Task 2 - Stop Motion - Group

PROJECT 1 - TASK 2 - STOP MOTION INTRODUCTION - 1/11

With the 3D project complete, it is time to move onto the next section of project 1. While the 3D spider mostly focused on context and the social implications behind creative decisions, this project will focus more on audience. For example who it appeals to, the target market. We have to create a 20 to 30 second stop motion Christmas advert in small teams. Communication will be key. A 500 to 1000 word essay about Christmas adverts, specifically what defines them, expectations, reception and their audience. Finally a reflective journal will be used to document the journey, followed by an evaluation at the end to sum it all up.

The first task of the project was to decide the groups. The teacher, Mitch, originally wanted to decide the pairing himself. That way we would be placed with individuals who we don't normally work with. This would of pushed many of my skills to the limit and provide much more challenge compared to choosing groups. Although choosing groups would allow the team to function much better and provide better support for the task ahead. We chose teams. That way we already have a built up repour, we know each other's strengths and weaknesses and we can delegate roles accordingly. The aim is to complete the objective in the brief. Ambition is good, although the priority should be completing the task list.

So as a group, we agreed how we would split the workload. I organised and lead the debate. Emily is co-leader with myself. She has already arranged a plan on how to structure the 1st week, as well as organised a checklist of what needs to completed.

A mind map was made as an early plan for what's to come. We discussed ideas on how we would structure the project and what needs to be done. For example, research routes to explore, character design ideas, the heavily emphasised "audience"...

The lesson notes were also upload onto the wix site, the beginning of the research. Emily's plan (bottom right of the 4 images above) shows to the "to do list" for week 1 of 6. Essentially, we agreed verbally, the group is brainstorming and deciding upon Christmas advert ideas. If we can get the basic story and possibly some character design sketches, we will be on track. Next week will begin the experiments with modelling. Research will be continuous and conducted throughout.

The Christmas advert is to be created using stop-motion. Stop Motion is the earliest form of 3D animation. It is the capture of still images stitched together to create movement. Any object can be used. It also links back to early CGI and Puppetry.

For said stop-motion, we came to the general idea of using animals. The models will have to be simple due to time constraints. Human are incredibly tricky to get right, without falling into the uncanny valley. Likewise, it would be easier to not include voices. Tell the story through camera angle, lighting, colour, body language... Tell the story visually instead of relying on voices. Ambient music could be used to set the atmosphere and support the visuals.

The next step is to look at some example of how it is made. The below videos break down the process and production flow of their respective stop-motion film. As a class, we were each given an example to research, mine being Kubo and the 2 strings. The aim was to discover common trends and overlaps between each stop-motion film, it's key aspects.

Now the production of Kubo highlighted just how much time went into a stop-motion. It took the combination of 30 animators, creating 43 frames per day. The "to do list" of what happens each day took up an entire room to plan out. Multiple models have to be created, a similarity to many other stop motion films. The sets are massive. Much of the models themselves are 3D printed. This means that if any break a replacement can be made quickly. This is a faster method to the old 'clay baking' style. If that cracked it could take significantly longer to rebuild a replacement.

What I found most useful from this video was how they used references. Much of the movement was acted and recorded using humans first. Human referencing would create a blueprint to base my movement upon and will help in my own project.

That is some basics ideas I got from a first viewing of my selected stop motion example. The video itself is below for the viewer of this wix site. I also have 2 other videos that were very interesting of similar subjects.

Originals, A., 2015. Credited As: Stop Motion Animator. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ij3IbplMisA
[Accessed 1 November 2021].

kstrev, 2009. Wallace and Gromit - Making of The Curse of the Were - Rabbit. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW5X1S6VKQ8&t=147s
[Accessed 1 November 2021].

chscott9525, 2012. The Making Of-The Nightmare Before Christmas.VOB. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLw-Fo8uhis
[Accessed 1 November 2021].

Although the scale is limited to what 3 students with no experience can do in 6 weeks, so production of the scale in these videos is impossible. However, it doesn't mean we can't incorporate the strategies used in these videos to benefit our production. For instance. Multiple models are created per character. Areas such as face movement needs dozens of different facial positions in order to lip sync. Many of which are 3D printed. Set design is normally huge and complicated. I find it personally similar to 2d animation. An understanding of the 12 principles is still needed during production. Universal elements such as staging, lighting, camera composition are essential parts to stop motion. Much of the environment is created to serve the purpose of the plot and tone. For example, stop motions such as "Nightmare before Christmas" and "Coraline" consist of much darker and 'scarier' backgrounds. Like wise, the use of colour grading to establish the mood of the scenery is a common practice. Many of the techniques used in 2D animation carries over into stop motion.

Like wise, a lot of film practice also carry over. Such as Celebrity voice actors and the techniques stated above.

Stop motion takes an incredibly long time to make. At the studio that brought Kubo and the 2 strings, it took 30 animators to produce 43 frames a day.

Now there is only 3 of us. Not only that, we have 6 weeks to make, design and research into. This gives us only a few weeks to actually make props and film it. We also have to produce 20 to 30 seconds. This makes timeframes incredibly important. What I plan to do is to take inspiration from the techniques of the huge studios and incorporate it into the group project. Essentially the stop-motion examples above were made with huge teams of people in a much bigger timeframe. We have to think within our limits in order to succeed. Even with the limitation, this was still extremely useful. For example, I learnt from this is how human referencing is commonly used in production. It a experimental form I used during my previous project, in planning the movement of my spider model. I didn't realise that this was common practice. Although I did find that it increased my understanding of the required movement greatly. A weakness of that task was likely the time limitation I had on myself in order to carry it out. Because this research was initially held in class, I was bound by the structure of the lesson and the pace set by the teacher. Mind you, as long as I develop it further in my own time, this isn't necessary a restriction. If anything, it provides an opportunity to learn information in a different environment - allowing me to bounce ideas about the info on my peers.

I intend to try and act out the movement as a result of this. These videos also act as a origin for my research to begin. These videos outline how 3 stop motion films were created. But the subject of stop motion as a media is far broader. If I was to do this again, I would analyse these vids in more detail. Or enact some of these experiments earlier as a direct results. I have full intent to create experiments around stop motion. Although creating these earlier may provide more benefits that letting the information slowly fade from memory and then acting upon it.

International Trailer (imdb.com)

Kubo and the Two Strings - LAIKA Studios

Wallace and Gromit - Making of The Curse of the Were - Rabbit - YouTube

Credited As: Stop Motion Animator - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLw-Fo8uhis

Progression Routes - Unit 11 - 1/11

Outside of the Stop Motion deep dive, we also (as a class) researched into career progression. We each quizzed each other in 3 minute blocks, 5 questions each. These were decided and varies person to person which lead to a large difference of results. I have the answers others gave to my 5 questions listed in my book.

Have you considered working abroad?

3 People Yes, 3 People No

What's your dream job?

Stop motion Person

Rally Racer

2d animator

Animation Generalist times 2

Three lance Animator

What step have you taken towards it?

Applying to Uni

Drivers licence prep

Art Practice - drawing skills fundamental

Going College times 2

What skills do you have that will help you in your chosen job?

Experience Specific

Reflexes

Communication

Hearing good

Anatomy

Focus

Commitment

Patients

Animating

Leading

Confidents

How long do you expect to last?

Whole life times 2

1 Year

Few years

Bonus: What skills do you need to develop?

Driving Skills

Animation

Time Management times 3

communication

The above is the results of the investigation. 6 Participants with 3 minutes of time each. I had 5 minutes to prepare the questions. This short amount of time is likely the reason why I wasn't satisfied with the questions I came to. That is why after the 1st participant, I added the 6th question for development, thinking on my feet and adapting to the situation. Although now the participants have been asked different questions which means the validity of my results could be put into question.

It was extremely fun to do, hearing about other peoples plans. It could also help me inform my decision going into the future. For example, the skills lists will allow me to think about qualities I may not of considered yet. I know that personally time management and patients have been traits I lack looking back at past projects. I going to use this to highlight my own experiences and act accordingly to lesser my weaknesses.

If I was to do this again, I would increase the sample size to 12, double the original. This will give me a greater quantity of results and may show patterns I currently can't see.

Peoples careers differ greatly from each other. However, the skills mentioned, strong or weak, seem to be universal. Likewise the question of "have you considered working abroad" got an even split from the 6 participants. Many had short answers to their questions, that allow great depth to be explored. Although I reckon this is due to the 3 minute limit to answer questions. The time limit was the greatest factor to hindering this experiment. I did learn a lot but more could of been discovered with more planning leading up to it.

Audience and their Theories - 2/11, 9/11

There are many theories to be mindful of when dealing with an audience. These must be taken into account for when producing a stop motion for our own audience. For example, a distinction has to be made between a passive audience and an active audience. A passive audience is easily manipulated, followers to the mass opinion and will take what you say as fact. This is what a lot of companies believed when entertainment like the tv and radio first came out. While the active audience is the exact opposite. They are engaged, involved and actively question what they see. They think for themselves. A passive audience could take your message at face value, or find a completely different message and instantly take it as purposeful facts. This can be dangerous given the context. Likewise active audience will break down and be a lot more cynical and distrusting with your product at first. The background of the audience (such as age, gender, experiences...) play a massive role into the position and opinions they create. That is why it is important to establish who your audience is before acting upon your idea. We have to be careful what we show at face value. Likewise we need to be aware off all the subtle messages someone can come up with.

Here are some example of theories below;

1. The Hypodermic Syringe - Magic bullet theory - one of the oldest models in its area. The media acts as a bullet and "injects" it's text into the viewer. It treats audiences as unthinking, passive and who cant resist their desired messages. The media gives the message, then the audience acts on the message. e.g. watching violence and then assaulting someone as a result.

Linked with 'copy-cat' behaviour and crimes caused by the media.

A classic example of this is the original airing of the 'War of the Worlds' radio show. During this time radio (and the media as a whole) was a new concept. Most of what was aired was non-fiction. So when the show was aired, some people believed that the world was actually being invaded by aliens from mars. This lead to a lot of trouble later down the line.

The issue with this is that the model assumes the audience are passive listeners. There may of been more weight to this back when the media was newly released. However, people are much more attuned and sceptical in the modern day. To assume people will swallow everything that is said is a downright dangerous outlook in todays time. However, it can be applied to some extent. There are still a portion of people who believe everything they hear in the media. The likes of Facebook and twitter are proof of that. Although to assume every audience member is passive is downright incorrect.

2. The 2 step flow model (1955) - The factors that effect the audiences response is the influences of the "opinion leaders" in social networks. Opinion leaders are respected members of society/social group. People who other people listen to. They lead the opinions in their group. The 2nd step is the audience taking notice. This means audiences are less affected by the text itself, more by how other interpret it. A chain reaction can occur, especially with social media to reach a mass group of people.

A good example of this is the Brexit vote back in 2016. It was the opinions and views of the leading parties that was told to the audience, not necessarily the facts. The whole debate of "there taking our jobs" wasn't even an idea until enforced by certain high up political individuals. The people listened and some believed, regardless of fact or reason. Although what would happen if you have multiple opinion leaders? What would happen if your told to believe 2 different views? This is where the model has a big weakness. It doesn't take into account conflicting opinions. The audience may be influenced to some degree by exposure alone to public/general opinions. But the ability to decide or take part in these set choices has to come down to the viewer.

3. The uses and gratification model (1970, 1990/95) - Audiences use media to support their own beliefs and desires. This can be through diversion (leisure, entertainment...), personal relationships (family, friends, identifying with other societies...), personal identity (their own interests) and surveillance (news, blogs... accessing info that affects them). There is also background wallpaper, where you repurpose the media as a distraction to do other tasks.

An example of this is the act of listening to the radio while doing my schoolwork. Or where I would turn on the news to contribute my breakfast. Researching and finding out the new music releases would be a personal interest (part of my identity). This is a new model compared to the 2 previous, so it could be more related to modern day. This is likely why I agree with this particular model more than than the previous 2. Although no theory is without fault. There may be a few cases where people actively avoid the media at all costs. There may be another use currently not outlined by the model. A key factor compared to the other 2 is that the audience is making active decisions into the media they consume.

4. Encoding/decoding and reception theory - certain messages are encoded by the media producers, then decoded by the audience. Although different audiences may find different messages based off their own interpretation. This leads to the types of audiences. Specifically Dominant/preferred reading (how the producer want them to feel), Oppositional reading (audience rejects messages from producer) and Negotiated reading (where they compromise on the messages being told).

What I like about this theory is that is attempts to take into account the unpredictability of the audiences response. As we have gone down the list, it seems the audience has been granted more and more control of their response. Politics is a good example of this. Depending on the views of the individual, their reactions could vary completely to someone with the opposite view.

RECEPTION THEORY

Dominant/preferred reading – Me buying leather jackets online. Saw the add, agreed and brought item.

Oppositional reading – rachels video on apu controversy from Simpsons – completely disagreed with it and its message. Went and showed examples/multiple views on the same thing.

Negotiated reading – politics, there are parts I agree with and parts I disagree with. Take everything with a grain of salt.

The idea of the multiple theory types classed as Dominant, Oppositional and Negotiated reading. The definitions are above.

These 2 theories go hand in hand. The encoding/decoding creates the idea of hidden messages existing within adds. While reception theories takes into account our response to the message.

When it comes down to it. It will benefit the project by just being aware of the existence of this theory. I need to be aware of the messages our Christmas advert contains.

Traditional VS Modern Advertising - 2/11, 5/11

Now the brief is about a "Christmas advert". So it would be a good idea to research into the different forms of advertising that exist as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Now there is an immediate distinction to be made, that is the key difference between traditional advertising and modern advertising. Tradition is you old school methods (pre internet explosion). Business cards, posters, billboards, tv adverts, radio adverts, flyers... Most of this medium is paper back and printed. They are normally set in fixed positions for a huge audience to see with varying demographics. They also don't require internet access. However their interactive quality's are extremely low, you can't target it at certain demographics and it is incredibly difficult to measure it's effectiveness/results.

GamingAtMax, 2021. Raid Shadow Legends All Ads (2019 - 2021) in 60fps 4K. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Oepnbpvi4
[Accessed 2 November 2021].

France-Presse, A., 2019. Digital to overtake traditional advertising in US: tracker. [Online]
Available at: https://technology.inquirer.net/83705/digital-to-overtake-traditional-advertising-in-us-tracker
[Accessed 2 November 2021].

StevenPlayz, 2017. Top 15 Weirdest Commercials ever shown on TV. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkwr2VsHfdE
[Accessed 2 November 2021].

Now Modern advertising came around with the new wave of the internet. This included the likes off email marketing, social media adverts, video adverts, social media as a whole and general internet adds. They are much cheaper than your normal advertising and they also have the advantage of targeting specific audiences. It's digital nature means they can be analysed, evaluated and improved to reach more audiences/make more money. The audience is only limited to the certain search criteria of who you want to target and money put in. Furthermore, many adds can be interacted with and usually keep the attention of the viewer for longer. Although they take more time to set up than a simple poster/flyer. They also cost a lot to create compared to their traditional counterpart. The idea of cost can swing either way depending on the exact form of advertisement media and the context surrounding it. That is why the price alone isn't viable enough as a comparison.

They also have different methods to each other. Traditional marketing normally focuses on the product. Why you should buy it, look how amazing it is... Modern takes a different approach. It tell a story, built to capture your attention over the idea of selling the product. It focuses on why you 'want' it, why you 'need' it. Modern marketing has become more dominant with the rise of digital technologies such as the internet. Although the old ways haven't been abandoned. Modern simply has a greater reach, with the ability to target specific members of different groups (such as age, gender, beliefs...).

Even traditional advertising is getting modern influence. Posters and billboards are turning electronic, able to show many instead of the singular. Likewise modern is taking some influence from what came before. Online blogs resemble the old newspapers. Some digital adverts take influence from tv advertisement. The line isn't so clear cut.

On the left is 3 example of advertising, 1 modern and 1 traditional.

Lesson Notes - confused.com advert

Animated tv advert 4:10 confused.com Top 15 Weirdest Commercials ever shown on TV - YouTube

Technique – 2d

Narrative – not as much, more of a celebration or music number

Obvious on what their advertising? – not really. The main character is recognisable from the brand. Insurance websites usually go off the rails.

If animation was not used – it would literately be a concert. Movement much less dynamic

Emily's Research - John Lewis - 3/11

PopcornMedia, 2014. The Journey (John Lewis, 2012). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0eskqbNUzk
[Accessed 3 November 2021].

Epicentro, 2015. John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 #MontyThePenguin. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kkfYYB0Rao
[Accessed 3 November 2021].

JSKR, R., 2015. John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015 #ManOnTheMoon. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGY-T4W-BOc
[Accessed 3 November 2021].

Sun, T., 2018. John Lewis Christmas advert 2018 featuring Elton John. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DShEAPKV0EU
[Accessed 3 November 2021].

The notes in the box and the video examples were collected by my teammate Emily. After watching the videos for myself, I can also see some extra patterns. The use of pianos contributes to that 'fairy tale' feel. They focus on the emotional connection, as said in point 1 above. Although that connection is shown not only in humans but animals and inanimate objects. They give non-living thing human traits and emotions through clever editing and visual storytelling. Most of the audio is focused in the music, with little to no dialogue present to tell the story.

2012 - A snowman going on a long journey to find a gift for his loved one

2014 - The bond of a boy and his penguin. The penguins journey for love and companionship. After realising, the boy is the one to find the penguins mate. The final 10 seconds revealing the penguins are just toys. This flips the narrative, becoming a boy understanding and discovering what love is, shown through an active imagination.

2015 - An old man, isolated from the rest of the world, shown he's not alone from a small girl miles away.

2018 - Elton Johns journey throughout his career. All starting off from the support of his mother and the gift of a piano.

4/11/21

2012 - A snowman going on a long journey to find a gift for his loved one

2015 - An old man, isolated from the rest of the world, shown he's not alone from a small girl miles away.

2018 - Elton Johns journey throughout his career. All starting off from the support of his mother and the gift of a piano.

By looking at the examples provided by one of my teammates, I found some common themes in John Lewis adverts. The idea of gifts, family, Christmas are all prominent. However I'd argue the emotional core of each one is playing off the bonds of each character. Elton and his Mum were the emotional core of 2018. The Man on the moon and the little girl. The 2 Snowman.

We can use this in our own stop motion animation. We agreed as a group to do the "John Lewis" approach. But what does that entail?

Character Concept Art - Initial Design Ideas
5/11, 8/11, 15/11

Callum's Design

So as a group, we decided to create some character concepts early. We were told by the college that an modelling experiment was to begin on the Monday (8/11). Initially we believed that an early draft of our idea will be required. This pushed the group to narrow down the idea and create some concept art/character designs. The designs I created can be seen above. I was told the Saturday evening by my team mates they were putting together a survey for character designs - that I need to create a design for Sunday morning.

I had the challenge of creating a mother and child combo for a tight deadline, this is what I came up with. There was a total of 1 hour and 30 mins used to create the art above. I opened google images for a pool of immediate references to use. The shape went through 3 designs before I settled onto a specific design. While my team mates looked more "cartoony", mine would follow a more semi-realistic approach. When showing it to a few random people on discord, they immediately focused on the difference of art style of the 3. Although the cartoony approach is more appealing to the students at college.

Although the simple shapes would be easier to create as a model.

A criticism I have heard is that it looks "generic". That is true, lacking any individual features to make it different from any other deer. This was just a matter of time and meeting my group deadline. The tonal effect of each carried across to my test audience really well. With the child looking innocent and the parent looking regal and stern. Given the time, I could make them more individual with accessories and props. The other big criticism is the muted colour pallet. The cause of this is the blue layer used to dull the colour. This made the designs fit the background scenery better. Although due to the cold blues and greens, it had a similar effect on the character. It would of been better to isolate the design, given the task was to design a character, not a world or illustration.

The illustration has it's own merits, for example seeing how the character design would fit into a given world. Considering I know the group wanted to explore a "snowy forest" scenery, I set my characters in that environment. In that environment, they fit really well. However the moment you take them outside the environment, a simple design, the benefits soon turn to weakness. The blue tint eventually went against it's selection. Without the background to add context, it only hindered the colour pallet. The background was destroyed when they were separated for the sake of the survey. If I kept to the task and didn't attempt to diverge and create something similar, many of the negative criticisms could of been avoided. It was my ambition that stung me in this case.

TED DESIGNS

The most "cartoon" like of the 3. It consists of basic shapes and exaggerated features. They eyes are especially big to convey emotion to greater extents. The bow and the jacket gives the child deer some originality and make it stand out. Although the mother deer looks young, not much older than the child. While the 2 grey images above are only sketches. The coloured in mother doesn't look like a parent.

However, I would argue that this style fits the "family demographic" better than my own and Emily's design. The simple features make every small detail stand out that much greater. Astatically extremely cute, they appeal to adults as much as children. They would also be easier to model into a figure, compared to my more "semi-realistic" design. In my personal opinion, this character design holds the most potential to bring forward.

EMILY DESIGNS

It follows in the same footsteps of Ted's art style. It almost feels "teddy bearish" to me. The thick lines under the chin, the boxy design... It feels uncanny to me personally. Although, due to the vibrant orange colour scheme, it's much warmer than my own. This warmth and simple innocence would appeal to younger audiences more than my own design. Although if we are putting them into a snowy background setting (the current idea), they would stand out like sore thumbs. However, I would argue it's appeal factor alone would make it more beneficial compared to worldbuilding.

During this time, I was asked by Emily (who wanted to construct the survey) about the questions we could include. This allowed me to contribute and I provided a variety of example that could be asked.

I would argue that my character designs work better together than they do as a separate piece. The colour scheming only makes sense in the context of the background. Otherwise it looks unnecessarily dull.

Asking what was good and bad are simple and important questions to ask, basic evaluation. Although the most beneficial part was the last few questions. What pieces would you take from each to create a better design. We can isolate what they liked from each and combine them together to create a more appealing design to a proportion of our audience. The long term is to in act upon the feedback and improve what we already got. So lets ask them directly...

So while the idea of the survey and character design challenge wasn't my idea nor lead by me, I hope this highlights my contribution in the execution of the task.

We don't officially have a leader in charge of the overall project. Me and Emily have a 'co-leading' role in a 3 person team. She likes to keep things organised internally and makes sure everyone knows what to achieve each week. While I lead the execution of each task and lead the debates in person. The position may be impractical, but this gives us both the freedom to lead and keep the other in check if necessary.

Artist Research - Patagraph (Lord Victor Haegelin) - 5/11

Much of this project is the result of group work. Weather we are directly told and thrown into it as a class, or decided among our small teams, we still need a degree of independent work.

That is why, alongside the basics that are being covered in class in order to make sure everyone passes, I will attempt to conduct extra research on the side. One of these example is a recommendation from discord, where 1 person lead me to an Instagram page called 'patagraph'.

This creator has made several stop motion animations, with my main focus on the skeleton skateboarder.

Although their chosen material, metal and wires, would be unviable for the task of the Christmas stop motion, I am very intrigued by it's movement. Its incredibly dynamic!

The movement isn't jerky and conveys so much emotion through body language. What is proves is you don't have to have a million dollar budget and a small army to create a good stop motion.

The plan is to incorporate wires into the skeleton of the model. Although my teammate, Emily, has been very excited to do the modelling. The task won't likely fall on me, although this could help her in deciding on the material.

What this video proves is how wire can be manipulated to produce dynamic movement. However, I am unaware of what would happen if an outer shell was added to the model. Would it restrict the movement, what about joints? This open up a variety of questions that can lead to some unique experimentation later down the line.

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed watching this artist work. It provides a much needed starting off point for my independent research to begin. It also created some avenues to later explore in my experimentation.

Story Telling in Advertising - 9/11, 10/11

Black ink, my 20 second sketches below

CALLUM WORK

Pink Ink, Emma's Character design.

During these lessons, we broke down the differences between advertisements across the ages. Now it was time to apply it to the project. The task was to create a story for a different advertisement, as it was established modern advertisements tell a story.

We were divided into new groups for this task in particular. Given 3 images of a elephant, a circus and a Christmas tree. Using these, we had to create a storyboard, narrative, plot and characters in an hour. This would end with each group presenting it to other groups and feedback will be recorded. This is a "trial run" of sort for how the stop motion project is structured. It also provided me the opportunity to work with student I would of never worked with.

Let me tell you now, my patients and other soft skills were pushed to their limits. The groups lacked all chemistry due to the nature of the decision making in their sorting. Not only that we had a huge issue, there were 4 completely different visions. The lack of brief meant that there was a huge degree of interpretation. I had to somehow restore order whilst directing the group into a decisive direction. I attempted to create a compromise.

All the planning, storyboards and character designs can be seen in the photographs. The black ink was a direct contribution of mine to the physical evidence of the task. David and Deji had this vision of a dystopia, an abused elephant that goes on the run and involves many fight scenes. While Emma had a more traditional sense, leaning into the Christmas themes John Lewis use. 2 completely different ideas. I led the discussions and with help of the tutors, we came about an idea.

A clown girl and elephant down on their luck, meet each other in a chance meeting. Both take the opportunity and escape the circus, becoming dancing street performers round the towns Christmas tree.

This was not my idea. It was the compromise of 5 people. I was blunt and told everyone in the team I do not have the vision of this, and that someone else would be better leading this one. Emma took the reins, as her idea was the fundamental origin of where this stemmed from.

There were a few pot holes we had to avoid. For instance, everyone immediately jumped to the idea of "Disney's Dumbo" when given the brief. We had to create a new story, not one to close to a story already published. Timing was another. As you can see below, we have an unfinished storyboard. Finally there was the quality of the idea and how compromise led to this point. Davids and Dejis idea was a complete 180 to a Christmas advert. It was in stark contrast to the Emma idea. It could work based on originality for a Christmas add and how no one would expect something like this. Although linking it with a tradition Christmas add would only water it down. The emotional core is a confused mess. The 2 ideas clash and create a disjointed story. It was my inability to be firmer, to please everyone in the group, that I lacked. We should of followed either 1 idea or the other. I attempted to please both and it resulted in the group creating this mess. I was honest that I had no picture of what they were making, which meant I wouldn't have to lead anyone on.

Outside of my own self reflection and analysis of my personal skills, I would say there was extremely little gain from this. It warned me of everything I shouldn't do at least. I wont be making the same mistakes in my long term team. I will be working in teams frequently in the animation industry. They will be more than likely be strangers. There will be some I get along with and other I don't. In the short term for this particular project, there is little impact. However for the industry itself, this task may provide a taster of how things run. If I was to do this again, I would be firmer when leading and compromise less for a change. Overall, this wasn't useless but I would prioritise other tasks at this point in my project.

CHRISTMAS ADD EXAMPLES - NOT JOHN LEWIS

M@S, 2021. Percy Pig comes to life for the first time EVER! | 2021 Christmas Advert | M&S FOOD. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlem-MOMZOs
[Accessed 10 November 2021].

UK, D., 2020. FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS | Disney Christmas Advert 2020 | Official Disney UK. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl57Gy5X_Kg
[Accessed 10 November 2021].

Now the Disney Christmas advert 2020 (going to call it Disney 2020) shares a lot in common with John Lewis Christmas adverts. The main focus is on the story and the bonds between people. There is a lot less subtle advertising compared to John Lewis, although it doesn't subtract from the story being told. There is a strong usage of colour to tell a story. In the sadder scenes, the colours are muted and greyed. Likewise uplifting scenes, the colour pallet is incredibly bright and vivid. The same can be said for the sound direction. Like John Lewis, there is very little to no dialogue used. The music choice is the primary drive in the sound design. It's quieter and looses it's energy in sad scenes and explodes in happy ones. When the music quietens, it puts more emphasis on the visuals. Likewise when it loudens it becomes more responsible for the emotional tone and it's impact on the audience. The visual storytelling is up for interpretation and the more you look, the more you discover. Personally, I love this advert. The rollercoaster of emotions and that narrative storytelling is what draws me into the advert. What it does show on the broader media impact is that John Lewis now has competition. 10 years ago it was one of very few companies using this form of advert. Now in 2020 and 21, there is a lot stronger competition.

Likewise we compared it to M@S Percy Pig advert. Although the advert was provided by the school, my analysis, comparison and exploration of each one is off my own back. Now M@S takes a different approach compared to Disney and John Lewis. For starters, there is a much heavier emphasis on dialogue. I'm personally more of a fan off visual storytelling compared to being told the story. It's premise reminds me heavily of Night of the Museum, toys coming to life once the store closes... If anything it may even share ties with toy story 1's basic premise. The other 2 may share a lot in method and tone but it still feels original. The dialogue heavy advert and clear cut narrative leaves little room for interpretation. A classmate described the advertising as "more forced" compared to the other 2. The advertising was emersion breaking, essentially jump cutting to the product they want. The other 2 just incorporated their products into the scene.

At the very least, it provides an alternative route to what people call the "John Lewis approach". It may be the main inspiration for my teams advert, however it don't mean we cannot learn a thing or 2 from other sources. I intend to keep the comparisons made in mind when deciding on how we shall execute our Christmas stop motion advert.

Character Design feedback - 9/11,10/11

This was the feedback sheet emily put out in regards to character designs. As I said before, I was responsible for the majority of the questions on this. Although it was Emily who came up with the idea and sent the form out, joint effort. This was the main source of information I used when evaluating the character designs previously. It will also be the main source of research when these designs are developed. Emily and Ted had their mum and child design picked respectively. So while they improve their designs, I will be in charge of planning, gathering materials and creating the stage.

Stop Motion Experiments - 8/11,10/11

123, T. R., 2020. TOXIC RAVEN 123 - Stock Motion Animation Homework (Manwel's Beginning). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8jF6TH2CrQ
[Accessed 9 November 2021].

123, T. R., 2021. Class Group Experiment - Among Us Kitchen Stop Motion. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9fgdPl1dDU
[Accessed 9 November 2021].

Now the main brunt of the research has focused on Christmas advert examples and character designs. However there has been very little experimentation up to this point. As a class, we were instructed to create a short stop-motion using a limited supply of provided materials. We had an hour to idea generate, design, set up and shoot it. These were also done and completed in our group.

For starters, the idea itself was generated as a 3 with equal contribution. An "among us" character set in a kitchen. To say it's random is an understatement. However the focus isn't on the story, it's on the stop motion technique.

To add to this experimentation section. I have also added my own independent stop motion experiment, created prior to this project beginning. Both experiments made use of the stop motion app on our phones. Both had a similar structure of development. And both made use of experimenting with camera angles, moving camera, model creation...

This would make a really nice comparison comparing what was achieved in the independent experiment and what was achieved in the group experiment.

The character design was a joint effort between me and Ted. Ted moulded the clay and I created the "chefs hat". The hats design was guided by Emily. In terms of camera, Emily pressed the button to take the photo. I aligned the camera and repositioned the character - so I basically shot the thing. The background was initially created by me and Emily built off it to create the final background. It was decided as a group for the character to put food in the pot. However the rest of the story was spontaneous and created by me on the spot. The final stop motion can be seen in the video above. Now the 'what happened' is sorted, it's time to get into the bulk.

Considering the time to complete the task, I am very happy with the results. Considering ted modelled the figure out of an established character, he was spot on and nailed the delivery. The model is small and easy to manipulate. Due to the medium of clay, I was able to alter and adapt the shape to fit my intended movement.

The above text is simply me explaining how done what in the process. As a team, it is important to establish who done what as to credit them in my documentation of the task. Last thing I want to do is to leave someone out in their contributions. The week 3 blog video below evaluates this section in particular detail. I will go over and create a brief write up here, although the main evaluation for this section can be found in the video.

Now the final video was shown to the class after and we gathered feedback on it. The biggest error that was pointed out was my hand in the final few shots. Having a human body part in the scene broke the emersion for the majority of people. It will be something that we need to avoid in the real Christmas stop motion advert. Thanks to this project, we know to avoid hands. Likewise how fast it jumped from shot to shot was another issue brought up. This was due to a lack of time and the limitation of no editing. During the real thing we can edit shots down to remove unnecessary frame. Likewise I can always extend the frames for a cleaner transition. For this task in particular, if we were to do it again, I would take multiple shots with no change in movement/camera location to extend transition shots.

There was an attempt at basic cinematography with camera angles and camera movement. Once again, most of that was down to my own decision making.

Emily handles the behind the scenes, organising the team, deciding what needs to be done per week... I normally take more charge in the face to face production of said tasks and tend to lead group interaction and presentations to our class. Both are essential skills in order to take a leading role. Furthermore, by the distributing responsibility, it allows us both to develop these core skills. We have even had a go at each others roles. In the creation of the background, models and the beginning of filming, I lead and organised the timeline of events. Likewise for the presentation of the above experiment and presenting our story (log line, premise, storyboard), Emily took the leading role in presenting. Both of those will be expanded upon below.

Overall I am happy with how the experiment went. This is the first time we have done practical work as a class (outside of an 1 hour adobe after effects lesson) and it was the first time we properly worked together as a group. This was an important part of the project and will directly link into the production and creation of our Christmas stop motion advert.

123, T. R., 2021. Stop Motion Experiment - Manwel documented timeline project - Toxic Artist. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_cHZnmltsk
[Accessed 10 November 2021].

123, T. R., 2021. Project 1 - task 2 - stop motion - week 3 blog. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yldQCy2scOA
[Accessed 10 November 2021].

Types/Styles of Stop Motion - 10/11

Now the term 'stop-motion' is extremely broad. Just like any other medium, there are several styles and ways of execution under the title of stop motion. Below we will explore various types of stop motion and an example of each to support my research. This was originally covered in lesson under 6 styles. However I will take some away, add my own and find more examples than what was initially covered in lesson.

Clay mation

Moving character created out of clay or a similar material, most famous example being 'Wallace and Gromit'. The creators, Aardman Animation have released several big Claymation including Chicken Run and Shawn the Sheep. Normally includes very fluid movement, material stays in shapes. Very bouncy, extremely flexible as you can mould any shape. Issue is that it's heavy, making the character will fall down. This could warp the physics when attempting to animate.

The Among Us experiment above is a basic example of claymation.

Brick mation

Stop motion created out of Lego bricks. The Lego movie and the Lego Batman Movie is a good example of the style, although they were 3G. However there are plenty of Stop Motion Lego films on YouTube. The issue with this style is how small and fiddly they are. They can only be manipulated in certain ways due to their simplicity.

Puppet animation

Very popular with professional animators. Made out of a ball, joints and wire. One of the most versatile in terms of materials you can use. Faces can be 3D printed, carved or modelled. An example of this style is Kubo and the 2 Strings by Laika studios. Elements of the face are replaced frame by frame to create lip syncing. Although this medium is popular, much of it can be achieved in 3D digital animation, which is cheaper and quicker.

Sand animation

People animate with sand and slowly adjust the sand frame by frame. It is limited to a horizontal plane unlike other stop motion alternatives. Sand can be substituted for rice, sugar, flour...

It's incredibly fluid and an extremely loose art form.

Object animation

Animating using objects, one of the easiest to set up so many beginners use this. IKEA has a lot of adverts in this style. You move each object frame by frame in order to create movement. More complex movements may be hard to achieve with these sorts of models. So this form heavily relies on rigging. The rig that holds it in place would be painted out in post-production.

The Manwel stop motion above is an example of object stop motion.

Pixilation

The method of animating people frame by frame. Its a combination of live action, object animation and time lapse.

Animated light/shadow

The use of using light and shadow in order to animate a frame by frame sequence. There are a handful of YouTube examples of this technique. Aardman did produce a short film using this technique called Big Bang Big Boom.

It could be described as a form of cut out animation (animating cut out paper on a horizontal surface).

Cut out animation focuses on the paper object while light/shadow would focus on the light and shadow of the scene.

Researching into these is extremely important for my project. Although, at this stage, we have decided on a story and created a handful of character designs. The medium of our stop motion will ripple into and directly impact the final result. I have been handed responsibility to design the set of the stop motion. The medium chosen to shoot will directly influence how I model the background. For example if we are doing sand animation, it wouldn't be good to build a 3D standing up modelled background. Likewise a flat backdrop may not work as well if we were using light and shadow to animate. If I was to do this again, I would find multiple Internet sources to back up my research. Getting all my information from a singular website means any biases/miss info will almost certainly translate onto my website.

10 Types of Stop Motion Animation | Just Make Animation

Lee, L., 2018. 11 Types of Stop Motion Animation. [Online]
Available at: https://justmakeanimation.com/10-types-of-stop-motion-animation/
[Accessed 10 November 2021].

Story Summary - 15/11

SUMMARY

Two reindeer are sharing Christmas in their home, the local forest. The 1st scene will set the scenery and show off the background, eventually finding the 2 animals. The parent (Mum) gives the child their Christmas present, human wrapped. The child realises what day it is, initially sad that they didn't realise. A light bulb moment. Much happier, the child dashes from scene to scene, gathering materials from the forest. The building ensues at lightning speed. Once the present is ready, the audience finally sees it. A snowman, rolled up and created by the child as a gift to the mother. She finds it cute and smiles, ending in a hug between the 2.

LOGLINE DEFINITION: A logline is a one or two sentence summary of your screenplay that conveys the premise but also adds an emotional aspect that hooks the reader. It includes the main character, set-up, and central conflict in a concise, enticing way.

PREMISE DEFINITIION: Premise - more in depth version of log line. Like a synopsis, key plots, name…

CHRISTMAS STOP MOTION ADVERT

LOGLINE - a child discovers the joy of giving on a very festive day. CALLUM LOG LINE

PREMISE - In a snowy forest, a young fawn forgets to get their mother a Christmas present after receiving theirs, so after having a lightbulb moment, they decide to build her a snowman. TED PREMISE

EMILY PRESENTED TO CLASS ALONG WITH STORYBOARD - EVA BELOW

Emily Storyboard with Callum Assist - 15/11

So me and Emily sat down at her PC and began to design a storyboard. She was responsible for the drawing elements and I conveyed our vision. As a group, we already decided a basic story (logline, premise, summary...). However, no one had any ideas of the story scene by scene yet. So I took all of our ideas and combined it into a narrative sequence following the pre-determined headings of the board.

1. The Mum gives child gift - establish the scenery and introduce the characters.

2. The child is sad they don't have a gift for their mum - introduce the main conflict to be resolved

2.5. Child has a lightbulb moment and appears much happier - scene 2 and 2.5 over the shoulder for a more personal feel

3. The child starts gathering materials and builds a present - shot close up to not spoil surprise - Set up for anticipation

4. The reveal of the gift - Climax, what we have built towards

5. Mums initial reaction (Emily)

6. The ending scene of the mum and child nuzzling (Emily)

I had more creative control over the first 3 shots, while Emily lead the ideas for shot 4 to 6.

Once the key events were set out and sketches were made, she then created a 2nd version as I was comprising a mood board - seen below.

I will admit, this piece of work is easily Emily's with a small assistance of myself. However it is so integral for the planning going into the stop motion production - I had to include it on here. my part was very small, breaking down the decided story shot by shot.

If I have time, I could always create my own storyboard. I told my vision of the idea and she produced it onto paper.

Redesign - Ted - 15/11

Now this piece of work is completely independent from me. The designs were sole created and adapted by our team mate Ted while I was creating the background set. Now the reason this is on my wix site is the fact that these models are integral to the project. Not only will Emily use these for her primary reference when creating the model, I will have to use this to set the tone and dimensions of my scenery. Furthermore, it shows that the character designs we all created and the feedback sheet me and Emily compiled was acted upon and developed.

Design Influence - Research - 15/11, 20/11

Now to boost up my research, I decided to do some real life research. When I was looking for materials around art stores in Basildon, I stumbled across this. The models are to be made and based of reindeer. So why don't we look at existing commercial examples? At this stage, Emily had the basic wire frame of the models complete. The outer design was still unfinished. These examples may impact and help in the construction of the models. Furthermore, it may impact my background. The design of the models will affect the sizes of the final models. The background needs to be modelled to the characters. I got to hold the unfinished model during background creation, add that to the concept art designs and these photographs, I have plenty of references.

To add to the background inspiration, I created a mood board. Up tell this point, I had the simple idea from Emily to create a forest scene. However the rest was up to interpretation.

This mood board contains images from existing digital backgrounds to act as direct reference to what I will try to make. Other pictures pay more attention to key details in the scene, such as snowman, trees and berries.

Considering reindeer will be the main focus of the stop motion - I did also add a few internet images of them. It adds to the reference pool for the reindeer builds. Although Emily will be building them, my research may provide extra material for her to use.

The BBC Rudolf Christmas stop motion also seems extremely similar to her direction and would act as a direct inspiration.

Still, when it comes to moodboards, its the theme and feel that I prioritise. All the wintery scenes, Christmas associations, reindeer, snowman, forest, autumn contributes to the emotion I want to convey.

If I was to explore this further, I could create some concept art from these images to test their application, given there's enough time.

123, T. R., 2021. stop motion compairson - week 4 blog. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGDpnuEavrM
[Accessed 18 November 2021].

BACKGROUND DESIGN!!!
16/11, 17/11. 22/11

My main independent contribution to my team project. Emily is single handedly creating the models. Ted redesigned both the Mum and child deer concept art. I will be building the set from scratch. This was heavily photographed during the creation of the set. It took 2 days of building and was eventually redesigned by my teammates after an accident that I told them will happen.

Due to this, my normal documentation layout of images will not work due to mass quantity of 60+ photos.

On the left is a collection of materials me and my Mum gathered. When going to Portsmouth University open day, I was gifted 20 pound gift voucher to use in a variety of stores. So I spent 30 quid in hobby craft and gathered a lot of wintery themed materials. These included white frosted sticks, white felt/other material, moss, berries... I also went into home bargains and found indoor snowballs to break up and recreate snow clumps.

During this time, my Mum went foraging in the garden and came back with a massive amount of stick, plants and natural life to act as a forest. This will bulk up the majority of the scene. She also brought home some cardboard boxes from her work to act as the base.

Between this and some wire from the college art cupboard, I had everything to begin creation. The initial issue that needed fixing was how to combine the bases. The dimensions of the model meant that the stage had to be 2 A3 stuck together, otherwise there won't be enough room for model movement. Likewise, a third box will need to be added in the back to hold the forest and backdrop. This was initially going to act as a flat background, seen in the photos. However it was too short for such a role.

The boxes themselves were held together by a mix of Sellotape, blue tack and eventually wire. The wire added much more structural integrity than the other 2. I also experimented with paperclips. to hold the boxes by the handles. Sellotape worked really well as a short term solution. Although I did find after 25 hours, much of the sticky was lost and it eventually falls apart. Hence, I stabbed both ends with wire and blue tacked it for further support.

The base experiments and construction photos are on the right of this text.

This is a massive section!! Once the cardboard base is secure, I layered the floor with the hobby craft fabric. It was stapled together and stuck on with blue tack. Then came the fun part. The front sides were constructed first. Snowballs were ruffled whole and placed together to form snow mounds - bordering the scenery. The snowballs were broken to bring some shape to the curved edges set up. There was a huge issue in breaking up the snow. It was not build to be torn apart. I tried scissors, fingers, pencil and pens. In the end Ted found a way to break them apart by grinding them up the wall edge. Although that didn't happen until the redesign.

The sticks and trees were also causing issues. There was no viable way to secure them to the base. The idea was to stab the base to have them wedge into the floor. However the garden (natural picked) flowers are incredibly brittle and shattered easily when try to force them into the base. The method in the end was to stab the bottom with a sharp fragment of wire, then stab the stop with a sharp pencil. This will then allow me to control the size of the hole and how loose/tight the plants stick.

This worked but was long and tedious. The pencil would leave marks on the white fabric. The fabric was the main reason why it was so hard to stab through. Big snowballs were used on the side of the box to cover up the cardboard.

The forest scenery can be seen being built up in the photos above and to the right.

By the end of day 1, I had a functional base, the beginnings of the forest and where the main landmarks will be located. The back base wasn't big enough to align vertically with the other 2. I tried a few methods but I finally managed to solve it by using the hobby craft boxes as bases.

Overall this went very well and I had a lot of fun making it. I am concerned with the structural integrity of the base. By the time the rest of the foliage is added and the holes are created, will it hold up?

BACKGROUND DESIGN!!!
DAY 2

So the day after, I decided to come into college off timetable and worked on the background for 4-6 hours.

Much of the foliage was added and expanded upon. Finishing touches were added to the front and sides. The aim was to get it looking like a natural forest. For this to occur, I aimed to make it look wild, out of control and everywhere. I even added in a box at the back for better structural integrity and to increase the background trees.

Where the leave have shredded or twigs snapped, I added them as loose shrubbery to the ground.

I did try and use Sellotape to hold down the trees and group pieces together. Coming up with trees to line the sides were extremely difficult. In the end I found basket string from home bargains and tied them to the handles of the box. I am thinking this may be an issue to move to the greenscreen room. The extra supports are not very secure.

BACKGROUND DESIGN!!!
DAY 3

The video below goes through the background design and the events of the production process. below will be 2 failed attempts at a specific scene as well as photographic evidence. Finally - in the editing section, there is a complete version of shots 1 to 8 unedited except to play them in order.

123, T. R., 2021. production evaluation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx4GxKjnsS8
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

The video above goes through the background design and the events of the production process. below will be 2 failed attempts at a specific scene as well as photographic evidence. Finally - in the editing section, there is a complete version of shots 1 to 8 unedited except to play them in order.

PRODUCTION

123, T. R., 2021. fail one. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSUMM9_Unzo
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

123, T. R., 2021. fail 2. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO_N2P9JgCA
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

During these lessons, we broke down the differences between advertisements across the ages. Now it was time to apply it

Video Editing - 23/11

123, T. R., 2021. Christmas Stop-Motion - Group Project (Emily, Me, Ted). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjaJKtjm-Mo
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

123, T. R., 2021. Christmas Stop motion - UNEDITED VERSION. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oonkMi0UYY
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

123, T. R., 2021. editing evaluation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv3ynErc8Wg
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

During these lessons, we broke down the differences between advertisements across the ages. Now it was time to apply it

exper 1.0 - no edits, video in order of events.png

exper 1.4 - before over sholder zoom.png

exper 1.6 - END SEQUENCE TRANSITION RETIMED, title card added.png

Essay Writing @ Research - 23/11, 13/12

There are several differences between a Christmas advert and a regular advert. The regular advert has the focus on advertising and selling the product, while the Christmas advert is narrative driven. Many adverts focus on the festive feel and drive home many items associated with Christmas. The soft ambient soundtrack, Christmas references and overall message is what truly separates it from the regular adverts.

Now the companies who produce these adverts tend to target a similar audience, although subtle changes may occur between each one. It seems that creating an advert fun for the entire family is the way to go. Fun and exciting visuals for the kids (e.g., Percy pig in the M@S Christmas advert) with a deep meaning and story for the adults (e.g. Disney’s narrative driven storylines, specifically 2020). John Lewis is especially good at this, making use of several animation mediums to keep younger ones attention and drive a heartfelt message for adults (advert 2020).

Now John Lewis has been the gold standard of Christmas adverts for the majority of the 2010s. It was this company, this style (the “John Lewis style”) that the other companies started adapting. So it would be a fair assessment to break it down and compare it to the competition. In a nutshell, John Lewis heavily relies on the visuals and soundtrack to convey a narrative. The product isn’t the focus, although some Christmas adds make it the focus and it personally comes of very jarring (M@S). The soundtrack is also used to heavily control the tone and atmosphere. The John Lewis ambience creates this bittersweet, nostalgic feel. Nice and smooth, with the power only showing itself at the climax of the narrative. Disney 2020 Christmas add used this effectively by quieting the track during emotional scenes and making it blast in the powerful scenes. Disney also uses the tone and vibrance of colour to aid their story. Dull in the sad moments and incredibly bright in the happy ones. Nostalgia is relied upon as well. Many of these adverts attempt to conjure up old memories and experiences that you can relate too. On top of all this, many of the adverts give life to objects and present them with human emotion. John Lewis did this with snowman and animals multiple time. The reason why this style works so well lies at it’s fundamental core – the message. The bond between 2 snowmen, the bond between a young girl and an old man on the moon. A rabbit and a bear… All of the messages come back to a similar theme of love, friendship and a similar powerful bond that the audience can relate to.

Now this form of advert is not commonly found outside the Christmas advert rush. And sometimes they tend to take more liberties in the approach. An example of this can be found in the John Lewis Christmas advert 2021. A young man (early teenage) is shown to run into a forest at night multiple times to meet a stranger from a distant land. Normally this wouldn’t fly in a lot of other advertisings, its not behaviour to be encouraged. Likewise giving an old man a telescope to spy on you through a bedroom window (John Lewis 2015) wouldn’t happen. The Christmas adverts use the festive spirit to their advantage and get away with a lot of events that take place.

Likewise, reception to these adverts have dramatically changed over the years. Back when John Lewis started their famous approach, audience across all age categories loved it. It became a Christmas event to watch the new advert. Now with their 2021 release, many viewers were divided. The message they were trying to tell was lost in translation and it put off viewers from the intended message. Reception theory actually explains this very well. The joy of Christmas and the message of the advert was lost in the premise. Many couldn’t get over the surface level of, it’s just an alien. Also many would of got put off the “romantic” side between the young kid and the alien, further dividing audience. 2020 advert focused on sharing love to everyone and making the world a better place, a unifying message to all. However, love between 2 people that could be mistaken as a first love, that will alienate a portion of the audience. The advert also used dialogue in places to move the story along, a different style to what audience got used too. While I personally found a negotiated view when watching for me, I know many viewed it in an oppositional view. I especially loved the constantly changing mediums of 2020 advert, while 2021 seemed extremely simple in visuals. They took a risk and it didn’t pay off as well as it expected. A lot of competition are also dipping their toes into other animation forms such as CGI and incorporating more VFX. Disney alone are creating visuals to a movie standard, near-equivalent to a short film.

This could also be a consequence of the increasing vast amount of competition. They aren’t the only company who is producing these high-quality Christmas adverts. The market is incredibly more competitive than back in the late 2000s. However, the impact that John Lewis has had on pop culture is undeniable. It is because of them that so many other companies begun to adapt and mimic their style. Their name alone is a massive part to the media of Christmas each year. They popularised Christmas adverts for the newer generations of viewers on the international level. That’s not to say Christmas adverts didn’t have their place in the minds of many before John Lewis exploded. Prior to that Coca Cola had the biggest impact when it came to Christmas adverts. They invented and created the image of Santa that everyone knows to this day. They made his coat red to align with the branding of Coke. The company created much of the classic artwork that is used throughout all forms of Christmas decorations. Not to mention their famous Christmas advert, a vastly different approach to modern adverts. The simple music is loud and energetic, the visual purely focused on the joy of the people and the image of coke and Christmas. Incredibly bright colours and lots of Christmas themed imagery. The impact Coca Cola has had when it comes to Christmas and their adverts can be felt all these decades later.

Overall, there are several ways Christmas adverts stand out from the regular adverts. From Coca Cola to John Lewis to Disney, their impact is unmistakable on the audiences of today. Whether you loved them or hated them, their impact on a generation is undeniable.

#shouldhavebeenkylie, 2015. John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015 #shouldhavebeenkylie. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1chdqcDtyA
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

M@S, 2021. Percy Pig comes to life for the first time EVER! | 2021 Christmas Advert | M&S FOOD. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlem-MOMZOs
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

Magpie, 2021. WHAT MAKES A GREAT CHRISTMAS TV ADVERT?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.wearemagpie.com/christmas-tv-advert/
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

Soguksu, A., 2021. John Lewis Christmas 2021 advert leaves viewers divided as it fails to 'uplift'. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ok.co.uk/lifestyle/john-lewis-christmas-ad-reactions-25374401
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

Tyce, M., 2021. What makes John Lewis’ Christmas adverts so powerful?. [Online]
Available at: https://h2o-creative.com/what-makes-john-lewis-christmas-adverts-so-powerful/
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

UK, D., 2020. FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS | Disney Christmas Advert 2020 | Official Disney UK. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl57Gy5X_Kg
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

VideoVarietychannel, 2010. Coca Cola Christmas commercial 2010 HD (Full advert). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccNzBhTcehs
[Accessed 13 December 2021].

FINAL EVALUATION

123, T. R., 2021. Stop Motion Evaluation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Wr5VvYycg
[Accessed 12 December 2021].

EVALUATION LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl2nCq7jYBk

bibliogrpahy