Reflection

I enjoyed the process of creating a new narrative from the primer’s instructions. From creating new environments to creating a short narrative incorporating whatever I liked, the freedom I had to create a story I had envisioned from start to finish felt refreshing after being stuck with 6 weeks of prompts that do not give us a lot of room and space to do whatever we like. However, there were some aspects of it I did not enjoy as much- visiting the British Museum and choosing an artifact from there. I loved going to the Science Museum and choosing an artifact from it. This may be due to the fact I am not as interested in history compared the sciences. By visiting both museums, I have gotten a rough idea of what I liked and what I disliked, especially when it came to the kind of story I am interested in creating.

As I was slowly completing these primers, I found a few things difficult to do. Firstly, choosing an artifact. When choosing an artifact from such a large range of choices, it seems impossible to settle for just one or two of them. By just choosing one specific artifact, I sometimes keep thinking about how I may be missing an opportunity to try something interesting with a different artifact instead. Choosing to focus solely on one or two of them forces you to think within that area and how you can be creative within that field. I find it pushes my limits as to what opportunities I can create for myself in terms of narrative and design choices by working with just two artifacts.

Another thing I found challenging was drawing out my ideas. When completing the first primer, not only did I get stuck on it for a few days, but I even find myself distracted instead focus on the task in front of me as it was difficult to sit down and think about what to draw. When the primer stated to complete at least 5 out of context environments, not only did I feel like my head was blank with no ideas as to what to do at all, but I felt like no matter how I drew out my concepts, it felt either unsatisfying, incomplete or just unacceptable. It also felt like it was half done, as I had not spend a long time ‘perfecting’ it, despite it being about ideas and not completed pieces of artworks. Therefore, I just had to go through with it no matter how bad or good an idea seemed.

One aspect that surprised me when doing my primer was when we were asked to make a 1 minute synopsis for a fictional animation or film. At first I thought it was relatively easy, considering before this I was constantly creating and writing stories for fun (not for the foundation course). However, I found it difficult to write a super duper short story under a minute. I overestimated the amount of time there is in a minute. In fact, I had created a few drafts for the synopsis only for it to end up being probably more than a minute long. What was even more difficult than keeping the synopsis for under a minute was trying to focus on the chosen artifact itself when writing the synopsis. After re-writing the same story concept a few times, it was still difficult to properly include the artifact into the story. I can only imagine it being part of the story, but not as the focus.

Overall, I have learned that there are a few things I will have to work on to improve myself:

Instead of just trying to create a random idea revolving around my subject, I could instead use the subject as the inspiration to make it easier to work with
I should show and discuss my ideas with other people so that I can further improve on it
Focus on a goal for each task so that I won’t drag the work longer than it needs to be completed

PART 2: FILM AND ANIMATION PRIMER

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