UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma

Unit 13: Extended project in creative media production

The Final Major Project (Year Two)

STATEMENT OF AIMS

FMP unit is the summative unit in the final year of the two-year qualification. It
will provide students with a measure of self-directed learning through the
completion of a substantial creative media production and technology project.

The unit requires students to apply the skills, knowledge and understanding
developed over the entire course, to complete a creative media production project. It
will provide students with a measure of self-directed learning, and an opportunity to
further clarify their longer-term goals through their choice of an activity to explore in
greater depth

Name Alfie Sampson

Disciplines Video, animation (possibly).

(primary/secondary
)
(e.g. video,
animation, sound,
photography, 3D,
etc)
Project (e.g. short
film, music video,
Short film.
animation,
documentary, advert,
branding, etc.)
Section 1: Rationale (minimum of 100 words)
This section provides you with an opportunity to reflect on, review and summarize
your progress and achievements through the entire course and the knowledge,
skills and understanding you have acquired. What do you know now, and what it
means to you, compare with what you knew and could do before you started the
course and how this has influenced your choice of pathway and your project
proposal. 

From the end of year one to now, it’s safe to say that I’ve made a lot of progress in
nurturing my editing software skills within Animate, After Effects, Premiere Pro,
etc. I have learnt how to asset warp an image within an animation, I am now
confident in the skill of Rotoscoping thanks to the first year FMP. Within a short
amount of time, I have managed to learn the basics behind 3-D modelling /
animation. With all these skills and milestones, I’ve worked hard to achieve, I feel a
new-found confidence that I can apply these to whatever field I may find myself in.

Section 2: Project Concept (minimum of 200 words)

This section provides an opportunity for you to clearly explain the concept and
aims of your project, the research and ideas that will support its development, what
you anticipate producing, the levels of and types of resources that you will need
and an indication of the form in which you will complete and present your project
realisation within the allocated timescale.
For my Final Major Project, I am aiming towards using the Bournemouth Beach
location to film myself walking across the pathway, sitting down on the sand,
capturing the tides. All while I perform a spoken word piece in the background
dealing with themes of anxiety, self-discovery, self-love, self-doubt, certainty,
uncertainty, etc. I want to be able address my own doubts about my future but also
encourage others to live in the moment of the present.

I would like to present this footage in a soft and elegant manner and I aim to
achieve this by slowing the footage down so that you can clearly see my natural
expressions come across in the piece. I want most of the footage to be in black
and white for the purpose of following these themes. I would like to add some parts
of animation to make the message of my project stand out, presented in the form
of text, rotoscoping, etc. I intend to use both Premiere Pro, Animate and possibly
After Effects in order to help bring my vision to life. I aim to use my phone to record
the footage on location as I’ll most likely be producing this in my own time. For the
spoken background piece, I am aiming to make it as original as possible and I will
be using a recorder (in-college) to produce this.

Section 3: Evaluation – How you plan to record your progress (minimum of 100
words)
This section provides an opportunity to explain how you will reflect on, and
evaluate, your work as both an on-going activity and at the conclusion of the
project. You should describe how you intend to record your decision making and
how you will document changes to your ideas as work progresses. The evaluation
should be referenced to your stated aims and be reflective and analytical rather
than a description of actions completed. Remember that your evaluation should be
an on-going process and not just left to the completion of the project.

For every day that I work on this project, whether it be in planning, production,
sharing ideas, etc. I intend to jot each thing down in the “Notes” app on my phone
and this will later form a diary entry which I will be producing on my FMP site every
Friday for each week discussing the highs and lows of the process and what I will
be planning for next week.

Proposed Research Sources

These will be resources and influences to inform your project, which may include
audio-visual texts, articles, websites etc. Try to be as detailed as you can with this
section with regards to SPECIFIC research material

Most of the resources and themes I’m aiming for come from musical artists I’m
very much influenced by today from the likes of RAYE, MARINA, Mabel, Olivia
Rodrigo, Tate McRae who inspire me emotionally with their material.

MARINA – LOVE AND FEAR TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXXjSPBYCS4

Probably one of my biggest inspirations for this piece, Marina references lyrics
from her album “Love + Fear” accompanied by beautiful visuals of the sea, the
world and nature to form a poetic vision about the world and how beautiful and
scary it is at the same time.

MARINA – E.V.O.L
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kusMinllYg

Ignore the actual song but focus on the visuals, I really like how the video is in
black and white and the footage is slowed down so that you can see what the
person is thinking and feeling.
Tate McRae – I used to think I could fly (full album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwauS9g55zk

I love this whole album because Tate McRae goes through all the feelings of
uncertainty, heartbreak, angst with each track. I feel that it all greatly describes
what my situation is like right now.

Mooji – Meditation Guru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sOFaT3UOg8

I learned about Mooji when I took part in acting classes when COVID was still
ongoing in 2021. My teacher gave us all exercises to teach us to be more honest
and caring with ourselves and she sent us videos from different gurus such as this
guy. This exercise has stuck with me because I know I’ve had moments where I’ve
just had so many questions about where I’m at now. This exercise has helped me
feel at ease and I also believe in the message that comes across in this particular
exercise.

I will also be putting out my own questionnaires on Microsoft Teams related to the
theme of overthinking, self love, anxiety, etc. This will influence how I will produce
my spoken piece. I will be asking questions such as What does overthinking feel
like to you? How do you approach / challenge this? I appreciate that this is quite a
personal theme so I need to make sure that the questions I put out to my audience
don't put them off in the sense that they are too hard to answer.
Equipment Required
E.g., cameras, computers, software etc. Be as specific as you can with regards to
software as you may need a variety of programs.

My phone – to record the main footage.

Recorder – to record my spoken piece.

Premiere Pro (software) – to edit the footage together.

Animate (software) – to add animated elements to my project.

After Effects – to enhance my project in terms of effects that can complement the
tone of my piece.

Resources Required
Props, locations, costumes, make-up, sounds (where applicable)

Sound effects – stuff like waves and crunching sand to back up the environmental
aspect of my project.

Bournemouth Beach – the main filming location.

Skills to develop/learn
Appropriate skills for chosen pathway (this will be helpful for staff to know to
organise particular workshops). Be as specific as you can with the skills you might
need to develop.

Editing

Sound

Software Navigation

Time-planning

Personnel and responsibilities

The Final Major Project is designed to be YOUR personal project. You are working
independently but may require some assistance or include models, actors, crew
etc. Identify all personnel involved. If it will just be yourself, please make this clear.

It is my responsibility to make sure I pick the right day to film at Bournemouth

Beach as the weather is one of the most important factors of production. Another
important factor is crowds as I want a small amount of people to be entering my
shots.

I do NOT intend to use anyone from The College to help me with my project.

Intended audience and context

Be specific about your intended audience. This should include, where
possible, age range, specific interests of audience, other demographic
considerations.
 
The context will be how and where your finished product will be used for;
e.g., a film festival, a TV channel, an advertising campaign, an animated
series, an art installation, an online platform, etc.  

My intended audience are 16–21-year-olds who may feel like they’ve reached a
place of uncertainty within their life. This could mean hitting a dead end in where
they’d hope they would reach with careers, life, relationships, or even if they are
just stuck in a place of overthinking and wish to seek some clarity.

The context of my project is a short film / spoken piece which will be uploaded to
social media sites such as YouTube to raise awareness about the feelings of
uncertainty and going off-course in life.

Creative Mindsets
Identify how you will be using or including the six Creative Mindsets for your FMP
(where applicable). Check the outline for each CM on the PowerPoint presentation
delivered during the FMP pitch.

Ownership
I will be using my own experiences to portray how these themes of uncertainty; anxiety
have impacted me and how they’ve led me to this position right now.
Critical Thinking
What does / will this mean to my audience watching this project? They will all have
different meanings and experiences of these themes. It’s important to me that they also
feel heard in a way that they can relate to my project.

Problem Solving
How do I ask the right questions to my audience without going too personal? How will I
combat the weather when I didn’t plan for it to rain on the day of shooting?

Creativity
I will be applying this mostly through the editing period of my project. I will be playing
around with different effects and animation techniques that will help elevate my raw
footage to convey the personal themes throughout.

Risk Taking
I may ask questions in my survey that may prove to be too sensitive for some people but
even though my aim is to try and make the questions easy and approachable, I still want
to understand what people experience when it comes to themes of overthinking and hitting
mental blocks.

Collaboration

I might be offering assistance to one of my family members to help film footage of

me at the beach, but I’m confident I can do all of this independently.

You will be expected to engage with and reflect on the use of these Creative
Mindsets throughout your FMP from start to finish
How to successfully complete a final major project

1. Do something you enjoy – look back on projects this year and think about
what skills you’ve learnt and which you have really enjoyed. What job would
you like to do in the future? How can you apply it to your project? Pick a
theme or themes which you can connect with.
LOVE YOUR PROJECT

2. Do lots and lots of research – primary and secondary are both essential.
Use a wide range of methods and resources, such as questionnaires,
surveys, interviews (Primary), and researching the work of professional
practitioners and techniques (Secondary).
3. Manage your time – 10 weeks is not long. Just think how fast this year has
gone so far. Plan ahead and don’t fall behind. MAKE USE OF
INDEPENDENT STUDY TIME.

4. You must document everything what happens as you go along. Your entire
journey from start to finish should be fully recorded. Describe and analyse as
you go along. Every aspect of your project should be fully considered. Your
Planning and Schedule will be vital to the success of your FMP

5. Research, design, experiment, build, evaluate. Your project should evolve

over the allotted time. Be flexible and adaptable if your FMP decides to go in
a different direction than first intended. Ensure you record all developments as
the project develops.

6. Critically analyse and evaluate – this will refer to the research you
undertake, the pre-production, production and post-production. Don’t just
describe but analyse, interpret, research and evaluate.

7. Listen to advice from your lecturers in formative assessment sessions

throughout the project. You might just find that as we are used to marking
work we know what the requirements are to make good/exceptional projects.
Remember, your work will be graded at Pass, Merit or Distinction, so aim
for the best grade you can and take advice on board when given.

8. You are being graded against SEVEN Learning Outcomes, so you need to
ensure that you do the very best in each of them to achieve the grade you
may require, so pay close attention to all parts of the FMP