E-sting

What is this?

An E-sting is a short TV channel ident animation for the Television channel E4, it is used as a filler just before or after another advert or program and is basically advertising that reminds you that “you are watching E4”

Basis

The E-sting -or an E-sting- must always clearly contain the E4 logo in some fashion during the course of its duration.

Normally very short, E-stings only normally last around 5 to 15 seconds total,

They can be simple or complicated in construction; so long as -written above- the E4 Logo is clearly displayed and not obscured or questionable

Examples

“Bus Stop”

This is an example E-sting, as stated it is a very short animation, in this instance a digital 2D animation, 11 seconds in length, clearly demonstrating the E4 logo throughout.

The animation its self can be quirky or unclear of motive so long as the E4 logo again is fully displayed relatively anything can be done amidst this, besides the obvious violent or sexual themes, although cartoon violence is acceptable.

The main colours within E-Stings are of course purple and white, these are the 2 colours that make up the E4 logo itself, and so normally the worlds remain in these 2 colours.

“Dog”

this example shows a 3D digital E-sting of a dog made of matchs and a match box, again obscured you are left right until the end thinking “hmm? What is this” and then it suddenly becomes clear when the E4 logo is reviled after the “dog” sets itself alight, its ashes making the logo on the floor.

Only 15 seconds in length total and very simplistic, plain white background with just the “dog” creation on screen, the dogs match box body has a purple exterior, again capitalising on the White/purple mixture.

What I have to do...

The task at hand is to create my own E-sting, this is narrowed down greatly by a set of audio bites prepared to give us a theme or direction to follow in our work.

There are 10 sound files in all.

File 1 - This sound bed sounds very futuristic, with lots of sci-fi whizzing noises, it has a medium – fast pace to its overall rhythm

File 2 - File 2 has a more urban feel to it, it is slower and feels much darker than number 1, it represents what music could possibly be heard in some clubs nowadays

File 3 - File three sounds to me like something from maybe a 70’s black gangster movie, or something that could be heard in sombodys car driving down a road next to the beach in the sun.

File 4 - File 4 is very up beat, and sounds like somthing much more tribal, it also sounds like there are ambient jungle birds singing in the background, this song could also reflect the type of music heard at Mardi Gra

File 5 - Five is a very dark and ominous sounding bed, it seems to imagine things lurking in the darkness, I personally imagine a lone TV set in a black room, with a flickering/noisy scrambled display occasionally showing the E4 logo.

File 6 - number six is a more slow, melancholic sound bed, when I listen to it it makes me think of a sandybeach shore line where the waves roll up the sand and carry random discarded objects washing them up on the beach.

File 7 - this bed is an upbeat number, sounding like something at a holiday resort or a spanish carnival of some description.

File 8 - number 8 sounds has a very catchy tune to it and sounds like somthing heard inside a disco type of night club, floor panels lighting up, discoballs on the cieling, large speakers pumping out the music with visual movement of the speaker surface.

File 9 - this one sounds like a retro game, something like Lander, Space invaders, Tetris, or even Defender, but the latter might be a bit of stretch.

File 10 - the final one is much more grand than the others, with its sweeping harmony, it feels like it lifts into the sky, or across a large landscape.

Conclusion

listening to the sound beds and writing down possibilities for some of the beds I have decided to take number 9 forward for further use, discarding the rest of them.

Number 9 appeals to me from more ways than the others do, in the sence that the sound bed itself sounds like a retro-game and I know quite a few retro games from past gaming experiances.

there are many games that come to mind when thinking back on retrogaming.

Click on any of the below to be taken to a place where you can experiance the game in some form, apart from Robotron 2084 unfortunatley.