primary research
survey
Following my research plan, I intended to carry out primary research to find out what my audience cares about and what they do on the internet. This research will help inform how I portray my chosen themes of media, news and escapism. I decided to do this with a survey. I thought a survey would be a great idea because I could ask multiple people I know within the age ranges of my target audience to get a better understanding of where they lie on the issues I wish to cover.
I first asked what people cared about most because I want to know what my audience cares about, this way I can know what I can put into my film that my audience will relate to and therefore engage more with. Having something people care about allows them to be more immersed in your story and they'll be more likely to take away the lesson I want to show. These answers tell me people care most about those they are close to, their personal goals and hobbies. This helps me make my project because I could have the main character show they care about any of these things and use that in the story as part of their motivations. I will have to refine these ideas later on to what it will be specifically. I think I'll use secondary research to get a more precise idea.
I asked this question because it gives me a better idea of what type of media my audience likes, which can help me pander to them. Internet based content was most popular, telling me that my idea to have my story include the internet/technology is a good idea. They also equally liked animated content, this also reinforces my decision of 2D animation as a good one. I also wanted to know what media they liked so I could know what to reference as the character goes into the 'online world'. This helps me plan to include maybe an anime or sitcom character they could meet. I'd also need to know more about how they engage in this media for me to able to show the characters interacting.
I asked this so I could know how people interact with the media they like in a fandom space. The results show me that they all participated in fandom in some way. This helps me portray how my main character will interact with the people in the 'internet world' they find escapism in. I know that the character will feel more positively to them.
I asked this so I could know whether or not my key theme of escapism even resonated with my audience. This tells me that everyone does find at least some using the internet. This means my story idea should be relatable enough and make sense.
These questions were asked so I could know how the issues I planned to theme around have affected people. The results tell me that people do care about the news enough to notice that there's a lot of bad news in the media and that social media effects their mental health in some way. This will inform how I can have my character interact with the news in my animation, I know already that they find too much bad news, but I could explore the positive and negative effects of social media when in the 'online' world.
survey overall:
Overall the survey results teach me about how my audience interacts with the themes and ideas I want to cover and have helped me create ideas for what the story will be like. I feel like my survey was successful because I got responses that have helped inform my decisions from people who broadly fit into my audience persona idea by way of being young and more nerdy etc. However if I want my film to be able to appeal to more and cover these issues better I will need to know about these issues from other opinions which I could get from reading academic studies and essays. In particular I want to know about the effects of media on mental health.
dialogue with a practitioner
I wanted to get some insight from the creators of these films, who's work I have both talked about in my contextual tab. This was because I found their works very inspirational to me in different ways. I really enjoy Jack Stauber's dark toned comedy pieces with the old VHS aesthetic and the strong use of music and sound. I want to learn something from this man because I think he would have good insight into animating and using a strong visual style. I wanted to contact Dead Sound because the stories his films tell are very well thought out have great emotional payoff. I'd love to get some insight into how he come up with these and how it is conveyed with animation. I think both these creators would be able to give me advice or knowledge that could advance me making my film. Having a unique style like Jack's would make my animation stand out and feel cohesive. Dead Sound's story telling ability could allow me to create a good story idea to explore the ideas I want to.
ASKING QUESTIONS:
I wasn't sure if I would receive a reply from the practitioners after a week of waiting for response so tried to gather some opinions and advice via a question asking site, Quora. When asking a question, it allows you to add relevant topics and finds other users with credentials in that topic to answer your question. I thought this would be a good bet to gather some animation advice from some people with experience and some general opinions and insight around my chosen themes.
ASKING FOR ANIMATION ADVICE:
I asked what the most important stage of the process was, I thought this would be good advice, as it would let me know what I should focus on more.
These answers tell me mostly that it is important to have a good animatic and storyboards to plan the story out and make sure the timing is right, as well as being considerate of how things move, as well as practicing often. The answers to my question about 'advice for aspiring animators working on their own projects' seemed to mostly say that planning the production time is important
This advice will help me prepare to create my animation, now I see the importance of a good animatic since this plans out the entire animation and the timing of it. I will make sure to spend lots of time planning out the story idea and storyboarding it so I can get the timing right. I will also use this to plan out the movements and find or make references of myself/family/friends doing those actions so I can copy the motions and make it look right.
I found the advice about time management useful because I struggle with keeping to a schedule and motivating myself sometimes, so Darcy Vorhees saying to work on the hardest parts first makes sense as I can get those bits out of the way first.
asking questions:
I asked some more questions on Quora about my themes so I could get some insight into them from a range of opinions and people.
I asked this question because it would give me some understanding about how the people in my target audience have experienced mental health issues. This would help me know what sort of things they struggle with and how I can show these ideas in my animation.
This answer tells me that an older person thinks youth can suffer poor mental health as a result of many socio-economic issues they face and they advise that growing is the only way to overcome this. I like this idea of growing somehow to overcome an issue you face. I could use this in my animation by showing the character realising their poor online habits and starting to address them as the film ends, I think a good way to end my film would be with them slamming their laptop shut and looking out the window to signify its a new day,
ASKING ABOUT FANDOM?
I asked some questions about people's experience in fandoms. Insight into this will help me understand how people interact with media they enjoy, and so direct how I show my character in the 'online world' they enter.
These answers relate to my question about how being in a fan community can affect mental health. These answers tell me that there is a mixture of good and bad effects, interacting with a large group of like minded people is good for meeting new friends, being creative and collaborative are all good things. But with this can come 'toxic' people, over obsession and potentially bullying if you come across the wrong people.
This answer to my question about escapism in fandom tells me that similarly some do find escapism in it and some cannot due to the same reasons it can effect your mental health.
I noticed some of my mutual followers on social media talking about their fandom 'comfort characters', a fictional character somebody finds comfort in, and asked about how this could effect mental health because this could help me portray how the character in my film interacts with fictional characters they comes across in the digital world.
HOW WILL I USE THIS KNOWLDGE IN MY FILM?
From this research I have learnt that being in fan space can have good and bad effects on mental health. This lets me know how I can show my character interact with whatever is in the 'digital world' I plan for them to come across in my story idea. I would like to build upon the idea of them finding their favourite character in this space and show they are obsessed with it before hand, and then use facial expressions to show they are very excited to see it . I could also show that this can have a negative affect by showing the favourite character growing into a dark version of itself to represent the protagonist's unhealthy relationship with internet/media and then some sort on conflict ensues which leads the protagonist to leave the online world and confront their issues. This idea also draws inspiration from the animated short film 'Twins in Paradise' I talked about in my contextual thinking wherein the 'portal world' scene the characters find things representing their issues, like their dead mother with some cute creatures, this grows bloody. I want to use this part to create the darker tone I want in my film. I would have to also research more into how to convey this dark tone/mood, probably from watching and analysing some media with a similar tone.
feedback from experimental research
I collected some comments from my character design and lighting studies from my Instagram posts of them. I thought posting them would be a good opportunity to get some feedback from people, especially other artists who follow me.
COLOUR THEORY/CHARACTER DESIGN
These comments tell me that my work in trying to pick a good colour palette went well, and that it compliments the character design, which people found good in general. This tells me that my research has been effective and I should be able to pick out good colour schemes for my FMP which I will use to denote the tone and atmosphere I am aiming for that scene/ character.
LIGHTING STUDIES
The comments tell me that people liked the studies, and thought that I was good at drawing lighting. This lets me know again, that this research has had a positive impact on my project and helped me build my skills in this area. Now I know that I am capable of doing more complicated lighting techniques I know that I can use these in my animation to add the visual interest and intrigue I want and using these to help accentuate the emotions I want to convey.
focus group
I wanted to get more information and opinions of the genre and themes I’ve chosen from the perspective of someone in my target audience, so asked my sister (same age as me) some questions related to these things.
I asked a couple of questions about fandom and media this would help me know about how she interacts with media she enjoys and what she enjoys and help in my portrayal of my character entering the online world in my story idea this tells me that she doesn’t find escapism through fandom (this aligns with my survey with mixed responses) and that she enjoys things she finds interesting or relatable. So I know that I should show this in my film by having the main character being interested in what is in the online ‘world’ beforehand.
I asked a couple of questions about mental health and current events. This would help me know about how people my age are affected by this and deal with it and help in my portrayal of the theme of media in my film. This tells me of someone who has a good relationship with media and knowledge about mental health and this will help me show how I want the protagonist in my film to be, to develop a healthy balance with the media and news we interact with. I could show this by having my character learn about this over the course of the film and by the end they start this healthy boundaries idea by logging off social media or something similar to signify they are moving on.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL ME ABOUT MY AUDIENCE?
This tells me that my target audience cares about things that interest them and connect with characters they find relatable and interesting.
HOW CAN I PANDER TO MY AUDIENCE?
I can make the characters relatable by showing them experiencing common things and using facial expressions and colours to show how they are feeling.