Fri 2nd October 2020:
Module Brief:
During this will be an academic year long module, I will develop a digital portfolio of work that will demonstrate my expertise in one (or a combination) specialist areas, as well as informing myself of the current landscape of employment, self-fulfilment or post graduate opportunities. I will be assessed on my creative ability of how I express my work with a self-chosen communication technology, my technical ability in how well the chosen technology is used (and in a non-traditional manner). The portfolio can either be a traditional (print/book etc) or digital (Vimeo/web/video show reel) or a combination of both forms. This module will be split into two 50% briefs to help structure my workload and research.
Practically I will be devising a strategy for engagement with external clients and studios, i.e.
social media, invitation to animation screening at the end of year show, development of
business cards and associated materials, my attendance to networking events.
During the module I must demonstrate some original work to diversify my portfolio. This
could be a response to a competition brief (YCN / D&AD or 11 Sec Club), a Live or Simulated brief set by
industry, or a self-directed project that is in response to my desired specialism or identified
role in a company – (eg. Stop Motion Puppet, a series of animation exercises in Maya, Concept
Art / Storyboards for an self-directed project). I will also collate previous works that have been modified ready for professional presentation
– eg. Re-rendering Video Files to HD quality, Re-editing animation exercises, captioning
animation clips.
Students should submit:
Assignment 1
Work in Progress Folio:
The social media I've set up are:
- Industry Scoping Document
- Work in Progress Folio
- Branded Social Media Presence and Website
- Post Graduation (1 to 5 year plan)
- Creative Learning Journey
- Showreel
- CV and updated LinkedIn Account, Business Card
Assessment Components
Assignment One (50%)
Industry Scoping Document
- (1500 words) where I will select several animation or creative studios that align to my interests and specialism:– 2 x Local; 2 x National / International; 1 x Outlier (ie. Games Company, UX design agency). It should include key contacts within the company or department, industry specialists, and some understanding of their target audience, output and studio production pipeline, expected skills, and reflection on what I would need in my portfolio to engage with them.
Work in Progress Folio
- For my self directed or live / client brief(s). At the end of assignment One - I should have a statement of intent, documentation of idea development, tests, prototypes, animation tests, or completed work if you are doing a series of shorter briefs like 11sec Club.
- Setup professional accounts and consistent branding on key social media and/or networking platforms (ie. Behance / Artstation) - ready for populating in the second trimester.
Submission deadline date and time
15th Jan 2021 – 4pm
Assignment Two (50%)
Post Graduation (1 to 5 year plan)
- (upto 1000 words) which should demonstrate some research into your next steps into creative industry or post graduate study, and some of my aspirations for the future. It could include local, national or international opportunities. This should build on from your information and research in your Industry Scoping Document. It should also evaluate your communication strategies and how you will promote your Portfolio and Showreel. as well as considering alternative support for being an Animator or Practitioner.
Creative Learning Journey
- 20 'Experiences' you've encountered during your study and time at university. You may produce this as creatively as you wish - examples could be a short bullet pointed video, a zine, a poster, a board game, creative writing. Have fun with the format, but keep it concise and authentic. As a Learning Journey, it is a reflection and evaluation of your academic year.
- Max 2 mins - with branding - best practice 6 of your best pieces of work.
CV
Updated LinkedIn Account
Business Card
Submission deadline date and time
21st May 2021 – 4pm
I was tasked with this assessment module today and this will run alongside the other modules (Research Project; Making of 'Negotiated Project'; and Negotiated Project - Phase one & 2) right through the rest of my last academic year of my degree. Even though I have many other assignments such as production bible & casebook (of Negotiated Project Making of and Phase 1/2) and my dissertation with practical (of Research Project) and not a lot time to focus on all of them at the same time. I'm fortunate that I have already made headway to some of the tasks for assignment 1 & assignment 2 that I have been tasked with developing. This module frankly focuses greatly on finding what skills we need to develop for our future job in animation before the academic year is complete.
The work I already created so far before that I can integrate towards this module are...
Assignment 1 -
The casebook is something which I already have with regards to this very blog, which is something I have already updated a few times and is something I will probably update regularly with many more posts for this module and others.
Branded Social Media Presence and website:
Fortunately, I already created some social media presence and website back in college in 2017 as part of my BTEC Level 3 course in animation for one of the course's units.
I had to set up my website in WordPress in May 2017 for my unit but them I transferred my website to Wix (for unlimited file storage) in June 2018. But recently this year, I updated the website with last year's portfolio work I created in Level 5.
- Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lewisanimator
- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lewis_animator/
I am also planning on creating a Twitter page for my work but I noticed that I can't backdate the tweets so will be hard to put my previous project on twitter.
Assignment 2 -
Creative Learning Journey:
Obviously this is a presentation of 20 experiences over the course that is required of this module. In year 1 Level 4, I created something similar in Introduction to the ‘Making of’ module called a Pecha Kucha – Learning Journey that I can use as a template for this second assignment.
Showreel:
I have created several showreels right through my education at College and University learning to become a professional animator. My majority recent reel that I created in 2019 of University which is more professional than the others but I forgot create a 2020 version of my showreel, needing to add last years projects. But during the second semester of this module, I need to be updated my reel with all of the new projects from 2021.
CV:
I presently have a CV that I created for a Unit in college and updated over the years. One of my points for this module is to bulk out my creative CV and make sure it's upto date.
Updated LinkedIn Account:
I created a LinkedIn profile in second year of University after adding a completed course I watched on LinkedIn and decided that if I'm adding this course I should equip my profile with the right information. In the future the aim of the profile is to improve my networking abilities. I hope that sometime in the future I can add more contacts to my network and the profile.
- LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-jordan160998/
Blog Posts:
Right through first and second year, I had to keep a blog of most of my previous modules, for university I have to keep this blog that contains evidence for this module. I think that Showreel & Professional Engagement and Negotiated Project will be the only two modules that I will have to keep a blog for in third year, because everything else is now practical or theory based.
Week 1 Lecture:
For this weeks lecture, we went over the module's brief, having explanation on what is needed for the project.
After looking at the brief, we were show the ScreenSkills: Career in Screen website (https://www.screenskills.com/careers/). We were told about this page (because we had to register for ScreenSkills for the Coronavirus train [which I passed]) as it's essential reading for this module and ScreenSkills put together this webpage for everyone in the industry and for graduates.
This website was called Skillset before they changed the name to ScreenSkills, they worked with Universities and industry. Their the people who helped develop the curriculum that we are doing at the moment on the animation course. ScreenSkills is more than just a little hobby website it's really tied in with big studios like Access VFX, Games industries, Animation industries, etc.
It's a careers resource going right back to children and building up the talent needed for an industry that's only growing at the moment. It's funded by the government.
Casebook:
Today, I was tasked to watch one of the video interviews and write up 4 points of interest that I feel applies to my personal and career development.
The interview I had to watch were
1. Chris Landreth: Oscar-Winning Animation Director
2. Lindsey Pollard; Supervising Animation Director
SWOT Analysis
I was also tasked to create a personal Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats table that showed how my skills will progress.
