How my animation fits into current trends

I feel my animation will fit into the current marketplace, as the style is different, and original, and recently different styles are becoming popular, such as the French style of animation, examples being The Illusionist and Belleville Rendez-Vous, where the style is a lot more textured, and uses darker and neutral colours. The main character will be likeable, and cute, and the relationship between the man and the dog has been successful before in Wallace and Gromit. The narrative is simple and easy to follow for young audience, yet can still be enjoyable for adults, and teaches a lesson on greed. The storyline is also satisfying, as it ends on a happy note and the protagonist develops hope. 

The animation doesn't fit in with many current trends, as usually animations aimed at families are colourful and attractive for kids, but the colours in this are a lot darker, as it is showing the harsh reality of the characters and the cold streets they are living on. This reminds young audiences of what is around them, and how lucky they are to have a home.  It is also 2D, and a lot of recent  animated films are 3D, although this might be a positive aspect, as it will stand out. 

For promotion, as it is not a TV series, the short film would be entered into film festivals, and screened before features in the cinema, and online, and any publicity it can get. 

Target Audience

Name: James Carter
Age: 14
Average day: Goes to secondary school and is currently in year 10, studying all of the required subjects, but his favourite is Art, French and English. After college he plays tennis every Wednesday, and then goes home to watch his favourite animated shows, practises his French, and reads a book before bed. 
Hobbies and interests: He loves playing Tennis after school, and rounders in P.E, and loves to read and watch animations,  he also loves attending the cinema, and meeting with his friends at the park. 
Spending power: James gets most of his money as his birthday and Christmas present, as he isn't old enough to work, although he occasionally does chores around the house for his parents for pocket money, and babysits. 
Typical media consumption per day: He watches around 2 episodes or 1 film a day, goes on his Nintendo Wii every other day, and reads every night. 
Why the animation will appeal to them (look, style of animation, themes, main character, humour): He loves animation, and also art, so enjoys and has grown up watching 2D animations. As he loves art, he can appreciate the different style of animation, and especially loves the French style. He loves drama and crime based films and TV, and loves watching things set in a different environment to where he lives. 

Representation and Ethics in Cartoons

Why does the writer of the article believe Rio 2 is problematic in terms of its representations?

Rio 2 can be seen as prejudice in areas, due to the lead characters being voiced by white Americans, when they are born and raised in Rio (excluding Blu). The point  Steve Rose is trying to make, is that  the animation industry is made up of mainly American voice actors, and there are little roles for other ethnicity's' and when other ethnicities are used to voice characters, it is often for a stereotypical reason. He states an example of this, saying most African-American voice actors play the stereotypical part of the comedic sidekicks. 

He also mentions that skin colour is a problem in the film, as the humans shown in Rio 2, are supposed to be Brazilian, but have distinctly lighter skin then most people you would find in Brazil. 

What are PEPs and why are they an issue for racial representation?

PEP stands for Problem Context, Entertainment Context, and Performance Context. This is something a man named Dr Charles Da Costa has come up with. Dr Charles Da Costa is an English lecturer who studies and writes about racial stereotyping in animation and believes that genotypes such as black ethnicities, need to be associated with  troubling circumstances, which is a racist stereotype.  

Why does Da Costa believe we end up with stereotypes in animation?

Da Costa believes we end up with stereotypes because the film industry needs to think more about money and buisness, then moral obligations, and they think about what will make more money instead of what is right.

What does Turbo say about social mobility?

Steve Rose states that social mobility is only available to white characters in animations, as many animations for example Turbo, are based around a white voiced character, being helped,supported and re-enforced  by many other ethnicities, such as the comedic side kick voiced by Samuel L Jackson, Snoop Dogg, and Michelle Rodriguez. 

Legal and Ethical Problems

Budget and Post on Schedule

Information on Scheduling (Research)



Adventure Time Story Process:

South Park

http://www.getharvest.com/blog/2011/11/teams-at-work-creating-a-south-park-episode-in-6-days/

Peppa Pig

http://www.kidzcoolit.com/reviews/the-brains-behind-peppa-pig-phil-davis-neville-astley-and-mark-baker-answer-some-kidz-random-questions.php

The Simpsons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6260000/newsid_6262500/6262584.stm

Frozen

My Budget:

The animation will take 18 weeks (4.5 months) to produce, and for the crew and cast will be a total budget of £52,325.

Voice Acting

Name of Character: Ratty

Personality of Character: Unapproachable, un-tasteful, rude, rough, heartless, slimy, selfish

Type of Vocal Performance Required: Deep tone of voice as well has high pitch (varied pitch), croaky, grotty


Dream Casting: Andy Circus, as he is brilliant at voicing evil, bad natured characters, such as Golem & Smeagol from the Lord of the Rings, and Golem has similar traits, and vocal performance as Ratty.

Cheaper Alternative: Michael Wincott, who voices characters such as Scroop in Treasure Planet, as this character has a deep, grotty and creepy voice, which would suite the role of Ratty well.

Story & Storyboard

Name: Loot

Product Type: Short Film

Running Time: 3 minutes

About: The Short film is about two homeless men, one being Ratty (the foe), and the other being an old man (the protagonist). The old man comes across a brief case one day, and  finds a large sum of money in it. Ratty then wakes up, and sees the money, and tries to steal it. The old man attempts to defend the case, and this results in a fight (tugging the case), but Ratty gets away with the case, shoving the old man to the floor. The film then fades into another scene of the old man and his dog walking in town, and they then pass Ratty being pushed into a police car for having the (stolen) money. The old man smiles, please that it wasn't him, and they walk of, and later sit down to busk. The dog then takes out some money from its mouth, and places it into the old man's busking hat (which it had previously taken from the case). The old man smiles and pats the dog. 

Character and Story Development: The short film begins on a negative note, as we see that the poor protagonist is on the streets. It then becomes more positive when the old man finds the case full of money, but then an obstacle gets in the way (Ratty) who steals the money. This obstacle is slightly overcome when we see Ratty being pushed into the police car, as he is being punished for his greed, but then is even more overcome when the protagonist (the old man) gets some of the money from the case. 
The old man has lost all hope of getting of the streets, but when he finds the case full of money, he begins to think of all the possibilities. The old man is a lot smarter and wiser then Ratty, and decides to check to see if he can find out where the money came from, but this is when Ratty steals the money for himself. The old man looses his hope again, but at the end, the dog comforts him and brings some of that hope back when he places a wad of the money in his hat. 
There isn't much character development with Ratty, as he is an extremely simple character, and stays monotone for the whole film. He begins as a harsh and selfish character, and when he gets shoved into the car, he shows no signs of remorse, but is angry at the situation. 

Final Design

Design and Process Sheets

 

 
Ratty

Here are Ratty's model/action sheets, expression/head shots, and 3/4 shots:

Favourite Character Designs: 

 Out of all the character designs I drew, these three are my favourites, but I chose to develop character 1, as this was how I first pictured 'Ratty' in my head, and this design emphasize the characters skinniness, messiness (due to the laces) and I thought his dress wear was best, as it allows us to see his tattoo and hair legs. The character also had the sharpest features, matching his dangerous personality, and had the most unappealing facial features.

BBFC Research

BBFC stands for the independent company 'British Board of Film Classification'. This company was first set up in 1912 by the British film industry. They began giving videos ratings in 1984 due to the Video Recording Act, which meant they had the say in what audience is suitable for each film (U, PG, 12, 15, 18) at home. BBFC is a 'not for profit organisation' meaning they only accept fees to cover their costs. They get the money from the price of their services. As well as deciding the certificate of films, they also measure the running time for films.

They decided to rate the films appropriately, due to young children or under-aged teenagers watching films that may mentally effect them in a negative way. Before each film is released they carefully watch through the film, discuss it and come to a conclusion on what the rating should be, taking into account the features such as violence, sex, language, drug use etc.

The BBFC don't have any legal power and the films have to be seen and classified through the council who have the final say for the certificates. If the council thinks that the film is either too highly rated or too low, they have the power to change it.

Certificates: 

U - Stands for universal, and is suitable for children aged 4 and over. There should be no significant issues such as language, discrimination, drugs, sex, threats, violence or imitable behaviour.

PG - Stands for parental guidance, which is suitable for children if their parents think it is appropriate. It should not unsettle children 8 or older.

12 and 12A - 12 of course means that the film is suitable for people aged 12 and over, but 12A means that people aged under 12 can only watch a 12 at the cinema if they're accompanied by an adult. 12's are allowed a moderate amount of violence, sex, drug use etc, but only an amount appropriate for this age group.

15 - No one under the age of 15 can watch, buy or rent a 15 rated film. Unlike the ratings above, 15's are aloud stronger features such as strong violence and strong language, although the sex is moderate, and they can have strong drug use but not promote it in a possitive way.

18 - No one under the age of 18 can watch, buy or rent an 18 rated film. This is the highest rating, and can have extremely strong use of language, sex, violence, etc, although when a film is being moderated, if anything is in breach of the criminal law, risks harming individuals, or if there is explicit sex that can't be justified by the context, they will have to crop it out or not allow the film to be released.

R18 - a rating especially for explicit films including consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. The films in a licensed cinema can only be show to adults and if brought from a sex shop may only be brought by adults.


Coraline is a children's fantasy film released 2009. The BBFC state that PG can have some tense, scary and eerie moments. Coraline is a horror aimed at young children, as it has extremely little horrific scenes, is based on a children's book, and is stop motion. According to the BBFC PG's are allowed to show some elements of horror, as long as they're not too frightening and are going to have a mental impact on children. The film needs to have a positive outcome and a good ending for them to consider it to be a PG. Although it was rated like this, and has it's reasons for being a PG, the BBFC has had quite a few complaints from parents of children who have watched Coraline and found it traumatising, scary, and mentally scaring. Some of the parents and children even had to leave the cinema.