James Clayton

Proposal Report
The idea Ive gone with is Billy The Bull.

Audience (Target Audience)

Age:
Billy The Bull will be aimed at people from the age of 0-10 as the cartoon is similar to Shaun
The Sheep which has an age rating of around 0-10. I decided to give it this age rating
because it wont contain any offensive material which wouldnt be suitable for a young
audience. Another reason it has such a low age rating is because it wont contain any talking
but instead just noises to simulate the animals talking. I gave it a max age rating of 10
because it may be too childish for anyone over this age to watch, they would still be able to
watch it they just might find it boring. Another reason Im going to make the programme
suitable to this age range is its supposed to be for children so if I was to make it unsuitable
for them to watch then I wouldnt have met the criteria given to be by the BBC.

Gender:
Billy The Bull will be designed to be gender neutral but due to the main character being a
bull it may end up having a more male audience simply because you dont get many women
who will enjoy watching an animated bull. This could be incorrect though since the audience
will be younger children so may not mind if the main character is a bull. The show will
contain female animals they will just be other animals on the farm who are friends with Billy
and not the main character like Billy. As its based on a farm I will have a farmer and his wife
who sometimes appear on the show. Having both the farmer and his wife also keeps the
balance between male and female characters.

Interests/Taste:
Billy The Bull is set on a farm so the majority of the
characters will obviously be animal, therefor the show
may not be interesting to people who dont like animals.
Like Shaun The Sheep the programme could still be
entertaining and fun for people who dont really like
animals because of its content, it would just be more
interesting for kids who like farm animals. For kids who
have a favourite animal such as bulls or sheep certain animals on the show could become
their favourite, this means they would keep watching the show because they want to see
their favourite character/animal. The show would also be interesting to kids who like farms
as the programme is set on a farm and shows some of the aspects of living on a farm.

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Viewing context:
The different episodes of the show would be shown on television since its the BBC asking
me to create the animation. They would be shown on CBeebies since this is the childrens
BBC channel which only shows content thats safe for kids. As its
the BBC once the programme has been shown on television it
would then be added to their Iplayer so it can be watched another
time, this Iplayer can be accessed on most electronic devices that
can support video playback such a mobile phones and tablets.

Generation of concepts
Subject:
Billy The Bull will be a Claymation animation for children aged 0-10
that will be shown by the BBC on their CBeeBies channel.

Characters:
Because Im creating a show for young children it wont have many characters as they might
struggle to remember them all if there was a large cast. All of the characters will also have
simple names that the kids can remember easily. Heres a list the characters:
Billy: Hes a bull and is the main character of the show. He will lead
everyone on the adventures and will interact with the audience the most
out of all the characters.

Farmer John: John is the owner of the farm and the person who found and
raised Billy. He lives in the farm house next to Billys field with his wife Jill.

Visualisation:
The set of the programme is a farm in the countryside so all of the visuals will be nice and
colourful because thats how kids see nature. This means all the greenery will be a vibrant
green and the field will have a hedge border because that looks more natural than a
wooden fence and also gives the impression that the animals arent fenced in. The
background of the animation will be a bright sky with trees and hills as thats a good visual
example of what the countryside looks like. Having the backdrop
also means that I wont have to build lots of distant models out of
placticine because the backdrop does this for me. Another
advantage of having a backdrop is that I can easily change the

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scene from night to day as I will just have to change the sky to a night sky and darken
everything down.

Awareness of technical limitations:

Due to the techniques I will be using to produce Billy The Bull I need to be aware that
theres some things I wont be able to do due to the limitations of using Claymation, along
with the software I will be putting it all together with. For example, if I wanted to make one
of the characters swim in water this would be very difficult with the resources I will have
because Plasticine goes soft when its put in water so the characters would start to fall
apart. I could have fake water which is just cling film over the top of blue paint but then I
would still have difficulties. I would have to cut the character in half to simulate that half of
their body is under the water, I dont have enough time to do that sort of thing because of
the short timeframe I have to create this project. Another problem I could run into is if the
Flash software I will be using doesnt allow you do add the visuals I want, if this becomes a
problem though I can simply change the idea to something that will work on Flash.

Exploiting format potential:

After this first short episode which introduces the characters the full length episodes will
start to be produced. After the first series has finished we will look at if the show is making
enough profit to continue producing, if it is then more series can be made. If the show really
takes off a movie could be produced which would just be like a very long
episode but with the characters doing something completely new that
hasnt been shown on the show before. This movie would first be released
in the cinema and would then later be released on DVD and digital
download. The movie would have the same age rating as the show
because its the exact same content, this means kids that enjoy watching
the show will be able to watch the movie as well.

Storyline:
Its a very hot day and Billy cant cope as theres nowhere for him to hide in the shade. The
farmer notices Billys distress and decides to bring out an inflatable paddling pool for him to
cool off in. Billy has just started to grow his bull horns so not long after getting in the pool he
accidently pops it with one of his horns leaving him lying in a little puddle in the field.
Scene 1: Billy is walking around the field but starts to overheat so just curls up on the
ground.
Scene 2: The farmer brings out a paddling pool for Billy to cool down in.
Scene 3: Billy gets in the pool but pops it with one of his horns.

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Scene 4: Billy is lay inside the flat paddling pool.

Sets:
The main set for the programme is a farm in the countryside. This set will be relatively small
but will contain lots of props so the scene doesnt look empty. The main features of the set
will be the farm house which will be made out of plastacine so I can make the characters
interact with it, the field where the animals are kept, and lots of other small things that you
would find on a farm. Some of these items will be on the backdrop so I dont run out of time
making all of the props. For the first episode only the main set will be needed as its just an
introduction to the characters, in future episodes though where the characters go on
adventures I will have to create other sets for the filming. The graphics on the set are the
backdrop and the ground. I will have to create both of these but as I know exactly what I
want them to look like this should be relatively easy. The backdrop will be of the sky and
towards the bottom of the graphic will be hills and
tress. I may also add other details around the farm
area to make it look busy. The ground image will just
be of grass but in some places there will be mud.
Where the farm house is located I will make the
ground gravel so it looks like a driveway.

Backgrounds:
I need to create two background graphics for my animation,
one for the background which acts as the sky and horizon and
one for the base of the set which is the ground. I will have to
create both of these but as I know exactly what I want them to
look like this should be relatively easy. The backdrop will be of
the sky and towards the bottom of the graphics will be hills and tress. I may also add other
details around the farm area to make it look busy. The ground
image will just be of grass but in some places there will be mud.
Where the farm house is located I will make the ground gravel
so it looks like a driveway.

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Audio:
As none of the characters talk in the programme there will be no need for voice acting. This
means all of the sounds will be sound effects such as the animals communicating to each
other, the sound effects of the animals walking through mud, and any other subtle sounds
that will be added like wind effects. All of the audio will be added after the animating has
been done as I will have to add it in the editing stage. All of these sound effects can be
downloaded off open source websites which focus on free sound effects that you can use
without having to get permission. Because the animals dont talk to each other they will
have to communicate through sound effects that represent different feelings.

Soundtrack design:
Introduction music as the programme starts This will be some music that is played
at the start of every episode whilst the programme logo is shown on screen. It could
either be the programmes theme tune or just a random piece of music.
Sound effects in the programme These are all the sounds effects which make up
the audio of the programme. The different sound effects are for the animals
communicating and also their interactions with the surroundings such as walking
through mud.
End music This is the CBeebies theme tune which will play in the last moments of
the programme whilst the end screen is shown.

Lighting:
As the set is based outdoors the lighting will obviously represent real daylight, this means
that when Im filming I will have to make sure that theres plenty of light. None of the
scenes are filmed inside of the farm house which is useful because I wont have to change
the lighting then. If I needed to film a scene in the morning or at night I could easily turn the
lights down in the room, I would also close some of the blinds to restrict some of the light
entering the room. The different lights Ill be using on the set are
the ceiling lights and the natural light which comes through the
windows of the room. The only problem this could bring up is if
the lighting outside changes as it would then effect the lighting
on the set.

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Planning:
For the planning of my animation I created dope sheets and storyboards of the different
aspects which would make up the animation. The storyboards I made were of my two
character, Billy and the farmer, the background, and the ground of the set. I made these so I
can reference them whilst creating the real things. Here are the four different storyboards I
made:
This is of John the farmer and will be used as a reference
whilst I am making the placticine model of him.

This storyboard is of BIlly and will be used as a reference

whilst I am making the placticine model of him.

The background image which will be used on the set. I

used this storyboard whilst making the background on
the computer because I had to make it from scratch and
using this storyboard as a guide helped.

This is another storyboard of an asset that will make up

the set for the animation. This is the image for the ground
of the set and was used just like the background image
when making the image on the computer.

This is the first dope sheet for my animation and shows

the first three scenes that make up the animation. The
dope sheets contain information such as the scene
description, the frame count, the camera settings and the
scene number.

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This is my second dope sheet which contains the final

scene of the animation. Just like with the first dope sheet
it contains all the necessary information for when Im
putting my animation together. I created these dope
sheets because they are very useful to reference whilst
animating.

Script:
Because none of the characters speak I dont have a script, instead the characters
communicate through different noises. In later episodes after the pilot has been created I
could introduce other characters into the programme which talk, these episodes would then
require a script.