed, I have created my rough cut and sent it off the my script writer, however he had prior engagements once I had sent it to him, so I had to wait a while for the script to be handed to me. This slowed down my process of editing, because I felt that I needed a script to continue my edit.

Once I received the script I was able to carry on and redefine my first episode, I have since finalised my first episode, however I am definately finding this a very difficult task, it is hard for me to create 4 episodes to release on the internet. As I am trying to edit some footage together and write the script along side it. As I am trying hurry the process as my deadline is coming closer.

I haven’t had much time to update this blog as I have been editing my work, I have taken a lot of time and I am currently working on finishing the 3rd episode, I am feeling that I need to take a break from working on the edit today, as yesterday when I was putting it together because I have been working on it solid for the past week, I felt tat my creativeness was escaping me and that I needed to take a break to clear my mind of the other episodes that I have done and to then go back to it tomorrow with a fresh mind.

From the two images above, you can see the progress that I have made, I have created an introduction piece, which will be played at the beginning of each episode, I have also created and re-edited my production company ident. This is to be played at the end of each episode, this is so that I can round it off evenly. The credits for my episodes will be in the description, as I don’t feel that it is appropriate to put it at the end of an online based project. I will also create a little credit roll sequence, which will showcase the talents of each person involved with their names, for example I will place a production shot of me, with ‘Director Dawn Ashfield’ to the side of it. This will be a little novelty piece so that the people that were involved in the creation of my work feel valued.

The work that I have received so far from my voice actors is incredible. I am in awe of their talents, they have really done a great job for me, and I can’t wait to hand them the scripts for my episodes 3 and 4, so that I can get them to record those and post them online. I am very happy with my progress that I have made, however I feel that I am pushing it with deadline being so close. So I will be buckling down and getting as much help as I can, this is because I have wanted to do all of the editing myself, including colour correction, which I have been doing as I am going. I feel that it is more time consuming doing all the work myself, however I felt that if I had someone else do it for me, I wouldn’t be happy with the outcome and would be a terrible person, constantly telling them to change everything.

Update:

I have decided that whilst editing my video, that each of my episodes are 2 minutes 30 seconds, and that trying to get the same length for my episode 4 wouldn’t work, this is because I haven’t got enough variety with my footage and I don’t want them to all look the same. So I have made the decision to only create 3 episodes, each being 2 minutes 30 seconds, so that the entirety of my project is 7 minutes and 30 seconds long, I believe that this is an adequate length of time and have decided to make the decision of only having 3 episodes. However I still stand by my decision that if my episodes take off and have a good audience and good feedback, then I will go out and reshoot some more footage and create some more episodes.

Paperwork

Budget pg1

Budget pg2

Farm location agreement

Farm location agreement pg 2

Location List

Safety Form 13th March

Safety Form 14th March

Safety Form 21st March

Stables location agreement

Stables location agreement pg 2

Script (Episode 1)

This is a copy of my script for Episode 1, I have worked closely with James Dann to create a suitable script, that was funny and family friendly, I did not want to put an age limit on this as, I wanted to reach a much wider audience. I will not be posting anymore of my scripts as I don’t want to give away my work before it is online. I want people to be able to enjoy each video for what it is, not what they have read previously. The writing in the red are highlighted for female parts, this is so that my female voice actor is able to distinguish the difference between the parts that she needs to read and the parts that she doesn’t. Doing it this way means that there is less downtime between recordings as it is more precise.

Animality.
Episode 1

Lizard: in Cockney accent: “Oi, you, yeah you, what you lookin’ at?”

Snake: female cockney, sympathetic: “Oh, George, it’s just your reflection again!”

Male Turtle: very posh accent: “Hmm… good strong lettuce this year, Maureen. I can see the harvest went well.

Female Turtle: very posh accent: “Indeed Darling”

Mouse: Scouse accent, child like: “Oi, you, over here, ‘giggles’ you can’t catch me, nar nar na nar nar”

Degu: Scouse accent: “I’m gonna get ya, you just wait till I’m out of here and I’ll get ya, I will!”

Hamster: Female upperclass accent: “Oh, those two, they are always bickering, they are just like a pair of animals!”

Chincilla: adoring: “Oh my adoring fans, oh, they love me, mwah, mwah”

Duck: “Ah man, my back is so itchy, if I can just, reach, ah, that feels good, oh yeah, nothing beats a good back scratch”

Cat: in a child-like female voice: :”If I stare at this window long enough, my Jedi Powers should kick in, right about now… now… now?!”

Cow: female American: music playing in the background: “Like, This is SO my tune!

Lambs: child voice: “Oh no, Mum’s coming, quick play it cool, act normal, ‘whistles’ It’s cool she’s gone now … pile onnnnnn! ‘laughter'”

Horse: middle-aged mans farmer-likevoice: “Hi, I’m John and I like long walks along the beach, late night scratches, gallops in the fields, I’m looking for a shiny brunette to have fun, maybe more”

Female Horse: female middle aged, slightly posh: “Oh, I hope he’s not looking at me!”

Turtles: mother and daughter: “Muuuuuummmm, please can I go in the water?” “No!” “But please, it is so hot!” “No!” “But, but, but, it’s just so close…” “No!”

Horse: in posh lad voice: “As you can see, this is a Versace design. I only wear the best”

Cow: male bruiser kinda sound: “Think fierce, think angry, think tough, yeah that’s right I’m well hard I am, yeahhhh”

Rough Title Sequence

I have created a template of my business name Dawn till Dusk Productions, to play at the end of each episode. It is at the moment only a rough version of it and it will need improving. I created this using Motion Graphics, it is a simple yet effect design. I added the starry background to it to make it more appealing.

Press Release

I have contacted the Press Team of Coventry University and have now had an article on my current piece of work, posted here: http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/NewsCentre/Pages/NewsArticle.aspx?ArticleId=996

It is very exciting to see that my project is worthy of a press release, I hope that it works well and gets me a lot more viewers. Hopefully it’ll create a hype about my project and make people want to see it.

Above: Press Release

Above: Poster idea 1

I have created a rough Poster to attach to my press release, however I am not happy with it, it was something that I just quickly put together to add a little bit more personality to my piece of work. I will however re-create my poster as I am not happy with its Amateurish look, I am going to create a poster using my work that I have edited together. It will in my opinion make it more real and much more professional. I don’t want to have a successful project with a rubbish poster, as a poster can make or break a film before it is released into the cinema.

Above: New Poster Design

I have created a much nicer looking poster to advertise my production with. I felt that this looks more sophisticated than my last attempt at my poster, the other one looked childish and unimaginative, this one has used a still from the footage and turned it into a poster to sell my work from. I decided to turn it on its side because I felt that it suited it more than being portrait, it makes it feel easier on the eyes, a much more softer to look at. The poster that I created first feels too bright and in your face, it feels rushed and messy, I definately believe that my second poster would attract more people to want to watch it than my first attempt.

Rough Cut

  

The images above show the amount of files that I have had to download, it took 3 days to get all of the required footage down, as when I was downloading it, I was doing it in the right segments and leaving comments on each to describe the best parts or the not so good parts that I wanted to use in my work. I have also opened up four sequences, this is so that I can layout a rough set of clips required for each of the shows sequences.

I have done a little rough cut, this is so that I can send it to my Script writer and make him aware of the type of footage that I captured and then he can write a script that fits the footage well. I have looked through all of the footage that I have to play with, and I am very excited about making my piece, I have a  lot of footage that I can work with. The animals turned out to be much easier actors to work with than people, they gave me a lot of good shots to work with. The best thing about it is that I don’t need to re-shoot anything because they didn’t mess up their lines.

In my opinion, it was easier to work with animals for this filming than it is to work with people, although it may take a while for them to get settled and used to you being around them, once that happens, most aren’t camera shy and carry on with their normal activities. Which surprisingly is a lot like human behavior, this has made it a lot easier for me.

My really short rough cut that I sent to James Dann in order for him to write the script is below.

The Lion King – Review

I had to review this film, this is the most iconic film that relates to the subject that I am working on. The Lion King(1994), is based on African animals, growing up and learning the ways of the wild and the pack. It is a great animation film that I remember watching when I was a child, it is all focused strongly on the anthropomorphism, all of the animals talk to each other, no matter what animal they are, bird, rhino or lion. They are also given human characteristics, they move like humans, but also like the animal they are representing, for example Simba, he walks on all fours, but the way that he walks is very human like, he has a sort a sway in his walk, a cool looking movement, that shows his status in the Pride when he grows up.

Each of the animals also have different accents, Timone and Pumba are also very much like a comedy duo, they are almost compared to the Two Ronnies, they were a very funny comedy duo, and they remind me of them. Although this is animation and isn’t completely based on comedy, it is very similar to the type of thing that I want to achieve. The Lion King has always given me inspiration, it is the only film that I can truly remember, it has inspired me to work with animals and human voices, to give a personal feel. I decided to use this idea and take it to the next level by making it relatable and by only using the Internet as my platform.