Unit X 2017: Key Blog Post 1: Research

Unit X: 2017 -- William Wilde

March 2017

This Unit X project is a studio practice working collaboratively with a client to produce a short piece of animation intended to promote/ advertise the artist. Our client is William Wilde, a fashion artist known for his work with latex. Within the brief the client has stated what he would like to be produced; a short animation of exactly thirty seconds inspired by the story of Cinderella. In response to the projects start as a group we have taken a number of actions to prepare and organise ourselves for the project.

To begin research we attended a workshop where we learnt about the generation of ideas through a number of activates as a group. Brainstorming and organising ideas to generate concepts and could become our chosen idea. As a group member I have taken it upon myself to prepare the group’s organisation by establishing a means of group communication using social media and a board organisation website, ‘Trello’. Using Facebook messenger the group can effectively communicate with each other with all members being notified instantly. Using Trello I have created a number of boards to organise the groups thoughts and ideas, and to monitor our progress throughout this project. This allows individual members to be assigned tasks, monitor their progress and archive all of our work.

As a group we decided to individually research and generate ideas initially, following this we held meetings to discuss our found research. Through brainstorming and sharing ideas we combined and created new ones with interesting results. Through my research I started with artist himself William Wilde. I started following his Instagram and browsed his website to begin generating ideas, from this I produced a mood-board of his work. This allowed me visualise William Wilde’s work, observing shapes, colours, composition etc. Another mood-board I generated was of the story of Cinderella, because the client would like this work to be based/inspired by the story of Cinderella. Using these two mood boards I brainstormed ideas in ways to connect these two worlds; how these ideas can be combined into a single thirty second video.

Within the brief the client has stated he would like ideas which are: “Outside the box, Original, Dynamic, Engaging, Edgy, Evocative/Visceral, Provocative, and Sexy”. Knowing this I had to purposely avoid first ideas as they could be seen as predictable and dull. Through my research I found many iterations of the story of Cinderella which I used for inspiration.

Being a group project I gathered my ideas and shred them with the group, this way we discussed all of our ideas and took elements from each other’s to produce a concept together. From this we intend to produce ideas from the concept we have created, discuss production ideas and the direction we wish to go with the concept.

Overall the research stage of Unit X has been a challenging one due to a number of factors. The overall course has been poorly planned regarding deadlines and timetables causing students to prioritise between different units causing group members to not-attend sessions which would have improved our Unit X. Due to the number of stacked deadlines within the space of two weeks caused limitations in the effectiveness of the group because very member was busy with other projects. Reflecting upon my performance during this time; I believe I have worked the best I could have with my group for Unit X with external factors effecting us all. If the deadlines were spaced evenly, or were earlier to allow time for projects to end and begin; I would have worked far more effectively allowing myself to truly devote my focus and time on this Unit X project.

In addition I am disappointed by the lack of communication regarding this Unit X, because we had no notification of who the client would be or what the unit would entail. However other students from other practices like ‘Fashion’ had been told who they could be working and the unit would be about. As animation students we were left in the dark regarding unit x, beginning the unit in the midst of another four units. With the information I have now I would not have chosen this unit for Unit X.

Regarding future plans as a group, we anticipate that we will give greater focus to this project as the deadlines have passed, and that we will be able to work effectively.