It's Nice That/Anyways Brief - Brief & Workshop

Brief

Create an ident (short film) for a TV Channel using a Rube Goldberg machine.

Ident - a short sequence shown between programmes to identify a channel.

Examples - BBC 1 & 2, ITV, Channel 4, MTV, C4.

Hypothetical Channel to work with:

Channel Nought/0

They want a suite of idents, one for each content category:

Food, Kids, Art/Culture and Sports

Deliverables:

1 x Film

1 x Performance of your machine (if possible)

1 x Documentation (Behind the Scenes, Zine, Poster etc.)

Length: Min 30sec Max 120sec.

Must include sound.

Must include official branding.

16 x 9 Landscape format.

You can include a voiceover 'Up next...'

Phases: Ideation, Making, Testing, Recording, Performing

Tuesday 19th - Send one page showing the work in progress/development/rationale.

Friday 22nd - Final Crit. Perform Rube Goldberg (if possible) and play videos.

Group:

Myself (Migle Saveikyte)

Jessica Schofield

Meg Wilson

Our Theme:

Art & Culture

Channel Nought Branding Guidelines:

Workshop

Before we were introduced to the brief, we completed a one-day workshop with Charlie Sheppard, to introduce us to what a Rube Goldberg machine was and how it works. The workshop we did and some of the mechanisms we created inspired some of our ideas when we came to do the brief. So unknowingly to us at the time, the workshop was in a way part of the  initial ideas stage. 

The Brief:

Make a Rube Goldberg Machine, which is - creating an invention that completes a very simple task in a very complicated manner. 

Your task: Pop a Balloon. 

You will be judged on:

Inventiveness

Individuality

Resourcefulness

Task Completion

Style

Process:

Split into Groups.

Choose your area of the room.

Review your materials - What can you make?.

Key Phase: Planning - Sketch ideas.

Making/building space.

Testing/developing/documenting stage.

Performance.

Rules:

You can use any apparatus in the studio... What can you acquire/borrow to make this even better?

It can be as big or small as you want - but you want it to be impressive. 

The final outcome must be to pop your balloon. 

You can use a human nudge to get your machine started.

Planning/Sketching:

The approach we decided to take was to get going and start experimenting with the different materials we had, and to see what we could come up with. We added to our plan/sketch as we went along, and once we had a general idea of how the next step of the machine should happen, we'd spend a lot of time figuring it out and finding the right materials to execute what we had planned. 

Construction/ Building:

Final Outcome:

The workshop really helped us as it gave us an initial idea of how the mechanisms within the machine work, and which combination of objects are better at completing different tasks. We also learnt that utilising surfaces, gravity, elevated objects and anything within out surroundings was very useful, and that everything around us could be used to our advantage to create the Rube Goldberg machine. The workshop also gave us more confidence, as out machine was the only one that successfully completed the task of popping the balloon, and so we were not worried but quite excited when we were set the brief to create another machine for an ident.