Monday, 10 October 2016

Workshop - 28/09/2016

28/09/2016

TASK 1 – ‘PITCH PERFECT

Kickstarter is an option for many creative people within the creative industry to promote their upcoming product in the current market and this could potentially be an option for artists or students to share their creativity and to gain exposure for their skills. This can be an option for me to approach my target audience, though at the moment I do not think my current or future works would somewhat benefit from using Kickstarter, since I cannot see any use of it to benefit me as an artist, unless if I were to create a graphic novel, then it may see some light in using the Kickstarter programme.

As a group we look into various Kickstarter videos that pitch and promote new products or ideas within the creative industry. We had chosen one at random and the Kickstarter we ended up picking was a promotional video about a camera, titled “FPS1000 HD – The low cost high frame rate camera


Summary of the video

The video itself is not as engaging and we expected a lot more from it since the Kickstarter project was about the next new model (2nd generation) of their camera. It appears clinical and somewhat unprofessional in terms of presentation and camera shots. Since this was about their next model, they should of shown the first/previous model of the camera to get a good comparison between its specs and differences, to inform new potential buyers who were to view the video as they would not know how much of the product has changed or improved compared to the first model.

The creator behind the invention of the camera doesn’t feel enthusiastic and his voice gets drowned out with the unusual background music that feels a little out of place, causing the  tone to feel washed out, as well as feeling scripted the way the creator is discussing the product. Information about the camera could have been accompanied with analytical text to point out the features to cut the dialogue short because there are some information that kind of repeats itself including unnecessary info. It needs to be more direct, quick and simple.

Unnecessary and unusual camera shots makes the presentation feel unprofessional-like, examples such as the fidgeting of the person putting in SD card into a USB memory card converter, the camera’s battery power being at 9% whilst it was being shown on the on-screen functions and the visuals (the Kickstarter video) is subpar with mediocre quality. The structure was on point with the presentation but there are some stuff that are unnecessary (random camera shots and long edits) that would have cut the length of the video a bit shorter. We have a clear idea of the video presentation but it just feels dragged out with long edits and explanations.

Pros –
-        Informative about the product
-        Reveals the product and its functions

Cons –
-        Muddy audio
-        Unnecessary camera shots
-        Not as enthusiastic/professional
-        Mediocre presentation

Things that could have been improved on are listed on the ‘Cons’ list. These could of have been avoided easily if they were to put in a little more effort into it to make it more professional with its presentation. The creator doesn’t feel as confident with his speech and feels as if he was reading off from a script. It needs more enthusiasm and character to make the video more engaging, rather than it being a standard presentation of someone just generally talking.


TASK 2 – ‘WHAT EXACTLY IS IT’

My Final Major Project in 10 key words:

-        Enchantment
-        Fantasy
-        Colours
-        Characters
-        Charm
-        Stories
-        Collection
-        Concept
-        Entertaining
-        Digital

These 10 key words I had chosen are the themes that I will be focusing on within my FMP. The reason is because they are the sort of themes that I like in artworks and it is something I would potentially wanted to go forward with as the main themes of my illustrations in future works, whether they are concept art of characters, storyboard scenarios or a visual illustration depicting a world of enchantment/fantasy.

Explaining my project as if I was to tell a family member

“The project I’m going to be doing is creating my own characters in a shared world with the themes of fantasy and enchantment. There might be a story involved, or short stories that will have characters indirectly crosses path with one another, to keep things interesting. The works will be a collection of artworks and illustrations of characters/scenes that all share the same charm.”

I would usually approach like this in an informal manner to briefly explain a family member as I don’t want to drag too much in depth and would try to explain it as basic as possible, just to nail down the points very quickly to reveal the things I am strongly focusing on for my project, unless if they are heavily interested in what I am doing and wanting to know more in depth (which I kind of doubt) then I will go further into detail about the project, only if they were to ask any questions to further discuss about my project.

Explaining my project as if I was to tell a professional

“For my Final Major Project I will be producing a series of visual artworks of original characters and scenes/story boards in a shared universe that I will create, with the themes of enchantment and fantasy. Short stories/narratives will be loosely told with each character(s) as I want to focus on the visual aspect of my works, aka my art style, which is one my goals to improve and to establish. The short stories are to give some form of content with each characters’ individual personality/background and to make things interesting I am hoping to put some of my own ‘Easter eggs’ within my illustrations (a recurring object or characters). The works I’m going to produce for the project about my characters will be a collection of artworks and scenes/storyboards that will inform the themes of enchantment and fantasy of the world/universe I am creating that I am hoping to establish as an artist, as well as having a good body of content that I can further develop in future projects within my career.”

The communication objectives was to somewhat educate and to entertain while expressing my ideas directly in a well-structured manner towards a professional. I go a little more in depth with what I wanted to achieve in the project that will strengthen my skills in digital painting and to be clear with the things I wanted to do in the project. I don’t like explaining things too long so I rather go straight to the point with short, clear and direct explanations, otherwise if I were to drag the discussion it will feel as if I am not presenting myself clearly to the professional which would cause them to think that I may not be as confident, which can be crucial.

 Artist statement writing generator

Toby's Artist Statement

Through my work I attempt to examine the phenomenon of Stewie as a metaphorical interpretation of both Leonardo Da Vinci and Drawing.

What began as a personal journey of Shitism has translated into images of Pasta bake and Chest that resonate with Chinese people to question their own Blueness.

My mixed media Cat embody an idiosyncratic view of Jesus Christ, yet the familiar imagery allows for a connection between Michael Jackson, Dogs and Sandwiches.

My work is in the private collection of Kate Winslet who said 'Fantastic, that's some real enchanting Art.' 

I am a recipient of a grant from Folsom Prison where I served time for stealing mugs and tie clips from the gift shop of The Natural History Museum. I have exhibited in group shows at Subway and V&A, though not at the same time. I currently spend my time between my Bedroom and Berlin.

This artist statement generator is somewhat shocking because I wasn’t expecting the statement to require such words (random adjectives/noun/plurals and names of famous figures). The statement is well structured, but it is just the randomness of words I had chosen for the generator which makes reading my generated statement a bit funny and slightly awkward, which I couldn’t take seriously for a few moments.


TASK 3 – ‘THE BEST THING SINCE SLICE BREAD’

I paired up with a classmate (Chris) and we both shared our ideas and intentions for our FMP to get a glimpse of potential outcomes. With enough information we tried to help each other to broaden our ideas in terms of production, materials, themes, research and printing, as well as narrowing down what we want to specifically achieve.

From what I had gathered, Chris’s intention for his FMP was to produce a book as his main product/final outcome. The book will contain a collection of illustrated poetry and stories based on mythology/history, something similar to an anthology of poems. The product, which will be a one-off copy, (though it might change, perhaps a limited quantity edition which he hinted) will be entirely handmade, a bound book roughly in A5 size, with the quality and textual feel of old books (such as old maps and journals). He has a clear sense of direction of what and how to produce the outcome. In terms of content, he hopes to generate 20 short stories, each accompanied with a relevant illustration. 

I had asked whether he knows what kind of stories he will write based on mythology though he told me it is one of the things he is uncertain about at the moment, followed by the types of materials he would use to produce his book. I suggested that he should look into other mythologies such as Chinese mythology and perhaps religious stories to expand his ideas for his short stories in order to add a bit more variety to his collection. The imagery for his stories were to be processed in a way it can be reproduced, for example, he told me he would produce each illustration with a variety of different methods (uncertain of what methods at the moment) and then for the reproduction it would be screen printed on to the final outcome. In terms of research, his primary source would consists of visits to galleries, museums, libraries and archives, as well as reading into artists books such as Bauhouse, DaDa and DE STIJL.

Short review based on Chris’s proposed outcome (book of short stories on Mythology) for FMP

“The product houses a series of original short stories based on the tales of famous mythologies from around the world. Each short poems are accompanied with a unique, delicate illustration. This handmade bound book was carefully crafted, using delicate materials which makes this book a collector’s item for poetry readers and the like, an Anthology of short tales worth reading.”

The review is aimed to be short and very direct to reveal the delicacy of the product, in terms of materials and quality to bring that attractiveness to book collectors and poetry readers. I didn’t want to add a lot to the review that would otherwise make readers lose interest quickly. There could be more to the review, such as the kind of stories/themes there are from the book, though there is no information on that from what I had gathered when I had talked with Chris as he said he doesn’t know as of yet.


The exercise had allowed us to be open for ideas between each other in terms of the things we could extensively look into that will aid us in research and the production of our outcomes. This exercise has benefited us as we now have some sort of a clear understanding and direction with our intended outcomes. Beforehand we have an idea, but that direction wasn’t really clear to us until we spoke about it with each other, which greatly helped us to have a clear view of what we all want to achieve for our final product(s).  

No comments:

Post a Comment