What I Have Learnt From The Project

I have learnt a great amount and attained skills through doing this project. Most of the things i have learnt are in the above image.

One main thing that i have learnt is working independently. This project was the first time in all my time of school where i have been so independent with a piece of work. Although i still had my teacher in the lesson it still was a very independent project. At first i was scared by the lowered teacher help and i felt that i needed help in what to do. I did receive a few words of help from my teacher early on about the ideas i had but i still felt that i needed help. The reason for this was because i hadn't worked this independently before. But as the project went on i warmed to the Independence. This was the main thing that i learned from the project and i think it is a very valuable skill to have.

Some other things that i learnt were organising and managing myself. Although i feel there is still a big room for improvement in that department for me, i think that i developed the skill further in the project. I developed this skill because i had to organise my work and manage when i had to work, etc. This is a valuable skill as it is very necessary in the media industry and other industry's too.

Creating My Final Piece

After i had my idea finalised and i knew what i was going to do i started to create my final piece. The software i used to create my final piece was Adobe Flash. I used this as it is a very good professional animation software and the fact that i could use it at school and at home (by downloading the free thirty day trial) meant i could spend lots of time on my final piece. This also meant i had a lot of time to perfect it and change things if needed.

I started to create my final piece at school to begin with. In lessons and some lunchtimes i would do a few seconds of my work. One thing i made sure was that i didn't do too much at once as i would keep facing mental blocks where i couldn't get my idea down or created in flash. This was a problem in some of the first sessions of my creating. But in later sessions i solved the problem by not doing too much or rushing it. I then started to create my final piece, by moving it from school via a memory stick to my home computer and downloading the thirty day trial of Adobe Flash CS3.

I then continued to create my work and finished it a home. The next thing i had to do was find a piece of music that fits well with the animation. Also another point i had to consider was that the music matched with all the hit points. A Hit Point is a point in an animation or film where something sudden happens. The music should match or reflect these hit points. After listening to many pieces of music i found a song title '21 Guns' by the band Green Day. The song and lyrics seemed to work well with the animation and reflected the theme of Remembrance Day and War. I did however have to edit the song on Audacity (sound editing software) very minutely so the hit points were matched with the song.

Once my animation was complete and i found the music i wanted i had to combine the two together. To do this i exported my flash animation file as a '.mov' file. I then imported the animation file and the music file into Adobe Premiere Elements. I then very simply added the two together, made sure they were in sync together and added a fade in and fade out transition to the music. I then exported it as another '.mov' file, which meant i had my final animation for the project done.

My Final Piece

(the video quality is not very good on this website, just note that the

actual video has good and clear quality)

My animation is about Remembrance Day and more specifically the poem 'In Flanders Field', it is also in the James bond opening credits layout and theme. In my animation poppies are used and shown alot as they are the symbol of remembrance for soldiers. As the poppies are such a big symbol, they were the only colour in the animation. Everything else was black and white apart from the poppies which were red. I did this to show what the main theme of the animation was. I also used the item from Pitt Rivers which started my journey to my final piece which is the 'Uzi Sub-Machine Gun'. I also created and used a Black and White silhouette of a world war two soldier in the animation as the poem was written in that time. Also the world war two soldier "look" is one of the things that pop up in my mind as a symbol of war. I used the world war two soldier throughout a lot of the animation. As the poem 'In Flanders Fields' was the main theme, i put each line in the animation with the stanzas they were in. Lastly i used the song '21 Guns' by the band Green Day. I used this song because it seemed to show and reflect the them of the animation very well.

Animation Practise 2

Animation Practice

My Inspiration

For my final idea i gained inspiration from Daniel Kleinman. Kleinman is a Television Commercial and Music Video Director. He has also designed and created the James Bond opening credits from the 1995 Golden Eye up to his last in 2006 Casino Royale. The main piece of work i have gained inspiration from is his Casino Royale Opening Credits (above). I liked the piece as it has Kleinman's unique silhouette routines and the fact that he uses and shows the theme of Casino's and Cards. I gained inspiration as i could do something very similar. This is because i have the theme of War and the poem 'In Flanders Fields'. Instead of the Cards i could have Poppy's for example.

A Visualisation Of My Idea

The Above is a Visualization of my final idea. After thinking about how i can present my animation and what it will consist of, i have formed a final idea of what my final piece is going to look like. However in this Image i have used many Brushes that are not myne and i can not use them for my final piece.

'In Flanders Feilds'

I decided to have my final piece on the peom 'In Flanders Fields' as it holds a lot of memories for war. Even today people wear Poppies on Rememberence Day. The Poppies are worn for the country to remember the men and women who fought for the country and so there memories are not forgotten. The poem relates back to the original theme of memories.

Animation Research

The Project, My Latest Ideas

Altough i didnt develop my project from work experience i have however developed it during my time back at school. I now have an idea that i can start working on.

My Journey So Far

> I started with the word memories

> In my visit to Pitt Rivers i took a look into two object. A World War Two Gun and a 16th Century Key

> After doing research into the World War Two Gun. I decided that i wanted to focus on the topics of War and Nostalgia.

> During the summer holidays i decided to only focus on war, and have my final peice on that topic.

> Since starting year eleven i have created a first idea. My idea is to do an animation on the famous poem 'In Flanders Feilds' by John McRae. I have the idea to have the poem read by different people and have an animation to the poem being read.

I decided to focus on the topic of war as it has so many memories. There are so many memories in war from so many different perspectives. There are the memories of the familys, the soilders, the countrys, etc. Also it is a topic that interests me and i feel i would enjoy doing something for this topic.

Work Experience

Work Experience has taught me many things and i enjoyed my two weeks at Adobe. Although i feel it has not helped me develop my project i have definitely learned some skills that will help me in school and in the future. For example one skill i have learned from my time at Adobe is, working with peers. I think that i had already developed this skill in the Creative and Media Game Project as i was working in a team. But work experience has shown me how important working with peers is. Also i now have an idea on what it is like to have a job and what sort of roles a job has. Another positive i have gained from my work experience is seeing a brief being set and actually watching it all the way. Seeing it both from the clients side and the agency's side. Although i have had many briefs in Creative Media one of which was set by an actual company. It was interesting to see it outside school and in an actual work place.

Speaking With John Lockhart

On adobe breeze connect i spoke with John Lockhart about my idea, and how i had developed it so far. Firstly I told him how i had looked at the Uzi Sub Machine Gun and i was looking at who used it, why it was made ETC. These are some of the things he told me.

"Its interesting how the gun can hold power to a situation"

"If you cant fire the gun in the museum is it still a gun?"

"It would be interesting to look at the difference between form and functionality"

Meeting Clare McEwan

My Initial Ideas

Pitt Rivers Trip Chosen Object Information

Sixteenth Century Key
"Sixteenth century keys were decorated iwth very odd and art orientated patterns"
"England Hertford Muniment Chest Key"

Uzi Sub Machine Gun
"Quick fire gun"
"The gun is named after its creator, Major Uziel Gal of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)"
"One of the most famous Sub Machine Guns of all time. Made in the late 1940's. It fires 8mm bullets and its main function is to kill"
"It is used or was used in over 90 counrys and also was very popular with the police and other defence organisations"
"Retractable Stock Magazine"

Pitt Rivers Trip

On Thursday the 10th of July the Creative and Media Class and I had a trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum. Pitt Rivers Museum is located in Oxford near Oxford University, more specifically at the back of the Nation History Museum. The Pitt Rivers Museum is all about Human Anthropology. Also it doesn't just focus on the English history it focuses on the whole worlds history.




Our objective for the trip was to see the history of human kind and to see all the interesting things it has to show. Also the objective of the trip was to give us an idea on our final piece and to help us think outside the box with our ideas.



After looking through many items i found two things that really stood out to me. And when i say stood out to me i mean, questions popped in my head asking where this object was from, why was it made like that? etc. And also they made me think about the memories behind them. The two objects that stood out for me were:

Uzi Sub Machine Gun


Sixteenth Century Key

The thing that stood out for me in these two objects is that they both are quite small but can do so much! And also they are both quite old objects so that could open up a lot of history behind them. The key stood out also as when i saw it i immediately thought i wonder what that unlocked. And then thinking about it, the possibilities of what it could unlock are endless. It is also as if it is the key to its own history and its own memories. For the Uzi it was partly because i have an interest in war and war weaponry. But when i saw the weapon i couldn't help but feel that this small thing has done so much. And it got me thinking about design and how thing are made. Why was the Uzi made like it was? Why was the Key designed as it was?



After doing the trip i feel that i have come away and now have an idea on how I'm going to do my project. I'm not sure if i will use these objects but the trip has taught me to think about objects and look deeper. Also to think about obvious questions because you will be surprised what you find.






If i had to visit Pitt Rivers again i would have a deeper look into the museum. As i juts went to things that made me think 'wow'. But after analysing some if the objects i found you will be surprised by some things. So therefore i would look around a lot more and have a look at some objects that don't necessarily interest me.

Meeting John Lockhart (Online)

Today in Creative Media we met John Lockhart (online) on Adobe Connect. First of all he told us about what he does and how we will be working with him in our Project.

He works as an artist, in both physical and digital media. Mostly making instillation and presenting things in a certain way. He also works with schools on educational project's just like he is doing with us. He then showed us some of the work he has done, and it gave me an idea of some ways can present my work.

The class and I then asked questions...

"How did you first get into working with schools and educational projects?"
Response
He told us how it was an accident, and how it just happened. He also said he is glad it happened because it is a way he can make more work ect.

"Do you find that your finished work is very different and much more developed than your first idea?"
Response
He said that it really depends. Sometimes his first idea is completely different from his final idea and some times its very similar! But all ideas are developed to some extent.



He also suggested to us that we find an object and find the memory there and find inspiration from it (for our project). He said how this would really help us in our project and really just gave us an idea on how we could start our project.

My Memories Mood Board

My First Blog

I have just set up my blogger acount and my blog page :)