Where I am at

Last week was ultimately a very exhausting, stressful, emotional week, which feels like it has sucked every ounce of life that I once had out of me. My cat of 14 years had to be put to sleep and someone very close and dear to me has returned to Brazil.

So at the moment I am like a walking zombie, with just two weeks to complete my dissertation plus design / animation piece to go with it and a Kodak competition to create storyboards for. There are probably many other things which I am supposed to be doing, which my brain has neglected to tell me about. But hey ho. At least I’ve got a lot of stuff to do to keep my mind off of recent events.

First of all, dissertation stuff. I was shown this video this morning by Joe from my MI class:

I liked the simplicity and manner of the infographics, which might be a good starting point for my infomercial that I wish to create. I wouldn’t want to adopt the style and look, but I like how the information is demonstrated.

This morning, I went to a talk by Nick Robertson, who is supposed to be helping MI with the design element of our dissertation. I have an individual tutorial with him this afternoon, where I am to show him my ideas, sketches etc., which is what I will be doing from here on.

Last week, my MI group discussed this years Kodak Film School competition briefs. There are three briefs: Promote the new Kodak Camera; Promote Dove; Advertise against Piracy.

Only selected ideas will be filmed (all visuals have to be captured using Kodak film) and then submitted. We have to pitch our ideas with storyboards / visuals next week Wednesday to our tutors, who will then pick the best ones. From there, everyone who wants to be involved in the project chooses which crew they wish to be apart of. So there is a chance to be producer, director, editor etc, which sounds really cool. I have been told before that I would make a good producer, so it could be a good chance for me to see if it is a role that suits me. No matter what, I want to be involved in this project.

I am quite hopeful about an idea that I had, where everyone (including tutors), were all really enthusiastic about it. I’ve just got to materialise it and add some meat to the bones, as it were.

We had another meeting about working with an orchestra called Aurora. The manager joined us for a discussion about what part we could play in their shows, for example, creating the visuals while they are playing, videos during the intervals, and internet virals and promotions.

We had a look at these videos:

They want to get people who wouldn’t normally go to watch an Orchestra, so I thought of this:

I get the feeling that us students may just be being used for free promotions. Which is ok, we can expect it. But for what they want (i.e. video virals), they are not willing to put in any of their own time.

There are also rumours that we may be working with Rough Trade in creating a music video for them. But that’s just what I have heard through the grape vine.

Well, that’s a mega long update of where I am at now. I must go have some lunch and then get cracking with some visuals and ideas to show Nick.