FINAL EPISODE (final)

Here is it, the culmination of this blog and project. It took 3 attempts at cutting it with a round of feedback from a pro editor, Sian and then Josh from Acme. Thanks all for putting in your thoughts and ideas.


Our final cut ^

Final episode (sort of)

We thought we had finished the episode so saved everything and went for a quick pint to celebrate. However after receiving feedback we were asked to make some small changes to the episode. Bit of a kick up the harris but it has to be done and the feedback was spot on.
We were advised too make the ending more drawn out and sadder, drilling the point home for the children (we agreed). Also, it needed branding with E.On, without this it would never exist commercially (it may seem obvious, but there was a bit of a debate!). Finally, it needed clearer fades in-between days to clarify that they were to divide the days.


(this is what we thought was the final cut)

The Save Pingu Iceberg Lolly.

Here we have our lolly, it turned out really great, we shared some with our friends. We went for a lemony taste, so we could make it white and cloudy like an iceberg. Joe enjoyed his so much, he went all essex and screamed "This is the f***ing b****cks mate!".
If a man with the mind of a 5 year old enjoyed it, surely a real one would!

Case Study: LEMON AGE

Having had the Pingu ice lolly idea we went to our local corner shop to get some lolly sticks, and what did we find? Only a very good commercial example of a lolly acting as a promotional tool, in this case for the film: Ice Age. Brilliant.
And here is the data, in video form, Joe 'Researching' the product.
When you are advertising to children you have to live in there world, they dont look at/care about billboards. Lollys act as a great medium to advertising, with great connotations of happiness and enjoyment. If its good enough for Ice Age...

Episode feedback.

Having sent a good editor friend of our the first draft of the episode in the states, we received the following feedback.

Back to Final Cut!
Cheers Rob.

Pingu translated

After researching for hours in order to decipher the complicated 'pingenesse' language we have cracked it. And here it is, translation included.

Back to editing

Back to business. Final day of editing. We managed to gather lots of Pingu sounds form the dvds, however some sounds were missing - luckily enough we had a mic and were more than capable of creating strange and disturbing sounds that go hand in hand with the Pingu episode. Almost there now, will post up a couple of our tests edits and then the final bad boy. Stay tuned.

Ice lollies for breakfast!

Our lollies had set nicely over night. After peeling off the moulds we had to chip at the ice to make it look as much like an iceberg as possible. The overall idea is that as the child eats the lolly the 'save pingu' message will be revealed. We have taken some professional photographs using a tri - pod and a high def camera. We will upload these pictures asap.

Late night editing

Editing late on a saturday night. Coffee and peanut butter on toast are keeping us going. We are making slow progress, but the more we learn the quicker we will get this done. We have started ripping the sound from previous Pingu episodes using a programme called 'handbreak'. Long night ahead of us, and another full day tomorrow.

Save Pingu ice lolly

We have devised a number of ways to advertise the Save Pingu campaign to children, one of witch is a Save Pingu ice lolly. We intended to just draw the idea out as shown, but because we had some spare time on our hands as discussed in the previous post we took it upon oursleves to create the lollies for real. Here is a step by step account to show how we made them:







We branded the ice lolly and by stabilizing the stick with tape we could leave the water and the mould in the freezer to set. Another long wait.

The editing begins!

Started editing bright and early this weekend. The day began with high hopes. We imported all 2,000 photographs into Final Cut, pressed render, and was greeted with a 7 hour loading bar! Not cool. Its almost finished now. We have been keeping ourselves busy whilst the photo's are rendering - like making Save Pingu ice lollies and working on other projects. Again, we will keep you updated.

Learning Final Cut Pro

Okay, Final Cut Pro is downloaded and the learning begins. We are practicing for a while each night and finding helpfull tutorials for the program. Will try and post up some test trails.

PANIC STATIONS

Panic stations indeed! Our good friend, and as it so happens, our editor, has been deported!!! Rob agreed to help us edit the complicated Pingu episode, but the plonker has gone and got himself deported. Canadian born Rob was visiting family in his home town. On his return he was stopped at customs and interrogated. Unfortunately Rob had forgotten to renew his visa (for two years). He was PUT IN PRISON overnight and flown back to the states the following day! Insane i know, but it gets worse. Rob is not allowed back into the UK for a year and will miss his graduation ceremony! This turn of events have led to Tom and I practicing on our Final Cut Pro skills. We will devote our weekends to editing. Apparently perfecting the sound so it runs in time with the film is going to be especially difficult and time consuming! Wish us luck. We will let you know how it goes.

Pingu comparison

Throughout the campaign we have tried to keep the original look and feel of the Pingu program the same. After finishing the final splash page for the website we took a look at the original and our 'save pingu' version and are happy with what we created.

Spreading the word!

We decided to come in every day over easter to add the finishing touches to make sure that Pingu can be saved. Alone most days we customized our advertising studio and turned it into a save Pingu haven. Still adding touches to the website design and creating additional ideas to further the save Pingu campaign. Hopefully all will be finished soon.

Website walkthrough video!

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Pingu website walkthrough

We have finished the design for the Save Pingu website. This will be the phase 2 part of the campaign, having seen the episode the children will be greeted by Pingu and prompted to login and complete a weeks worth of tasks to Save Pingu. As they work through the tasks Pingu's environment will gradually be fixed, and they will be rewarded with another (happier) episode on completion. The tasks are designed to be both educational and entertaining, our two main values that flow throughout Save Pingu.


The website will evolve from this ^


To this ^ as the children complete the tasks.

Tone of voice

Here is a good example of how to talk to children. This was found on the EDF website. Its a website dedicated to children. Here is a list of activities that children can do in order to help the environment. Instead of stating a factual task they put it into a more interesting phrase. i.e. "Goodbye Standby" instead of having a link saying "turn your computer off standby". We will take these examples into account and apply similar techniques to our website.

Website research

I vital part of the save Pingu idea is the interactive website. Its vital before we start designing and creating the website that we research and take into account how other websites dedicated to children function and look. For years we have been taught how to design websites, posters etc to look as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Never have we had to take into account the views and likes of a child. We mustn't get carried away with making the visuals looking aesthetically pleasing to us, but to make sure that we take into account the target audience and make it aesthetically pleasing to them! Here are examples of how other children's websites function and look:



The cbbc website brings its playfull cartoon look and feel to the internet. The website consists of bright colours and animated fugures running about the page. Keeping the figures on the website allows the children to make the link between the website and the program. This is a key point we we come to creating the look and feel of our website - kids understand branding.



Another children's website. Imagery plays a big part in this website. Although the website is for children to play games they still keep the background interesting and animated. This suggests that children enjoy a lively animated website but still keep hierarchy into context.



This is a website for a children's hospital. The subject matter is obviously serious but they still keep a childish look and feel with animated features and cartoon features. The website also includes children characters that they can relate to.



This website is another bbc feature. This is my favorite of the bunch. It's a lively website with swinging monkeys in the background with cartoon features. I have taken a particular liking to the button system on the website as-well. Buttons will play a key part on our website and we need to encourage children to press them. This website makes each link into an interesting button - with the insight that children love to press buttons. My Aunt informed me of this after my little cousin accidently phoned the police twice in a week!

The first test shots.

Having set everything up, we figured it wise to do a couple of test shots. This exercise would help us to iron out any problems with the hardware/software, let us practice with the movement of the characters and the speed that they travel, and serve to expose any unforeseen problems that might occur.


In this test we learnt we had to keep Pingus movement steady, and address the problem of his feet. We got round this my making a different foot for when each foot is moving forward, with the front curled up, this gave a more realistic look thats more accurate to the original episodes.


From this test, we learnt we had to have more things going on that just the basic movements. So we created different mouths and eyes for blinking. We also made sure each scene has something to engage the viewer, rather than them just walking along for ages, like lord of the rings.

The making of Save Pingu...

...WITH directors commentary!

The Set.

For the set, we turned my living room into a temporary south pole. Having taped up the windows with bin bags to regulate the light, allowing us to work at and time of the day (or night...mostly night). We set about making an old table tennis table into Pingus home. Complete with igloo, snowman and ice blocks.



We then created a background we could edit throughout the filming process, under the white of the show covered mountains, there was green, as time went we cut away the show showing how Pingus environment was deteriorating over time.

Clay!

After researching how to make a claymation we have decided to use stop frame - using a program called image 'captureone'. Captureone allows you to take photographs with your camera that exports straight onto your computer. This allows us to view each image up close and make small adjustments.

We have decided to use plasticine instead of clay. We have researched this subject thoroughly and plasticine seems to be favorable for this process. Plasticine allows us to mold and smooth when and where we need with ease. We have also picked up tricks like heating in the microwave or with a hair dryer to mold with ease.

We will build the scene with thick card. This will shape the mountains and sky of our composition and allow us to alter the background when we need to.

We bought some plasticine from the art shop and had a little test to see how easy it was to make a character. Here is the result.

Pingu Storyboard walkthrough

Just thought we would walk you through the pingu storyboard to tie up any loose ends. Its also good for us to explain the idea out load to make sure we aren't making a massive mistake.

Storyboard for Pingu

60 pages, each representing roughly one second, now we know the flow of the episode, the arc of what happens and in importance of each scene. We also how how many scenes and what order to make it in. From this storyboard we can design and make the sets and start taking photographs!

Final script in brief

So here goes. This does not sound too interesting in brief but i cant be bothered to post the whole script. (please see sketchbook)

*Pingu and friend (seal) slide down a hill.

*Have fun and return home

*Return to the hill, viewers notice a small difference in the environment. Puddles and green hills begin to appear.

*They take no notice and return home.

*They return to the hill and this time they notice the large change in the environment. Bigger puddles, melted sculptures and more green.

*Pingu is reluctant to slide down the hill as there is a massive puddle there.

*They return home to warn pingu's mother. She tells them to fuck off and get inside.

*The next day the pair return to the hill and Pingu goes for it.

*When Pingu slides down he disappears in the water and dosent come back up.

*The seal returns home to warn Pingu's mother, but she isn't there and the igloo has been destroyed by the weather.

*Cut to a shot of Pingu stranded on a block of Ice in the middle of no-where. The episode ends to the sound of a sombre pingu theme tune and the message prompting the children to go online to www.savepingu.com to help save pingu.

Script for Pingu

Currently working on the script for the Pingu episode. We are devoting a lot of time for the script. We feel that the script need to be tight and still be able to keep the audience engaged. If we nail the script then we are confident that it will help us when we finally storyboard the episode. We have a few ideas for a script, we are choosing the best one soon and will post it up for you.

Pingu Facts!

Been in touch with Pingu. Lovely guy. The little man was kind enough to donate some interesting facts that will be beneficial to our Pingu episode. Facts include things like - What sort of noise he makes when angry, How long an episode takes to film, what materials they use, and how many people watch Pingu. These are all interesting facts that we can take into account when creating the episode. Some of the facts have also cemented our idea and given us confidence that we have a sustainable and good idea.