UAL Level 3 Diploma

Unit 8: Developing a creative media production project 

The Final Major Project (Year One)

STATEMENT OF AIMS

Unit 8 is the summative unit in the first 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 in Units 1–7, to complete a creative media production project. It will
provide students with a measure of self-directed learning, and an opportunity to
begin to clarify their longer-term goals through their choice of an activity to explore in
greater depth

Name Tyler Bowman

Disciplines Mainly my Final Major Project will be on animation with my

(primary/secondary secondary being video where I use rotoscoping.
)
(e.g. video,
animation, sound,
photography
Project (e.g. short I am making an experimental animation
narrative film,
experimental short
film, experimental
animation,
cinemograph, time-
lapse etc. )
Section 1: Rationale (minimum of 100 words)
During my time on this course, I have learnt many new skills. Including how to fill
out research documents including storyboards, scripts, production schedule, risk
assessments, call sheets, contingency plan and a location Reece. About
turntables and three-point lighting, how to work a green screen, what an effective
survey looks like, technical codes, symbolic codes, conventions and different
audiences for adverts, how shutter speed affects pictures, expanded my
knowledge on photoshop, how to use a reflector to control lighting in images and
how to conduct valuable primary and secondary research.
I have also learnt new skills for animation which is what I am most keen on. I
already had a basic knowledge on animating but my skills have been expanded so
I now know how to pick what type of animation to use (stop-mo or motion-tweens)
how to create a colour pallet, lip syncing and how to split audio. I have mainly
enjoyed learning and practising these skills which has what made me pick to major
into the animation sector.

Section 2: Project Concept (minimum of 200 words)

My plan for my Final Major Project is to create a two-minute looping animation of a
puppet. This puppet will be a bee marionette puppet so above it there will be the
strings and the wooden cross being controlled by a hand which the screen will cut
off at the wrist. The set/location will be in a theatre with the puppet dancing and
walking along the floor with the red theatre curtains at the side pulled back and a
bit along the top. The background in the theatre will be a puppet workshop were
puppets are made with a desk and tools as well as a few puppets hanging up. The
puppeteer will be making the puppet walk and run around as well as doing tricks.
Such as a backflip or front flip or cartwheel. Now, I know I’m not the best at
drawing hands (I actually really suck at them) so I plan to take a video of a hand
holding onto a wooden cross and moving the puppet around the screen making it
do different things and tricks and then rotoscoping over the hand movements so
that it looks realistic and better. This will also show more of my skills.
A majority of the research I need to produce will be on how a puppet moves and
how to control one. This includes the hand movements and shapes to cause a
puppet to do a certain action as well as different cycles of a stick man including
things like walking and backflipping and cartwheeling so I know what these
movements will look like as well as how to achieve them. I will also most definitely
need to research on rotoscoping to know how to do this skill.
I will also research already existing animations to look at their style and art.
I also have a fairly good music knowledge having played the guitar for many years
so I am planning on writing a simple rift to play through out the piece hopefully
making it loop.
For my audio I will have some sound effects in there like clapping and sad sighing.
These will be played when the puppet does an advanced trick and when the
puppet is dropped.

Section 3: Evaluation – How you plan to record your progress (minimum of 100
words)
To constantly evaluate my work, I plan to at the end of each day I do work do a
reflection and evaluation which will be recorded into my production diary on weebly.
There I will write down everything I did, how I think it went and is going as well as any
decisions, I made that day, any new ideas or changing any idea and what I’m
planning on doing next or going forward. Hopefully I will catch all my thought
process to portray everything I’m feeling, thinking and planning to do.
I will also at the end of each research or planning hopefully write a summative
paragraph assessing the task that I have just done.

Proposed Research Sources

Most of my research I expect will be done off google and YouTube. Looking up
already existing similar animations getting a better idea of what I want my
animation to look like, all of this will be my secondary research. I will also take a
trip to the Dorset museum to have a look at art instillations up close in person. I will
be doing primary research myself in a few different ways. First of all I will be
interviewing people with a simple question, then I will also spend quite a lot of time
just playing around with a puppet learning all the movements and how to control
one. Some more research I could do is watch a few different animated tv shows as
I would get to see different animated styles to see if there is any that I prefer to my
current simple bee.

Equipment Required
To complete my final major project, I will need a Canon XA50 camera and a
Manfrotto tripod to conduct the filming. A computer, mouse, keyboard, drawing
tablet, drawing tablet pen, micros sd card reader and a sd card reader to do my
animation as well as getting the video and audio across to the computer. For
software I will need google chrome to conduct my research as well as accessing
youtube, adobe animate, adobe premiere pro and Microsoft word.
For my audio I will need a guitar, a guitar lead, guitar pick, an amp, power supply
and a zoom recording device.

Resources Required
To complete my project, I require a puppet for my research as well as anywhere
with a plainish background so I can video it no problem. I also need a computer
with enough space to plug in my drawing tablet. Finally, I need somewhere that is
suitable for recording audio.

Skills to develop/learn
Skills I need to develop or learn are: my knowledge of animate, a bit of colour
theory so I can decide better on colours and finally rotoscoping most importantly
as I’m hoping the main part of my animation will be animated
Personnel and responsibilities
A very large part of this will be me on my own. However, I will be using my friend
Corey in the video footage that I will rotoscope. It will simply be his hand dangling
down holding onto the puppet.

Intended audience and context

My animation is aimed to end up as an art instillation in an art gallery. With this my
target audience will be the elderly generation (60+) who use to play with puppets
as a kid. Younger generations and kids these days grew up with phones and tvs
watching tv shows and playing games where as I’m hoping my animation will bring
back really good memories to the elderly generation of when they were kids
hopefully playing with puppets.

How my project will ‘loop

My animation will loop this way: the starting of the animation will be a hand coming
down to pick the puppet up and then he plays with it for maybe 1 minute 50
seconds and then as he trys to do a cool trick with a puppet he drops it
accidentally and his hand springs out of screen. The animation will then start again
as the hand comes down to pick the puppet up.

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 an area
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 – 9 weeks of practical work 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 FOUR 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. Remember that
the lowest awarded grade for any Learning Outcome will be the final grade
for the FMP unit.