FMP: Weekly Reflection
- 1. Weekly FMP Reflection Ewan Wild
- 2. Week 1 On the first week of the FMP, I started and completed my initial plans as well as my proposal. The initial plans took at little bit longer, as I was still unsure about the specifics of my project as well as the fact that there were more jobs to complete than in the proposal, however both were done in the first week. Inside the initial plans were lots of different smaller tasks. For example, the first one was my pre- proposal which is a brief idea of what I wanted to make. There were other larger jobs, such as my key influences for the project. For this I chose Norman McLaren, Persepolis, Classic Disney, and Terry Gilliam. When all the basics were done, I added more mood boards and other slides. My mood board did well at influencing my proposal because it allowed me to give more detail as to what I wanted to do. For example, I had a more clear idea on the style and the content I would have in my trailer. Throughout the week I worked on my initial plans, my idea became more clear as I worked on it, allowing me to make my proposal a lot more easily.
- 3. Week 1 When writing my proposal, I felt quite happy. I have a clear image of what I want to do in my head, and my proposal just made my idea feel more real. Writing the schedule was also very useful. It has given me a good idea of how to spend my time throughout the project, so I’m not swamped or not doing anything. In conclusion, at the end of this week I feel like I have enough knowledge to proceed. I already have some ideas as to what to put into my pre-production, so I am ready to move on. If I could improve something from this week, I would just keep adding slides to my initial plans, it can always be improved. I would probably add another mood board and analysis, as well as another key influence. Further research I would do now is just to look up a wider variety of animated short films. Even if I know my style, it could be useful to know about others, as well as how they are made and other aspects of them, such as sound effects and music.
- 4. Week 2 For week 2 I spent starting my research. I started by researching existing products. This was a variety of short films and styles that were similar to my style but also slightly different. I started by talking about Disney’s old classic style and how the game Cuphead has adapted this into a modern game. By not only drawing it, but also by a computer to add colour and make the movements. I also talked about other short films such as Father and Daughter, Who’s Hungry, and a variety of film posters. I also started my primary and secondary research. Primary research involves areas like creating surveys and conducting interviews that I do myself. Secondary research however is already existing and I just talk about how the results affect my piece. I started by completing some of my secondary research. To do this, I went to different websites such as IMDb and YouGov.
- 5. Week 2 From this secondary research I have learnt, in more detail, my target audience as YouGov has a lot of surveys and so from a survey taken by nearly 6000 people, I got more information about my audience. I also compared it to other major film companies to see the ratio of how many people liked Disney compared to others such as Warner Bros. Finally, I started my primary audience research. This involved creating a survey for people to complete. I didn’t type up the results in week 2 however as I was letting the responses build up. I ended up with 46 results but had to delete some of them due to answers that weren’t serious, and so they couldn’t be used. I still have another week of research though, and in this next week I will type up everything about the primary audience research and do some more on it. I will also conduct an interview in person which will give me more information on what I can do to make my project better.
- 6. Week 2 From this research so far, I can bring forward different ideas that people from the survey have given me. They, as well as the existing products, have let me find out what makes a good animation, as well as what people want to see in a short film. My research hasn’t made much change in my short film, as the majorities on my survey were happy with my idea. It has helped my adapt what parts I will concentrate on though, as people have said what areas they think are more important. My research from existing products has only highlighted one problem, time. My production will take a long time to complete as I need to draw everything as well as create all the music, so I need to look out for the length of time I take to do it. My most successful area of research so far is my existing product research. I have spoken in a lot of detail about the areas of these short films which have helped me create stronger ideas for my own short film.
- 7. Week 3 Week 3 was also spent on research. This time I concentrated on experimenting as well as subject research. This week I think that subject research worked well, as it gives me a large insight into different areas of animation, and then gives me my own ideas for what I can do during production. My experiments were also kind of useful, as they gave me an idea of what to do. As of the end of week 3, I have nothing else to do on this PowerPoint, and so I can quickly move on to pre- production as soon as I can. During this week, nothing went wrong and I flew through my work, writing in great detail about everything. I think this can be partly due to the planning I completed in my proposal, as it has helped me go through everything in good time.
- 8. Week 4 This week I started and finished my pre-production work. This involved making a rough idea of everything I want to make, including three slides deciding what font I want to use. This was not limited to just my main piece, I also made layouts for my side projects, as shown below. This was really useful as I now have a clear image in my head for what I want my poster to look like, so when the time comes and I finally have to make it, I can do it quickly and make it look exactly how I want it. I also did this with other side pieces, such as an album cover and various T-shirt designs. Because of pre- production, I will hopefully be able to complete all of these quickly and well, giving me more time to focus on my main area of production. The more detail I complete my pre-production in, the easier it will be to complete all my production work to a high standard.
- 9. Week 4 As well as all of that I did a lot to further my music. I decided on what instruments I wanted to use, as well as the style of music I want for each section of my trailer. With all of this done, I thought I better do more on my main piece. I started by creating a shotlist, which is very useful as it shows, in a decent amount of detail, what each shot will be, and what happens in it. This makes production a lot easier as I know what I am doing shot by shot, and can therefore create my project much more easily. After all of this was done, I completed my contingency planning and health and safety planning. These didn’t take too long, however they are an important part of pre-production as they have a lot of information of what to do incase things go wrong.
- 10. Review So Far • In my planning, the shotlist was probably the best part. Because of that list, I was able to find everything that I need, as well as at giving me an order to do things and an image in my head, more so than I had before. I also think planning all my side projects was good, as it gives me an important idea of how I will make them, so when the time comes, I will be able to complete it the way I want, and quickly too. • My schedule started off being quite important, but as time went past, I became less useful. I underestimated how much work I would need to do, so my schedule has gone out the window and instead I am just getting as much done as I can in whatever order is the most important. • I fairly frequently review my planning as the shotlist reminds me of everything I need to do. It is by far the most important and useful part of my planning and without it I'd be very lost and have more difficulty completing my project.
- 11. Review So Far • I have never had any problems due to poor planning, as I have always made sure it is detailed and useful. I hope this is the same in the future, as poor planning could potentially cost me the grade I want. • The planning stages have taught me everything I need to know to create my project. From different ways I could animate it, to the ways I could draw it. Without my planning, I would have nothing and everything would be a disaster. For Production see my Daily Production Reflection