Lo2

 Mind map of ideas

Mood board of ideas

This mood board has helped me to visualize my general idea of an animation about a group of teens, in this mood board I included media that I thought fit well with my story line such as Scott Pilgrim and Diary of a Whimpey kid. I included deferent cartoon art styles to help me think about how I wanted my characters to look, I also included images that matched to aesthetic I wanted produce in my animation. 

Setting mood board 

In this mood board I tried to showcase images that remind me aesthetically of a road trip in the British country side. I also added images with a grungy aesthetic as I felt this fit the theme of my characters being in a band.

Character mood boards

This mood board was created to help me visualize the ideas for my character Jayden Mckee, I wanted to experiment with a character with a grunge aesthetic compare to a preppy aesthetic. 

This mood board features ideas for my characters  Lula Andersen and April Mueller.

Narrative ideas

Idea 1

My animation will depict a traveling band made up of three girls setting off on a road trip, the scenes I will animate will mainly depict them traveling to and interacting with scenic locations. They will travel in a large renovated van to settings such as fields, petrel stations, car parks and party venues.

I have created characters that include: 3 young women aged 18 - 19

Ch1 Jay Mckee: is a young Colombian adult female aged 18, due to parental financial support they are part of the ABC1 audience. They are the guitarist in the band. Brown shaggy layered hair, grunge aesthetic style.

Ch2 April Mueller: is a young white adult female aged 19, due to parental financial support they are part of the ABC1 audience. They are the pianist in the band. Ginger plated hair, colorful aesthetic style.

Ch3 Lula Andersen: is a young Nigerian adult female aged 19, (singing) due to parental financial support they are part of the ABC1 audience. They are the singer in the band. Brown curly hair in buns, skater aesthetic style.

Idea 2 (back up)

Instead of my characters forming a band they will be on a road trip, visiting pretty and relatable settings such as fields beaches and woods.

Audience profile

Imaginary entity 

Beth is a 18 year old girl from the Netherlands, she is a university student studying Biophysics at Empire State University. Her hobbies include taking photos on her digital camera and making playlists for her friends on Spotify, she really enjoys listening to rock and indie music. She likes to meet up in town with her friends on the weekends to get iced coffee and thrift clothing. Both of her parents are lawyers and they support her financially.

Treatment

name of animation: Racoon Bites 

medium: Clip studio

Running time: 2 - 3 min

Synopsis: Three girls set off on a road trip, they work as a traveling band, booking gigs at parties and weddings so that they can create content for their social media and gain popularity for their band Racoon Bites.

Target audience: young women aged 15 - 21, these women will either be still in education, have a part time job or be unemployed. They will have an interest in music, independence, renovated vans and close knit friend groups.

Purpose: the purpose of my animation is to entertain and inspire the viewer.

Setting information: British country side, van/ caravan, outdoor venue, off-licence, car park, daylight,  nighttime fluorescent lighting, street, rural road. I have chosen these locations as they are relatable settings for teenager's and young adults and they are calming locations to view, I can pan to my setting for longer amounts of time to create the calming atmosphere I want, for example I create a wide shot of grass swaying in the wind.

Character information: a band made up of three girls setting off on a road trip. Jayden Mckee is a young Colombian adult female aged 18, due to parental financial support they are part of the ABC1 audience. They are the guitarist in the band. Brown shaggy layered hair, grunge aesthetic style. April Mueller: is a young white adult female aged 19, due to parental financial support they are part of the ABC1 audience. They are the pianist in the band. Ginger plated hair, colorful aesthetic style. Lula Andersen: is a young Nigerian adult female aged 19, (singing) due to parental financial support they are part of the ABC1 audience. They are the singer in the band. Brown curly hair in buns, skater aesthetic style.

                                                                Storyboard

                        Script

                                    INT. CAR - MORNING 

              Jay drives car past a dear warning sign 

CUT TO:

Jay opening car door while sat inside car, opens door fully and then sits back down, her hair sways in the wind

Script

INT. CAR - MORNING

JAY drives car past a dear warning sign 

CUT TO:

INT. CAR - MORNING

JAY opening car door while sat inside car, stands up to open the door fully and then sits back down, her hair sways in the wind

CUT TO:

INT. OUTSIDE - MORNING

JAY sat in car, APRIL walking to the left and LULA drinking a Pepsi

CUT TO:

INT. OUTSIDE CAFE - MORNING

a butterfly fly's in front of café and lands on a flower

CUT TO:

INT. INSIDE CAFE - MORNING

JAY stirs her drink with a spoon, takes out the spoon, puts it on the table and picks up her drink, APRIL and LULA sit in front of her and *laugh* together

CUT TO:

INT. OUTSIDE GAS STATION - MORNING

the car owned by the girls is parked outside the gas station

CUT TO BLACK

over black: credits to Suzie B

END

Risk assessments and recces

SWOT analysis

Strengths: Positives of the product

Weaknesses: Negatives of the product

Opportunities: Doors that will open for the product

Threats: Competitors

Strengths

I have included a clear art style, I think this animation connotes nostalgia as it appears warm and friendly as I have taken inspiration from animation aimed at children. By having a diverse group of characters I can appeal to a larger target audience. And by depicting only female characters I can aim my product more specifically to a stereotypically femenin audience. Using a rode trip as my plot  connotes freedom this will help me to target my young adult audience as stereotypically teenager's want to feel independent and free to make their own choices.  

Weaknesses

I didn't have a lot of practice with digital art or animation before this project, so this work is not the highest quality, this would put me in a disadvantage to my competitors as audiences give their attention to higher quality products as they are more appealing to view. By creating an only female cast a mainstream target audience may feel under represented, because of this they may not feel as engaged with the media. As my plot line dose not have a clear plot that the characters are aiming to achieve I may struggle to keep the interest of my viewers. 

Opportunities 

I think I have showcased my opportunity for growth with digital animation as you can clearly see the improvement of my work in each new scene. By showing my growth this could give me the opportunity to create other protects and showcase my work to sponsors. As my story line has an open ending I could make this media into a series where the characters and working to achieve a goal such as the band narrative I was planning in my preproduction. 

Threats

my time frame is limited so I may not have enough time to complete this project to the highest standard. This puts me at a disadvantage to competitors such as cartoon network that are regularly releasing high quality content. Established cartoons such as Adventure time have I much larger fan base that is garneted to engage with their content, as I don't have this I will not get as much activity when posting my product. Competitors such as cartoon network are able to post on multiple streaming platform such as Hulu and YouTube, as I am not an established brand I will not be able to do this, which means I will have a smaller audience reach.