Final Project Critical Review
Mia Moore, Visual Communication, “Relatable Storytelling”
In my project proposal I talked about relatable storytelling and how it is effective through the medium of animation. This helped me develop my realisation of my project into an animated short film about a story that can be relatable to an audience and teach a lesson because it is a true story that could happen/has happened to anyone. In terms of adaptations from this needed to change the way in which I approached the media of this project. I initially said I would be working purely digitally for my FMP but then decided that analogue experiments and observations would greatly benefit my development work when thinking about my final outcome. I have related back to the topic of relatable storytelling in the form of a series of essays talking about animated movies that all display specific aspects of the term “relatable storytelling” and why they’re successful opposed to other media. This then spilled into other genres such as music videos and videogames and how they can all tell a story in unique ways. My research surrounds animated movies mainly as they are most relevant to my final piece; however, I have also included research on music videos, video games, comic books, illustration, storyboarding and also some primary research from exhibitions I went to that were relevant to my project. I believe this is a diverse range of research, however I would have liked to have looked deeper into more varying and unique forms of storytelling such as renaissance paintings and how they can tell a story without a clear or linear narrative.
My original bibliography only had clips from the movies that I was researching for my essays to further cement my point on relatable storytelling and how the lessons taught from animated movies help promote socio-emotional development in younger audiences. This was expanded greatly through my project development as I started looking at books, short films, music videos and interviews to help support my work and theory. This hit its peak when I started to realise that all my research was based around one concept and wanted to diversify and expand my sources. My original bibliography was filled with animated movies that, each in their own individual ways, displayed a certain aspect of storytelling that I thought was especially important to the medium. This helped me explore different elements of storytelling, especially the rule “why does this story need to be told?” and what these rules mean for a movie that is targeted towards a younger demographic and what separates a “good” movie from a “great” movie. This moved on to research into Gorillaz and how their unique song style lends to a narrative that makes for a story-driven music video and video games that have no narrative at all yet still tell a strong story.
Due to the nature of my idea being a short film, I had to be sure of my idea from early on if I wanted to have the time to get it finished before the due date. I presented my idea to a wide range of peers such as my tutors, family and friends to make sure the idea was one that was worth carrying on. In terms of sustainability, the original concept stayed the same but the final piece itself went through a lot of development. The script, storyboard and palette went through a lot of changes before the final video was formed. Due to this being an animated video, I had to keep track of a lot of individual images which meant that a lot of unforeseen mistakes were made that had to be solved on the go. There was also an issue in the fact that I don’t have an actual program for animation, so I had to make do with what I had and make it work. My concept of relatable storytelling has been conveyed through my final piece in the way that it is a story with a key message about strength and about growing, learning and living and about finding happiness in all moments. This was also reflected in my working processes as I explained my reasoning behind certain design choices all throughout my project that would help convey this idea in a more visual way.
All planning and management is evidenced weekly through a post detailing my plan for producing work for that week along with corresponding posts with dates showing what has been done on what day. Development is posted and references previous pieces that needed changing. The realization of my project is shown through a development of mind maps into written pieces explaining what I wanted to get out of this project. I have shown all my different techniques in a separate book that has all my analogue work relating to this project, including observational studies, experimental work and self-improving work. This has also been photographically evidenced in my blog just in case the book itself gets lost or damaged. The four review sheets along with my weekly evaluations helped me plan what to do in the coming weeks as well as how to develop and refine my project concepts. These practices made me realize what I was missing and what was going to be unsuccessful, so I could figure out how to solve these issues. All guidance and critique has been taken on board and immediately taken into action and re-evaluated to make the most out of this project. This included research recommendations and ways in which to develop my final outcome to produce the best work possible for my final major project.
The 16th Round 