LO3: Task 4 - Production Plan

LO3: Task 4 - Story Board

LO3: Task 4 - Legal and Ethical

The main legal problem I may have to consider is using a music that is not owned by me in anyway. I would have to ask for permission and/or buy the music if I want to use it in my short animated film. If I'm unable to acquire this music, there are certain alternatives that I can use in case. The music is instrumental and is piano based which means there are quite a lot of alternatives.

An ethical issue may be the concept of death in a rather cartoon/young audience short animation. This may affect certain people who dislike the concept of death being shown on animation. However, as far as anything goes, there isn't many ethically or legal problems with the animation.

LO3: Task 4 - Moodboard and Target Audience

The animation style is influenced by the Studio Ghibli style of animation which means it will be popular with a lot of people from across all ages. It also features an ideology that a lot of people learn through experiences i.e. in every good person, there is always something dark and hidden away and within the darkness, a small light of hope is always present. The main characters have no gender which means that there won't a be a gender specific target which technically enlarges the target audience range.

LO3 - Task 4: Character Design

LO2 Task 3: Planning a character for use in an animation

A) Character Profile

Character Profile:

Luno - Is a light spirit who is a the light embodiment of a person's spirit. In the same sense, there is also the

dark embodiment of a person's spirit (Umbra). These spirits appear after a person's death; both split apart from

the soul and must find each other in order to become another person's light and dark. The light side of the spirit

shows the more up-front side of humans. Happiness, sadness, curiosity, shock and genuine trust. Whereas the 

darker side of the spirit displays what humans tend to keep underneath; secretive, guilt, mischief and deception. 

Neither spirits have a gender and they do not age. They do have an aura that signifies which type of spirit they

are. Luno has an almost bright light and Umbra has a darker light, almost like the absence of light. These spirits

are technically just balls of light but if clearly seen, they are simply little robed sprites that don't appear to have

any arms but have some form of legs that they can use to stand upright. 

LO3 - Task 4: Treatment

Title: Lumen: A Tale of Spirits.

Medium/Genre: Animated Short Film; Fantasy and Adventure.

Running Time: 2 minutes. 

Synopsis: Luno, a light spirit born at the time of a person's death is separated from their other half, Umbra. Without their other halves, they are unable to pass on to become another living person. Luno has to avoid being seen by lightcatchers, people who are able to see spirits, capture and corrupt their light, turning them in to darklings. 

Characters: Luno the light spirit, Umbra the dark spirit and Lightcatchers

Key Scenes: When Luno and Umbra are split apart from the soul will be an important scene since this will be the predicament that they are placed in. When they find each each other but Luno is caught by a lightcatcher which prompts Umbra to save Luno but in the process, almost lets himself be caught in a spell that causes Umbra to slowly dissipate. Overcome with guilt, Luno, with a blinding flash of light somehow manages to cause the darkness that is taking over Umbra to disappear. With that, the two join together in a flash of light and a soul is born, destined to become human again. This scene will have Luno have a bead of darkness that will represent the darkness inside everyone's hearts, no matter how good they are and the light within Umbra to represent that there is always something good we can do no matter how bleak the situation may seem. 

Sound recordings: The characters will be silent which means that there are no need for voice actors. However, there will be music throughout the entire animation. The music will progressively become more powerful as the two characters find each other. The music will most likely be Brave Shine by Aimer (In a piano instrumental cover version as the original rock version is not fitting for the theme and is a little too powerful). This will mean I will have to ask for permission due to copyright. 

LO2 - Analysis of one animation

LO1 Task 2 – Analysis of an existing product (Animation)

Analysis on the basis of:

A) Genre

B) Individual Animators

C) Productive Process

D) Narrative/Storyline

E) Target Audience

F) Character/Stars

One Punch Man

A) Genre

One Punch Man is a Japanese Animation (Anime) series that Madhouse (within their several contracted employees). The anime itself is a seinen anime, a genre aimed towards young adult males between the ages of 17-26. It has its fair shares of action sequences, comedy and drama.

B) Individual Animators

OPM is in fact made up of multiple well known animators. Shingo Natsume who worked on another popular anime, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Masaaki Yuasa was involved in the making of OPM along with several others: Shingo Natsume (Full Metal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos), Sejoon Kim (Gundam), Ryuu Nakayama, Shun Enokido, Gosei Oda (Space Dandy, Spirited Away), Norifumi Kugai (Space Dandy, Aquarion Evol), Yoshimichi Kameda (FMA: Brotherhood).

Each of the animators feature their own technique that is apparent through the different styles the animation sequences are made i.e. action sequences have different forms of motion and art styles in certain key frames. Some of the animation styles are subtle at points where story is being told but when the action scenes play out, the general movement, effects and fight choreography is far more fluid although, the animation is still quite fluid through the rest of the anime. There are differences in digital and traditional art styles in which the digital art style is far cleaner and clearer to see than that of the traditional method which features more rough work but clearly conveys the feeling of adrenaline and the rush. Traditional art style examples such as a moment in the dream fight sequence where the line art is made thicker to make it more impactful.

C) Productive Process

Just as any other form of production will go through the 3 stages of Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production. Pre-production will have consisted of planning out certain sequences, having the artists assigned for each of the scenes that are planned for each episode. During pre-production, the original creator of One Punch Man would have already given Madhouse the rights to work on the adaptation of his work so Madhouse will most likely think about financing, individual artist working and scenes being planned out and made.  Production and Post-Production will most likely consist of finishing scenes, editing them all together in to a cohesive episode and release the content through a broadcasting service.

D) Narrative/Storyline

OPM is a story of a man known as Saitama who, unfortunately for him, can win his fight only using one punch. Due to this overwhelming power, Saitama has become extremely bored which leads him to constantly trying to find the strongest foes to fight. His catch phrase prior to joining the Heroes Association was “I’m just a hero for fun.” He even has his own disciple, a cyborg known as Genos and with the 2 of them; they join the Heroes Association to be recognized as registered heroes.

Saitama never started off as a being the most powerful hero, in fact, he wasn’t actually strong. However after having a rather dangerous encounter with a man-crab monster, he gained a spark to “…be a hero who could defeat anything with one punch.” He trained so hard for 3 years straight that he had gone bald. Although, 100 squats, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and 10km everyday for 3 years doesn’t seem extreme, Saitama gained the power he had wanted with the ironic twist of becoming bored of it.

E) Target Audience

The target audience is known as seinen in Japan. Seinen means that the anime is aimed towards young adults - middle aged. One Punch Man is a mix of mainly action and comedy which people between those ages are usually entertained by. Not only that but the main premise of One Punch Man is a parody of anime tropes that have characters powering up, "more powerful than they before", having the strength to defeat any enemies etc. and this type of parody is aimed towards people who enjoy watching shows of said tropes.

F) Character/Stars
Saitama is the main protagonist of the story of OPM. As he calls himself prior to joining the Hero Society, a "hero for fun". He meets several people along his journey to becoming a 'hero' which includes Genos, a cyborg that he meets during a certain incident that leads up to Genos wanting to become Saitama's disciple. There are recurring characters throughout the anime but these 2 are the main focus.

- Genos (Demon Cyborg)
Saitama's disciple and a cyborg trying to find a certain individual from an incident before he met Saitama.

- Saitama (Caped Baldy)
The main protagonist, Saitama. He is also known as One Punch Man but by the public. He trained so hard for 3 years straight, he lost his hair but acquired the power to defeat any of his foes in one punch.

LO1 - Analysing Existing Animations

Unit 61: Animation Studies

Assignment: To investigate the animation industry and develop an idea for a new animation.

LO1: Understand the animation industry and its products.

LO2: Be able to plan a new character for use in an animation.

LO3: Be able to plan a new animation to feature the character they have created.

 

 

LO1 – Task 1: Analysing existing animations

 

A)        Company Structure

B)        Media applications

C)        Types of animations

D)        Regulatory Bodies 

Madhouse:

A) Company Structure:

Madhouse is based in Honchou, Nakao, Tokyo and is a Kabushiki gaisha (Stock company) which means they will be owned by a parent company and will have stock holders to let the company run. Masao Maruyuma, Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro and Yoshiaki Kawajiri founded the company in October 17, 1972. There are currently 70 employees, which include contracted employees. They are owned by several partners but are owned mostly by Nippon Television [95%] (NTV) since buying out the rest of the shares from Index Corporations. They also have their own subsidiary, Madbox Co., Ltd. The company also owns South Korean-based studios DR Movie, MOI Animation and Anihouse Sun.

B) Media applications

Their works have included anime series, OVAs (Original Video Animations), music videos and films. Madhouse has worked with quite a lot of directors who in turn become famous because of their productions. Madhouse began with film production and slowly started to integrate in to the adaptation of manga into anime series, OVAs and films around 2003. Madhouse has worked with Clamp to create a music video known as CLAMP in Wonderland. CLAMP in Wonderland features a series of characters from the Clamp’s entire canon of work. They have also worked on the sequel Clamp in Wonderland 2 that features over 100 characters from the Clamp universe.

Madhouse has worked with CG film production and owns a subsidiary known as Madbox Co., Ltd. Their subsidiary focuses on working on 3D and CG related productions. Madhouse has also worked on video games, providing animated content on certain parts such as some of the cutscenes/in-game cinematics/openings. They collaborated with quite a few prominent companies such as Square Enix, Capcom, Studio Ghibli and Disney.

C) Types of animations

Madhouse works with Japanese animation style and 3D animations with their subsidiary, Madbox Co., Ltd. They work by either adapting original manga works or by creating original work with directors. They have created several types of animations, which include fully animated films, TV series, CG animated films, OVAs and anime series. There are differences between a manga adaptation and a original animation: Usually, manga adapted films and series tend to have a more mature themes and are usually aimed towards older ages (16+) and certain original animations tend to be more for younger audiences. Madhouse has done adaptations from novels such as Record of Lodoss War, which had 8 volumes that ran from 1988 to 1993; It was adapted into an OVA series.

Examples of an adaptation that’s considered for older audiences could be Monster, a manga than ran from December 1994 to 2001 with a 74-episode adaptation. An adaptation aimed for a younger audience could be Beyblade, which ran from January 1999 to December 2003, resulting in 154 episodes between 3 seasons/adaptation.

Madhouse produces anime series, OVAs etc. on a regular basis such as the recent and extremely successful adaptation of One Punch Man. They have also adapated from video games, such as their collaboration with Square Enix in the creation of Last Order: Final Fantasy VII and Capcom, creating the Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.

D) Regulatory Bodies

Madhouse is regulated by WOWOW, a private satellite broadcasting television station and most likely the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to cover certain regulations and rules as to what they can broadcast. Anime and OVAs are generally broadcasted in the afternoon/night, which is usually in time with when educational institutes and places of learning are generally over for the day.

Nippon TV is the parent company that owns and is most likely the one who closely regulates the work Madhouse puts out and to see if it is allowed to be broadcasted, not only nationally but also internationally. WOWOW is the more lenient broadcasting centre for Japan, which is apparent due to the type of original anime series and certain media that they have broadcasted. Considering that WOWOW also features Japanese-dubbed Western TV shows are broadcasted, certain controversial content that Madhouse creates may be allowed through.