evaluation of Succession FMP piece

1. FMP Evaluation
Madeleine Ross

2. What was the theme of your project and what
attracted you to it?
The main themes of my project were progression of time, and experiences of women
over generations. I have always been interested in how times have changed and how
quickly things in the world have changed over a number of decades, which is why I
focused on looking at these changes in my project, specifically for women. Over the last
50/60 years the world for women has changed exponentially, and I wanted to
demonstrate this through my poetic documentary. As the stimulus for this project was
heavily based off of Grayson Perry’s works and his themes, and his specific works being
exhibited were from the 1980’s (or round about), I knew I wanted to do a piece looking
back in time. Grayson also looks at themes of identity, and although it was not my main
theme, the experiences of my grandmother and myself over different times will ultimately
add to our identity's and build who we are as people.

3. What research did you undertake and how did it help develop your project?
The research segment of the project was one of my favorites, as I could let my interests in the themes Perry explores run wild. There were
so many avenues to go down regarding what I wanted to research and focus on, which sometimes was a challenge when it came to writing
my proposal. To start, I looked at different types of documentaries, something I already had knowledge in because of our Factual Project
earlier in the year, and decided upon creating a poetic documentary. I decided on a poetic documentary because of the freedom this genre
grants the film maker, and due to covid-19 and the pandemic, it would have been difficult to stick to a tightly rigged style, so this allowed for
flexibility and adaptation if needed. After I had decided on my genre, I started looking at short examples of poetic documentaries and
analyzing. I loved this because all of the pieces I looked at truly moved me emotionally, and were interesting to look at aesthetically, and
they were also all made by armature film makers, which helped me understand the genre in a way I could replicate myself. I think I chose my
examples well as they were all different in tone, one had no dialogue and only music, another had a written poem as the dialogue, and the
one I most personally related too had a scripted yet conversational narrative. By looking at all three examples, I gained a greater
understanding of what a poetic documentary was, and the different ways and techniques I could use to create one.
Then I started by researching masculinity and transvestitism, as these are the biggest themes I identified within Grayson’s work. I really
enjoyed this part of the research as it introduced me to many themes and challenges that I as a cis woman will never experience, and it was
interesting to look at other peoples experiences regarding these two topics. For this I looked at one of Grayson's documentary’s called born
risky where he spoke to members of the trans/ cross dressing community's and discussing ideas of masculinity, femininity and gender.
As I wanted my piece to be themed during the past, and the pieces from the exhibition were made in the 1980’s, I looked at contextual
research regarding the UK in that decade specifically, to see what may have influenced Perry's works. I looked at the growing community of
cross dressing, gender fluid men in the 80’s, artists such as Boy George and Pete Burns fronting the movement. I looked at ideas of the Male
Gaze from theorist Laura Mulvey, the mass unemployment rate brought on by Thatcher's government and masculinity. A film I looked at
closely that encapsulated all of these qualities was the 2000 picture Billy Elliot, where I looked specifically at Jackie's character arc through
the film, and the effects Thatcherism and the working class environment had on his unwillingness to support Billy’s dancing. To make sure to
include modern and contemporary sources, and circle back the piece to the present, I looked at a similar story through the TV show Sex
Education and Eric's gender fluidity and identity crisis. Both of these sources together helped paint a picture of modern and past ideas and
presentations of masculinity and helped move forward my understanding. Through this research into Eric’s storyline, I felt that he and the
piece Claire as a Soldier shared similarities in the fact they were proud and gender fluid people, and I then decided to use this art work as
stimulus for the rest of the project.
Once I knew what and who the stimulus of my project was, I moved onto researching things to help with the answer “What would Claire
look like today?” and the challenges facing contemporary women. Within that I looked at manipulation of women online, online violence
against women including revenge porn, trauma centered feminism, navigating a career and motherhood, and lack of women in positions of
power. These topics specifically are relatable to me and topics that worry and effect me, and researching these topics helped make my
project more authentic to me.
As my factual project had not come out as successfully as I wanted, I also researched a lot of techniques on documentary making, and things
to make my project as interesting and aesthetically pleasing as possible.

4. How did you develop and improve your ideas throughout the project?
Throughout the course of my project, my ideas developed and changed a lot. After doing my research into masculinity in
the 1980’s, Thatcherism and my analysis regarding Billy Elliot, I wanted to create an audio play revolving around the
ideas and themes within the film, however after discussing with my tutor and Sarah Yates from York Art Museum, we
decided that I needed to focus down on a smaller theme and idea. After this we decided that I was going to do a piece
on the challenges that contemporary women faced today, and how that would effect Claire, specifically in Claire as a
Soldier.
My initial plan for discussing challenges of contemporary women, was to interview my mum and also get an interviewed
response from myself and compare and contrast the differences between being a young woman in two different times,
decades apart. I wanted to choose my mum to interview as in 1987 when Claire as a Solider was created, my, mum
would have been 17, ready to make her way into adulthood and woman hood, and interviewing me as an 18 year old
young woman in a similar position that she would have been, would make for an interesting contrast in the responses. To
show the connection between us and the fact we are mother and daughter, I wanted to choose 2 locations that were
also connected somehow. For my mums segment EMMA, I would shoot at the reservoir known as John 0 Gaunts, and
shoot my section MADELEINE at Knaresborough Castle. I chose to shoot in these places as they in themselves are both
connected, both have the features of water and nature, the river in Knaresborough and the reservoir itself. They both
feature ruins which represents the past and the progression forward of time, and the areas were both owned and visited
by the same king- John of Gaunts. I felt really confident with this idea, as there was plenty of meaning created in the
piece that was not so obvious to the watcher that they had to think about, as a poetic documentary requires, however
sadly a few weeks before shooting Emma backed out from the project, meaning I had to completely adapt and rethink
my project. Initially I thought I would be able to at least interview Emma, and so adapted the project to using
photographs instead as I added the interview responses over the top. This was a good idea and one I was happy to stick
with, however Emma didn't’t feel comfortable with this option either. This left me with a few problems, as I was due to
shoot in a weeks time, and had to totally rejig my piece. In the end, discussing with my tutor, Sarah from the YMT and my
peers working on the project, we came up with the idea we had today. I got the idea to use my grandma as my link to the
past instead of my Mum Emma, still showing the familial and generational connection to the viewer, and instead of using
moving footage, we decided I would use images of me and my grandma over the years. Although it wasn’t the initial
project I had decided upon, when I finally came to put it together I was really happy with the execution, and I feel like
overall this concept adhered to the conventions of a poetic documentary more than all the other versions I could have
gone with.

5. What was the outcome of the project/task?
I am very happy with the outcome of my project, and although it isn’t the same as the
initial ideas I had and it has changed many times, I think it’s turned out sufficiently well. In
the end I have a 6 minute long poetic documentary featuring two interviews with women
from different generations, discussing their shared and personal experiences as women. I
included a few new techniques such as creating an 8mm film filter to be included in the
introduction, and developed my skills from the Factual Project in creating parallax images
to add movement and interest to the piece. Overall I am happy with the quality and the
final piece.

6. How did you feel about the project before you started?
Because this project involved working with an outside source, Sarah Yates for the York Museum
Trust, and our pieces will be getting displayed in the art gallery as products to accompany the
Grayson Perry Exhibition, I was really excited. My family, specifically my mum, have followed
Grayson’s work for many years, and I therefore had been exposed to quite a lot of his projects and
documentaries before hand, and grew an interest in him and his creations, so knew that I had to
take on the project. The idea of an FMP where you have total freedom regarding what you can
produce also was quite nerve wracking, so taking on the project gave me some guidance in the
fact I had themes and topics presented in Perry’s works to follow and focus on.
At the notion of knowing my work would be displayed in a gallery and on the website was an
opportunity I knew I couldn’t ignore, and for the chance to have the public to see my work was
one of the biggest drawers to the project. However this also came with a lot of pressure, knowing
that I have to make sure my piece is good enough for the gallery, the public who may see it, and
for myself and my own grade. It was quite nerve wracking and stressful at times, but ultimately I
knew this project would challenge me in new and exciting ways.
Before the project had begun, I had already started thinking of routes I could take it down, and
knowing some of Perry’s key themes already, I started thinking about his transvestitism, the
character of Claire, ideas of masculinity and feminist, and these were themes that I carried on
throughout the project, and displayed in my final piece.
Overall before I started the project, I was really excited at the prospect of working with an
outward source, on a project inspired by an artisan who I really respect and admire.

7. What do you think about your project development and
how did it help you to refine your idea?
After completing my researching and looking more in depth at Grayson’s work, I managed to secure
the main themes I wanted to explore and discuss early on. This was very helpful as my project
changed and adapted many times through the project, but my central themes and the message
remained the same. This helped me retain focus throughout all these changes, and meant that
although my project ideas developed, the outcome was always to deliver the same message.
Because this was a project I have been really interested in from the start, and I already had an
awareness of Grayson and who he was, I spent a lot of time doing contextual research about him,
his works, the time he was making those works in, and also a lot of research on contemporary life.
Research was one of my favorite parts of my project, and the research that I made and the
information I found out set out the basis for the whole of my project. Without going so in depth I
think my focus would have been a lot less stable and I wouldn't’t have decided which central
themes I wanted to focus on as easily.
Because my project was a poetic documentary and I was using two interviews as the basis, I wasn’t
able to script it in the same way I scripted my factual project, and for my initial draft I only partially
scripted how the documentary would look. Because of this I understood the basic structure that I
wanted, which remained mostly unchanged through the different versions I created, and made
putting together the footage I had began to shoot easy. Although the piece I originally planned
extensively for didn't’t get made, the planning I had used helped me with keeping a stable structure
throughout, retaining the message I wanted to communicate to the audience, and helped keep the
tone through each of the versions. Without my planning, I don’t believe I would have been able to
adapt all of my ideas and different drafts and versions to have the final version I am happy with
today.

8. How did you feel when the project was completed and why?
Once I had completed the project, I was relieved and happy to be finished, as the last few
weeks have been hard work in terms of getting the project finished, and for a time I didn't’t
think I would be done in time.
As my project idea had changed quite a lot, I’d already at stages done a lot of work and a lot
of filming for an idea that would later turn out not to be needed. For example, although I
didn't’t get chance to film my mum and her segment, I did do two shoots at Knaresborough
Castle, which although didn't’t take too much time out of my production, didn't’t end up
getting used at all, and I could have spent that time planning better for the ideas later on. I
also created a draft version over a week using some of this footage, which did take away a
week of my production time, but it helped highlight problems in my project as a whole and
lead me to develop this new idea.
Editing the interview responses for the idea I finally settled on was quite time consuming,
and creating and re-editing the parallax pieces became quite boring and uninteresting after a
while, however it lead me to experiment with different layers such as the spotlight tool
which I had not used before.
Once I got to creating the credits, and adding the final touches such as creating transitions,
cleaning up parallax pieces I was unhappy with, and adding music, I already felt I had
accomplished something I was proud off, and happy I had made it to the end, after the many
months of researching, planning and production.

9. What were the good points about the project/task and what did
you learn from them?
One of the most important things about the project was working with an outside source. Although at
times it felt like a lot of pressure, I challenged myself in a way that I wouldn’t have without this
opportunity. I have learnt how to consolidate my work and make updates on my progress through
multiple group teams meetings and one to ones. Overall I have also learnt how to be confident in myself
and my abilities, which has helped me in meetings and discussing my ideas and my next steps in the
project. Working with an outward source has been one of the most impactful parts of the project, and I
feel privilege to have had the opportunity, and helped me gain insight into what working on client
projects could be like in the future.
Some other good parts of the project was getting the opportunity to interview my grandma on a topic
that I am genuinely interested in, and hear the point of view from someone who I respect and have an
interest in. Even before the project I have always enjoyed discussing past experiences with my grandma,
and I am glad I could turn her stories of the past into a large part of my project. Due to coronavirus I
wasn’t able to interview her in person, which may have helped push the interview forward and get more
response from my gran, simply from it being in a situation that is more familiar to us, however doing it
over face time didn't’t have too much of an effect as I had a great 30 minute conversation with her.
At the start of the project, I really enjoyed doing my contextual research and my main bulk of research in
general, as I had chance to delve into the world of Grayson Perry and look closer at examples of the
themes he so often discusses. I have never done this much research on a project, and I learned how to
research effectively and also most importantly how to research information that will be helpful to me in
the creation of my project.

10. What challenges did you face and how did you respond to them?
Over the 5 months spent on this project, there have been many challenges I have faced, and I have had to adapt in
many ways. To begin with the start of the project was overshadowed by the third national lockdown, meaning we
weren't able to make it into college for three months which seriously effected the quality of my work and general
motivation to want to work. Although I have a laptop at home, it’s not as quick as the college Macs, and my Wi-Fi
at home can also be temperamental, so I faced many challenged regarding my technology and online learning.
Also, because we were also on national lockdown during our first FMP last year, we have not had the chance to
complete an FMP under normal circumstance, which meant that I struggled with understanding how to work on
such a big, long form project, and I didn’t completely understand the format and structure to work in, which made
things difficult when we were at home for the majority of it.
As the first few months revolve around a lot of research and planning, I didn’t have too many problems here,
however when it came to experiments I struggled a lot as my laptop was unable to work well with editing
software, and the software I found was not the best. Because of this I fell behind in some areas and struggled to
complete experiments for a while, resulting to using the free iMovie app on my phone instead, which is not as
high quality as other software's. Not being able to come into college and be around my peers and having
immediate access to software and tutors meant that I struggled those first few months, and I noticed how
important and helpful being in college has been once we returned full time in April.
I also faced the challenge at the very beginning of the project of deciding what I wanted to do for my project, as
there were many avenues I could have gone down. Because of this I struggled to understand and focus on one
thing, which is why it changed so much over the course of these months. When I came to finally putting the piece
together, I struggled to really have a vision of what I wanted to do, so I rewrote my proposal and what I wanted to
do, which helped push me forward and find my focus again.
I also had the challenge of Emma being unable to be in the project as well, however I think by using my grandma
and adapting my visual style I managed to keep the message and themes that I wanted. Overall the biggest
challenges I faced in this project was the pandemic and adapting to online learning, and finding a focus within my
project.

11. What were the bad points about the experience, and what
could you have done to improve them?
Overall I don’t think there were many bad points to the project, however the COVID-19
pandemic meant that it was a struggle to work from home during the first few months.
Because I didn't’t have the best resources available to me, the biggest problem being that I
didn't’t have access to Adobe applications such as premier pro. Because of this the
experimental section of my project wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be and I feel like I was
not able to take real advantage of that time. If I had been able to use this time more wisely,
and had access to premier pro which I didn't’t because we were under national lockdown
restrictions, I maybe wouldn’t have ran into as many problems at the start of production.
Working from home is not something that comes to me naturally, and not being able to
have immediate access to my tutors, and being unable to bounce ideas between my
classmates was quite a struggle, and my productivity at some parts of the project dropped.
Through coming back to college full time however, and being able to complete my
production, I believe that the amount of bad points throughout the project has been
minimal.

12. How would you rate the final piece?
I think I would rate my final piece as GOOD.
Justify your rating above? What is your opinion of your final piece? What elements
do you think are successful and why?
I am rating my final piece as good because I think in comparison to my last project, the factual piece, I have come a long
way in creating a good structure to the piece, and having everything working cohesively, and I think overall the parallax
footage I used has been effective, and the audio responses and music all work well together.
I think I have been successful in creating tone through my choice of music, which I knew was something I wanted to get
right from the start, and I had a vision of the music I wanted to use from the beginning of my planning. I think
something that really helped with the project which I am thankful for, is the fact that all the images of my grandma
taken through the years by my granddad are beautiful and well taken images, which helps with making the piece look
more visually pleasing. The photos that I used for my segment, although I used the same technique of turning them into
Parallaxes’, because a lot of the images were just taken on phones and not in the best locations, they look overall more
pixelated and less artistic in comparison to the images of my gran. However I think this in itself tells a story about
contemporary life and the fact we are constantly taking images and we don’t just take them in special moments.
I also think that overall I have adhered well to the codes and conventions of a poetic documentary, the images and the
responses helping the viewer to create their own interpretations of what I am trying to say, and the music going along
with it helping to create tone and adding to the emotional response of the viewer. I think another element that has
been successful is the way I structure the piece, I think the introduction sets up nicely for the whole piece, and adding
the super 8 film effect was really enjoyable and I think quite effective. I think doing the interviews in two separate
segments helped make the whole production process easier as editing was simple, but I also think it helps communicate
to the viewer that these are two different women from two different times with different opinions and experiences. But
I think within both pieces I have linked them through the images, including photographs of my grandma and me in
MADELEINE’S segment, which casually reinforces the connection and bring the viewers attention back to the
generational theme.

13. How well would your design appeal to the target market?
Although my target market was quite broad, ultimately needing to stand out to fan of Grayson Perry’s
works, Sarah Yates from the York Museum Trust wanted the piece to help bring in and engage younger
people in the arts and culture.
I think overall this piece is a very neutral piece, appealing and working for all age groups, as the
structure is very simple and the narrative easy to follow. The aim of a poetic documentary is to imbue
emotions and move the watcher to analyze and create their own meaning within the piece, and I think
for young people that can sometimes be difficult simply due to lack of life experience that older
audiences have gained, and I think I set the piece up so that the message and meaning I am putting
across is fairly obvious, and I pose the question immediately in the introduction, but once we get to the
interview sections, its then up to the viewer to listen and take their own meaning from that.
I also think the fact that I displayed my segment and discussed very relevant things such as social
media, gives something younger people to relate too and they can understand what I am discussing and
talking about, but then in comparison to what my grandma responds with it’s a chance to learn more
about the past and learn and try to sympathies with her experiences, and maybe even at the same time
relate to her also.
I think regarding the target audience, it was mostly based towards younger female audiences, but I
think older female audience would also enjoy this piece as they can relate more to my grandma and
learn and try to understand my experiences and what I am talking about. I think it may also appeal to a
male audience too, as because many women already relate and sympathies with the responses, they
may also learn more about what it is and has meant to be a women, which I think is important because
I would love for someone to have watched my documentary and come away thinking about what has
been discussed and looking at things from a different angle.

14. In what ways was the overall project a success?
The first way that the overall project was a success is how I have developed my skills
over the project. Due to the COVID pandemic, last year we were unable to complete a
real FMP in proper time, I didn't’t have chance to develop and complete it to a standard
I wanted to. In this project I worked really hard and developed my skills for research and
analysis, planning and pre-production, my actual production skills increased, creating
and developing my skills in After Effects and Adobe Audition. I had also never done any
interview work before, and I researched quite in depth into documentary styles and
techniques which I am glad to now have under my belt to take onto further projects.
Working with Sarah Yates from the gallery was a success and I really enjoyed getting
some more feedback from an outward source, which helped me look at my piece in
different ways and also helped me develop my ideas further. I think the final piece was
an overall success because it all works well and cohesively together and the message I
was trying to convey definitely comes through. I am really happy with the project I have
created and the work I have produced.

15. What elements did not go well and why?
Because I changed the idea of my project so many times, and it adapted and changed a lot
over the courses of the 5 months, there aren’t many elements I am unhappy with or think
could have gone better. Most of the elements that didn’t go well were more in the
planning and pre-production stages, but luckily I was able to work around them and
rectify issues and mistakes made. I think some of the parallax’s that I made could have
been done better, as in the beginning it did take me some time to get the technique on
how to create one to a high standard, and the fact that it is just pictures repeated over
and over could get boring and become tedious to watch, however the images I chose and
were given by my granddad are visually beautiful and interesting photos, which helps
takes away from some of the simplicity in the piece.

16. What would you do differently in the future and why?
I think overall the project has run pretty smoothly and I would not have changed many
things about how I approached the project. Overall I think I have managed my time well,
having production finished on the date it was due, and keeping up to date with my pre-
production. Although I managed and dealt with the problems I had run into, maybe if I
had planned more effectively and understood what I really wanted to say earlier on, I
could have reduced the amount of stress in the few weeks before I began working on
production, however I think the steps I took in this project worked well and I didn’t run
into any unavoidable problems.

17. What knowledge have you gained that would help you in the future to
improve your project? Also, what knowledge from academic literature and
professionals has helped and why?
Out of all the projects I have completed over the last 2 years of the course, this project I have
learnt more skills than in any other project. Because I was working with an outward source,
Sarah Yates from YMT, I knew I wanted to work hard to make it the best it can be. My favorite
part of the project was the research, and I have learnt more analytical and critical skills from
doing this. I have also learnt how to link different themes and topics together, and enjoyed
looking more in depth at topics I may never have looked into before. In my research I also
effectively looked at techniques regarding production much more in depth than in any
previous projects, regarding documentary making, interviewing techniques, and colour
grading.
Although I ended up using images and not video footage, I didn’t get chance to include any
colour grading in my final piece, however this was something I had never looked into over the
course of my years in college, I really enjoyed watching tutorials and experimenting with it. I
had always been nervous to try colour grading, as looking at the colour tab in premier pro, it
looked very complicated and difficult. However after experimenting a few times I now know
that when you break the process down it’s quite simple, and it is a new skill I have gained I can
work with on future projects.
I also gained lots of academic knowledge into themes and topics regarding masculinity and
transvestitism which are subjects I have always been interested in but never had much chance
to delve deep into researching it. These topics I hope to explore in future projects outside of
college and as well as for personal interest and pleasure.