Activity Log

These are screenshots of my activity log, where I recorded what I did every Wednesday from the beginning of the project. It helped me see my progress and what I still needed to do.

Future Plans

After finishing my animation, I can see how it would be helpful for future reference and plans. I feel that it would be a very good teaching tool, as previously mentioned. As I have included a strip of text at the bottom throughout the video explaining what each idiom was, there is no guessing or ambiguity involved. However, if I took this element out then it would be much less obvious as to what the meaning behind each idiom was, and it would be handy in helping others try to understand the concepts of idioms. As far as it being a teaching tool is concerned, I plan to try out my idea and see if it genuinely would be a convenient way to teach people about English sayings.
What I plan to do is have a class full of either foreigners or children, then showing them the video without the text and have them right down what they believe each idiom is, and see how accurate they are. I think it would be interesting to see just how helpful and relevant my animation is as a second opinion is always beneficial. Then depending on the answers, I could help them understand how each idiom works and the principle behind it.

What follows is my lesson plan.

Evaluation

The research I did helped me to decide which channel of animation I would use, as I knew what had worked well previously and which I think was more of a success. Also helpful in deciding this were my drafts, as I'd had experience using different types of animation and from this I knew where my strengths were and which I had difficulty with. Originally I had planned for my final piece to be similar to the 'Olympus Pen' advertisement, but subsequently due to changes that I'll explain later, it didn't turn out as planned. I instead feel my animation can be compared to most other stop motion animations. As I didn't want my animation to be the same as everyone else's, and I didn't want it to be generic and mundane, I added several different types of animation. This includes 'drawn' animation, which can be seen at the beginning and end of the animation, and my computerized animation, seen on the 'clock' scene. When it came to these animations there was a fair amount of editing involved. For the drawn animation I used a whiteboard, and then desaturated them to make them smoother. I also inverted the ending as the scene before that is of a light switch being turned off so it's as though the writing is appearing on the darkness. Also when it came to creating my clock scene, I used quite a basic process. I drew a basic clock shape using Photoshop then animated it using the same program, simply using the same program. Then after this all I had to do was make it the same aspect ratio as the rest of my animation, and import it.

Release Forms

For my drafts, as was convenient, I used my two sisters for the acting parts. As my sisters are both under the age of fifteen I will need to have their mother sign a release form to permit me to broadcast the videos. I also used them for my final piece, but not only was this convenient but I also planned for the actors to be children anyway as it would enable my plot to make more sense.
I don't think using the same two actors has restricted my learning of the animation/film industry at all as only one of my drafts and my final piece feature them. This is as most of my drafts used styles of animations that actors were not needed for. However if this had been a bigger project and it had been in a working environment I would have needed to experiment with different gender and age actors. I understand the necessity of the release form thanks to this project.

Sound

For the sound element of my film I decided against including diegetic sounds, such as the girl crying and the lightswitch clicking, in favour of a song that fits the pace and tone of my animation. I feel this is appropriate as the in-scene sounds aren't really necessary and I think the animation as a whole would be better if it was tied together with a soundtrack. I had many initial thoughts for this though so I had to go through each suggestion and weigh up the pros and cons of including it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPZtigbbkz4

This first idea is 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King', but a remake by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I initially thought of it as it has quite a prominent sound which could maybe compliment the jerkiness of my film, but I decided it was too dramatic and a bit too fast paced to fit well into the animation. Something I did like was that it started quiet and slow as it would fit with the girl waking up and starting her day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74

This second song is 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve, which I was initially interested in as it had such a well known and soft opening, which again I thought could compliment the very beginning of my animation. However I believe it to be too drab and slow paced, as well as being too formal to be part of such a light hearted and child-based video.

Final