Research and Planning: Designing an ESting

What format do I propose to use to create an ESting?
For my ESting I will be using stop-frame techniques combined with Claymation. I know the difficulties of a Claymation Esting at this time of the year due to the cold however using clay is the best way to create accurate and more detailed movements. The reason I need good movements is because of the fact my Esting is going to be based on a football striker scoring a goal and for that I will need a flexible character who can do movements that lego or anything else can not do such as moving his knees, shoulders, back and elbow.

What will happen in my proposed ESting?
On my ESting we will see a football striker hitting the ball from a free kick position and the goalie just missing the save, when the ball hits the back of the net it will splash into the E4 logo. The ball will take an unusual tour with an impossible curl before it hits the back of the net.


In regards to diegesis, where will my animation be set?
I will try to make the place where am shooting to be a more suitable setting and look slightly more like a football field. However the exact location where my shooting will be done is in my media classroom. Using some of the class facility i will try my best in order to make it look a bit realistic.

Are there any limitations or difficulties to face when you produce my ESting?
I think in term of limitations I will not be facing one unless we run out of clay, apart from that everything else should not be a problem. If the clay does run out I will get in contact with my teacher in order to get hold of a new set. I will use my own classroom to set the setting, and everything else such as the clay will be provided by the college.

Who is the target audience for my ESting?
I say the primary audience for my ESting would be males. Demographically, males who are into sports especially football. Their age would be between 14-40 years old. It is also targeted to any football fans who like to watch football. Demographically males and females who. do not quite keep up to date with football or sports but enjoy sitting around, talk and having a drink with another primary audience while watching sports.

My characters:

Here are the two main characters i will be using and everything else that i will be using for my E-sting.

This is my E4 logo that i have created out of clay. This logo will be used towards the end of the E-sting when the ball hits the back of the net and then transforms into this logo.

I chose to start my sting by having two clay balls smoothly roll into the scene, these balls will then transform into each of the characters. For example the purple ball will transform into a a goal keeper, and the blue ball will transform into a striker who will kick the ball.

This is one of my main character. This goalkeeper is not any ordinary keeper, his characteristics are not built for a goal keeper. He is short and thin compare to all the others. However he is very flexible, agile and has great reflex. He is currently 23 years old and is signed for Gorleston Rangers FC. This Purple and white guy is also made of clay. I choose those colors specifically because i was not quite decided whether I shall have the ball hit the keeper and since the E4 logo colors are already there the keeper will transform into the logo.

This character is also one of the main characters, he is also made of of clay. He is the one who will strike the ball which will then transform into the E4 logo. This strike is also very distinguished, he is a big guy and very strong. He is a ball winner and has an incredible shot power. Unfortunately he is towards the end of his career has he is already 38, soon he will leave Yarmouth Town FC.

This is simple the foot ball. I also made this out of clay. The reason the color of the ball is white and purple is because the colour of the E4 logo is white and purple. This will make it slightly less confusing to the audience.

This is my set in which i created of a fabric smooth green material in order to give it a football green grass background. The goal i used clay to make the posts as the clay is flexible. The net of the goal i simple created by connecting white strings cut into correct sizes to the back of the goal post.
This set was located on my media classroom at East Norfolk Sixth Form College.


Music/soundtrack.
For my foot e-sting i used two different sound tracks from the E4 website. My first choice was the "HARDCORE2". This was used for the first three quarters of my e-sting, then i used "DRONE_BEAT9" for the last quarter. The reason i decided to mix these two was because the first track, HARDCORE2 fits well with the pace of my e-sting and the second track i decided to use it as the first track does not say E4 and i wanted my the words E4 to be said when the goalkeeper transformes into the E4 logo. I think my choice of combining the two songs was a great idea as it works well.

Bellow are all my relevant planning paperwork. 

Budgeting Sheet

                                   Location Release

Risk Assessment 

                            Production Schedule

After all the pre-production work and all the paper work was out of the way i started to shoot my E-Sting. This required a number of still shots with a slightly movement each time I took a picture. Once i was happy with the number of shots i had to fit into a 10 seconds long E-Sting I stopped shooting and started to edit using Premiere Pro.


When making my short 10 seconds E-Sting I had no problem financially. Most of the equipment were available and provided by the college, for example the clay, and the green sheet i used as grass. Originally i planned to make my own football stadium background in the computer and print it out. However after been shown the green sheet I seen that it would look a lot more realistic and original. I did not have to buy anything extra so my budgeting stayed at £0 as you can see from my budgeting sheet at the top. I used clay, green sheet, and while lines in which were all provided by my teacher at college.

In order to film my E-Sting I had to complete a location release sheet in order to have legal permission to film in my classroom at college. This sheet was then signed by one of my teacher which gave me legal approval to film where i wanted.