Media- Evaluation and Reflection

I think that this media project has gone well because I have learnt a lot of new skills and techniques that I can develop in the future. For example how to create a short video in premiere and how to simply edit photographs using Photo shop.

At the start of the project I was given three words to work with and develop either throughout the project or just for the activity, my three words were ‘gather, drips and copy’. I felt like these words were quite difficult to develop into something, so I began to think more broadly with the word ‘copy’. For example I thought about duplicates of something, such a simple object like a chair or a more complex idea like the development of twins. I wanted to have a unique collection that I could easily expand and develop throughout this project and that would fit with the theme of copy. So I had a look at home and saw I had a collection of Russian dolls that are an original collection Idea that I could use for this project. Also they link vividly to the idea of ‘copy’, by the different size Russian dolls having the same design. I choose the Russian dolls as my collection because I wanted to create a realistic life for imamate objects, possible exploring an animation style.

For the next part of the project I created some digital experiments that would help me to develop my skills on digital software. For example I created a short experimental film on premiere, which showed the passing of time through a city environment. It didn’t link to my collection because I was just testing out the different effects and skills on this editing software, as I had never used this before. I really enjoyed this and felt like maybe I could develop the idea with premiere and create my final piece using these layering techniques. I thought that my collection would maybe suit the digital theme rather than analogue because I wanted to bring them to life rather than have them stationary. Next, I also thought it was important to experiment with a variety of analogue techniques such as, Polaroid camera, collage, image manipulation and photography. I did enjoy this because I learnt a lot of new skills but thought that it didn’t really suit my collection of Russian dolls. At this point I knew where I wanted to go next with this project, which was to carry on with the digital techniques and maybe work with this concept for my final outcome.

For my primary research I took a variety of photographs that I was maybe going to use for my final piece. I drew some pictures of Russian dolls because I wanted to see what they looked like sketched out and I considered using them for an animation film. I then thought that I would rather do a stop-motion film because I have never done anything like this before and wanted to experiment with new concepts. I chose to research into Jan Swankmajer, who uses the stop-motion technique to bring inanimate objects to life within his films. I also researched into a few photographs that use the idea of movement within one photograph. I like this idea because it shows that some movement can happen in one frame, rather than a series of frames. By this point I knew that I wanted to complete a stop-motion animation of the Russian dolls. I chose to gather some lateral research of different sounds I created with the movement of the Russian dolls. I wanted to do this because I knew adding some sounds would create a more realistic scene for the audience to imagine.

Overall, for my final outcome I created a stop-motion animation that was intended to create a realistic life for the Russian dolls. I am very pleased with the results because it was my first time using premiere and experimenting with the stop-motion technique. However, I feel if I were to develop this project further I would look into the narrative of the film more. For example I would look into the history of Russian dolls e.g. some Russian dolls were involved in fairy tales.