Premise: Reflective Statement.

For the Premise Project, we could have free rein to create and design anything we wanted and transition this into a short animation using the medium of 3D software and storytelling. Initially I was a bit lost on where to start/ take my project, usually because I would have the cushion of a set brief to fall back on to help guide my ideas. With this project however I have found I needed to find my own voice and push myself to come up with something that I could see possibly taking into the third year to work on and build up to a final outcome that I would be proud of.

To begin with I thought of setting my project around an old folktale and using that to incite my work, but found I was struggling to find one that appealed to me and could be made into and animated short. But with further talks with my tutors, peers, friends and family I found I really liked the idea of storytelling through world building and drawing on real world events to help influence my ideas and designs as well as through looking at dystopian books and films I like mainly because the world they create are so big and involved you can’t help but be drawn in to the plot (some include the Divergent Series and the Maze Runner Trilogy). With this in mind I chose to go down the route of creating an abandoned world set in the future post the events of nuclear fallout due to a terrorist group who were against the use of nuclear power before the collapse of the world. The main idea being that this would be a sort of observational piece with the views being shot through the eyes of a drone and person as they traverse through this environment and learn about what happened there. Once I had this idea in mind, I then looked to develop ideas and looked to create I backstory and draw in events to try and incite interest and curiosity in the audience through the idea of having two opposing sides - one against nuclear power and the other fearing the chaos and fallout the rebel groups will cost the earth so plan to leave earth with plant samples and seedlings in tow.

However, there is still a long way to go in getting the outcome I wish to achieve. Looking at the current work I have I feel there is a foundation to now work and build upon to improve; this especially in how I wish to film the end outcome. As in my 3D Pre-Vis Animatic the camera movements are too erratic an don’t allow the audience to really get an idea of what is happening in the scene as it moves too fast. From listening to feedback from others after watching the animatic and listening to the presentation confirmed this and suggested ways in which I could improve this. One being that I make used of camera cuts to reduce the erratic/sometimes unnecessary movement of the camera and to think about if I want this short to be either in the scope of a game or a film.

Over the course of the project, I have found it really hard to time manage the work load of each project that was running along side this one, sometimes neglecting other projects when I hit a road block or was struggling to come up with ideas to take forward. I think this may have been because a good majority of this year has been done from working at home and having less contact time with peers and tutors to bounce ideas off of in person, instead of talking over the phone or webchats. Working from home is something that I’ve never really done and although most of the last project (collaboration) was done mainly from home I had my group members to talk to about the project since we were all working on the same thing. This time round I found it harder as we all broke off into doing our own projects that we were responsible for. Looking forward I need to improve this and need to be able to adapt better with the work flow and not get too complacent by working at home as this is something I feel has thrown off the work flow routine, usually being the type of person to get out of the house and go somewhere like the university to get work done. So, I need to aim to create a sort of system where I can get work done more effectively whether that be from home or at the university, especially if the uncontrollable circumstances with Covid persist.

Despite the lack of better time management, I have found this project to be an eye opener into really taking initiative and ownership of my work, and to discover where my interests lie within the film industry and seeing what’s out there on offer. Part of this has been due to working through a careers pack where I tried to ‘unbox’ myself to see where I might see myself in a few years’ time and the type of work I wish to create. This project has also taught me to have more confidence in my ideas and where I see the project going in future, as in the start up of this project; as I mentioned before, I was unsure on where to go and found and any idea I came up with to not be good enough to take forward, when in fact it could have been. So going forward I need to throw this mindset out and embrace the ideas and the creative flow that comes with creating something I enjoy doing and hope others will appreciate too.