Throughout my reflective journal, you will see the following
- Peer Evaluation
- An idea I had for my trailer
- Questionnaire results
- Age rating
- Pecha Kucha Presentation
- Background
- Changing Concept to Anarchy
- Taking Pictures around London
- Movie Research 1
- Movie Research 2
- Movie Research 3 – Anarchy
Everything on this page is weekly updates
Week 1
20th-23rd February
Planning what I might want to do for my final major project
As I attempted to work on ideas for my final major project, I started to experiment with a variety of different backgrounds. I experimented with rural landscapes and decided to draw a mountain.
My character would be featured in a variety of locations to illustrate that their reach and their representation is everywhere. From the busy city streets to the lush mountainous terrains of the countryside. I was unsure if I wanted to continue with the drawing but kept it in case it became useful.
Week 2
27th Feb-2nd March
An Idea I had for my trailer
I thought of all of the James Bond movie intros that I have seen and how the music plus the visual imagery conveys the theme without spoiling the plot to the movie. One idea which came to me whilst watching Skyfall was to have a scene where my main character is being dragged down into the ocean yet sees the beauty around them. In my story, there’s an evil force that cannot be seen and it is trying to take their soul away from them. Only until the end, you see the different perspectives. What the person saw was different to what the evil force saw. It is revealed in the end, the person drowning was causing more harm than good. This is the feel of animation I wish to create.
IMDb. (2012). Skyfall (2012). Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/. Last accessed 17th Feb 2017.
Week 3
6th-9th March
Peer Evaluation
This peer evaluation was based on my proposal and how to improve the storyline. After discussing with peers, giving a brief description of what our final major project will be, we gave feedback to each other. From my peers, I received some feedback on what I need to improve and what they found great about it.
Strengths
- Thought-provoking story
- Current events were mentioned
Areas to develop
- Explain in more detail what the final major project is on
- Bibliography should have more than just internet posts
Using the feedback I got from my proposal draft, I will look into what more needs to be done to give an in-depth explanation. As well as looking beyond the internet, I will need to go to the library to take out books, going to the art gallery to look at various styles and the museums for researching.
Week 4
13th-16th March
Pecha Kucha Presentation
Overall the feedback for my presentation consisted of a good understanding of what it was that I wanted to do for my project. Results were overall poor. This is because I did not explain my story well to the audience although I felt I was answering their questions. I said I was unsure about my art style the audience. This left to the questions was about whether they thought I was unsure about anything. The majority said Yes saying that they felt I was unsure about the project. Upon reflection and after reading their response I also agree with their assessment. If I were going to do this again I know not to say that I was not sure about specific sections of my work.
Week 5
20th-23rd March
Questionnaire results
I managed to gather data from my questionnaire regarding what my target audience wanted to see. I used the theme of movies to accumulate my information. As my audience, I wanted to know what would make them want to watch a particular type of movie. For example, was it their favourite celebrities, the storyline, cinematography i.e. that is how well it was shot, the music, the trailer or if there was something else. From the results, it is clear that my audience found the most important part of the movie was the storyline.
Upon reflection whilst looking at the results, I found some flaws that I could have improved. For example, when asking how often do you watch movies after seeing the trailer, my respondents were split between often and sometimes. I needed these questions to be more specific. Whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly or less often. This would have served as a better breakdown of the statistics. Some of the other questions shared the same fate of not being specific. Giving them a better time frame would have helped them to have a better understanding of the difference in what I meant by “often” and “sometimes”.
Week 6
27th- 30th March
Background
In order to make this image, I used a number of paintbrushes to give a different effect. Using the software, Photoshop, I made a scene to show the night sky. Brushes that are fade around the end but the centre is more opaque which created a glowing effect for the starry night sky. Another brush was used to make the line of the road and the lamp. Overall I did like this image not much detail is needed for this seeing as it is set at night.
Upon looking at the lamp post again I was not happy with the overall effect. The light does not travel in a jagged way. Also, the shading below the light appears at an unusual angle. It is a messy oval shape and needs to be more circular. So If I were to make this again I would not only make the direct line of the light straighter but the width of the light on the ground to be the same as the length.
Working on a Logo
I started working on designing this logo as one of the companies of the businessmen that stole from their workers. I wanted the logo to represent the conglomerate corporations handling their finances. It is a man that appears to be standing over a shadow that is an amalgamation of different animals. The corporate spin is that it is the company that looks after all of Gods creatures. However, really it tells a different story as I wanted the businessmen to be evil and insidious an this is their secret society logo like the Illuminati. I was clearly not to make the logo represent any companies that actually exist as I did not want to make a direct association.
Week 7
3rd – 6th April
Age Rating
My target audience is anyone that likes gore. According to the BBFC rating, my storyboard trailer idea would be suitable for 12/12A, however, if I do decide to include certain parts that are more violent then the content for the animation would be suitable for over 15.
12/12A content does not allow blood but brief moments of blood may be allowed. Due to possible censorship, raising the age restriction to 15 seems to make a lot more sense. According to the official BBFC website for 18 “material or treatment appears to us to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society. For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals.”.
BBFC. (2010). 18. Available: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/18. Last accessed 2017.
I got my idea from watching the film Natural Born Killers where they used animation to depict the violent scenes. Whereas the gory scenes would raise the age rating to 18. A little gore is allowed to be shown for a 12A trailer. I decided to change this and have two trailers of one green band trailer and one red band. The green band trailer would, of course, be suitable to be seen by all ages whereas the red band trailer would be the video I wanted to do.
“Natural Born Killers” (Animated Scenes Excerpt) from Acme Filmworks on Vimeo.
Week 8
10th-13th April
Making the Music
I needed software to make my own music. I did not want to choose any free music that was online since there was a particular theme I wanted to use. Instead of me trying to search the internet for a music track which would have been like searching for a pin in a haystack, I decided to use Garageband a music editing software that was available on the college iMacs. The Stanmore College technician advised me to use this software because it was fairly intuitive and easy to grasp compared to the Logic music editing software. I could have used Youtube for a tutorial if I got stuck but fortunately, it did turn out to be fairly easy to use.
I made two songs which I titled DarkFlow and Project IMI
Week 9
17th-20th April
Changing Concept to Anarchy
Although the product has changed slightly, it still has the same overall theme which is revenge. I decided to change the concept from a serial killer to an Anarchist. The decision came to me after I watched the movie V for Vendetta.
V for Vendetta –
I decided to change the concept of my trailer about a serial killer murdering rich people to become more political in its tone. The whole poor against the rich seems to relate to a class war which some people feel is ongoing due to the abuses of the government. I wanted to highlight the cause of class inequality and show the effect of ordinary people fighting back. That is why my animated character does not have a face, sex or a racial feature.
In the beginning, you see the protagonist in the mask was a serial killer. Simply murdering businessmen because they are rich. After watching this movie it made me really think about my characters motive. I thought how much better off the story would be if I changed my character from committing murder and theft for the cause of Anarchy. The quote that “the people shouldn’t fear the government the government should fear the people” stood out the most to me.
Assault On Wall Street
The movie Assault on Wall Street showed how people are affected by corporate greed. The main character was wronged by the system and those close to him were affected. The tragic conclusion of his wife’s suicide made him feel there was no other action left to him but to kill those on Wall Street who profited from his misfortunes. At the end of this movie, the main character, after getting away with his assault on Wall Street, murder of the ones that did him and others wrong, made it his mission to kill again. I like that this man was willing to do what is right similar to what my protagonist in my story wishes to do.
Rampage: Capital Punishment
A former mass murderer decides to seek revenge on the rich and corrupt in Washington. He does this by taking over what he considers to be the establishment mechanism to mass control, a TV station. Holding several people hostage he forces the TV anchorman to play his dvd exposing the wrongs of society and the government. Again this film is in line with my story idea since it is about a person who wants to change society by hurting the establishment. Although he does appear to be a person with no remorse, his main aim is to take out those that support the government. It is not a film I would normally watch but it did resonate with my story and I think that is why I enjoyed it more.
Week 10
24th-27th April
Taking pictures around London
I said that if I don’t match the style that I want then I will simply take pictures of them which will be put into Photoshop and given the filter that will give it the appearance of the artist’s style I chose. I went around London taking pictures of environments like underpasses, streets, fountains and buildings. The problems I experienced were that people were getting in the shot and I did not want them featured. I used my Samsung S6 phone even though I might have got better results using the colleges Nikon DSL camera. However, I chose to use my Samsung phone because I thought I got good quality images and it is fairly simple to use.
Week 11
1st – 4th May
Using Photoshop
Here are just a few of the images that were edited using the software Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop CC has the special feature called smart objects which allows an image to be adjusted without damaging it and the quality. I did not have any problems as the software makes it relatively easy to understand and use.
Week 12
8th-11th May
Starting Premiere Pro
I have managed to make a music track, I have got pictures and I have got the flash animations. The only problem now is that I gave to edit the trailer and I have given myself a limited time to learn to edit. When researching I had the option of using the software windows movie maker, Apple iMovie but the one I chose was Adobe Premiere Pro. I chose this mostly because I would get support and assistance from students and staff who are familiar with the software. However, since I have been involved in the making of my final major project, I did not feel It was right to give the editing responsibility to someone else. I got some videos on Youtube to help tutor me but it was a very huge task and I became very frustrated at times. Thankfully the media technicians and a TV and Film student were on hand whenever I got stuck. Upon reflection, I should have given myself more time to learn how to edit, especially since this software was not as easy as it looked.
My first problem, which became my main problem was adding the audio of my poem to the sequence. With Christine, when I recorded the first time there was a lot of background noise and I thought the recording levels were too high. I lowered the volume and waited for the recording environment to be suitable and I recorded her five more times because I was worried about her pacing. Unfortunately, when I added her voice to the timeline it appeared the audio was too low and could not be salvaged. Also, I thought her voice was too posh and did not suit the video I wanted to make. I then proceeded to ask my tutor who has a lower voice and has a North America dialect. Again I had issues because although the volume was fine his delivery was way too slow. I could not fit it into my sequence the way I wanted. I had to wait until I had edited the video before I could record the poem again. Time was not on my side however and due to the deadline, I had to improvise and use my own voice. I had to watch the video whilst I said each line, make sure the pacing was correct and then record.
Week 13
15th-18th May
Week 14
22nd-25th May
Uploading Test 1 of FMP
I wanted to just test what I had with one of the trailers that happened to have no sound. How I uploaded the video was simple enough. and editing the final product
Handing in the final product
Final Major Project 