1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Use of text: I have chosen a sting which is taken from E4. There are no words used or text just a simple big
(Title, Credits, animated captions, stings, letter 4 and the letter E in the middle establishing that the views watching the channel E4.
indents, interactive menus, web banner) 0.00-0.08
Brief description: When it first appears we see a big number 4 with the letter E in the middle. Behind it seems to
What do you see? be some tentacles which we would usually find on an octopus. The designer probably choose
an octopus due to the fact its got nothing to do with the channel and it alerts people that their
watch a certain channel which is E4. There also seems to be beach balls and a deck chair tied
to a wire in the air while the tentacles seem to be appearing from a beach hut. The beach
reminds the audience of summer where it’s hot or maybe when their holiday giving them a
happy thought in their head making a more enjoyable channel to watch. E4 designed the sting
this way to show that that channel is a very happy and enjoyable channel which is suggest
through the use of bright colours and summer items such as the beach and deck chairs.
The colours consist of purple and white which signify the channel you are watching and
reminding you were you are. Also the camera mainly focuses on the E 4 symbol making it clear
in the audience’s minds that they are watching the E4 channel.
Techniques used: In the sting it manly consists of animation which has been done through CGI which can be
Animation, Visual Effects, Colour Rendering, done on adobe PhotoShop and adobe after effects. This is eye catching to the younger
Graphics, Movement audience because they would rather watch cartoons but it’s also eye catching to an older
audience due to the fact it’s out of the ordinary and very random. However an older audience
aren’t usually associated with watching cartoons therefore the sting can be seen as abit of fun
and something for people to enjoy without thinking to much. The animation towards viewers is
like a step out of reality considering E4 shows comedies and other visual shows. The sting
wakes the audience up due to the fact it’s different than anything else that’s shown on the
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channel itself which is the idea of a sting and therefore meets the brief.

2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
The only moving thing in the clip is the tentacles which appear from the back view of the shot.
This also grabs people’s attention because it has nothing to do with the channel and is also
very random and makes the watcher question why its there.
Advanced techniques: The colour in the sting has been sharpened and made brighter in order to make it clearer to
Blur, Sharpen, Distortion, Rotation, Opacity see and to make it stand out more.
If we look at rotation we see the camera make a slight pan to the left then stops just so if gives
the audience a bigger idea what’s on screen. It also makes sure there’s always something going
on in the screen so the watcher doesn’t lose interest. If we also look the images on the screen
all have sharp edges which have been done for a reason which is to represent the edges of a 4
which are also very sharp and have a point. If we also pause it so we can see each frame by
frame the opacity is always at 100% to give more of a solid images and solid colour. The
camera also pans round giving you more detail about what’s going on in screen but also the
camera is shooting from a very low angle which suggest that the octopus and the E4 symbol
has more power due to the fact that’s what E4 producers what you to look at the most.
Technical comments: E4 stings are made by different people using different video formats which can be wmv, mov,
Video Format, Screen Ratio, Resolution, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mpeg. All these can be done on different software for different computer
Frame rate, Compression which caters to everybody. This is a great advantage towards stings due to the fact they ca be
made into any format for anybody to access but also another advantage with stings is that they
can be made with any software such as adobe after effects and many others. A disadvantage
with the formats of stings is that not everybody can access a computer in order to transfer
their file into a certain software but also a lot of the software you can make your stings on is
very dear to download and not everybody can afford it.
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3. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Each sting can also have different resolutions for different types of tv. However the high the
resolution the lower the speed the clip plays at, but the lower the image quality the fast the
clip will play. In a lot of ways this is a win lose situation, but if you have the patience to let the
clip load so it doesn’t buffer then watching it in HD or in a higher resolution is a great
advantage.
Stings just like movies have frame rates which is the amount of frames show per second, the
normal frame rate for any clip is usually 24 frames per second however with the advance of
technology comes better detail which means more frames per second.
The e4 sting is 24 frames per second which is what everybody’s use to viewing giving this an
advantage due to the fact you get a lot of detail shown at a very good rate.
However if you wanted to add more detail and make the clip better quality you would have to
give it more frames per second e.g. 48 frames per second. This adds a lot more detail which is
a big advantage for telly’s or screens of a bigger resolution like cinema screens. However a
disadvantage of this is that a lot of people only have a small sized tv so the amount of detail
they will be receiving wont be much different from what they usually experience.
This can also link into compression, the better the compression the better the image being
shown.
A downfall with compression that sometimes a lot of it can be lost which results in loss of
colour or loss of detail which is a big error when you in media.
However a advantage of compression is that it can apply to anything such as cartoons or
normal imagery giving people more options.
Motion Graphics and Video Compositing Unit 64
Glossary
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4. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Motion graphics - Graphics that use video footage and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, graphics are
usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.
Compositing video - When there are several different clips of video are layered over one another to create a single image.
Interactive Menus – DVD Interface or Interactive Menus on a web page
Ident – The ‘call sign’ of a channel or production company to identify themselves on screen, usually shown before a programme.
Animated Captions – Animated Graphics layered over an image / video
Web Banners – A form of web advertising that is embedded into a web page. They are used to attract a viewer to their website. A Web
Banner usually a mix of motion graphics and video
Video Format - 3 Main Formats HD, PAL, NTSC. HD is the highest resolution (720 or 1080 vertical lines in the image). PAL is the UK
Standard definition image (576 vertical lines). NTSC is the US Standard definition image (480 vertical lines). Now in the
digital age we now look at video format in terms of pixels (i.e. High definition 1080; 1920 x 1080 or 2,073,600 pixels)
Screen ratio – Standard TV ratio is 4:3; this means that for every 4 units wide it is 3 units high. It is likely that the screen ratio will be
Widescreen (16:9) in a cinematic sequence.
Resolution – The amount of detail in an image or signal, such as Standard TV Definition and High Definition. See Video Format.
Frame Rate - The number of video or film frames displayed each second (frames per second; fps). PAL frame (standard UK TV) is 25
fps, NTSC (standard US TV) is 30 fps, film is 24 fps. This means as NTSC updates more regularly there is less strobing
(jerkiness).
Compression – The use of Codecs (WMV, DivX) to reduce the file size of a video by a variety of methods. This sometimes means a loss in
image quality (a “lossy”). Codecs are found in Video Cameras, DVD players / recorders, Editing Packages, Video upload
sites)
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