Creative Collaboration -
Weeks 3 - 5
After completing our first task in the 'creative collaboration' module, and being introduced to the concept of working with others and sharing visions to fit a brief, we were given task which would last us until the end of the module, where we chose two compatible partners and completed one of many briefs.
Before we jumped right into selecting our partners however, we were tasked to prepare a presentation where we list all our strengths and weaknesses using what's known as a SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). The reasoning behind this was so that we could see whether or not our certain skills would be appreciated and relevant with the people we pair with, as if we blindly decide to work with people with similar skill sets and interests, important jobs not covered in anyone's set may be disregarded or produced to a lower standard, therefore I realise the importance of this task, as this way we can bring out the best of people in one, unified piece. Below is the PowerPoint sides that I created for my presentation to the class.
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| Title page, with my Simpsons illustration of myself |
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| Strengths page, with references to past works |
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| Weaknesses and Threats page |
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| Opportunities page |
In order to get a better sense out of what work I'd produce in a team, I showcased screenshots of all my past and proudest work, in terms of illustration and animation. I tried to be as honest as I could with the 'negatives' slide, as I felt it was important to explain areas I wouldn't wish to delve into myself, and also to get the attention of people who would be able to help me with my threats. Presentation wise, I tried to re-enforce my passion for graphic design by making it looks slick as well as representing myself.
In terms of coming to the point of talking through these slides with the class, I was nervous, especially considering the fact that I am talking about myself. However, as I learnt from presentations in the first year, it is important not to rely on just reading text from a board, as you'd risk plainly reading out what everyone can see, thus not opening up a discussion or showing any personality, as if it was done this way (which happened in past presentations), you may as well just send the presentation to the class and have them read through it themselves. This knowledge proved to be very beneficial as I felt the talk went a lot better than I expected.
It was also important for me to pay attention to other's presentations, as it is from them that I'd decide upon my team. In the end, I formed a team with two other students, Chloe and Josh. The reasoning behind this, despite the ease of contacting them, was that combined, we seemed to cover a wide range of talents. For example; Chloe is passionate about environment design and sketching, whereas Josh has an interest and talent in music and interviewing, all of which I am not the best at. I also feel that being the only one who has had proper experience in 2D animation, my skills would also be appreciated.
There was an abundance of briefs to select from so it took us a while to select one that suited us all. Two in particular stood out to us, and they were ones that we set up by already established franchises, 'Beano' and 'Dogs Trust'. We liked these as they were either related to topics that were passionate about or covered relevant talents of the group members, however after reading further into the briefs, we realised how strict the guidelines were, thus limiting our creative potential. This was when we decided to move onto a much more open brief, the 'Creative Conscience' brief.
With the 'open' brief in 'Creative Conscience', we were given freedom to explore an issue which we felt passionate about, and produce animated-related material in reference to that. As we are all lovers of dogs, and felt strongly about adopting dogs from shelters, we went back to the idea behind 'Dogs Trust', and chose to endorse that message, but through our own means and creativity. Now that we settled on an idea, it was time to decide how we achieve what we want, and how we will divide the tasks that we set between our team members.
Not only this this brief allow for more freedom in terms of topic to cover, but also fitted with all our SWOT analysis's better, as with the original 'Dog's Trust' brief, only the ones who have an interest in graphic design (mainly me), would be able to truly utilise their skills. However, with whats offered in the 'Creative Conscience' brief, we can work around a way to include all major interests from each individual into the project. This has shown me how the SWOT analysis can be used to help pick a more suitable brief, therefore once again showing me the importance of it.
In terms of mandatories for the competition, as we're dealing with an open brief, there are very little to speak of, the only things that I could gather are as follows;
- it must be concerned with a topic we're concerned about
- fit into at least one of their six impact themes (ours fits into equality & justice, and community)
- look for a solution for the issue that you're raising
- submit the video file to the competition with a £10 entry fee
Due to the fact that Creative Conscience is a business which focuses on moral principals such as equality and individual rights, one thing that I think we would have to ensure is that we're working with good values, otherwise known as ethical behavior
Chloe's passion lies within children's illustration, so we felt a illustrative children book would be a suitable method of communicating our narrative and message, however in order to allow me to provide my skills, have it be an animated children's book, presented in a digital video format, where characters on the individual pages come to life and move until the page is turned. This was inspired by the opening of the first Shrek movie, where a similar concept is explored.
This helped up to settle on how our piece will play out, which is as follows -
1. Live action footage of a book on a lap, opening to the first page, where an illustration (provided by Chloe) of the start of the story within the book can be seen.
2. Camera zooms into the page, where the screen transitions to my animation, which has a starting frame that replicates Chloe's illustration.
3. A cartoon animation about a sad (whist keeping it from being too depressing) typical backstory of a dog who gets sent to a shelter (Full story TBC)
4. On the final frame of the animation, the screen transitions to another of Chloe's illustrations inside the final page of the book, again replicating the final frame.
5. The book closes, the camera pans upwards to show a similar looking dog to the dog that the animation was based upon, who is in a happy home, looking towards the owners perspective happily.
The reason as to why I like this structure, is it builds the audiences expectations towards a sad story, but then are pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised when they see that the dog is now in a happy home, thus leaving the audience with a pleasant heart-warming scene, yet still broadcasting our intended message and the importance of it. The reason as to why we have yet to decide upon the narrative in the book itself, is that we want to wait until all our primary research from visiting a dog shelter is collected, so that we can provide a much more accurate and respectful representation. Deciding upon this idea has also opened up more areas to delve into and more jobs to be completed, such as searching for a voice over and a god which we can film inside a home.
I am happy that we have mutually decided upon an idea, and I feel as though this team is working well together. This has allowed us to split the jobs provided to us by our idea into all three of us, keeping in mind our abilities and preferences, which are as follows;
With the 'open' brief in 'Creative Conscience', we were given freedom to explore an issue which we felt passionate about, and produce animated-related material in reference to that. As we are all lovers of dogs, and felt strongly about adopting dogs from shelters, we went back to the idea behind 'Dogs Trust', and chose to endorse that message, but through our own means and creativity. Now that we settled on an idea, it was time to decide how we achieve what we want, and how we will divide the tasks that we set between our team members.
Not only this this brief allow for more freedom in terms of topic to cover, but also fitted with all our SWOT analysis's better, as with the original 'Dog's Trust' brief, only the ones who have an interest in graphic design (mainly me), would be able to truly utilise their skills. However, with whats offered in the 'Creative Conscience' brief, we can work around a way to include all major interests from each individual into the project. This has shown me how the SWOT analysis can be used to help pick a more suitable brief, therefore once again showing me the importance of it.
In terms of mandatories for the competition, as we're dealing with an open brief, there are very little to speak of, the only things that I could gather are as follows;
- it must be concerned with a topic we're concerned about
- fit into at least one of their six impact themes (ours fits into equality & justice, and community)
- look for a solution for the issue that you're raising
- submit the video file to the competition with a £10 entry fee
Due to the fact that Creative Conscience is a business which focuses on moral principals such as equality and individual rights, one thing that I think we would have to ensure is that we're working with good values, otherwise known as ethical behavior
Another job that we decided would be essential in terms of research was traveling to a local dog shelter and arrange an interview with a worker, in order to get a better and more accurate scope of the issues and experiences these dogs have been put through, which we would be able to appropriately address in our story. As Josh has experience with interviewing, we decided that although we would all visit, he should be the one to handle speaking and recording the discussion. Doing this would also be beneficial for the character design process in the future, as we can document a wide variety of dog characters that we can base designs upon.
In terms of the narrative structure of our piece, we researched adverts that aimed to portray a similar message as we are, thus seeing effective methods of communicating what we intend to, which was adopting dogs from shelters as appose to breeders. One advert stood out very well to me, and that was one from 'Dogs Trust', where a dog in a shelter grows an affection towards a woolen human doll, before meeting an accurate human regular of that doll who adopts and loves the dog. After showing this to my group, I noticed how they reacted, which was with tears of joy and empathy, which I felt we should aim to emulate in our animation. The reason as to why I feel this was so effective was that it provided a strong emotional response without being depressing as many similar adverts aim for, and it is instead uplifting, which especially considering our target audience of children, would be very suitable. This has shown me of pre-establishing a target audience and helped us to decide upon a tone for our piece.
This helped up to settle on how our piece will play out, which is as follows -
1. Live action footage of a book on a lap, opening to the first page, where an illustration (provided by Chloe) of the start of the story within the book can be seen.
2. Camera zooms into the page, where the screen transitions to my animation, which has a starting frame that replicates Chloe's illustration.
3. A cartoon animation about a sad (whist keeping it from being too depressing) typical backstory of a dog who gets sent to a shelter (Full story TBC)
4. On the final frame of the animation, the screen transitions to another of Chloe's illustrations inside the final page of the book, again replicating the final frame.
5. The book closes, the camera pans upwards to show a similar looking dog to the dog that the animation was based upon, who is in a happy home, looking towards the owners perspective happily.
The reason as to why I like this structure, is it builds the audiences expectations towards a sad story, but then are pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised when they see that the dog is now in a happy home, thus leaving the audience with a pleasant heart-warming scene, yet still broadcasting our intended message and the importance of it. The reason as to why we have yet to decide upon the narrative in the book itself, is that we want to wait until all our primary research from visiting a dog shelter is collected, so that we can provide a much more accurate and respectful representation. Deciding upon this idea has also opened up more areas to delve into and more jobs to be completed, such as searching for a voice over and a god which we can film inside a home.
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| A sketch demonstration how I want our piece to end |
Me
- Animating (time consuming job)
- Foley
- Character design clean up
- Live action film
Chloe
- Environment design
- Foley
- Initial character design
- Front and back page desinn
- Storyboard clean up (if necessary)
Josh
- Storyline & script for the book
- Audio & foley
- Interviewing
- Research
- Rough storyboard
- Editing 'making of'
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