Research and planning - E4 and the brief

This section of the blog post is going to be about E4. E4 is a British digital television channel. This channel was launched in 2001 by pay-tv companion to channel 4. The letter E was picked on purpose, the main reason for using it is simply because E stands for entertainment (1). The programs on this channel are normally aimed at younger generation, these would be the primary audience. However E4 concentrates on delivering entertainment and fun to people aged 15 to 35 (2). The secondary audience for this channel would then be any one who is younger than 15 and older than 35.
E4 has been around since 18 January 2001, however it did not become a free view channel until 2008 when it became part of the basic sky satellite (1).



Here are some pictures of what E4 primary audience would look like:
Again these are the main audience that E4 aim at. Most of the programs broadcast in this channel are normally aimed at these people bellow who are withing are 15 to 35.

Younger Audience age 15+

Audience on their 20s+

Audience on their 35s




Based on the shows and programs that E4 broadcast and looking at their primary audience it was obvious that their demographic would be any female and male between the ages of 15 and 35. The main reason for this is simply because most programs are comedy based with a lot of adult humor, for example how i met your mother.

Looking at E4 psycho-graphically we can tell that the programs attract more younger audience especially males as most of the audience tend to relate to the program in a way. For example the big bang theory is mostly about 4 mature scientific male students. Many young audience can relate to this has they are still in education, some may even be fascinated by this and look into some scientific course at a university themselves. Another example would be The Inbetweeners, again this is all about 4 students who are more into going out having fun and meeting girls. This can also relate to alot of young males today.

Here are some pictures of what E4 secondary audience would look like:
Again these are the people who E4 are not really aiming at however they might be influenced by the primary audience and still watch it. For example if a girl aged 18 is watching a program and her grandmother who is 60 walks in, she might sit there and watch the program with the girl. This is then identified as the second audience.

These are the audience under 15 who is not specified as the primary target however may still be a secondary audience to E4

These are the much older audience who again is not under the primary audience for E4 but may still be a secondary audience.







Again more younger audience who is not classified as the primary audience but can be secondary audience.

Demographically E4 secondary audience seems to be much older, mostly elder females who tend to have plenty of spare time especially at morning times and afternoon. The reason for this is simply because at those times E4 normally broadcast programs such as "One Tree Hill". Programs like that tend to not have much adult humor and are more serious. Just like the primary audience, the secondary audience can also relate to the programs they watch. Normally these elder women tend to be well educated and knowledgeable. By watching their programs they they enhance there knowledge and also they get to learn new things where they can discuss about later. This type of interaction tends to grab their attention in which plays good role psycho-graphically.


Here is a screen shot and an embed video from the actual channel 4 website explain about their audience/viewers.

In blue writing are some of the most popular programs shown on E4:

E4 is one of the six channels owned by channel 4. This broadcaster also owns "4SEVEN, FILM4, MORE4, 4MUSIC and 4oD".

Each one of these channels have their purposes, it is obvious what kind of things are broadcast in each of these programs by their names. For example "FILM4" would obviously broadcast mostly films.


E Stings
E Stings is a competition set by E4 in which people are allowed to compose a 10 seconds short animation where the E4 logo will have to be embedded or a part of the video a a way. There are a set of rules which everyone must follow if entered. Also there is a set of entries for the competition so applicants must come first. Once all the animations are collected some of these will be broadcast on E4 and within a few days a winner will be picked. The prize for this competition is £5000 and the runner up gets £500.

Here are some current examples of E-Stings shown on

Duck Hunt.

I think Duck hunt is a rally good Esting, I think it was well animated and the movements were all smoothly and well created. I like the fact that there is a man shooting ducks and he shoots down the E4 logo and the fact it lands on top of him makes it hilarious. I think because of the character on this Esting the audience for it would be a much older audience, I would say 40 years old plus. I would say that this Esting genre is comedic because of the fact of the hunter ended up being hunted by one of his prey.

EEFam


I really like this Esting, it is actually my favourite one out of the lot. The reason I like this Esting so much is simply because I can relate to it in a way. It summarises the day to day life at home in ten seconds. It also gives a solution to it on the end in which I wish I could do. I would say that the main audience for this Esting would vary between 17-25 years old man. Once again the genre for this Esting would be comedy.

My kingdom for a horsey

For me this Esting is one of the best by far, I find it hilarious and the song is really catchy. The lyrics are the best and funny. Once again the animation was really well done and smoothly. The characters outfit is simply amazing, socks, shorts and pink shirt, with a horse face. The audience for this Esting can vary however I would say the audience would be a younger audience but not too young, at least 16 plus. This Esting can fit into two different genre I would say. It can be comedic because of how it is set and done and also musical because of the fact the horse is singing throughout the video.


So far I have done a few background research on the techniques and development of stop motion animation. This has helped me to prepare myself to this Esting. I have learned about and how to create a Thaumatrope, Praxinoscope and Zoetrope. In fact I have made my own one of some of these.


Thaumatrope
 I drew a picture of a weight lifter on one side of the paper then i drew the weight itself on the opposite side also on the reverse so the level was balanced. Once i had done this i place strips on both sides of the circular paper allowing me to spin it really fast. Once spinning this circular paper it creates an illusion that both image are on the same side meaning that we see the weight lifter lifting the weight.

Thaumascope:


In order to do my thaumascope i used a little help from the internet to print a set of repeated running clown. The reason i did this was because i am not very good artist and i really wanted to do the running clown. The thaumascope i made by having a strip of paper divided into a few squares which are all the same size then you draw something each time in a different square with a small movement in which will finish almost similar to the first draw.

Praxinoscope:


I enjoyed doing praxinoscope the most. Praxinoscope is again done similar to all the others, the trick is to draw images with small changes. The last drawing must nearly be similar to the first one in order for us to have repeated action. For my praxinoscope i did a table tennis play racket



I also got together with some other colleagues and we created a short live action SMA video using various amount of still images. Here it is:


On this short live action we were chasing a suppose to be very interesting book. We did have to skip a few actions in which we intended to do simply because of the time we had was not enough. However as a first practice i think we kind of got the movement quite well and made it look fun to watch.

I built my characters out of legos which were provided by the teacher.My characters are meant to be a giraffe and a robot. I actually did not have time to make a proper video has i had been of college. When i got back i just made a quick and short video out of a small number of pictures taken. This was done in my media classroom, in fact at my table with a pink sheet as the background. 
The reason i did this is to illustrate how my E-sting video will be done and how it might look like. The only difference is that i will be using clay instead of legos in order for better movement.  

Index:
1- http://www.channel4.com/4viewers/faq/subcategory/display/id/400281701
2- https://www.channel4sales.com/platforms/e4/