I did this project because I've long wanted to put it into the public sphere and to progress it into a book. I never thought I'd be able to animate it, too!
Targets achieved: Six new pieces (doll sculpture, 50s woman parts 1 and 2, poison pen, shadow, and frogs), 2 booklets made of those pieces and all the pre-existing stuff, one animation, and one commissioned song.
2. How will I collect the evidence I need?
How will I personally collect evidence?
Ongoing collection: blog, photos, writing, pieces on display
interviews with tutors and classmates. Was my research question answered?
3. What does the evidence tell me?
Installation team:
animators and filmmakers/those who needed prints didn't get foam boarding organized pre-installation. That happened between 10 and 12:45pm Wednesday morning when the finished pieces had been requested for 9 am. For next time: nominate someone within that group, preferably an animator with experience, to coordinate the group effort for foam boarding to support those who have never done it. The class swore that they didn't know the pieces were due at 9 am and thought they were due at 11. Ok, but they weren't ready to hang at 11, either! The animators really rely on Rachel to set everything up before our exhibitions. It needs to be clear that they have to be self-sufficient in this course and organize things themselves.
Proofreading team: It took an extra week to chase down those few final artist statements and missing pieces. And when it all came together, formatting issues added 3 hours to the work load of the proofreaders. For next time: Make a template BEFORE artist statements are due, leave it in the folder on Y drive, and have the artists fill it in themselves. There will still be issues, but it will take the bulk of the work out of proofreading. Also, artist's pieces need to be proofread by SOMEBODY before printing or final export. Four was a good number of proofreaders and other people offered to help out on Friday with printing, cutting and hanging.
4. What have I learned from the evaluation? How will I do things differently in future?
As a result of the project: I increased my skills in Toonboom Storyboard pro, widened my exposure to the work of female graphic novelists, got experience of working to put together a gallery/art exhibit, got to see my classmates achieve something exciting and personally/artistically fulfilling for themselves. I think everybody had a win with their projects. I got to contribute to the artistic statements making sense and being typo-free!
I liked the object grouping: the doll and two books beside the animation. Deb's song made it in! That was very exciting. Do better: more time to edit animation, had finished doll early so I could have shot it in stop motion for animation. No point in picking at this, though, because I spent lots of time on it and am so happy I fulfilled my goals of 5 new pieces, little books AND animatic.
I should have talked to Rachel and Vaughn/classmates a month ago about setting up cameras in Storyboard Pro.
Long term repercussions: I will have an animated video and Deb Wattes will be able to use it to promote her music.
I can do better in future by simplifying my goals and giving myself TIME to edit. Going forward, consider the book: does the story come through? Or is it only vignettes? Maybe that's just fine, you know, Different. Better delegation of jobs and always being prepared to give people work.
What was hard? Committing to ideas so work could start, and be finished, sooner. I'm thinking of the five new pieces I finished the weekend before gallery happened. Collaboration with Deb was easy. Dropped ball with music and didn't keep communication about what I was doing , going. Very lucky, very happy, that it all came together to be in exhibition. I needed more time for editing and should have been done with art pieces week BEFORE hand-in so I could be completely present for installation and proof-reading. Other classes suffered because of my single-minded foucs on this project and lack of time management. Timeline was too loose and didn't anticipate all of my needs (like editing or gallery duties). Get feedback from Deb on communication, timeline and collaboration.
Did I overreach? Yes. I achieved my goals but at the expense of my 3D animation classes. Balance is important.
Getting feedback along the way on the progress of my piece would have been helpful, as would getting tutor feedback and remedial instruction on storyboard Pro cameras.
Process methodology: paper too weak for size and design of big accordion book. Perfect for mini book, though, as glue-reinforced pages.
Next phases of project: shading painting on 50s woman/boxes pieces for better result in keeping with 50s advertising model.
Edit animatic for time and music. Collaborate with Deb Wattes on this. Talk to Helen about editing. Some images need beefing up (Phoenix) and others need to go (yellow tree?)
But, don't forget storybook quality of final animation. It needs the doll stop motion segments and pages of the book turning.
5. Who will I tell about the project and why? How will I tell them? What will I tell them?
Going forward (post-gallery): interview tutors (assessments), ask 3 classmates, final critiques
post-gallery feedback:
Bex: multi-disciplinary show, very diverse, a lot of good work
James Wilkinson: a lot of work, should inspire visual artists to lift their game
Tim the filmmaker: like how my animation is still rough, all the movement to the drawings
Glenn: Symbolism!
Josh: A+!
Jo Pryde: keep going, take as long as you want to recover, keep making art that deals with this, loves the little book, the intimate nature of reading it.
Tim the musician: sought me out to discuss the animation. really liked the Medusa character, loved the music's hard quality and noted that it toughened up the animation
