Research and Planning: E4 and the Brief

Channel 4 owns a variety of channels and E4 and E4+1 happen to be one of them. Channel 4 launched E4 on the 18th of January, 2001. It originally launched as a subscription channel and it only became free to air in 2008 as they thought that it would increase the viewer base and attract a larger audience. E4 hosts a variety of different shows, most of which are situation comedies and straight up comedy shows - My name is Earl, The Inbetweeners, The Ricky Gervais Show and more are all on E4 and Channel 4. It is documented that the primary target audience for E4 is 15-35 year olds; the content on the channel may not be suitable for a younger audience as some strong language is used in shows and younger people may not understand the jokes and references characters/people make in the shows.

Some of the more gritty dramas are shown later in the evening to appeal to their secondary target audience which would currently be the top end of their age range for the primary target audience. I really don't think younger people would stay up late in the evening to watch these shows as they are perhaps not aimed at them.

I mentioned in the beginning that Channel 4 own a variety of different channels for different audiences; listed below are the channel idents and who the channel is aimed at.

 - This channel was created due to the audience saying that there was so much choice on Channel 4 that they often missed their favorite shows despite having PVRs to record them on; this channel highlights the most popular shows from the past seven days and plays them for the audience that wants them.


 

- This was a channel launched in 2005 and was said to show more 'adult entertainment' programmes; this was obviously mistaken as Pornography and the channel corrected that by saying that the intended for the shows to be more insightful and intelligent.







 - This channel does what it says on the tin; it offers films that are shown in standard definition, free of charge - If you want the high definition channel then you will have to have a paid subscription to either Virgin Media or Sky.





 


- This channel is also a fairly simple concept in that, the channel hosts a variety of shows that highlight the latest and greatest music videos. It was launched in 2008 and was free to view.






- This is an on demand service that allows people to watch the shows that they have missed. Due to the rights of certain programmes, some shows cannot be shown on demand.





An Esting is a channel ident that is used to remind the viewer what channel they are watching; most channels have them but Channel 4 allows user submitted animations which are then used as channel idents.


This is a winner of the 2013 Esting competition and is now shown on the channel. I like the simplistic and quirky nature of this animation; it's quick and simple but still manages to get the message across.



E4 World was submitted and was a winner as well as the previous one. This animation is fluid, presented well and really sums up the random nature of the channel. The creator of this must be very proud!




This Esting is largely live action and shows a button being pressed followed by the E4 logo popping up and floating above the house. Again it's quirky, it's well made and perfect to use as a channel Ident.

To prepare for the creation of our very own Estings we studied in-depth, the History and progression of animation and had a go at making our very own.



This is a very short little task in which I had to create my very own Thaumatrope. A Thaumatrope is a small disc with a picture on either side; when spun quickly it will appear that the image has merge or is being animated.

We also had a ago at creating some stop motion animation with lego and enabling the structures to talk using small mouths that we had drawn. This brought the creature to life and opened some new pathways to enable us to animate better.

I have chosen to go with a Live-Action animation for my Esting as I feel that I know it inside out. I do feel confident animating clay/lego but I feel that Live-Action will enable me to have a little bit more fun with it and I'll be able to play around a little more with effects and computer generated graphics.

Below is a small stop motion animation that I made, just as a proof of concept that I could make people do seemingly impossible things!